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bjbjVwVw JEFFREY BROWN: Eleven days after the first of the storms that hit the Northeast,
nearly 400,000 homes and businesses on the Eastern Seaboard, primarily in New York and
New Jersey, are still without power, and frustration with local utility companies grows. New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo captured that sentiment yesterday when he blasted their response.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, D-N.Y.: The longer it goes on, it's worse. And this compounds itself.
And it's one thing to ask people to be inconvenienced for two or three days. It's one thing to say,
well, it is a terrible storm, we weren't ready. But this is just -- it is unacceptable. And
it is getting worse because people's suffering is worse. That's why it's more frustrating
the longer it goes on. JUDY WOODRUFF: Across the Hudson River in New Jersey, Gov. Chris
Christie pledged to have all power restored by Sunday. Utility crews are scrambling to
make that happen, as special correspondent Rick Karr reports. RICK KARR: Amy Owens has
started most evenings since the storm blasted past her home in Glen Ridge, N.J., with an
old-fashioned ritual. She starts a fire. Because, when we visited, it was the only way she could
heat her home. AMY OWENS, New Jersey resident: I think we're all at the breaking point now.
We know that there's widespread outages. And we know that people lost their homes. So,
we're certainly trying to keep that into perspective. But I think that what people want is just
some real information. RICK KARR: Information from her local utility company. AMY OWENS:
We don't hear anything from PSE&G. We do see crews all over, but they won't talk to you.
They won't tell you. And I really haven't seen any of them doing any physical work,
just sort of walking around, looking at power lines. RICK KARR: Earlier in the day, in a
blacked-out neighborhood in South Orange, an employee of the biggest electric company
in New Jersey said that's all a matter of perception. BOB LOBBREGT, Public Service Electric
& Gas: the customers don't realize that the trucks are out here. They don't see them.
RICK KARR: Bob Lobbregt is a safety supervisor for the utility company. BOB LOBBREGT: The
main drags that they take, the damage may not be on. We may be on a side street or deep
in the rear of the houses putting the wires back up. So, we are out there. RICK KARR:
Immediately after the storm, utility crews rushed to the transmission lines that are
the backbone of the electrical network and the switching stations and substations that
are its hubs. Failures in those out-of-the-way places can knock tens of thousands of homes
off the grid. CHARLES SANCRATTI, Florida Power & Light: What you do is you shoot for the
largest numbers first. You send your resources into an area and you try to get most ***
for the buck. And, typically, as the numbers dwindle down to the single customer, that
is usually the folks that get put on towards the tail end. RICK KARR: Charles Sancratti
is one of hundreds of Florida Power & Light employees who'd brought their expertise in
post-hurricane cleanup up the East Coast as the storm approached. He and his crew were
working on one of those smaller jobs in South Orange, where a utility pole had snapped in
half and plunged more than a dozen homes into darkness. CHARLES SANCRATTI: Access to these
lines quite difficult, cutting through people's backyards. You may come in one and then you
have cross four other yards just to get to your job site. RICK KARR: Workers had to start
by clearing away tree growth, then driving in specialized equipment, then dragging a
brand-new one-ton utility pole up from the street. Next, they had to remove the stump
of the old pole, enlarge the hole in the ground, and erect the new pole. And even then, they
had hours more work left to do, transferring the tangle of wires from the broken pole to
the new one. The Florida workers were among more than 4,000 out-of-staters who'd come
to help New Jersey's utility make storm repairs. Utility companies have a mutual-assistance
pact, which has in the past drawn employees of the big New Jersey utility to the Gulf
Coast. This is an opportunity to pay back that debt. Hundreds of utility trucks crowded
the parking lots around a suburban shopping malls. They'd driven in not just from Florida,
but also Michigan, Virginia, Arkansas, and 16 other states. They brought tools, fuel,
even spare utility poles. Early every morning, the workers show up for another 16-hour day;
dispatchers distribute their marching orders; and then the trucks roll out for destinations
around New Jersey. It's almost like a military operation. RALPH GRANT, Florida Power & Light:
You're moving a small army of guys from, some of them from as far south of Miami or south
of Miami all the way up to New Jersey. That is a logistical accomplishment in itself.
RICK KARR: Ralph Grant of Florida Power & Light came to New Jersey to supervise operations
around the company's high-tech mobile command center. His company, naturally, has a lot
of experience dealing with hurricanes. But snowstorms like the one that blanketed the
Northeast on Wednesday and knocked out power for an additional 20,000 New Jersey homes
and businesses are brand-new to some of the company's workers. RALPH GRANT: It wasn't
quite what we expected when we came up for hurricane restoration. RICK KARR: All of the
utility workers we spoke to said it's an incredibly rewarding feeling once they have managed to
restore power to customers who've been in the dark for days. The money is good, they
say, but they're also in it for the challenge and the sense of accomplishment. Florida Power's
Ralph Grant says big jobs like this are also enjoyable. RALPH GRANT: It's a challenge to
do it and do it safely and do it expediently for the -- for PSE&G. But it is fun. RICK
KARR: Blacked-out New Jersey utility customer Amy Owens says power outages used to be, if
not fun, at least a bit romantic, that is, the first time she lost her power for more
than a week. AMY OWENS: One year ago -- this is our anniversary storm. It's like the anniversary
storm. We were without power on this block for eight days. RICK KARR: Owens says she's
starting to think of mega-storms, and the ensuing blackouts, as the new normal. She's
a real estate agent, and she says she's encouraging her clients to make provisions for future
power outages. AMY OWENS: I think people will start putting the $10,000 to $15,000 into
a generation system, so that they -- they're never without power, so they don't have to
depend on PSE&G or whoever their carrier is. RICK KARR: For the first night since the storm,
Amy Owens won't have to sit in the dark by a fire tonight. Her electric company, PSE&G
started, restored her power this afternoon. JEFFREY BROWN: President Obama will go to
New York on Thursday to see firsthand the recovery efforts there. He visited hard-hit
areas along New Jersey's coastline last week. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
State urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags City urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
PlaceType urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags place JEFFREY BROWN: Eleven days after the
first of the storms that hit the Northeast, nearly 400,000 homes and businesses on the
Eastern Seaboard, primarily in New York and New Jersey, are still without power, and frustration
with local utility companies gro Normal Microsoft Office Word JEFFREY BROWN: Eleven days after
the first of the storms that hit the Northeast, nearly 400,000 homes and businesses on the
Eastern Seaboard, primarily in New York and New Jersey, are still without power, and frustration
with local utility companies gro Title Microsoft Office Word Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8