Power outages here in California

[Easto]

I can only imagine how much revenue PG&E and So Cal Edison are going to lose by turning of the electricity to millions of homes and businesses? I wonder if that was ever taken into account? Yes, I know, they'll just pass it on to the customer. It would be nice to have a law that said that losses due to shutdowns could not be passed on to the customers. I know, I'm dreaming.

[Humboldt]

It was a bitch here in Humboldt.

12 hours notice, they said Humboldt County will not be affected several times before reversing themselves at noon.

Predicted outage of 1-5 days, later 1-8 days.

Even though most people were at work our Costco, with a 90 minute wait for gas, sold out of gas within hours.

Safeway had no water gallons by 2PM, basically ransacked and empty before they gave up and closed.

PG&E sent great texts and emails saying to check a given page for outage areas. It was so slammed the servers couldn't keep up.

Spent 9 hours at work, closed to customers, swapping power cords between $10K of frozen dog/cat food and 1000 gallons of fish.

[Mark]

why the power outages ?

[Easto]

PG&E was fined last year for the huge fires in Northern California that were caused by there equipment. They actually filed for bankruptcy. So now, when the winds kick up and there is a chance of another power line going down... they shut down the power during those times.

[Mark]

wow that is about the dumbist **** i have heard all month, how about they just fix the power lines

[YARDofSTUF]

The problem with fixing the power lines is that the best way to do it is put them underground, and as big as California is, for PG&E's coverage that would be a 240 billion dollar expense, and they have filed for bankruptcy. lol

The part thats hard to decipher is, are PG&E's lines faulty in some way and causing sparks that start the fires, or is California just saying that if above ground lines get knocked down and spark a fire its the electric company's fault.

The power shuttoffs have been done for years in smaller scale from other power companies out there, maybe now with such a big population being affected by it they will try and do something about it.

Underground lines or pave 40ft around all the poles in the desert. lol

[Easto]

Although the blackouts haven't been in effect where I live, I do agree that this is not the way to handle this. I believe PG&E is not only trying to do a CYA, they're also being a bit punitive towards the State and people who lined up to sue them after the fires last year.

I feel the worst for the businesses that are having to ride this out. I can only imagine the millions of dollars that are being lost on spoiled product, reduced traffic in stores etc. What about alarm systems that aren't working? In store security cameras that aren't working? Traffic lights that aren't working and increase the chance of serious accidents. The list just goes on and on.

Before I get into it here I want to say that yes... I would be mad as heck if my service was cut off to my house for 3-5 or 8 days. I would consider it unacceptable. But one of my problems is reading about people that are trying to stock up at the last minute with water and supplies. Where is all the emergency preparedness? This is basically an emergency. Again, I would be pissed as heck if it happened to me. But, my wife and I have enough food and water here at the house to last at least 2 weeks. We have neighbors with pools that will let us take a 5 gallon bucket and scoop out some water so I can get my toilet to flush if my water service is cut off. Again, I'm not trying to downplay the hardship but on a house to house level I don't understand why people are just plain unprepared.

[Mark]

i hear ya on the whole unprepared deal, its like that here every time a hurricane is close people freak out trying to get water and gas.

a couple of years ago we had a small hurricane that killed electric to tons of people, mine was out 7 days, and it was mostly because the power company didnt maintain trees near power lines and took out a bunch of lines.

best of luck dude

[Easto]

My wife and I have a very small electronic/electric footprint here at the house. I can't speak as to how her employment/job would weather the blackouts but, here at home we'd be fine. I spend a lot of my spare time bicycling, so being sure the car is filled with gas isn't a concern. The only (overboard) thing electronic that we do here at the house is being online. We don't watch TV, play music or have lights going all the time. Our clock radios all have battery backup, we have plenty of flashlights and a ton of batteries. Being retired I'm always rambling around the house so there are hardly any dirty clothes laying around, I do at least 1 small load a day. That means we have clean clothes for a month, my wife probably has clean clothes for a year, lol. The only foreseeable hardship would be if we lost our water service. We would also lose the use of our electronic kitchen but I am aware of the procedure of not opening the fridge until the last minute, emptying the fridge and the freezer for last.

[Humboldt]

My wife and I have a very small electronic/electric footprint here at the house. I can't speak as to how her employment/job would weather the blackouts but, here at home we'd be fine. I spend a lot of my spare time bicycling, so being sure the car is filled with gas isn't a concern. The only (overboard) thing electronic that we do here at the house is being online. We don't watch TV, play music or have lights going all the time. Our clock radios all have battery backup, we have plenty of flashlights and a ton of batteries. Being retired I'm always rambling around the house so there are hardly any dirty clothes laying around, I do at least 1 small load a day. That means we have clean clothes for a month, my wife probably has clean clothes for a year, lol. The only foreseeable hardship would be if we lost our water service. We would also lose the use of our electronic kitchen but I am aware of the procedure of not opening the fridge until the last minute, emptying the fridge and the freezer for last.

And again..

Not supposed to affect us here but that's what they said last time.

3 gallons of frozen water in the freezer, full tank of gas, extra propane. Extra food and water and batteries, dog food.

Real pain is being on a well. No power, no water.

Would be great to have a generator to run the fridge, just not worth it at this point.

Main reason would be to run the water pumps but by law, probably not a bad thing, the wiring would have to be done professionally = $.