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The past couple of weeks have been filled with complaints about the widespread holiday power outage that left tens of thousands of Utahns without electricity for days on end.
Such vociferous criticism is justified, considering when the outage happened and the extent of its impact.
In KSL’s view, though, the event was not disastrous. Inconvenient? Absolutely! And terribly frustrating! But, as far as we can determine no one died as a direct result of the power failure and property losses were minimal. Eventually, power was restored and the lives of those directly affected returned to normal.
That’s not to say tough questions shouldn’t be asked. They should. And while Tuesday’s power company apology before the Utah Public Service Commission seemed genuine, definitive answers must be forthcoming.
Why, really, did it take so long to get the power back on?
Why did Utah Power’s communications infrastructure fail? How will the problem be corrected?
Should more resources be directed toward preventive measures such as tree limb removal around power lines?
Is Scottish Power, the ultimate owner of the company in far off Glasgow, fulfilling its 1999 purchase “guarantee” to improve service standards and be responsive to local concerns?
Like everyone else affected by the holiday power outage of ’03, KSL is waiting for explanations and answers – not just apologies and PR spin.
