[Martin] Schur’s death last month shocked Bay City, a town of about 37,000 on Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay.
The World War II veteran’s frozen body was found in his home January 17, just four days after a device that regulates how much power he uses — installed because of failure to pay — shut off his power. A medical examiner said the temperature was 32 degrees in the house when Schur’s body was found.
The medical examiner told The Bay City Times that Schur died a “slow, painful death.” “It’s not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they’re burning,” Dr. Kanu Virani told the paper.
The Michigan State Police launched an investigation into Schur’s death for possible criminal violations. “We have to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again, whether it’s Bay City or in any one of the cold weather states,” Bay City Mayor Charles Brunner said last week.
The death has prompted a review of Bay City Electric Light & Power’s rules and procedures for limiting or cutting off power. It also resulted in Bay City residents protesting Monday to the city about its handling of the whole situation.
That something like this happened in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is unforgiveable. That it happened to a veteran makes it even more egregious.
It’s easy to blame the electricity company, and of course they could and should have acted more responsibily. On the other hand, any commercial company would restrict (or more likely, halt) the supply of goods if those goods aren’t being paid for – though I’ll grant that this is not just ‘any’ company. The interesting thing is that Mr. Schur was not exactly short of money, and that might be part of the reason why he was treated with very little lenience. I don’t know.
In any case, given that the underlying problem was clearly social and psychological, rather than financial, where was the family who are now calling out that this must not happen again? Where was the neighbour while the “unforgivable” unfolded? And does the state do anything at all to protect its most vulnerable citizens? Does coming down hard on the electricity supplier mean that some rather harder questions aren’t being asked at all here?
[i] Any commercial company would restrict (or more likely, halt) the supply of goods if those goods aren’t being paid for—though I’ll grant that this is not just ‘any’ company” [/i]
Peter [#2]: It sure isn’t. That’s why we call it a “public utility.” It has typically enjoyed a monopoly on the distribution of electricity to household customers.
But I agree with you that the moral responsibility here almost certainly goes beyond the utility.
In any case, given that the underlying problem was clearly social and psychological, rather than financial, where was the family who are now calling out that this must not happen again? Where was the neighbour while the “unforgivable†unfolded?
I think these are questions that need to be asked too. Arguably, his family and neighbour were in a better position to know what was going on with Mr. Shur than the utility company would have been. Was there no one who could help him pay his bills? It’s horrible to hear of someone unable to afford to heat their home – it’s inconceivable that the money was there and no one paid the bill for him when he was, apparently, not competent to see to it for himself. I realize that for family and neighbour, there may also be extenuating circumstances, but in such a dreadful incident, I can’t think it was merely the evil utility company.
this tragic event is in part owed to the disintegrating family and neighborhood structures that were once a hallmark of our country. He had no kids, now wife, and was evidently not close to his neighbors. On a larger scale look what happened in France a few years ago – FIFTEEN THOUSAND primarily elderly people died in a heatwave, in part because they had no kids or they were off vacationing in the Riviera…..
The last I checked utility companies weren’t in dire straights, and since many states give them virtual monopolies, what the utility company did was outrageous. No doubt its CEO might actually manage to scrape up a few coins from his/her “compensation package” to help someone – or even set up a fund in his/her company to aid those unable to pay. But hey! it’s the american way.
Same type of story, [url=http://tallahassee.com/article/20090116/BUSINESS/901160344/-1/RSS06]different ending[/url]:
Quincy (Florida) residents delinquent on their utility bills and who had their power shut off have a temporary reprieve from the city as the region faces its coldest temperatures in nearly 13 years.
Quincy City Manager Jack McLean confirmed Thursday that the individuals’ electric service has been restored and will remain so through the cold wave that is freezing the area.
Fewer than 1 percent of the 4,500 utility customers had bills that required the city to shut off power earlier this week, but that still left approximately 175 residences without electricity. McLean said the city has a process whereby residents can ask for an extension, and those in the dark more than likely did not request one.
Some residents who were laid off at Quincy Farms in November were among those who asked for, and received, extensions.
“If you fail to come and talk to us, we would have gone through the normal process of turning your lights off,” McLean said. “As long as you do what you will commit to do, we will work with you. . . . If you fail to keep your commitment, then the policy will say you are not entitled to another extension.”
The city of Tallahassee historically has not cut off customers’ utilities during periods of extreme heat or cold, said Bill Behenna, spokesman for the city.
Quincy is an intermediary that sells power it obtains from electric company Progress Energy. Suzanne Grant, spokeswoman for Progress Energy, said the company does not have a policy when it comes to shutting off a user’s service, opting to leave that decision to the municipality.
Even as many regions of the state are about to witness their coldest temperatures in many years, the 5 million Floridians who use Progress Energy should not have power problems this weekend, Grant said.
“We’re always talking to our customers about energy efficiency and giving them tips about saving money,” she said. “A lot of folks in Florida use portable heaters. We tell them that while it’s great for spot heating, a 15-megawatt heater running 24/7 can cost up to $150 a month.”
Because the city of Quincy has a monthly power bill, just like residents do, City Commissioner Finley Cook said it’s imperative residents pay what they owe because a delinquent account could leave everyone in the dark.
“It’s encouraging to know that government does have a heart,” Cook said, but there are agencies locally that have funds for people with hardships to pay their utilities. “If one resident (does) not pay their bill, that sacrifices other residents who do.”
[blockquote]The medical examiner told The Bay City Times that Schur died a “slow, painful death.” “It’s not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they’re burning,” Dr. Kanu Virani told the paper.[/blockquote]
That is early stage frostbite. As it advances, the frozen tissue becomes numb. As your body’s core temperature drops, you become fatigued and delusional, specifically, that you are actually warm. Rescuers find people with their gloves off, jackets removed, sitting in the open snow, etc. Then you lapse into unconsciousness. It is not what most people would call a “slow and painful” death, more like a slow, hallucinatory one. That’s why this elderly man didn’t go somewhere else for relief from physical pain: he was delusional at the time, probably early on due to beginning stage Alzheimer’s, and later due to hypothermia.
This is not to minimize this man’s personal tragedy (RIP), but of all people men of science shouldn’t engage in such baiting.
I actually have had mixed feelings about this event. On the one hand, everyone wants to rush and wag their fingers at the power company, but in the news articles I’ve read on this story, the man had bags of money laying around his house and he either refused or was too senile to pay his bills.
And that’s where I have mixed feelings. I know this is awful, but if he was in perfectly sound mind, I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for him if he was a deadbeat bill payer and he thus brought it on himself because he was too cheap. I know that sounds harsh, and I feel bad about it, but that was my initial gut reaction to it when I first readabout it in the paper some days ago.
Upon further reflection, he was a veteran and was over 90 years old, and so if he was not in his right mind and/or was too frail to physically be able to tend to his affairs, then its a whole different ball game and is indeed perverse and disgusting. The community should have been checking on him to see what the story was. Whether that was done or not is not is unclear from the various reports I’ve read about this.
I go with those who keeping asking “..where was his kinfolk at this time…” My wife and I watched over her mother during her last few months of life. Then she was kind enough to agree for my mother to be with us during the short time my mother had before she left for Jesus. Something seems really to be missing in this Michigan tragedy.