Dire situation in Merrimack Valley
The gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley happened exactly two months ago today. Normalcy still has not been restored for far too many, who now find themselves on the precipice of winter.
The Herald’s Alexi Cohan introduced readers to Yohanny Cespedes, a Lawrence mother of three small children, back in September. After the explosions she and her family were left without gas, which meant no heat or hot water. It forced her into a routine that began at 6 a.m. to start boiling water on a hot plate so she could bathe her kids.
Cespedes has since found housing in a hotel in Salem, N.H., but the instability is felt every day and often markedly more on special occasions like the birthday party of her daughter, Kianny Rivera, who is turning 1 this month.
“I haven’t been able to plan anything,” said Cespedes, who told the Herald that Columbia Gas keeps changing the restoration date for her home.
Cespedes’ eldest daughter, Kourtney Rivera, who turned 7 last month, spent her birthday at her grandmother’s house. Now, Kianny will most likely have the same experience for her birthday.
“It’s not our plan, it’s their plan and it changes all the time,” said Cespedes. “There’s nothing I can do.”
Cespedes speaks to Columbia Gas by phone “all the time,” but she told the Herald they fail to show up at her home to make repairs and take out old appliances. “They made me waste my day,” Cespedes said.
Thanksgiving for Cespedes, her three children and her husband, will most likely be celebrated at their hotel. The children are getting sick of hotel life. “The baby wakes everybody up in the morning,” she said.
There are many families like hers. On Saturday, residents took part in a question-and-answer session with NiSource and Columbia Gas representatives. Desiree McDonough, a North Andover resident who has been living in a trailer with her husband and three young children, said Columbia’s reimbursement and food stipend plan has created “haves and have-nots” in the community.
“Some people get it, some people don’t,” said McDonough, who told the Herald she lost her food stipend after moving into the trailer. “Columbia Gas is doing a terrible job of communication and a terrible job of treating us equally,” said McDonough. “These Q&As are nothing but a media stunt.”
Columbia Gas needs to do more to help those whom they have displaced. If that means bolstering call center and quick response staff then that should happen now. No expense should be spared and our elected leaders must hold their feet to the fire. This is 2018 in Massachusetts, not the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. No one should be living this way.