Editor, Times-Union: In spite of the fact that what I am writing to complain about is “small potatoes” compared to the recent horrific disasters in Colorado and Florida, I am going to complain anyway. My unhappiness is directed to our local radio station, WRSW.
The aftermath of Friday’s unexpected storm left thousands of us with mixed feelings of relief for the rain and frustration with the massive power outages. Through the years, I’ve experienced many outages, but the vast majority of them have lasted a few hours at most. This most recent outage, however, went on for me and my neighbors for 30+ hours. In vain I trusted my battery-operated radio to deliver news of the extent of storm damage and an estimate of time I might need to wait for my power to be restored. Alas, delivery of such news did not come for nearly 20 hours. I listened for hours to oldies music, country music, and rock music, but any useful news delivered was sketchy at best.
By that time, I had heard more general updates from the Fort Wayne and central Indiana radio stations. By this time my freezer food was mush, and while I was not yet sweltering from impending temperature increases, I knew things did not look good. When finally news came from WRSW, it was general and strangely enough the listening audience was told more information could be found on a locally generated website. Hello! My power is out! I am fairly computer literate, and I have a simple cell phone – no smart phone, iPhone or android (had that removed with my tonsils 60 years ago), so I had to rely on my radio. Hence I had no idea of the extent of storm damage, no specific information regarding the restoration of power, and I was left to plan the very near future of my life on an hour-to-hour basis.
Does this town not have reporters who seek out the answers that we citizens were looking for? Could no one go on site and question (not badger) utility crews to get some of this information? Do the citizens of Warsaw and Kosciusko County not warrant the courtesy of being told what's going on? Should we get generators? Should we be scurrying to save what food we can out of our freezers and refrigerators? Should we have been on the alert to use one of our numerous emergency evacuation routes?
Our city has grown so much in so many beneficial ways. Unfortunately, our communication systems have not.
Please note: My complaints are in no way directed at any power/gas/telephone/cable companies. Bless them one and all for their quick responses and hard work .... and thick skin. Kudos to all of them!
