Power To The People!

After Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma came through the area there were a lot of utility lines down, along with the trees and limbs that brought them down. In many areas the utility poles are in the alleys that go down the center of each block. These alleys are barely wide enough for trucks to get through in the best of times. Now they were impassable!

City crews cleared the streets first, then North Miami Public Works sent garbage trucks to the alleys with some guys cutting up the limbs with chain saws while others got the pieces into the trucks. A few of us citizens went out back to help the city workers load the trucks. We figured that the sooner the alleys got cleared the sooner we'd have electric power, phone, and cable service. Blown transformers were the biggest bugaboo in keeping the power from being restored. While some neighborhoods were back on in 2 days others waited almost 2 weeks.