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Basic Preps every home should have. |
#14,454
At midnight (local time) last night, PG&E began shutting down power to portions of dozens of California counties due to a heightened risk of wildfires, which in the past have been caused by sparking power lines.
The 2018 Camp fire - which killed 85 people and destroyed thousands of homes and other structures - was started by just such an event.The formal announcement, posted on the PG&E website:
Posted on October 9, 2019
PG&E Begins to Proactively Turn Off Power for Safety to Nearly 800,000 Customers Across Northern and Central California
PG&E confirmed that it has implemented the first phase of a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) across significant portions of its service area in response to a widespread, severe wind event.
The Public Safety Power Shutoff will occur in three phases, with the first phase impacting approximately 513,000 customers beginning at 12 a.m. Wednesday morning. Customer impacts will include: Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba.
The second phase of the Public Safety Power Shutoff will occur around 12:00pm on Wednesday afternoon, impacting service to approximately 234,000 customers in the following counties: Alameda, Alpine, Contra Costa, Mariposa, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Santa Clara.
A third phase is being considered for the southernmost portions of PG&E’s service area, impacting approximately 42,000 customers. Specific locations are still to be determined.
The decision to turn off power was based on forecasts of dry, hot and windy weather including potential fire risk. Based on the latest weather forecasts and models, PG&E anticipates that this weather event will last through midday Thursday, with peak winds forecasted from Wednesday morning through Thursday morning and reaching 60 to 70 mph at higher elevations.
(Continue . . . )
Unlike many power outages, people in the affected areas have had several days warning to prepare. Still, days without power will test the patience and the preparedness of hundreds of thousands of Californians over the next week.
Without electricity, water taps run dry, gasoline pumps don't work, elevators, lights, and air conditioners won’t run, the internet shuts down, ATM machines and banks close, grocery stores can’t take debit or credit cards and their inventory of produce, meat and frozen foods quickly spoil.Doing everything - from cooking or heating your home, to communications, to travel, to flushing toilets - becomes either difficult or impossible.
Those of us who live in hurricane country know the drill, because it happens to us with some frequency. But nowhere in the country is exempt. Tornadoes in the Midwest, earthquakes in the western states, and equipment failures anywhere can lead to a grid down situation.
Usually, power outages are of relatively short duration. But there are genuine risks of someday seeing a regional - even national - blackout that could last days, weeks, or even months.Last December, in NIAC: Surviving A Catastrophic Power Outage, we looked at a NIAC (National Infrastructure Advisory Council) 94-page report that examines the United State's current ability to respond to and recover from a widespread catastrophic power outage.
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| https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=819354 |
What is a catastrophic power outage?• Events beyond modern experience that exhaust or exceed mutual aid capabilities
• Likely to be no-notice or limited-notice events that could be complicated by a cyber-physical attack
• Long duration, lasting several weeks to months due to physical infrastructure damage
• Affects a broad geographic area, covering multiple states or regions and affecting tens of millions of people
• Causes severe cascading impacts that force critical sectors—drinking water and wastewater systems, communications, transportation, healthcare, and financial services—to operate in a degraded state
(Excerpt From Dec 2018 NIAC Report)
But it doesn't take an overt action by a cyber-terrorist, or a major natural disaster, to bring down the grid.Every four years the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) releases a report card on America’s infrastructure, and their most recent report (2017) warns that our cumulative GPA for infrastructure sits at only a D+, and two of our most vulnerable infrastructures are drinking water and the electrical grid (see When Our Modern Infrastructure Fails).
Some excerpts from that report: From Energy, which they rate as a D+:
Overview
Much of the U.S. energy system predates the turn of the 21st century. Most electric transmission and distribution lines were constructed in the 1950s and 1960s with a 50-year life expectancy, and the more than 640,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the lower 48 states’ power grids are at full capacity. Energy infrastructure is undergoing increased investment to ensure long-term capacity and sustainability; in 2015, 40% of additional power generation came from natural gas and renewable systems. Without greater attention to aging equipment, capacity bottlenecks, and increased demand, as well as increasing storm and climate impacts, Americans will likely experience longer and more frequent power interruptions.
While few of us can be prepared well enough for a months-long outage, having enough resources to handle a week or two could buy enough time for relief efforts to begin, or for power to be restored.
And if you are prepared for a grid-down situation, you are pretty much prepared for everything else.So . . . if the power in your city or state were to go off for a week or longer, and water stops flowing from your kitchen tap . . . do you already have:
- A battery operated NWS Emergency Radio to find out what was going on, and to get vital instructions from emergency officials
- A decent first-aid kit, so that you can treat injuries
- Enough non-perishable food and water on hand to feed and hydrate your family (including pets) for the duration
- A way to provide light when the grid is down.
- A way to cook safely without electricity
- A way to purify or filter water
- A way to stay cool (fans) or warm when the power is out.
- A small supply of cash to use in case credit/debit machines are not working
- An emergency plan, including meeting places, emergency out-of-state contact numbers, a disaster buddy, and in case you must evacuate, a bug-out bag
- Spare supply of essential prescription medicines that you or your family may need
- A way to entertain yourself, or your kids, during a prolonged blackout
