POWER OUTAGES
Residents Cope With Damage
Surges on Two Occasions Fry Appliances in Southeast
Carolyn Long lost the use of three televisions when a power surge hit her apartment in Southeast on June 2. She and her neighbors have had to replace and repair various damaged appliances.
(By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Friday, June 22, 2007
Carolyn Long said she was looking in her freezer for dinner June 2 when her electrical problems began. A bright flash shot through her apartment, and the power was knocked out.
About 15 seconds later, some of her appliances turned back on, but not the small TV on which Long had been watching a religious program. Neither did two other TVs and an iron in her apartment in Southeast.
Long borrowed a television from her nephew to replace the broken ones, but on June 12, there was another flash, and a power surge zapped the replacement TV.
"It's one thing if I choose not to turn it on, but I have no choice," Long said.
Long and neighbors in their building in the 1500 block of 28th Street SE are replacing, repairing and discarding appliances that were blasted out of commission June 2 and June 12. The outages apparently were confined to a few blocks in Ward 7. Among the people affected were D.C. Council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large).
Some lost most of their appliances. For others, the damage was random. Residents are buying new appliances, obtaining the necessities first while holding off on replacing everything that was broken.
Debbi Jarvis, vice president for communications for Pepco, said that the company takes precautions to prevent such outages but that incidents such as the ones in the Southeast can occur.
A tree that fell during a storm caused the June 12 outage, Jarvis said. She said the June 2 outage also might have been related to weather. It is not clear what exactly happened, she said.
Residents said it was raining both days that their power went out, but they didn't think the storm on June 2 was strong enough to take out the power. They've also contacted Pepco about the outages.
Long said a Pepco official told her that the outages were "acts of nature."
"If she thinks it's an act of nature from Pepco, what's my homeowner's insurance going to say?" Long said.
Homeowner's insurance policies often exclude acts of nature from coverage.
