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To: John Hunt who wrote (27393)	1/31/1999 6:11:00 AM
From: John Hunt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116767

From Ice Storm To Firestorm: Did Pepco Slip? (Y2K Preview) << Antoinette Lyles arrived at Potomac Electric Power Co. headquarters near twilight on a chilly Jan. 14, anticipating a routine evening shift running the customer service department. And for the first few hours, her expectations proved right. A few billing queries lighted up the computer screen that allows her to monitor the flow of incoming telephone calls. But suddenly, about 8:30 p.m., the number of calls started ticking up and the hushed voices of the dozen operators who worked for her grew excited. First 10 callers lined up in the electronic queue for help, then 15. In one huge leap near midnight, the number spiked to 100. -- cont'd -- >> washingtonpost.com This is almost an exact replay of the ice-storm that hit Canada a year ago, except that we had more than a hundred main transmission towers down and outages lasted up to 3 weeks for some - Don't these guys ever talk to each other? Same old same old ... planned cutbacks of line crews to minimal and unrealistic levels ... poor initial response ... little status information ... poor communications with customers ... can't borrow staff as all surrounding utilities have similar problems ... etc, etc, etc. Outside of maybe stockpiling more poles and replacement parts and the consideration of maybe using mechanical stress 'fuses' to drop lines when they are covered with ice, rather than have the poles and towers come down also, little has changed here. Expect the same or worse with any Y2K problems that develop!!!