WASHINGTON (AP) — In the aftermath of violent storms that
knocked out power to millions from the Midwest to the Mid-
Atlantic , sweltering residents and elected officials are
demanding to know why it's taking so long to restring power
lines and why they're not more resilient in the first place. The
answer, it turns out, is complicated: Above-ground lines are
vulnerable to lashing winds and falling trees, but relocating
them underground involves huge costs — as much as $15 million
per mile of buried line — and that gets passed onto consumers.
With memories of other extended outages fresh in the minds of
many of the 1.07 million customers who still lacked electricity
late Tuesday, some question whether the delivery of power is
more precarious than it used to be. The storms that began Friday
knocked out power to 3 million and have been responsible for the
deaths of 24 people in seven states and the District of
Columbia, including a utility contractor who fell to his death
Monday in Garrett County, Md. "It's a sys