POWER COMPANY MISSING LINKS

Unbelievable. It is 11:15 ADT, on Oct. 2. I am sitting in a pleasant room in Readfield, Maine, in a house where there is heat, and blessedly, hot water. And I have checked, for the third time this morning, the Maritime Electric “outrage” map and found that my really great neighbours in Cornwall are still without power on the ninth day of Fiona fallout.

Unbelievable. Did Maritime Electric do anything right? Possibly, but sending all crews out to do the wonderful assessment was time consuming and open to question. After all, they weren't going to get to all the damaged sites right away, so, seemingly, some crews could immediately be put to work on what was obviously necessary in the Charlottetown area, thus freeing those crews to move on to other sites sooner rather than later.

However, it is worth considering that there are major infrastructure issues. My neighbours are without power because a vital link, at the North River causeway, was completely destroyed. Simple preventative? Bury the cables at locations like that.

But of course, Maritime Electric, as a private company, is unlikely to take that kind of step. Do I hear “nationalization” blowing in the wind?

David M. Bulger, Cornwall, P.E.I.