Yep, was lucky (very lucky, they were gone at most places in the western suburbs) enough to find a generator on Friday. I had one neighbor's freezer plugged into it, and another neighbor brought their freezer stuff over to store it in one of our freezers. Not to quote my boy Fan and piss him off: My fifth-grade teacher once wrote on our chalkboard: Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

I'm with Fan...it was all about communication. We got to spend some quality time with the kids and neighbors too...then we bailed and stayed in Glen Ellyn (my family had power living on the South end of town for once) most of the weekend and would have done so last nite if ComEd hadn't promised power on at 8:30PM on Sunday for those of us without power in Lombard...they then moved it to 10:30...then it was 2:00AM (too late to go back)...then it was Tuesday at midnight. Needless to say, I would not have made a very good hurricane Katrina victim...I swore at he the ComEd operator who finally answered the phone this morning (recordings since the storm on Thursday), she said she was gonna hang up...I told her to put someone on the phone who could take it, cuz I wasn't about to quit...she finally came back thinking she kept me on hold long enough to calm down...she was wrong. The power did come back on at 6:00AM...but I don't know how long it will take me to get over my anger...

I am all for personal responsibility. Absolutely no one but yours truly helped me pick up the leaf clusters and sticks off of my front yard. But it was definitely a tale of two villages. West Chicago...which was a flurry of activity Saturday...versus Glen Ellyn...who appeared to sit on her cushy haunches hoping someone else would do the work. As I've said, there is no reason why the citizens of Western Ave. should have to remove a large tree in order to reopen their road and coax ComEd to work on their power loss. Especially in a town with a forestry department.

I'd really love to know what Vicky Hase and and the "Interim" village manager were doing over the weekend...I say "interim" because I have the feeling the reason we are not hearing anything about the search for a new village manager is because they are most likely allowing this guy to audition for the job...and "bingo"...out comes an announcement that the back-up QB is starting. Anyway...working or not....they did the typically poor job that I'd expect. In fairness, the Village President job description doesn't say anything about how many hours one should put in during a natural disaster:

"The Village President is elected for a term of four years. As the chief executive officer, the Village President performs a variety of duties as required by State Statute and Village Code. These duties include, but are not limited to, serving as the presiding officer at Village Board meetings, serving as the Village's Liquor Commissioner, and, with the advice and consent of the Village Trustees, appointment of the Village Manager, Village Attorney, Village Prosecutor, and all members of citizen Boards and Commissions except the Village Board of Trustees. Compensation for the Village President is $50 per month. By community tradition, the Village President serves one, four year term of office."

But I hope Mr. Armstrong, most likely the next to ascend to this position, takes note and understands what the citizens of this town want...demand...from their public officials...volunteers or not.

Western Avenue is still closed, the people that cleared if off did not get it re-opened. ComEd needs to fix the poll and wire mess there first. Wires are laying on the parkway and hanging feet off the ground and I believe they are live. A car cannot pass through there.

quote:

Originally posted by SoxFanInGE:
Western Avenue is still closed, the people that cleared if off did not get it re-opened. ComEd needs to fix the poll and wire mess there first. Wires are laying on the parkway and hanging feet off the ground and I believe they are live. A car cannot pass through there.

Western Avenue was unable to have a block party on Western becuase "it is a pivotal emergency vehicle artery." Hmmm.

quote:

Originally posted by SoxFanInGE:
ComEd had a hotline. They updated often. 660,000 people were out of power originally. 19,000 are still out of power. ComEd did the best they could with communication. I called 3 times. First time, 2-3 days. I talked to someone that we work with, 5 days total. I called again, they said that an update would be available by 8 on Sunday. We saw a ComEd employee and they said today, that was around 2. Power was back about 2 hours later. That was pretty good communication I think.

Many people didn't have phones. Moreover, many people have children, young and old, and are not in the position to drive around town talking to residents while taking pictures all day. Many are forced to remain around the home caring for their babies, toddlers and themselves. Remember, not everyone around Glen Ellyn is an ablebodied 30something . What about the elderly on oxygen tanks, etc.? What about those in need of medication that can't get out of their garages? Were these people attended to? If these people called the Village, was there someone there to answer their calls?

I didn't see a lot of activity around so I merely question whether or village is prepared to meet the challenges of disasters. If not, I suggest we come up with a plan. Whether you or Yossarian agree with it or not, it is primarily the responsibility of our goverment to assist in times like this. Afterall, that's part of the reason why we pay taxes.

quote:

How do you communicate with people without power, phone, cable and internet? Pretty hard to communicate with someone you can't get a hold of. Give some ideas on how the city should have contacted us?

Okay, how about an e-mail database. Many around here have Blackberrys that worked. I communicated with You, KShaffer, Clamato, 4MP and Fish readily with my Blackberry. Better yet, how about flyers? How about people on the ground being informed and talking to residents. If it weren't for you driving all over the place taking pictures and talking to people, I wouldn't have known a damn thing.

quote:

Recorded messages updated at the city giving outage updates? sure. SMS text messages set up by the town to automatically go out to residents? Absolutely, give them the money to bring that in. Door to door messages, sure, we can take the guys cutting up the trees and have them walk around telling everyone updates. Could the city done better at communicating with all of us? Sure

What's so hard about these solutions?

quote:

But if you would like to talk to other towns, they were all in the same position.

This is not a valid excuse! EVER!

quote:

How many storms have hit GE like this since GE was born? Can we keep 10-20 on staff to man a disaster when they only happen 4 times in 100 years? Give the fire dept. more responsibility? No, they are volunteer and have their own homes to deal with in town.

Another invalid excuse. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Whether a strom comes like this ever 6 months or ever 6 decades, a workable plan must be put in place to deal with these issues. Period. A governmental body cannot be caught with its pants down.

quote:

If you had serious problems with yourhouse, injuries and the likes, yes, communication should have been better.

Didn't you just concede my point? And why should a serious issue be the prerequisite for valid communication. And remember, this isn't a issue specific to me or you. This is a Village issue. People did have serious problems...and given what I've heard, they have the same complaints.

quote:

Whether you or Yossarian agree with it or not, it is primarily the responsibility of our goverment to assist in times like this. Afterall, that's part of the reason why we pay taxes.

I think you're missing my point-It's not a question of whose responsible, I'm questioning how realistic is it to expect the GE government to suddenly be prepared to deal with a disaster when they struggle with the day to day stuff?

quote:

Another invalid excuse. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Whether a strom comes like this ever 6 months or ever 6 decades, a workable plan must be put in place to deal with these issues. Period. A governmental body cannot be caught with its pants down.

I'm sorry but no organization, no matter how solid, can prepare for every contingency. Even if they are, the book gets thrown out the window when reality sets in. My advice, be part of the solution. When things settle down, go to the GE government and tell them you want a committee to be formed to prepare for events like this. Be prepared to volunteer for such a committee. There are a lot of really intelligent people in GE who could also participate and come up with a great plan. The brightest people always seem to be in the private sector, not government.

Fan-Please don't take this as a shot, but I think you're biased by the nature of your profession. As a PI attorney, you get paid to find liability with large organizations. Personally, I think your insights would be valuable helping steer the hapless officials GE currently has.

I would be more than happy to volunteer my time toward the preparation of a Village disaster plan, if we don't already have one. [Candidate - you know where to find me].

I, unlike many others on here, don't have the same negative view of the Village gov't. Maybe I even expect too much. I just can't believe that after 9/11 and Katrina, every municipal body wouldn't have some type of plan.

That being said, maybe we do have a plan and it just didn't work that well for everyone. If that's the case, like I said in my first post, time to rework it.

Luckily most everyone came away from this unscathed...we better be prepared next time as we all might not be that lucky.

When is the next board meeting?

I agree this town needs a plan, but I just don't see the current regime as being capable of this type of forward thinking. I bet you they could probably get some money for it now from the state-if they ask.

Many of the faults with GE (poor business development, rampant bum mania, etc.) all come back to one thing-a lack of vision and leadership. Remember this people when you vote.

Tonight at 8:00 p.m.

quote:

Originally posted by Dem-in-the-Glen:
Tonight at 8:00 p.m.

Sounds like a lot of those affected by the storm should head on over and see if they can get answers from the people that run this town. I'd start with the interim village manager and ask him what steps were taken on Thursday at 3:16 to help the village put itself back together.

I'd happily be on a list of volunteers who agree to step forward - if physically possible - after an event such as this to disseminate information. I don't have a Blackberry so e-mail wouldn't have worked but I'd walk the streets and hit every house I could - knock on doors, make sure everyone is OK and drop flyers with information about how to contact the village for emergencies if they still came up. If a couple hundred people agreed to do this, we could be on call anytime thing kind of thing happened. It's not brainwork and the village really should have a plan. If I can, I will go to the meeting and suggest this.

My school has a plan like this for our students and staff who cannot use the stairs if we have to evacuate. We are all trained to use special "stair chairs" and we have specific check points where a small group of us who are trained must report anytime the building is evacuated: fire drill, bomb threat, whatever...we report to our area, check to make sure that there isn't a person with a wheelchair, crutches or other item that needs help down the stairs...simple and it works.

The village should have something similar...and they should cut the frickin' branch off my parkway tree even if it barely touches the WOW cable!

quote:

Many people didn't have phones.

quote:

Okay, how about an e-mail database. Many around here have Blackberrys that worked

So which is it, you contradict yourself in one post. Do they have phones or don't they?

quote:

many people have children, young and old, and are not in the position to drive around town talking to residents while taking pictures all day

but people did, all day. I haven't seen this many people out on the streets in this town ever. Everyone was walking around, 99% of them being friendly and nice and not bitching and complaining. You were testing the new car with the entire family in it! Come on man! People did have time to get out and about, they weren't sitting in front of the mind numbing machine, I mean TV.

quote:

I didn't see a lot of activity around

We did, we were outside all day both days. We never left town, now say if you go to a sporting event all afternoon out of town, that would prevent you from seeing activity all day.

quote:

Another invalid excuse. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Whether a strom comes like this ever 6 months or ever 6 decades, a workable plan must be put in place to deal with these issues. Period. A governmental body cannot be caught with its pants down.

Correct. 100% correct. But can small governments be prepared financially? Can a town be ready for a 100 year flood or tornado at all times? Can most towns in America afford it? Hell no. Are taxes are high enough, nobody would say "yes, raise our taxes 5%" so we can have a tree trimmer sitting there. Were does a town get the funds to be have able bodies and equipment at the ready for something like this?. We shell out 2-3 billions or day or something to add to the craters in Iraq, we could be spending that on ourself to prevent local and national disasters.

It is not a GE government problem, it is a nation wide problem.

quote:

Postings on this and the village website. Special branch pick up made it, so "this is what we are working on" probably could have, too.

This was on their website, Sunday morning. but since nobody had internet access, who saw it other than me? (Comcast cable customer, not out the entire time, didn't find this out until Sat.)

flyers. And how do we print them say on a sunday when Kinko's is closed? and do we print them and distribute them every 6 hours when there is an update? Who does the passing out? And then who cleans up the paper flying around town when 9 out of 10 just drop the flyer on the ground?

Posting on cable channels. Once again, I got no power, I ain't watchin no cable TV.

Like I said earlier. Pretty damn difficult to contact people when they have no power, cable, internet or phone.

My solution? Jake and Elwood in the old police cruiser with the big *** speaker on it:

"Remain calm. Power should be back up today. Don't beat up ComEd or GE employees, we are trying really hard to fix everything. That is all."

The village had power, employees, tape and copy machines.

You and I both had no power, but had internet access. 683 homes were without power in GE, according to ComEd on Saturday morning. I am certain that neighbors and friends that had power and internet access would have shared the info with those that did not. Or I just have more faith in the residents of Glen Ellyn than most...

on that note, other ways to communicate:

Skywriting: "Power 5 PM" (skywriting is a lost art btw)

Post signed on all the joggers backs that run down the middle of the street:

"You will have power shortly. and I do own the road"

Post messages at starbucks, the entire town goes there once a morning.

Have the homeless walk around town with little billboard signs. 2 birds, one stone. they get a job, and they don't sit in front of Einsteins all day annoying the planet.

The village didn't do a good job on this. I think they should admit that tonight--not a big deal imho.

It should have been better. There were obstacles that prevented it from being better (lack of awareness on disaster policies?). I'd like the village to help us understand what those obstacles were and how they need to be addressed.

that'd make for a great meeting tonight.

As for me, I'd like to understand the "tree-on-wire" responsibility deal from an official capacity. Lots of hearsay on the pissing match between comEd and GE.

I assume that there are "rules of engagement" policies that govern responsibilities in the fairly likely event that a tree falls on a power line. It continues to concern me that a two day delay in power was the result of village finger-pointing.

In terms of communication. I received more information from a police officer who credibly explained that Western Ave lines were of lesser importance to the greater electrical grid and therefore had less priority. Nice to know. Too bad he had to come out and tell us that as boot-strapping glen ellyn residents were removing the downed limb.

BTW, i'll acknowledge that the guys on the ground--police, village crews, comEd electricians--got the job done. Also, some had to tolerate some "white-collar" crap from residents--too bad.