Thank you Clamato, it is good to be back home. Nothing like 4 days of no power to spice up life. In retrospect I think it can be used as a good exercise for residents and the village to learn how to handle similar situations better in the future.

As far as the cellphone tower goes, bring it on. My T-Mobile reception is horribly deficent.

I did not see the meeting, we have DirecTV. I guess you can download it? I have no idea what was said, what the outcome was or anything else. So...

On the question of seeing the Village workers out or not during the 4 days: I can only base my reply on what my wife and I saw during this time. I will not base it on hear-say from others that we talked to or heard from what others have said.

Thursday: Got home at 4 PM. I was out and about until 8:30 PM taking photos, or at home checking things. I saw no trucks, of course, it was all going down and raining like hell and I was more focused on taking photos. I cannot say either way if they were out or not. I did see the fire department plenty of times. they were insanely active. On another note, the police were VERY present. Especially one that was sitting in the school parking lot next to the White Hen on Main for over 20 minutes. I was able to photography 3 different spots in that area in the time he was sitting there. the intercection there was flooded to the west side, and he was not assisting anyone through the intercection. I know this because I turned into the west bound lane of the street there (slipping my mind right now) and damn near got stuck. I have no idea if he was taking a well deserved breather, or slacking off, so... I think any human has a right to rest a few minutes during a time of stress, I think that is what was happening in this case.

Friday: I was around until 8:30 am did not see one GE truck on my trip around the neighborhood taking more photos, but saw a couple tree companies and 1 ComEd truck, and plenty of people cleaning up. I got back at 3 PM from my generator search and hooked it up. After 4 PM, I saw maybe 6-7 drive-bye's by GE trucks but no workers on foot by any of the hot spots.

Saturday: we were here all day. We went to the Art Fair, we biked and took a walk and talked to a ton of great people. We saw PLENTY of GE trucks and workers. We talked to GE workers on 4 different occasions, one a crew of 3, one a crew of 4. One said he worked 30 straight hours. I believed him because he looked like he was exhausted, he was either drunk or his eyes were bloodshot from working so long, I go with the latter. We sat in our driveway drinking margaritas with neighbors from 8 PM to 11 PM and I seem to recall seeing a truck or 2 drive by, but it was so dark, we had no idea of what origin they were from.

Sunday: we biked and sat at home cleaning, enjoying the day and talking to neighbors. Once again, we saw a flurry of GE trucks driving around, talking to one crew in front of our house. ComEd, GE, Toledo Edison, Kansas Edison. Comcast, WOW, They were all out there. We saw 7 Toledo Edison trucks being led by a ComEd Truck at 8 AM on North Avenue. We then saw a large amount of trucks behind the Jewel, an area in 3-4x worse shape than our area. Ironically, I did not see one Wheaton truck over there, only the above mentioned utility companies.

At no point did we ever go out to find trucks or workers, we just saw them on our normal (albeit, abnormal in the fact that we went for walks to see the neighborhood) travels. I can only base my opinion of how they did on what I saw, and we saw plenty of work. We saw no trucks sitting there with workers drinking coffee, we did not see any trucks in the White Hen getting donuts. We did not see workers laughing and standing with one foot up on the bumper of their trucks BS'ing with eachother. When we did see them, they were working or at least driving.

So take this post for what it is worth. Once again, I am not saying job well done or damn they blew it, I am just reporting what we saw. Believe my wife and I or not, but we did see plenty of activity from the GE staff. I cannot make an opinion on how the city failed or succeeded on this problem since either of us have lived through one like this before other than the flood of 1996 while living in another town. I can only base it on their performance of this one. Did they start out slow? Who knows? Maybe we saw different because we actually left our residence on 2 bike rides and one walk and that we live on a major street, maybe not. What we saw, they were trying. Rip me for saying so, but overall, we think they were out there because we did see them.

Past experiences of mine about large storms that took place: My father worked for Illinois Bell for 38 years. During the blizzard of 1967, my mother did not see my father for 10 days, he was either on poles working, or at the office taking 1-2 hour naps to stay coherant. He lost 17 pounds during that 10 days. In 1996, we witnessed a 100 year flood, and we did not have power for 2 days and we lived along a ComEd ROW and had underground power in a brand new subdivision.

Why would we rip you for saying so? I don't think anyone around here wants to see or admit to failure on the part the government that we pay so very much money. I am glad to hear that they were out there. Obviously, I am mistaken and/or blind. I was out all day Sunday, a lot of the day Saturday...driving about, riding on a bicycle...walking here to there...did not see one village truck in the areas that needed it. I've been wrong before...I'll be wrong again...but my strong point is I am smart enough to admit it when evidence is presented to me. I wish others in this town had some of my strong points...not to mention handsome good looks.

I was the person from Oak Street who spoke up last evening at the board meeting. My comments were based on what my husband and I saw over the weekend. It's nice to hear that at least one person saw people even if hundreds of others did not. I found out from a very reliable source today that the reason why the village had a hard time contacting Com Ed all weekend was due to the fact they had the wrong person and wrong number for who handles the Glen Ellyn area..... In fact it was 2 year old information....No matter what you say that is an issue with the Village... and the Board is who the Village employees report to... I will say that the Village did come out today and mark additional trees in our area that need to come down. Too bad we had to bring it to their attention at a board meeting. Drive down Oak street some time today and see the low hanging wire Com Ed still hasn't fixed between Western and Prairie...

I asked the Village to call another meeting with Com Ed in attendance where residents could get their questions answered and have proper notification of the meeting... Most people couldn't make it since they found out so late on Monday.

Cudos go out to Trustee Ladesic for coming to the aid of a resident on Riford with a Generator late on Saturday... But he's the only one... None of they would admit to how long they were out of power...probably since none of them live in the area that was affected.

The biggest Cudos still go out to the Volunteer Fire company who responded to calls for 2 days straight even though a lot of their own houses had issues and a large number of them were out of power until Sunday... and don't forget about Chief Norton and the police department. I can honestly say those were the only PAID village employees I saw all weekend.......

With the exception of the street sweeper on Sunday afternoon that got tangled up in a power cord running across the street between a neighbor who had a generator and one that didn't

quote:

With the exception of the street sweeper on Sunday afternoon that got tangled up in a power cord running across the street between a neighbor who had a generator and one that didn't

I've seen that many times in town...it's referred to as sleep sweeping.

I don't know about the rest of you...but I'm too exhausted to be angry anymore. (Doesn't mean that if I see a Com Ed truck, I won't flip it off.)
I can't whine anymore...my family and friends won't allow it. I would have never survived Katrina. Kudos to those who helped, especially emergency services such as Fire and Police. Utilities and government will never be favorites...never have been, never will.

Why do Glen Ellyn residents put up with so much crap?

The downtown is a ghost town -- and getting worse.

ComEd was nowhere to be seen during the power outage. Am I really hearing that the village had the wrong phone numbers?

As for the Water Tower issue, maybe I missed this or it's not a correct way to vote on it, but couldn't that issue be put to a vote by the people of Glen Ellyn or at least the people living in that area on Election Day? Or is that not a item for ballots?

I did see trucks throughout the weekend. Heard them throughout the nights too since pretty much every one had their windows open. I'm on Hill and that pretty much is a thoroughfare from town to town (Lombard to Wheaton) so maybe that's why I heard and saw them. I also saw at several times, a convoy of out-of-town power companies. Many of which, for some reason, were in the parking lot on North and Bloomingdale (Old Dominick's) having a meeting?! today, Tuesday, at 8:30 a.m. I would say about 30-40 trucks, all different companies.

quote:

It's nice to hear that at least one person saw people even if hundreds of others did not.

that would be 2, my wife and I. And about that "hundreds" comment...

I would like to state once again, my statements were from what 2 people saw and did not include what others said to us, rumors that were floating around, and hear-say from what people were estimating.

SoxFan-Give in to the darkside.

I'm with you 100% and I'm a Cubs fan.

There will always be a perception that the government doesn't do enough. As pointed out in another thread, people should run for GE public office rather than rag on a BB. I agree with that sentiment 100%. Unfortunately for your pal Yoss, I live in unincorprated GE, so I don't think I can run for GE office. Milton township takes care of my area and I will say they do a great job. Heavy snow, they are out there all day & night. Potholes in the street, they come out within 48 hours of calling.

Every activity ever done by a human is not perfect. Humans make mistakes even though they get their job done. Buehrle's no hitter this year was not perfect, he walked one guy. The 2005 White Sox Season was not perfect, they lost 64 games out of 173. The village employees are not perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, name one other than Clamato that does not make mistakes? Whether they did a good job or not during this storm is not my point. My point is, they were out there trying their best with what they had to work with and we saw them. Now whether the village can do better next time, of course they can, they could implement more ways to communicate (like say put a message on Superman's cape so when he flies around town, we all see the message). The storm hit a lot of towns by surprise and all of them should have done better. I lived in tornado alley for 10 YEARS and never had one bad storm other than the flood in 1996, and we were out of power for 2 days and our electric was underground. We could not leave the town basically due to the flooding. But we never had a problem with a tornado. Then in 2 years in Glen Ellyn, we have had 2 major storms hit us, the first month we moved in (Jan. 15th, anyone remember that rain?) and last weekend.

Now, tell me how you would react if this next story happened to you:

Let me tell you about our first storm problem in GE. January 15th, it rained like crazy. This was our 30 day anniversary in our new home, we were extremely happy being in GE and away from our old place. I woke up an noticed water in the basement coming out of the drains and it smelled bad. My wife flushed the toilet upstairs and water sprayed into my face as I was standing over the basement drain. We had power so I ran to Home Depot to buy a pump. I fell through a basement window trying to hook up a hose to the pump. I ended up pumping for 20 straight hours. We called a plumber out and he checked our line to the sewer, it was blocked. We rooted it out, but it got blocked. Must be a tree, we called the city, they said, give us $4000 and we will dig it out and put in a new line. Backhoe sitting on our yard ready to rip it apart. Okay, we gotta do it. They sent a sensor down the sewer pipe and dipped for it on Western Avenue. NOTHING. As the GE employee walked back to his truck on Marion, the dipper went off like crazy. The looked at the plans. IMPOSSIBLE, our pipe did not go to Marion, it went to Western on the plans. Or maybe not. There was a line abandoned going to Marion. WRONG, the plans were wrong, the line was not abandoned, it was live, and now it was disconnected due to the readwork that was done while the previous owner was trying to sell. The city engineer did not dye test the line and just thought it was abandoned. BIG TIME LAWSUIT RIGHT? I could have sued them back to the dark ages. OUR SEWER WAS NOT CONNECTED. I HAD CRAP FLOWING INTO OUR BASEMENT. WE HAD 30 DAYS OF S*** COMING OUT OF OUR BASEMENT DRAIN FLOODING THE HOUSE.

The city's reaction was great. They put us up in a hotel, they checked in 3-4 times a day, the head engineer appologized so many times it was embarrassing, they paid for our food, and any other things. They took 5 days to fix the sewer problem due to the weather. We could not go to our house do to the sewage smell, we didn't have a home. Did we bitch and complain and threaten to sue, no. My wife works with engineers and sees this stuff happen all the time. We chalked it up to human error, which happens because, well, we ARE human. We came back 5 days later and everything was good, the line was connected and wide open, a drain went into our yard and a new clean out. The basement was sterilized, and we didn't pay a dime.

5 days inconvenienced by the city. 5 days living in a hotel, doing our wash at a laundrymat, eating out 3 times a day. Not getting mail, not going online, not getting phone messages due to our house basically being condemned due to the smell. but we were fine, we did not get hostile and storm the village meetings, we did not call GE Fan to sue them and live off the money for the rest of our lives. We were happy that everything was being fixed and just chalked it up to being a home owner.

Now tell me how you would have reacted if this happened to you?

Let's just clear this up. The Village has admitted that its response was inadequate and that it will be doing things in the future to alleviate any mistakes that were made. Why don't we end it at that.

The constant debate about how many trucks SoxFan saw, bolstered by Yossarian's statements that everything seemed fine by him, does nothing to advance any reliable or helpful dialog - especially in light of the Village's admission.

Now some may give the Village a pass and make excuses that "the Village did the best with what they had" but others, like me, will not let this get swept under the rug so that we are empowered to make the same mistakes again. I don't for a second think that the best was done with what they had. I think that we had mass confusion at the leadership level or a genuine ignorance as to what was really going on in some of the Glen Ellyn neighborhoods. Look at the trustees, not one of them lives in the most afflicted areas...maybe they just didn't know. (sans Ladesic as if you watched the board meeting he was out giving generators to neighbors). If that is the case, they should have been told. Now whose responsibility was it to communicate important messages to those in power? I don't know....but shouldn't the Village have some type of plan?

I expected better...and most are demanding better next time around.

I would have called Johnnie Cochran.

May he rest in peace.

JRPotts-I never said everything was fine. My point has always been that people need to take some responsibility for their own well being. GE can't even empty their garbage cans in the downtown area, why would anyone think they could be proficient in managing a disaster.

I agree we need to get back to addressing a solution to our homeless friends in GE and how fast was Lance Briggs driving.

And can we get that half conscious guy who parks his butt in front of Einstein's every morning to go somewhere else to have his morning nicotene?

I am not giving the village a pass. I would expect the people that had problems to talk to them about what happened and how to approve it the next time. I expected by past calculations that there better have been a few hundred people at that meeting, especially the ones on this BB bitchin. I will not speak for others because they should be grown up enough to speak for themselves. I am not going to diss someone or something just because I heard from a friend of a friend who knew someone who had a problem. I had no problems other than power for 4 days and having to turn off my phones so that I could run a blender to make margaritas, therefore I am not going to speak for the neighbor 5 days down with a tree on lines and the street, they should be doing that. I think people that sit there and bitch and complain when they had no problems just based on hear-say and rumors is wrong. Yes, the village admited there were problems, like I said before, nobody is perfect, and I am sure they will correct this problem by the time the next storm takes out the city. There were things they could have done better, I will expect them to do better next time.

And I applaud the woman on oak for showing up at the meeting to express her displeasure. You did it the right way. Way to go Woman On Oak! You get the resident of the day award! We should all follow your lead when we see or have a problem! Go directly to the source, don't go to a BB and never show up at a village meeting or call them. Next time this happens Woman On Oak, I will have a nice frozen Margarita at the ready for you and your family (old than 21 of course).

quote:

Originally posted by SoxFanInGE:
And I applaud the woman on oak for showing up at the meeting to express her displeasure. You did it the right way. Way to go Woman On Oak! You get the resident of the day award! We should all follow your lead when we see or have a problem! Go directly to the source, don't go to a BB and never show up at a village meeting or call them. Next time this happens Woman On Oak, I will have a nice frozen Margarita at the ready for you and your family (old than 21 of course).

SoxFan:

You really don't have a clue as to what people have or have not been doing. I would suggest that you do a little fact finding before you make accusations and challenges that are both wrong and without merit.

Just my two cents of course.

Village tree trimmers just came and removed the dangling parkway tree branch! Yay to the village!

Now, if they will remove all the limbs on our parkway...I'm about to call because it's treacherous to pull out of our driveway. People don't seem to slow down on Western when they are approaching the areas that have so many limbs we can't see over them! I would think that Main, Western, Geneva, and even Oak would be high on the priority list because of the high volume of traffic. This happens in the winter too after a heavy snow, but in the winter there are so many hours of darkness, I can see headlights and know a car is coming. Also, people tend to drive a little slower because the roads are more slick. Anyway, I'm going to call now.

quote:

Originally posted by JRPotts:

quote:

Originally posted by SoxFanInGE:
And I applaud the woman on oak for showing up at the meeting to express her displeasure. You did it the right way. Way to go Woman On Oak! You get the resident of the day award! We should all follow your lead when we see or have a problem! Go directly to the source, don't go to a BB and never show up at a village meeting or call them. Next time this happens Woman On Oak, I will have a nice frozen Margarita at the ready for you and your family (old than 21 of course).

SoxFan:

You really don't have a clue as to what people have or have not been doing. I would suggest that you do a little fact finding before you make accusations and challenges that are both wrong and without merit.

Just my two cents of course.

Jeez, can you prove my point any better. I am not making accusations, where did I accuse anyone of doing or not doing anything? All my statements were based on what I saw. I am not saying anything on hear-say or rumors. Other than 2 or 3 other people here that posted and said they called the village or showed up at the meeting, I couldn't tell you what people were doing. What I did say in my statement is that Woman On Oak did the right thing and we should give her props for doing that. I have no idea how many people actually called the village, so I am not going to say. Hundreds? maybe, but I have no idea.

I am apparently not very good at what I do because I don't understand your points at all.

SoxFaninGE Thanks for the compliment....(not sure if you would have been so nice to me if you knew I was a die hard CUBS fan.) I am going to make sure the village does do something about what happens so that no one has to go through it like we did.

Just one point I want to make. After a storm like we had last week most people weren't focusing on going to a Village Board meeting which was taking place 24 hours after getting power they were cleaning out refridgerators of rotten smelly food and trying to disinfect them so they could be used again.

I know a large number of residents who will be attending the next Board Meeting unless the Village sets up a seperate meeting with the storm response being the only topic.

Also, I will not just sit back and complain but have already spoken with one trustee about helping the village not make the same mistakes again.

Finally, I am working to get some more qualified residents to run for Village Trustees during the next election...

So you haven't heard the last from me.