Who is helping these people? See at the bottom about FREE repairs. Are workers really not getting paid?

Question

SKIATOOK, Okla. - Huddled near her fireplace, Marla Carter wondered when Skiatook will be mentioned in news reports about the storm-related power outages that have left her without electricity for the past 10 days.

President Bush issued a major disaster declaration Tuesday for seven Oklahoma counties battered by the ice storm. Federal funds will now be available to reimburse state and local governments for cleanup and infrastructure repairs.

Crews working 13-hours shifts have restored power to all but 32,943 homes and businesses by Wednesday morning. Utility officials said power cannot be restored to some structures until the customers repair damage to connections where electrical service enters a home or business.

In Oklahoma City, city officials on Wednesday announced a pilot program with state and federal agencies to repair damaged residential electric meter bases for *free*.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071219/ap_on_re_us/winter_storm;_ylt=Ag7qfcVyU.HRuVnyquEThAms0NUE

Disaster indeed - which is why I asked who is helping them - and Bush just declared it a disaster area? I guess it takes time to get help to roughly 35,000 with no heat and electricity.

As to the free - it's not free. It's paid for by tax payers. My question is not that they're being helped or that it's coming from tax payer dollars to assist them. This is one of the reasons why we give the government money - to help those in disasters - but it is not free as the author of this article says. Someone is paying the costs. The work isn't done for free as these people are not volunteers.

I think it's great that someone is trying to help these people who have been stranded in cold bitter weather and totally ignored in the news - unlike the Katrina disaster.

I'm very concerned about the extreme delays in government response for assistance in our own country - yet billions are spent overseas...

Answer 1

The workers would be paid either by the utility or by the state. Meter bases (the thing that holds your electric meter) are normally the responsibility of the property owner. The free part of this is that the work would be done without the property owner having to pay for the work.

Answer 2

Geez... "Free repairs" means that the people aren't being charged for that work.... not that the electrical workers aren't being paid... and if you actually read the article you would notice that those people are being helped.... but one can't wave a magic wand and fix everything in an hour.... does the word "disaster" mean anything?