Letter to Editor | Wow, that was a really long power outage

||| FROM TONY GHAZEL |||

In the 25 years we’ve lived in this community, today’s power outage is one of the longest that I can remember. But this is not the reason for this note; I am just going to share, loudly, a heartfelt thank you to the OPALCO crew, staff, and management for the prompt and professional responses to power outages in the past and particularly today.

Thank you OPALCO.

Over the years, and whenever we had power outages, we knew that OPALCO crew will be on it and within hours power is back up and we go on with our lives. During those years and when the kids were small, my family and I would just grab books or a game and spend the time reading or enjoying our family.

As I am getting older, I decided a couple of years ago that what the heck I am going to get and install a generator. We did, we hooked up the propane tank and voila we have a generator and enough fuel to last a while. Sure, we were inconvenienced in the past, spoilage of food, not able to work; we’ve been there. So, when I woke up this morning around 3:45 and noticed that the power was out, I, just like a guy Christmas morning, rushed outside to start the generator and lo and behold it worked and we have power in important parts of the house such the freezer, refrigerator, COFFEE machine and computer outlets.

By 4 o’clock I am a happy camper and thanks to RockIsland I also had Internet. Now mind you, during the previous many power outages — no offense intended — I didn’t much care about checking with the OPALCO outage line but today I had power and Internet, so I checked online and was pleasantly surprised that there were updates. I don’t want to bore you with the details. I checked later and there were updates. And again. So, I am thinking this is impressive that there is one or more OPALCO employees who got out of their bed in the middle of the night to update the website, and, there are crews all over the county who also got out of bed, checking up on the power lines after the storm and in dangerous situations making sure that power lines are secure while trying to diagnose the source of the outage. Thanks fellas stay strong.

So now I am on my third espresso, the generator is still working, Internet is up, checked again and updates are still coming, ALL DAY.  As I write this note we are on our 16^th hour of the outage and my generator has been running for 13 hours (sorry neighbors) and you know what, I am not phased because I know that the OPLACO crew are on it. I just feel badly for others because I know that it is very difficult when there are outages; elderly with electronic monitoring and other medical devices, food spoilage, gas pumps are not working — Island Supply had their pumps working — the first responders are on high alert because emergencies still happen and more so during power outages, the grocery store invested in a large generator to insure that even during outages folks could still get their groceries, young families trying to feed and keep their families warm and, during this pandemic, trying to educate their kids, the community church still houses the food bank and the volunteers serve our friends and neighbors and on and on so it is good to know that our Co-op utility is on it. Our prayers are with you so please be well and stay healthy.