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While we received dozens of wonderful thank you cards and notes, we also heard several negative comments relating to the operation of our telephone system when we did not have people in the office. We are just as frustrated about this as you are. We have five incoming lines and an automatic answering system that will answer three of them, leaving two to just ring and ring and ring. When a large number of members suffers outages, our phone system becomes overwhelmed, and people sometimes push button after button without ever being able to talk to a real person or even record a message. We are looking at alternatives but do not see any low cost solution. In the meantime, we try to update the message on the recording as often as we have new information to report. That seems adequate for outages affecting a small number of people, but it doesn't work when we have a large number of members with outages like we did a few weeks ago. I don't have a good solution, but we continue to look into alternatives. Several people have asked if it is safe to drive over downed lines. The answer is no. There is no way for you to tell whether it is a power, telephone or cable TV line or, if it is a power line, whether it is energized or not. There is definitely the potential for electrocution if you drive over downed power lines, so please, don't do it. Call us - if you have trouble with the phones, keep trying and you will soon be able to contact us to come out and help you. I continue to be concerned because the ground is so wet, and trees have lost a lot of support. I hope there are no high winds (particularly from the northeast) until the ground has had a chance to dry out. All and all, we feel pretty good about how well our system held together during this storm and the winds that followed, particularly when compared to the mainland utilities.
Doug Bechtel
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