For some, a long wait for power

Neighbors are living off the grid on Windsor Park Lane in Havertown, powerless since Hurricane Irene's Saturday slap plunged large portions of the region into the 19th century.

There was no milk for the new baby on the block, and no rest for the car salesman with sleep apnea. "Power envy" was setting in.

Fans couldn't catch the Phillies games they craved. Concerned calls from relatives went unanswered on dead phones. And nearly all the ice cream has melted.

Like 15,000 other Peco Energy customers in the area and 75,000 folks in New Jersey, several households on Windsor Park Lane were still without power Tuesday.

In all, Irene pulled the plug on 500,000 Peco customers. In New Jersey, a total of 900,000 homes and businesses experienced an electrical outage.

For nearly four days and nights, either seven or 13 households (depending on who's counting) have been without current on Windsor Park Lane in the Westgate Hills section. It's a middle-class enclave of split-level homes where lawns are cut tight as fresh haircuts, and neighbors don't take long to think before offering help in crisis.

Throughout the neighborhood on Tuesday, kitchen tabletops looked like altars, loaded with candles grabbed from cupboards and junk drawers. Flashlights, board games, and battery-operated radios were scattered everywhere.

In some houses, dirty, thick cables snaking out of roaring, gas-powered generators lay crisscrossed on carpeted floors, suggesting life in disarray.

People were uneasy, tired, miserable.

"We are dog meat out here, with no one helping us," complained Karen Fisher, 61, who must shower at her gym.

"My four kids are scared at night in the dark," said neighbor Heidi Hunt, 42, who has lost $600 in food.

"I have power envy," said Shelley Chaitt, 59, from next door. She was planning to drive to her synagogue in Wynnewood to dry her hair.

Trying to lighten things, Chaitt stood on Hunt's lawn Tuesday afternoon rationalizing that, all in all, the whole situation could be viewed as quite romantic for a married couple.

"Oh, God, please," Hunt said, having none of it. "I tell my husband, 'Don't get any ideas, man. This is stress, not romance.' "

The vagaries of electricity delivery have created a bizarre demarcation of haves and have-nots on the block, in which some enjoy juice while others go dark at night.

"It's weird how we have power, and others don't," said a neighbor who did not want her name used.

Some of those with kilowatts to spare have tried to help. A neighbor with both electricity and a generator strung wires and pumped power across the street to a family with a month-old child, whose energy-less parents were having trouble keeping milk fresh. The family has since left the block, seeking voltage elsewhere.

And Jim Cahill, a car salesman with sleep apnea, wakes up every 15 minutes at night without his electric Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine. "I can't sleep, and I can't afford the $300 machine that runs on a battery pack," Cahill said.

"It's so eerie at night. Eerie. You hear every little creak. 'Hello, is anybody downstairs?' Before you go to bed, you say, 'Please, give me just a little light.' "

Officially, Peco spokeswoman Cathy Engel Menendez said the block suffered a damaged fuse from high wind.

Neighbors pointed out a small wooded area behind their houses in which overgrown trees were lying across downed or sagging power lines.

Fisher and others said they had complained to Peco and Haverford Township officials for years that the trees need to be cut. High winds often fell trees, making power interruption a too-common occurrence on the block.

The way the locals tell it, Peco says the trees are a township problem; the township, in turn, points to Peco.

Township officials could not be reached Tuesday. Menendez said that her county affairs manager was unaware of any problem with trees, despite several neighbors saying they have made a mission of complaining.

"We would love nothing more than to satisfy our customers," Menendez said, adding that she expected power to be restored to all customers throughout the area by late Wednesday.

Even if the power popped on this instant, it might be too late to quell the bad feelings that have crusted and hardened on Windsor Park Lane.

"Do you know," Cahill said, "the cops haven't been out here? There has been no one from the township offering dry ice. You can't get anyone from Peco on the phone.

"We're on our own out here," he said. "All on our own."

Peco customers, as of 10 p.m. Tuesday:

PSE&G customers, as of 8 p.m. Tuesday

Atlantic City Electric, as of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday

*Counties served by both PSE&G and Atlantic Electric

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