I would hope that utility companies have a common sense moment and revert to normal billing. But it doesn’t do the Texans any favors...
At this rate we will be donating to
@Effendi...
......................send money..................desperate........................hanging on by a thread....................champagne all gone, no ice left, had to eat all the filet steaks.
In all seriousness it is still farking dire here for some folks. Depending on who you believe there are either 165,000, or several million without water, still a fair few without power from last tuesday.
I ventured into a couple of supermarkets the other day when I went out for an architectural ruler from Staples. I only went in to have a look to see if what the reports were saying was true, the reports were not lying. Shelves have been stripped of fresh fruit and veg, most meat fridges were empty as were the freezer cabinets. One thing that struck me was that the ice cream cabinets had been emptied.............who, .... the fark, ... needs ice cream, .... in a severe weather freeze situation.
Plumbers are still apparently running around trying to fix a back log of work that has been piling up since last tuesday. Then just to make it interesting some clever b'startds have been into Home Depot, Lowes and the wholesalers and bought up most of the fittings. Presumably so that they are the only kid on the block with parts to do the work so that they can charge what they want.
To give you an idea of the costs: When we were renting a couple of years ago we had a leak that the landlord had to pay for. Simple leak, no big deal, cut out a section and replace, seriously a quickie, drain the hot water tank for half an hour and whang in the new section - remembering I am a plumbist. The monkey that the landlord got in charged him $1300 for the job. You think plumbers are expensive in the UK, well you should try the US. As another example; the wifes training manager texted to say he had a pipe blown last friday night. I offered to go over to fix the problem for him, but he is in rented and told me not to bother as it is his landlords problem. The plumbers monkey turned up the next day and the landlord was out of pocket almost $2000.
Understand that when I say plumbers monkey I mean just that. Over here you have to have four years experinece, pass an exam and have a State licence to run a plumbing business. What the licenced bloke does is he lets others work under his licence number (and insurance) for a %, or a fixed weekly fee. As a % I know they want 40% of what the monkey charges around here, and as a fixed fee I have heard anything up to $1500 a week. Its the same with sparkys, and air con engineers too.
Anyway, Texarrse is still in it up about its chest at the moment and hoping that Federal aid money will bail it out. The estimated cost of the last week to Texarrse is $18bn.
