Once More, With Feeling...

Okay, once again, something has happened that makes no real sense.

This area commonly has thunderstorms. I am not talking about a few rumbles of thunder and a bit of quick rain; I am talking about multiple vertical lightning strikes[1] ... violent winds... heavy downpours... all on a fairly regular basis.

So why, if someone out there can tell me, do our public utilities keep failing due to "unexpected" heavy weather?

We had another set of heavy thunderstorms pass through the area again the other day while I was at work, and when I brought up the electrical utility's outage map I was presented with a large number of colored areas, each signifying hundreds (in some cases, thousands) of customers without power. A few moments after having my "uh-oh" moment, I received a phone call from my parents; their neighborhood had once again lost power.[2]

I left work with some trepidation, unsure if I was returning to a comfortable environment or a hot, muggy house with no lights or air conditioning. After passing several Pepco work crews as I drove down my leaf-covered block, I was happy to find my house  dripping but well-lit. Unfortunately, my mood changed within moments of walking through the door when I tried to check the Weather Channel and found I had no cable TV service -- and I really got cranky when I subsequently tried to check the weather online and discovered I had no Internet connectivity, either. (And did I mention all that static on my phone line?)

This is the 21st century. This is the nation's capital. This is a region where thunderstorms are a near-daily event and severe thunderstorms are almost as common as heavy traffic on the Beltway.

So why, o why, are we still losing basic utility services so frequently due to "unexpected severe weather"?

Get with it, Pepco, Comcast, BG&E, Verizon... you're all really annoying your customers...

[1] When my family first moved to the area several decades ago, we nicknamed the stronger nighttime storms "Maryland Specials" because at their peak the lightning came close to providing enough light for reading.

[2] Electrical power was restored near 11:00pm... and promptly went away again for no apparent reason shortly after midnight, only to reappear once again shortly before 1:00am.