Left powerless by Kentucky ice storm, family finds web of complications

[babylonsister]

Left powerless by Kentucky ice storm, family finds web of complications


Jonathan Parker / MCT
Sybol Close doesn't have the money needed to get the power turned on in her frigid home in Greenville, Ky.

By Halimah Abdullah | McClatchy Newspapers


Sybol Close has a face creased with worry lines and the voice of a woman used to conversing with the heavens during tough times.

So as ice, snow and frozen branches pummeled her family's home in Greenville, in Western Kentucky, she knew that she, her eight grandchildren and other loved ones would be safe.

Now that the storm has passed, the Close family, like so many financially strapped Kentucky residents whose lives were upended by the massive ice storm, finds itself in a tangle of bureaucratic red tape.

Utility companies can't restore power until families like hers make costly repairs to upgrade their homes' electrical systems.

"This house only has an 80 amp fuse box. It was built back in the 1940s so its not up to code,: said Close, who has spent almost two weeks with her family at a Red Cross Shelter at the First Baptist Church in Greenville. "The meter that's out there is the old meter so until a new meter gets put in and a breaker box instead of a fuse box they won't hook power up to it."

"That costs money, that's $5,000, and that's not money we have."

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/61727.html

[NJCher]

1. questions

Does she own the home? I can't tell from the article. It looks like they are sort of "half" living there.

Then there's this:

...Their home, she's decided, is uninhabitable. Volunteers are helping the family look for a new place to live, Close said.

I have mixed feelings about the utility company's requirement on the electrical boards. On one hand, if they were able to get by safely (and that's the operative word) prior to this, why do they have to be upgraded to a larger board?

And out of the funds, why can't someone make a damned decision and allocate some of these funds toward helping out in a situation like this? Sounds like a red tape problem to me.




Cher

[glowing]

2. Its a huge fire hazard.. same shit we got after the hurricanes. some peopl

had to pay to replace poles.. expensive shit.. its actually insane.. but in order to be up to state code, she has to replace the box she's got. AND no one helps anyone do anything in this country.. you know that old line "pull up your boot straps".. this is what it means.. no help ever for anyone but the wealthy in this country.

[KittyWampus]

3. I can't help but wonder if at this point it is time for neighbors to start banding together

LITERALLY and pooling resources in a way we haven't since the 30's.

[Tsiyu]

4. When a tree knocked out my power and phone Jan 2008

it also pulled the wiring out of my trailer and mangled the outside breaker box. "Never seen anything like it" the guy from the elec coop said.

But I had no money for 100 feet of wire, new breaker box or electrician. A few weeks later my neighbors (the ones I used to complain about here from FLa - hey we've all worked it out and are friends now) came over and said "My brother moved into another house down the road. He says he can fix your power." He was licensed journeyman at a large firm in Chat-town.

Well, their mama (salt of the earth Kentucky gal) came with her sons to "chaperone." I was kind of taken aback when she just walked in my place but appreciated it when she said "I tell my boys, 'charge the rich all you can but poor folks like you n me don't charge em much.'" They spent a few cold, cold nights under my place running wire and hooking everything back after they got home from work and charged me $100 total labor, which they took in payments.

They can't just turn things on after damage and old places have to be rewired. But my neighbors came through for me. It took me a few weeks to get enough $$ (mom helped - Thanks Mom!) for the breaker box and other materials so I was powerless for almost two months.

But neighbors do make a difference. Get to know yours, in spite of differences. I love all my neighbors and we are all always there for each other.

[NJCher]

5. OK, I understand now

What stories. I am glad you are tight with your neighbors now, Tsiyu.

I recently asked an electrician to install some lights at the top of a bookcase. He wanted to charge me 95 an hour and when I told him I thought that a bit high, he called me a "cheap bitch."



Cher

[Tsiyu]

8. What an ass!

At that price, I'd still have no power. Those two brothers spent at least 10 hours on my place. Probably more like 15.

Neighbors are awesome. The new guys have fit in well; they let me know when the fireworks shows are starting BEFORE my horses freak so I can move them. I helped her catch her horses who escape to visit mine now and then. (Used to be all the neighbors were chasing my horses but they've been good girls letting the neighbor's steeds have all the fun lol)

Their pig escapes and has become my dog's buddy/herd object.

I called him in when it was 10 degrees the other night (the dog) and he looked back at the pig as if to say "You comin' too?"

"Oh, no. No pigs in the house tonight, Pup!"

[hedgehog]

6. We ran into something similar after our ice storm. The fellows from the highway

department were clearing downed limbs from the road and must have stepped in the ditch out front. A week later we got a notice from the Health Department that our septic system was out of compliance and we had to install a new leach field. Around here there are a lot of systems that were put in back in the 50's. The Health Department doesn't generally do anything about them unless there is a specific complaint. I imagine the electric company does the same thing. As long as the house was in compliance with code when first connected to the grid, no one says anything. But if the utility reconnects a house that is obviously out of code, I suspect the liability issues would be a lawyer's field day.

[hedgehog]

7. "The children recently contracted a food-related virus, "

I guess someone didn't get the word that the FEMA rations were contaminated with salmonella! (and yes, i know salmonella is a bacterium)

[1]

9. its a familiar story...

an ice storm came through here in january 2007. it took two weeks for the co-op to show up and declare that they could not hook me back up until i replaced my 100 amp "meter-loop" to the current code. $300 in parts and a week later i finally got my power back on. but the power company's jurisdiction ended at the point their power entered my cabin.

if her house has only a 80 amp fusebox, a 100 amp service is not a $5000 investment. kentucky is not on the leading edge of electrical code enforcement.

this story is bullshit.



codes are there for a reason, agreed. but a power company's authority ends at the point where the power enters your house. everything else is a local code jurisdiction.

and i call bullshit on kentucky being so vigilant about their electrical codes. this story stinks to high heaven.