Posted by Wondering?, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Dec 3, 2012 at 7:07 pm

These sorts of outages happen enough that it seems someone should ask: "Did the contractor have maps of the location/depth of the electrical lines in this area, or was he just 'flying blind'?"

Posted by WikiPaloAlto, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Dec 3, 2012 at 7:55 pm

The area described above is not midtown - it is Old Palo Alto. The contractor (it was actually a city crew replacing sidewalks and curbs) struck the powerline on Seale Avenue, not Coleridge.

The Weekly can not be that short of people that they fail to identify two so very simple elements of the story. Midtown is South of Oregon Expressway.

Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Dec 3, 2012 at 8:36 pm

Amazing

PAonline

1-publishes hours after the event-in fact after the power was back on

2-Gets the location wrong

3-Gets the perpetrator wrong

What a joke-hire some competent editors now-or fold

Posted by City Emp, a resident of another community, on Dec 3, 2012 at 9:22 pm

Sharon,

I'm not defending PA Online but it was a contractor, not a City crew, who was digging and struck the line.

Posted by City emp, a resident of another community, on Dec 3, 2012 at 9:23 pm

Just noticed, it was on Coleridge also, not Seale.

Posted by virginia, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Dec 4, 2012 at 1:42 am

The city keeps reminding us to "call before you dig" - so do they get to fine whoever neglected to do that?? I'm sure it cost the utility dept something to have the crews go fix it. When it's an act of God, like the storm back east, we all have to help, but when it's an avoidable error, I wonder. "Measure twice, cut once" - old carpenters' axiom.

Posted by Donald, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Dec 4, 2012 at 7:13 am

Apparently putting utilities underground does not solve all of the reliability problems.