Yardley Residents Frustrated By Another Extended Outage
By Tony Hanson
YARDLEY, Pa. (CBS) - As of late yesterday afternoon, no PECO customers in Yardley had power and many residents say it is a nightmare revisited.
Yardley went 10 days without power after Superstorm Sandy hit and residents don't know when power will be back this time, but there is a new resource. Emergency Management Coordinator Wes Foraker says the Borough Hall is open 24/7.
"We actually have a whole building generator. We put this in after Sandy. We realized it was a major shortcoming of ours and we've corrected that. Looking at the amount of people that have seen our Facebook postings, we did a good thing."
But weary residents, like Michelle Kasich, have questions for PECO: when will the power be back on? And an even bigger picture: "I just wish they would fix whatever problem it is that causes us to lose power like this all the time for long stretches of time."
Along with the stories of hardship, there are countess stories of people helping each other during this difficult time. One of them involves a woman on oxygen and with limited mobility, at a Red Cross shelter in Bucks County.
Naomi (she asks we not use her last name) quickly realized the first night at the Red Cross shelter at Maple Point Middle School, that she was running low on oxygen.
"I thought 'I'm not going to get through the night' and I had a very bad night just anxiety wise, worrying about it. So, I turned it way down to two, turned it down to one."
But with Red Cross assistance, school principal Andy Sokol made a call and Naomi got her oxygen.
"They're lucky to have him. He's a real gem. You know, he's a guy that reaches out, he helps people, he's a role model. He's a great guy."
Principal Sokol, who was quick to share credit, says anyone here would have done it.