Don’t blame Unitil for what the weather has done to us

Thanks for the help!

I would first like to say up front that I am a former employee of Unitil/FGE, leaving in 2005 for reasons of career expansion. That being said, as a resident of Townsend and West Townsend for the last 32 years, I have seen the effects of New England weather on our infrastructure. I was here for the storm that put us out of power for almost five days in the winter of ’96, with my wife and new 8-month-old son.

For you city dwellers, that also means those of us on well water did not have heat, lights or water. That means when your house temperature drops to freezing your pipes freeze because you can’t run your faucets. I didn’t complain then and I didn’t complain this storm. Yes, my power came back on Sunday afternoon.

My favorite saying is “it is what it is.” To those of you who chose to complain about the length of time without power, put yourself in the shoes of those who respond to them. As an on-call supervisor, I personally have spent in excess of 36-hour stints driving in nasty weather staring at wire after wire, which pales in comparison to what the linemen and their coworkers go through by a large margin.

Please, think twice before you vent to the person who answers the phone when you call. Look to the sky and yell at it. Check the history of ice storms in the past 20 years and you will see this is not the worst or the longest on record. And what some of you who personally attack Unitil do not understand is when Canada is without power for two weeks or Maine for three weeks, is that also Unitil’s fault or, again, should we look to the sky?

My sister-in-law in New Ipswich, N.H., was told it would be two weeks before she could expect to see electricity. Weather is what weather is. We can’t control it; we just survive it. Be thankful for what we have.

On behalf of my family, I would like to take this time to personally thank the men and women of Unitil and Henkels and McCoy for their timely response to this outtage.

TOM WHITTIER

West Townsend