" Aquila failed leaving many people without heat and warm water...very disappointing. "

" How irresponsible of Aquila. What a disservice to its customers. How fortunate that it isn't going to be evn colder than it is now. If this had happened during January it would have been a disaster.

I have to wonder why though it is more inportant to get businesses up and running before residential customers. Is it more important to have your "hair done at the beauty shop" or be warm at night when it isw going to dip below freezing?

Aquila should receive a hefty fine for this. "

" It was an accident, people. Everybody's human and I'm sure the employee who made this costly mistake has paid for it... "

" I do believe they are doing the hospitals and nursing homes first. Keep in mind people that utility companies make mistakes. Its just not aquila. If you don't like it get all electric. "

" I just want to say that the person that caused this major problem in our town of Beatrice should be fired and his record should follow him when he applies for future jobs....I also feel that Aquila should make some kind of adjustment on the people gas bill that was affect and went two days without gas that was not able to take showers, baths, and cook. I understand that it will take awhile, but called an Aquila associate Thursday night and she told me that if I left my porch light on that I would have my gas on by midnight....well...its 2:15 on Friday afternoon and still no gas....if the Aquila associates dont know exactly when the gas lines will be workable they should not be telling customers a different story....I feel that it is very unprofessional on there part and very stressful on the customers part. The High gas bills that we have to pay and it takes this long to get our gas lines going again....very very very disappointing!!!!!Again, i hope that the person that caused this problem is severely terminated.

Thank You for listening.... "

" I get that this is an accident and not a major disaster, but it is an inconvienience to many and another concern about Aquila's business practices. They just recently had a billing issue due to an "accident" made by an employee. Maybe a little more supervision needs to be taken on its employees to prevent further accidents. "

" Tried to call the 800# to make arrangements to have our gas turned back on since we have more than one house to do and was told they were not doing that at this time and we would have to wait until tomorrow and they would try again since we worked today. This is their fault and we all have to suffer and we need to make arrangements when they should be the ones accomodating us. I just hope that this added expense from bringing in people to help will not be reflected on my bill. Why have and 800# to call if they are not going to honor anyway? "

" im sure a "price gas adjustment" is in the works
to pay for this...the consumer will feel the burden
of this mistake one way or another... "

" Diane, have you NEVER made a mistake? It's not like this employee intentionally lost our gas for us (I am from Beatrice too). Please don't try to tell me you've never made a mistake in your job. I think everyone is taking this a little too far. Nobody died, everyone is fine. A lot of people in Beatrice are all electric, surely everyone knows somebody who they could stay with if it got that bad. Give Aquila a break and be glad that it happened in March and not January! "

" We are all human and we all make mistakes. Just put on an extra sweater maybe some long johns and be thankful to have a roof over your head. I mean we could live in Missouri huh... BTW... Happy Easter! "

" Did you know that gas companies only make about $65 a year on a consumer's home. So, although you may be paying $100+ every month, the majority of that is NOT going into the gas company's pocket.

Complain all you want, but some of the logic around here is skewed. Some of you complain of high auto gasoline prices and then get mad at the gas station. They are simply at the end of a very long chain. Aquila is no different.

My point: If you don't like it; don't pay your gas bill. Instead, get a corn stove, an extra blanket, and a plug to shut your mouth. "

" Well, people do make mistakes. I feel bad for Beatrice residents loosing their gas service, hope everyone is back on now. At least it wasnt a month or 2 ago when it was below zero at night..... "

" To Diane
I think we should march that Aquila worker down main street with tar and feathers. Come on Diane, have you not made a mistake at your job? I think it should be left to Aquila to handle the disapline as they see fit. "

" We all realize mistakes are made, but please don't give Aquila a "free pass" on this. They need to step up and compensate these customers for this huge inconvenience. Its disappointing to read comments from people that just dismiss this as a common mistake. Yes, mistakes are made but it doesn't seem like we hold individuals or companies accountable anymore for the mistakes they make. The PSC should come down hard on Aquila and customers should get a sincere apology and rebate.

We have poor service in America today because the public doesn't hold businesses and individuals accountable anymore for providing bad service. Big companies like Aquila, Wells Fargo, Time Warner, Windstream and insurance companies make it very difficult to resolve issues and that is by design. They want to frustrate unhappy customers from complaining so they don't have to deal with it. Most people just accept bad service because they know the red tape is designed to make you give up. "

" I feel for the Aquila employees trying their hardest to get the services restored. I was told by a service man last night that there was also an equipment failure involved in this and that human error was NOT the only cause for this problem.

A little common sense is all it really takes to survive this kind of thing. For example: As soon as I heard about this I opened all of the blinds and let the sun warm the house. As it cooled off I kept the hous clesed up and we used three electric heaters to keep the houese warm, and it was a toasy 70 degrees in our home Fri morning. (Only one of them was on the highest setting) Relize that there is hot water stored in your water heater, if you are conservative with it it will stay warm for several hours... My wife and I along with our two sons all managed to shower quickly Thurs evening and nobody had to take a cold shower. FOr anyone who could think ahead a bit this should have been a fairly minor inconvenience. Or biggest issue was the pile of laundry that waited until we had hot water again, but that's about the extent of it.(not much of a concern is it?) How many people go camping and are roughing it worse than this? I suspect that a lot of people could have toughed it out a little better but just like to have something to whine about... A couple of electric heaters would have been cheaper than staying in a motel, and a microwave is fine for cooking if you can't use your gas range. How many of your complaints can hold a candle to the issues that those out at Holdrege had last year when an ice storm left them without power for weeks???? SO quit your complaining and learn from this so when there is a power or gas outage again some day you will be better prepared. for it!! "

" Our house and our neighbors are the only two houses in our neighborhood that isnt turned back on yet. I have been home the last two days waiting for them to show up and no one comes. We have called and all they say is they will be here sometime or another. Yesterday i was informed by our neighbor that Aquila was across the street and turned everyone on over there, but couldnt come to our side and turn ours or our neighbors on. What a load of crap! I understand this is an accident but why is it that everyone else is turned on around us?? Come on people!! "

" I understand that i have ruffled some people feathers...Im sorry...but I think in this United States we have something called "Freedom of Speech" and I was using that power to voice my opinion. I understand that this was a mistake or should we say....'accident', but I know that there are regulation steps that these workers are suppose to go by when working on gas lines for their safety and the community. Seems to me that these steps were not taken and the community had to pay for it in the end. I would also like to add that....Yes....i have made mistakes in my life and at my job....but I have never closed down the establishment that I was employed at the time for 2 to 3 days without any service to anyone. If I had made that big of a mistake at a job like this emplyee did to Beatrice, I would expect to lose my job too. I will close in saying that I am deeply sorry if I have offended anyone....but.....its my opinion and I am sticking to it.... "

" Shame on those of you who think someone's life should be temporarily ruined because of a mistake by saying that person should be fired! That is sickening and I am totally and completely disheartened by this person complete lack of empathy. This is directed at Diane Tiemann. Do you go to church? Do you consider yourself a Christian woman? I sure don't! Find GOD! Thanks for listening! "

" Diane, you are a bitter bitter person. I will be praying for you.
Getting terminated is one thing, but SEVERLY terminated is another! "

" I would say that this lady that mentioned twice in her note the person should be terminated immediately. If so then every member of this family should suffer the consequences of a human error. On this holiest of holy seasons I don't see this complaining person participating ...if this person is, then it is being shown in the strangest of manners. "

" To the people that think that the gas problem that happened in Beatrice was just an accident not a disaster....they might want to read the Beatrice Daily Sun where it was stated that the Mayor Dennis Schuster signed a declaration of disaster on Thursday and the Red Cross was on alert for shelter needs at SCC. To me that sounds like the town and it residents were considered in disaster like terms. "

" I can't believe the number of people who think that Aquila should pay them for this error. Since you only pay for the gas you use, I'm not sure how you were damaged financially unless you paid for some place to stay while your gas service was interrupted. Why is it the first reaction to an inconvenience is to demand compensation of some kind? Someone made a mistake and inconvenienced an entire city but there's been no reports of people being injured or dying because of this inconvenience. I think instead of whining about it, we need to thank the Aquila servicepeople, most of them not local, who have spent several days working long hours to restore service as quickly as possible to all of us (yes, I live in Beatrice). "

" Oh my gosh! Is the sky falling too?
Aquila messed up. Yes! They should find a way to make it up to the people affected by this, maybe not make them pay for this month or this week. Whatever, just make it up to them.
But...this is not the end of the world for Beatrice! I have had my heater off the last few days cause it has been nice enough during the day and I just put extra blankets on the beds at night. I have two young children and this hasn't cause them any harm so far. Washing your clothes in cold water for a couple of days won't kill you either.
The only thing I really do feel for you in this is the cold showers, that part sucks. But again you'll survive!
Please remember that it could have been so much worse!
And asking for the employees job is a bit much I have to say. I am sure that this person has already learned quite a bit from this, and I'm sure the checklist or whatever they have will be updated to make sure that more than one person makes sure the system has been turned back on.
You Live and Learn. "

" I live in Beatrice and I have a 3month old son. I didn't even know that they had shut the gas off on Thursday morning until one of my neighbors stopped by and told me that we didn't have heat or hot water due to them turning off the meter or whatever. I called aquila's 800# and was told that it was going to be back on that night so all I had to do was leave my porch light on and they would be around between 10p-11p and I wasn't too worried considering it was somewhat of a nice day. Well it was not until Satuday morning that it was finally restored and our house temp had dropped from 68degrees to 52 and that is not acceptable. I called the 800# to check the status of what was going on and they never really gave me a straight answer anytime I called. I explained that I have a baby here and there is no way we can go without heat and all they could say to that is well I'm sorry. I am a nurse and understand that hospitals and nursing homes need to become priority, but what about families with infants or children. I drove passed the Holiday Inn on Friday night and there were all the Aquila vans parked there probably sleeping in a well heated room. I am very frustrated about what happened and I know people make mistakes, but this mistake affected many people directly. I am not perfect by all means, but this was a serious mistake and needs to be looked into.

To the Electric Employee, I did the same thing we conserved the water that was left in the water heater by taking a half warm have freezing shower so my husband could take a shower before work. We have ONE electric heater, but I have a 3month old so I made sure it was going into his room while my husband and I were cold. We should be able to be comfortable in our own home. NObody plans for things to go wrong, but when they do and when you are told so many different things that you don't know who or what to believe then it gets really frustrating so you of all people should understand this and understand the feelings of others. I personal was mad because that day I wasn't even watching tv I was hanging out with my son and doing some pre gardening and didn't even know what was going on. When I called the 800# they told me that they were not obligated to inform us of when they are turning off our gas and that it would be back on that same day. She told me that I was misinformed by someone who was told by an Aquila worker that it would be up to 3 days until it's fixed. I can't remember who the lady on the phone was, but she was rude to me and if I could remember I would definatly be talking to her supervisor about how she was acting. I am glad that we now have heat and things are going to be back to normal please take the time to recheck your work we as nurses have to do that on a daily bases someone's life depends on us. "

" Thank you to Aquila for haveing a procedure in place to handle this unusual circumstance. Few organizations could bring together 100 fully trained employees to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

While not directly effected by this problem, I am glad it is near spring weather and not December or January. I am sure a great by-product of this experience will be the testing of the actual Aquila manpower procedure for a real life threatening emergency such as a tornado. Thier organization will be stronger for this experience. "

" To the people that think the person at fault should be fired. You are all worried about paying for things, imagine this he gets fired goes on wellfare( like a lot of people in Beatrice are, than you can be assured you will be paying for something more. Wake up it was a mistake. Think of rual people who lose power after storms for 3 or more days. No one complains NPPD isn't doing enough or want rebates. "

" It's about time we issue sanctions against Aquila for placing us in “immediate jeopardy” "