YOUR COMMENTS

Oh Denny, Denny, Denny,

A new venue for yet another cry for attention. You're priceless!
- Newt, Newton, NH

Dennis,

Thank you for the Clarification. I am happy to join you on picking on the "progressives" in Concord.

The utilities are just another special interest group and they have apparently won special favor in Concord, though I am not familiar with the law(s) you referenced.

I like your earlier reference to the Utilities having a monopoly. A choice would be nice and god forbid it would inspire competition leading to better service and slightly lower rates.

This is a great example of where special interest, big business (the power companies) has replaced Capitalism. Add in a hefty tax via HR 2454 and those who can afford to will do exactly what you alluded to earlier and go "Galt" by getting off the grid.
- Michael Layon, Derry

RE: Steve from Bedford

Reminds me of a lot of voters I know. They want everything a politician promises to "give" them then are surprised when taxes go up! They can't have it both ways but man they sure do think they can.
- Jim D, Hillsboro

Dennis, you complain about losing power in one post, and in another post you complain about a "logging operation" ragarding trimming. Let's see, you want extremely reliable power, an you also want all of the trees to remain standing!!? Are you in full control of your faculties?
- Steve, Bedford

I don't believe man plays a major role in "Global Warming". Sunspots are more likely. What I was doing is plcking on the Progressives in the NH Legislature. They seem to think they've solved the problems caused by the December 2008 ice storm. They liberalized the rules on tree trimming. When I go into Boston in the summer it's usually 10 to 15 degrees hotter than in NH. And when I go over to RT 125 in Plaistow, it's usually 10 degrees hotter. What's causing this? No trees and grass to speak of, just asphalt and brick. Thanks to the utilities and the Legislature this type of Cityscape or Townscape will be coming to a neighborhood near you. The wires belong underground. Just like water, gas and sewer.
- Dennis Herrick, East Hampstead

Maybe Obama should appoint a new czar to deal with these problems.
- Jim D, Hillsboro

Dennis Herrick,

You really believe in global warming? Maybe you missed the "climategate" news over the past week. The leftstream media has largely ignored it, but emails showing fraudulent data was used to argue for glaobal warming has become the most googled term over the last week. If finding the leading climate research institute faked data isn't enough consider these facts:

While sheople were being conned into believing they were responsible for global warming on earth, very few asked why the planet Mars was undergoing simaltaneous global warming. Could it be because of the Sun? That would also explain the simaltaneous warming on Pluto.

If you think trees are going to combat carbon dioxide consider that plants take carbon dioxide from the air and relase oxygen back into the air. The carbon does not disapear, it is stored in the tree as wood, leaves, sugars and more. When leaves fall and the tree eventually dies all of the carbon is released into the environment. Thsu carbon is not created nor is it destroyed unless you are an alchemist and the only alchemists I know are career polticians and can usually be found under a money tree.
- Michael Layon, Derry

For the price of 6 months of cable TV, one can obtain a small generator and electrical switch to keep their heat on (unless electric heat), refridgerator running and some lights on. But, that is too much to ask for many of our citizens!
- Mike, Goffstown

Hey John in Dover...I lost power for 2 weeks last year. Sure I'm over it, but won't deny "shell shock" when I lost power yesterday, but thankfully only for a couple of hours. Go 2 weeks without power and see how you feel...I still have several gallons of water in the fridge just in case it happens again!

Again...much like last year and like many have posted here...getting any type of info from PSNH is an exercise in futility to say the least. In today's day and age I find it rather odd that PSNH can't provide real-time status updates.

Their was some basic info on their twitter account...but I swear that most of the tweets were just cut and pasted from last years ice storm.
- Mike, Epping

PSNH did a great job yesterday.

I've been wondering myself how many folks bought those cheap generators from big box stores with the Chinese knockoffs of Briggs engines and are STILL running the same summertime straight 30 weight oil they got with the unit. Or even better, how many of those same folks haven't even started the generator since the last ice storm and now have varnish and ethanol where their gas used to be. Guess they'll find out the hard way. We live in a place that occasionally sees bad weather. You'd think people would be more prepared. Of course as usual every year, there will be a big run on shovels the night before that first snowstorm. This IS the land of the liberals now. Maybe they all think the government will help them. Those of us that live in reality of course know better.
- Mike, Temple

I complained about the outage - not because I'm unprepared, but because I can't believe there was an hours long outage in Salem after last year.

Fine...good job line people fixing everything - but why did things break all across the state? One or two or three outages can happen - but entire sections of the state? Did VT, ME, MA and Canada also have similar outage rates?
- Liz, Salem, NH

What a bunch of babies, wow.

Without power for a few days last year and many of you still aren't over it???

Use some common sense, and you'll be fine.

Like has been said, take the few steps to prepare yourself. Maybe I'll invite some of you over to sleep in a warm house with water and food!
- John, Dover

Papers don't usually like multiple postings on the same day. Hope the UL let this one through. I forgot something Sue from Canterbury. I drove through my old neighborhood in Plaistow yesterday and what did I find? Unitil and Asplundh are doing "ground-to-sky" tree trimming on Pollard Road. Looks like they've declared war on the trees. This isn't tree trimming, it's a logging operation. I hope they plan to plant a tree somewhere in NH for every tree they cut down, just to keep our air clean and the temperature down. I doubt that the NH Legislature had the foresight to include this to the new rules for utilities.
- Dennis Herrick, East Hampstead

So much for the months of PSNH paying contractors to cut tree limbs we lost electricity from just after 9 AM till 12:10 PM but no big deal we just used the wood stove and did what we could in and out of doors.
- Harriet, Deerfield

Hi Sue from Canterbury:

Our family already has a safe house set up, with generator and stocks of food. Where the solar panels and windgererator takes you is off the Unitil and PSNH grid entirely. I thought I was being clear. Perhaps not. Sorry.
- Dennis Herrick, East Hampstead

Instead of trying to "get around the system" why don't you just follow the PSNH directions on their customer service phone line. I do - did it ever occur to you that when you confirm your phone number you help them pinpoint outage locations so they can get out there and start fixing things?
Or is just that you feel you're too important and require the personal services of your very own personal customer service person regardless of the time of day, day of week? TOUGH!
- Sandy, Thornton

C'mon folks! We live in a region of the country that gets hit by our own type of severe weather! Prepare yourselves!
You can't possibly, realistically expect the power to NEVER go out! If you do you're sadly fooling yourself.
There is one other option if you don't like living with the threat of power outages. MOVE.
But think about where you move to.
The South East has hurricanes. The south and mid western states have tornadoes. The south west has earth quakes. Choose your poison carefully!
Thank you PSNH for getting the power back on in a timely fashion!
- Dan, Manchester

Not to worry people rumor has it AL Gore is working on solving ice storms rather than the planet. With such a scaled down goal people should never have to live through another event like that ever again.

I for one think the utility companies worked very hard trying to get us all back up and running and commend their efforts. Those of you who can't seem to manage without electricity a few weeks I suggest you practice a few times a year so you are better prepared yourselves before you create another government takeover.
- Deb, Derry

Dennis, "solar panels, windmills"???
Have you ever heard of a generator? We live in New Hampshire. We get ice storms. Learn it. Live with it.
We have trees. Trees go down in ice storms. Now unless you are prepared to cut down every one of the millions of trees that could possibly take out a power line, I would suggest you begin to think in terms of taking care of yourself, and not wait for the great OJ trial featuring the very hardworking power company crews vs. Dennis.
- Sue, Canterbury

Homeowners who do not prepare for such events only have themselves to blame for when they do finally occur. Instead they spend their money (and attention) on stupid frivolous things thinking "Oh, it will never happen to me."

My friends and relatives said I was going for overkill with buying a generator 3 years before the storm hit. Then they said I was very smart for having one. They also had the same criticism about buying a wood pellet stove. Then did the exact same turn around afterwards.

Just prepare yourself folks and stop listening to these idiots who say "Nah, you'll never need one."

When there is a massive power failure, the crews can only get to people as fast as they can. Is there room for improvement? Always. Are there gaps in the system. Yep. But that is not an excuse for not preparing yourself and sorry, but I have no sympathy for such complainers.
- Jim D, Hillsboro

I lost power yesterday. I called PSNH and got a recording saying to call back
tomorrow about power outage.
We Pay the '3rd Highest rates in the country and we have to be more prepared. I'M sorry this is just not right!
this company should be held accountable for everyones losses. This company shows they do not care for the customer
And the state does nothing. I could not even get answers on the radio. How sad.
PSNH should have a class action law suit
against them.. I am still paying for the damage from last years outage.
Dennis I will make the call.
- pete, Deerfield

Now, if only PSNH was prepared.....

Our neighborhood lost power yesterday and several of us spent hours trying to reach someone at Poor Service of NH, to no avail, Their phone system is set up to not take live calls. It specifically will not connect you to a live person. After 5 hours of trying to get around the system 2 did and the company had no info the what's where's or whens on restoring power. This company continues to show an inability to service customers and respond to the citizens of the State.

And they promised that they would be prepared for the next one....
- Thomas J, loudon

Where's the Unitil Docket? Where's the PSNH Docket?

Keep the pressure on Union Leader and Reporter Rayno. In less than two weeks we hit the 1 year anniversary of the ice storm and the NH Public Utilities Commission has not acted. They promised us a report and they've released nothing to date. Following the report, they were going to consider rule changes and adjudication. No chance any of this will happen before the 11-Dec anniversary.

With FairPoint we have a choice. We can dump them and go with ComCast or go wireless. The power companies are state protected monopolies. Unless you want to sell your home and move or put up solar panels or windmills you have no choice. This is anti-capitalist and unamerican. NH PUC, if you're not going to let the market control the power industry then we want Home Rule and a Municipal Power option.

Call your regional planning commission and ask them why they won't take on the power companies. For Rockingham County residents, the number at the Rockingham Planning Commission is
603-778-0885
- Dennis Herrick, East Hampstead

people are not better prepared! just wait until something like this happens again, and it lasts a lot longer. people will be nearly killing each other next time.
- scott, chichester