SNEW Claims CL & P Feeder Lines To Blame

SNEW is claiming that a CL & P feeder line is down and that their crews are working on it. Of course this is what they put on their recorded message, not a web site update or txt message Twitter status or facebook alert.

This is also the same excuse they used for the May 2010 power outage. Now after all that upgrading C L & P has done, the years of torn up roads, and we still have this? And why us the third taxing district never claiming that C L & P feeder lines are down?

South Norwalk deserves better.

According to the recorded message expect power back after 1 am.

  • SoNo Lofts

    Thanks for the only update I could find online.

    And yes, it’s ridiculous.

  • Cynthia

    Finally I found an answer…..I am sitting in my living room almost dying waiting for the power to come back . Thanks for the info, it is true you are the only one who posted some information, God bless you

  • Norwalker

    Power is on after 6 hours of blackened restaurants and businesses, no AC or fans on the hottest day and night of the year, major disruptions to the residents of South Norwalk. Now lets see if the mayor will demand answers. We endured 5 years of torn up streets all over town that diminished business and made life hell for Norwalkers, just to install a new line to prevent this type of incident from happening, or so we were told. Was South Norwalk sacrificed to keep the lights on in Westport, or Darien, or Stamford?

  • KB

    I was more concerned for my animals than myself. The worst part was being able to SEE all the lights on for the CL&P customers on the next road over-some random homes have CL&P instead of SNEW.

  • Enlightened

    You citizens who have SNEW should be aware that you are paying a fat salary to a Joe who is supposed to handle communications, marketing, etc. Why hasn’t Joe found a better way to communicate with the tax paying customers of SNEW. How about some innovative 21st century ideas. FYI he has no skills or background to qualify for his job… just “connections”. You deserve better.

  • Wow

    Amazing how many people can still manage to write on an internet website when they supposedly don’t have any electricity. Makes me wonder if these are the very same loudmouths complaining back in March who failed to show up at the FEMA meeting last month.

    • turfgrrl

      Well, you must be showing your age or something. As of June of this year, more people access the Internet off their mobile devices, which means that cell phones, iPhones, and blackberries are the defacto standard way of communicating. Any organization that fails to understand this is doomed to failure. This recession we’re in is also accelerating the “in the know” from the “in the dark.” Sadly this means, if you were sitting at home hoping to get news off the radio, you were out of luck and really one of those in the dark.

  • Hmmm, methinks you ought to read this:

    The Shallows : What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
    by Carr, Nicholas

    Is Google making us stupid?

    When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Netrsquo;s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?

    Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by tools of the mind-from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer-Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.

    Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic-a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption-and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.

    Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes-Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive-even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.

    • turfgrrl

      I did scan it (lol) but as with most science studies, there are other studies that show/prove that technology or the internet increases our brain power. ;) Since about the time that we evolved from hunter gather tribes the one distinction man has over nature, is out ability to rationalize any outcome. ymmv.

  • SoNo Lofts

    Not clear what the Internet’s influence on our brains has to do with why SoNo couldn’t have the power on, but to answer an earlier reader’s question: I “manage” to find news on the Internet because I have a laptop with a cellular modem and a smartphone with a web browser. That’s not that unusual.

    Going to Google and searching for Norwalk power, using parameter of “last 24 hours”, gets a more immediate response than if I owned a battery operated transistor radio and tuned to random stations hoping someone would announce some info relevant to me.

    Darien and Stamford power issues yesterday were up to date both on the utility sites and in the news. Looks like SNEW goes home at 4:30, and offers no status page at all.

    It wouldn’t kill the person who left the voicemail update to text message a status update to a simple blog or Twitter account.

  • In the dark last night…again

    Well, we spent two hours in the dark again last night in a limited section of South Norwalk.

    I know that our power bills are based on metered use, but I’m beginning to wonder if we can start considering an inconvenience rebate since we have a contractual agreement with the power companies to supply us with power. There have been at least four major power outages for us personally, one in the winter where it was out for 4 hours (fortunately I had a place to go where there was heat and fresh coffee), one during the March storm with an outage for us for only 2 hours (yes, I know there were people with no power for days), another outage for six hours the night before last (once again fortunately had an alternative location to hang out at for most of it) and an additional 2 hours last night for us personally. That doesn’t count the outages in other parts of South Norwalk when a car took down a power line.

    Even though our meters aren’t running, one still has to consider the cost of the outages, to restaurants, businesses and individuals. At what point does “Golly, we’re working on it.” stop being a reasonable answer?

  • OLD TIMER

    East Norwalk, third district electric) has several generators and a real maintenance plan. South Norwalk has generators they used for years but they no longer run. In the past few years, they have rented generators to pick up some of the peak load. Are they now running without the peak load generators and expecting the CL&P lines to carry the peak load ?

  • Arlene

    Did not SNEW do a complete upgrage including installing new generators at the S. Norwalk facility, just a few years ago? Than they installed generators at Nordon in East Norwalk. Why cant we put folks to work and start burying the wires. Poles are so last century.

  • OLD TIMER

    What SNEW did a few years ago was lease gas turbine powered peaking generators on their property to cover the heavier loads in summertime. I understand these units were only temporary, and I don’t think they have them this year. Last I heard, their old diesel units were inoperative, but still in place. The generators at Norden’s are the 3rd district’s property and were bought and put in place years ago. They are also peaking generators and are run when the district needs them or, sometimes, when the grid needs the extra generation and pays the 3rd district to run them.