BGE substation maintenance worker Rick Mullen prepares to crack a crab in appreciation for his efforts beyond the call of duty to restore power to Baltimore homes in the wake of Saturday's crippling derecho. (VoB Photo/Alan Z. Forman)
STEAMED CRABS FROM AN ANONYMOUS DONOR,
4th OF JULY HOLIDAY CAKE & FRUIT FROM ‘AMY’
More than 99 percent of people have been great.
— BGE maintenance worker Rick Mullen
By Alan Z. Forman
As BGE and Verizon have grown ever larger and more impersonal, universal scorn gets heaped regularly on the two companies most people seem unable to live without, especially during the days and week following last Saturday’s derecho, which knocked out power and telephones for hundreds of thousands of Marylanders.
Nowhere has the storm and its aftermath been felt more than in Baltimore, which is still recovering from the late Friday night/early Saturday hour-long torrential windstorm and its accompanying band of severe thunderstorms. At least seven people in the state have died of storm-related causes.
Trees fell down everywhere. Roads were blocked; stores remained closed for days. Traffic lights are still not working in several isolated areas.
The cleanup has been slow at best, the utilities having been caught off guard without benefit of an alert for Baltimore City and County, two of the hardest-hit areas in the storm’s wake. And if one watches television news reports or listens to radio commentary, it seems that nearly everyone’s complaining about the alleged inability of Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. — lately merged via Constellation Energy into Exelon Corp., a conglomerate that now provides power to Chicago and Philadelphia as well as Baltimore — to work faster and more efficiently.
FOURTH CONSECUTIVE 16-HOUR DAY
Not true, say two substation maintenance workers for BGE, who restored power to Voice of Baltimore’s offices on the afternoon of July the 4th, when, instead of barbecuing to celebrate the holiday with their families, they were working their fourth consecutive 16-hour day, following a 20-hour day Saturday, to restore electricity to individual homes and businesses in the city.
“More than 99 percent of people have been great, very understanding,” according to Rick Mullen, who, with Tim Cosgrove, has restored power to some 50 houses in the past four days.
The two expect to continue working long hours through the weekend. As of Sunday they will have “worked 14 days straight” and expect to log a total of 19 before getting a day off, said Mullen.
Contrary to news reports, no one has been crabby, the two told VoB, although upon returning to their truck Wednesday after re-attaching wires to two homes in the northwest area of the city, they found an unexpected treat waiting for them: double servings of steamed crabs left on the vehicle by an “anonymous donor,” as Mullen described the apparently appreciative person, who, he noted, also “provided mallets” to crack the crabs.
A FRUITY DESSERT ON A SKEWER
This was followed by a fruity dessert — strawberries, blueberries and bananas — on a skewer, in addition to red-white-and-blue-iced cake handed to them by a woman named Amy.
Mullen pointed out that workers have come “all the way from Canada” to assist BGE in the cleanup, adding that he and Cosgrove were told at a Wednesday morning meeting that an “extra 1500 personnel” were on hand from out of state.
Others may not have been so fortunate to have a work crew like Mullen & Cosgrove to attend to their needs. However early Thursday morning, VoB received a visit from a BGE supervisor wanting to know if the repairs were completed to our satisfaction.
We told him the work and workers far exceeded our expectations and that BGE needed to hire more personnel like Mullen and Cosgrove.
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org
