Everyone in this thread who used the challenges facing this state post-Irene to get self righteous and excuse this incompetence should be ashamed of themselves.
First of all, Central Connecticut was not hit that hard. The Southwest and the East were hammered. How does Rentschler help someone in Redding or Montville get their power back?
Secondly, within about 10 miles of the Rent there are about 8 large empty lots or vacant warehouses that would serve this purpose just as well. Or, better yet, why not set up a staging area a little closer to where people are actually in need? Hartford has less than 1% of its customers without power and East Hartford is at 3%.
Finally, we are facing a prolonged power outage, not widespread human suffering. This isn't New Orleans post-Katrina, and we aren't even Vermont or New Jersey post-Irene. There was probably stuff in the back of most fridges that needed to be thrown out for a long time now. Being without power sucks, we all get it. But we are not facing widespread starvation, and those people with special needs are not going to be helped by a bunch of pallets sitting in the Rentschler Field parking lot.
What happened here was someone pulled out a plan and never thought about a $4 million net revenue event that the state could desperately use right now. How do I know that? Because they didn't cancel the game until 6 pm two days before it was supposed to be played. It wasn't any one's decision to pick commodity storage at Rentschler over a very profitable night for the state university, it just happened. Any by the time anyone realized there was a conflict, it was too late to do anything about it.
