By Antonio D. French
Filed Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at 8:55 AM
State and local elected leaders gathered for a press conference and photo op at Wohl Community Center in north St. Louis yesterday. Governor Matt Blunt, U.S. Senator Jim Talent, Mayor Francis Slay, and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley thanked each other for their cooperation during the ongoing crisis that has thousands of St. Louis area residents still without electricity.
The politicians also asked the public to be patient, saying that Ameren, the electric utility, was doing all it can.
"They are overwhelmed," said Slay. He said Ameren's resources have been extremely strained by the amount of storm damage. "Why that occurred and where do we go from here, we're going to address in the future, but at this point, complaining and pointing fingers is not the way to approach it," said the mayor.
Monday's more favorable assessment of Ameren's handling of the situation contrasted with the mayor's comments in Saturday's Post-Dispatch. In that article by reporter Jake Wagman, Slay blasted Ameren officials for being "very, very vague" about when power would be restored to the city.
"They don't really promise anything specifically - I think intentionally so," Wagman reported Slay saying in a briefing to aldermen at City Hall. He later added: "This is a life or death situation."
Wagman asked the mayor about his change in tone yesterday. Slay said his position has been consistent. "The article was inaccurate," he said. Slay said Ameren was vague because they didn't want to get people's hopes up prematurely.
If you're interested in hearing audio from the entire press conference, you can download it here. It's about 20 minutes long. Check back for the full video later.
5 Comments:
Where's Claire???
7/25/2006 9:23 AM
I think it is appropriate to blame Ameren. They are making profits hand-over-fist, and they have no plan to begin to slowly phase in buried power lines. At least I have never heard of one.
It is insane that in 2006, we have been without power for almost 5 days in the City of St. Louis. Ameren has a monopoly on electricity in St. Louis. They need to bury the power lines. If they can't bury the power lines, then someone needs to take over who can. What if a real disaster hit St. Louis?
Slay needs to "lean" on Ameren to get these lines buried. We also need a comprehensive disaster plan, which will best allocate City services, and State services, to the damaged areas. I did not hear any of these guys talking about prevention of possible future disasters.
7/25/2006 9:59 AM
From mayorslay.com, Monday:
AmerenUE has more than 2 million local customers for its energy services. Some of those customers are angry at the utility company – not because a storm knocked out the power (that was an act of Nature), and not because Ameren’s repair crews in the field have been anything other than competent and courageous (frankly, they’ve been great). Customer anger is focused on communications: the difficulty of getting a firm answer to the question of when the power will be back.
Here’s what they’ve told me: they expect all customers to have power again by Wednesday. Most City customers will have power back before then.
Ameren executives made some important decisions this weekend, including one that I had strongly suggested. I asked them to focus their initial efforts on restoring power to at-risk City neighborhoods – those with high-rise senior buildings, cooling centers, schools and daycares, and other gathering places for our most vulnerable neighbors. I stood with Gov. Matt Blunt today in a emergency shelter that was far under capacity, because Ameren had been able to restore power to most of the neighborhood around it.
My chief concern right now is protecting life and getting essential services to City neighborhoods. We’ll review everyone’s responses later when things are back to normal.
7/25/2006 10:45 AM
I have posted the text of my letter to the Missouri Public Service Commission on my blog.
I hope it inspires others the plead their case with the PSC.
7/25/2006 11:27 AM
Anon:
Haven't you heard? Auditor McCaskill is too busy wooing out-state Missouri to give time to the Democratic strongholds.
Doug:
Do you know the astonomical cost of burying the lines in the city? I'd rather personally not pay to bury them, as it will mean an even higher rate increase. Remember utilities are on a cost plus basis. These rare outages are endurable.
Bryan, et al.:
Ameren has done an excellent job turning the power back on after the worst storm the company has ever faced. Sure, we'd all like to have power on within a few hours of our initial outage, but with such widespread damage that is a fantasy. After calling Ameren, I reached an operator within minutes and my information was taken in a polite and courteous manner. It took 2 days after the call for a crew to restore power, but that is to be expected when I am one of 700,000 without power. Further, when I had Internet access at a friend's house, I was able to check on the status of my workorder by going to the Ameren website. Going without power for several days is difficult in our modern age, but not impossible, and not the cause for outrage.
7/25/2006 6:16 PM
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