Simon, where do thes people keep their brain? Who the b------ hell organises a roof to be retiled in the muddle of this lot. For gods sake it must be a health and safety hazard never mind anything else. Hope you come through OK my friend. I will be watvching the weather with interest this evening.

Answer:

Says it all really! I think one of the qualifications for some council jobs is a lack of common sense.

Good luck to all of you up there getting things back to normal.

Well as I type this the rain lasheth and the wind galeth - again...

Just come in from a house that got wet - old dear whos power was put on without anyone checking the state of things, she couldn't understand why no sockets or heaters worked downstairs. I traced the fault to a shed adjoining the house - everything soaked through. It was freezing - no heat in the house...all electric. Being infirm she lives downstairs so has just "put up with it". Thank Heaven for earth leakage protection...

Made a cup of tea for us both and sat chatting for a while in front of the fan heater. I said I'd send a bill in a week or two - but she pressed a £20 into my hand as I left "for being a gentleman". People like that are the salt of the earth - a far-cry from the orifice I met yesterday. I will, of course, quietly knock the £20 off the bill... What a wonderful ol' lady

Simon - methinks I could not afford a Chinese takeaway delivered by you!! How many gallons to the mile does that thing do? Can't believe your roof saga - Geez. Hope you fair well through the night.

Hope all goes well in NZ Trumps - didn't realise you were suffering over there as well. What with the Tsunami, and the weather in the States as well - makes you wonder what the hell is going on!? I wonder too, how long property insurance will remain available to the average earner???

John,
Great to see that you helped that elderly lady out, mate, have one shouted to you, from me!.
In situations like you've just explained, people very rarely help the elderly and infirm, because the people themselves think they aren't in a position to complain and usually don't either out of sheer pride or the belief that someone is in greater need.
Kudos John!.

Yep, they're the sort of people who restore one's faith in human nature, aren't they?

So do the utilities. In Sweden, they have restored power to all but a 100' homes and expect to have all homes lit up sometime next week. The engineers are scratching their heads, as the powerlines are sized for a maximum wind of 35 m/s (80 mph) but the winds in the storm exceeded 40 m/s (90 mph). Question is if worse is to come in the future?

We got properly hammered by the winds last weekend - we had 600+ people off supply and some only got their power back on yesterday!

We have all been out working 15+ hour days, and we will probably be out making the final repairs for the next 3 or 4 days.

Fingers crossed that we don't see winds like that again for a while!

Ian

Indeed Ian. It is interesting to note that UU had over 800 people working on the repairs; drafted from all over the UK.

Welcome to the board, by the way!

Been off the net for a while as i've started a new job.

Thankfully we didn't suffer any damage here but the family home up north got a hammering.

My great aunt whose in her seventies had to endure a night with waves breaking against the house and sections of the roof being blown away. The sea has never been closer than 20 feet from the house even at the highest of tides. The wall at the shore is gone along with all the sheds which had a lot of family heirlooms in them. There is now a steep drop from the house to the shore.

It was less dangerous for her to stay in the house as the wind was so strong you could not walk in it and the falling trees were lethal.

To say she was terrified is an understatement.

UKSparky the chevy is actually cheaper to run than my cavalier was.

Simon.