Praise and Thanks for DWP Workers

* The Department of Water and Power has been in the news lately and I would like to add my two cents’ worth. However, mine is praise and thanks.

On Jan. 22, the fifth day after the earthquake, I did not have electricity. About 7:30 a.m. I spotted men in orange helmets in the alley behind my house near Balboa Boulevard and Rinaldi Street in Granada Hills. I ran outside and told one of the men my husband had gone to work for the Gas Co. The huge truck from the DWP rumbled over the broken blocks and bricks in the alley and began working on the equipment near my house.

At 7:41 a.m. I saw a light go on in my kitchen. Still standing in the back yard and overcome by emotion, I began to cry. The kindly worker put his arm around me and asked me if I would be OK. Assuring him that I would be all right, but still crying, I managed a smile. He went back into the house with me to make sure everything was working and to check on my sons.

The rescue workers, of course, warrant praise, but let us not forget the blue-collar workers with DWP, the gas company, the phone companies. It was a monumental task, and they just went about their business and put in long, hard, tedious hours.

ELLEN CELAYA

Granada Hills