WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. July 30, 2006: A reader comments on their "Mystery Storm" experience:

After "the storm" my general feeling is that over the years, technique,equipment and staffing numbers have improved and increased...what's making the situation worse is the increase in population and cars on the road. When wires are affected, if the population is higher, that in turn means more people w/o power in a given area.

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There are more people in their cars aimlessly trying to wind their way through detoured streets to work or to check on relatives without phone service. I had an extremely hard time trying to get from Anderson Hill Road back home to the Ridgeway area and felt like a rat in a maze. Thank god I was just trying to get home and not to a hospital. 

In the morning, frustrated drivers sped through our horsshoe shaped neighborhood in a frustrated attempt to go to Mamaroneck Ave or Old Mamaroneck Rd, at dangerous speeds. Delivery trucks were befuddled and moving fast. The inconvenience of this isn't the issue, but the danger of this situation, having lost 2 hospitals, having population increase, and a citizenry and local government not able to realize that enough is enough.

I don't personally believe that Con Ed's response was so awful, as everywhere I looked, there were men working. They can't over-hire an army to be on call even when things are sleepy. Runaway population growth and bad priorities of society are going to be our downfall. The more people who pack into our area take a strain not only on our schools, hospitals, senior care, and air quality, but on our power strain and ability to minimize the numbers of those without services that need to be helped.

 Those who think that Con Ed needs to have armies sitting idle when all is calm in the world, just waiting in limbo for a disater like we had last week, should also be willing to foot the bill for trained men to entertain themselves when not in use. I was impressed with the armies

In short, I was impressed with the armies of tree-clearers and con ed trucks I saw everywhere for days. It's the overpopulation and strain of services that is giving us not only traffic gridlock, but service gridlock.'

Paula Piekos