I’m at a loss as to the purpose of all these articles berating them, though. And I’m no fan of utilities and what they get away with, but still…
Prior years, similar conditions, they didn’t cut power, trees collapsed onto live power lines, sparked the tinder that was lying all around, and wildfires killed people and razed whole towns. Long stretches of dry weather, huge wind gusts… trees falling and knocking down wires will do that. And PG&E got absolutely crucified.
This time, they don’t want a repeat of all that, warn people in advance that they’ll be cutting power, putting out maps and schedules when and where it’ll happen, no one is caught by surprise, and they’re still getting beat up for it!?
Seems like a classic case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
Also,
PG&E set up community resource centers that had power, but for the medically fragile, getting to those places can be more dangerous than staying home. Fortelka and her family had to purchase a generator, which cost $10,000 – and costs $1,000 to $1,200 to run each day on diesel fuel.
Like, f’n wow! They set up places for those who need power, refrigeration, etc., and even that’s not enough??
And wait… 1200bux/day? Even at 4bux/gal for diesel, that’s 300gal per day?? That’s either the biggest load of horse$#|+ I’ve heard in ages, or she’s trying to supply power for an entire neighborhood. My gf spends that much on fuel-oil to heat her entire house all winter.
But y’know? I get it. For some people, life sucks. But Christamighty, what do people expect from PG&E? Someone to come over and power a generator by running in a huge hamster-wheel? Set them up with generators for free? Hey, what about buying them their special-needs food as well as buy them their medications, too?
And then they’d complain their rates are too high and deserve some kind of discount, too.
We had a blackout here for a day or so when a truck ran into a pole and obliterated a pole-pig that powered a few blocks’ worth of houses. That could happen ANY TIME. If I needed constant uninterrupted power to refrigerate my necessary life-saving medications, or special-needs food, or O2-concentrator, or iron lung, or whatever, I’d get my own f’n generator and battery-backup. I wouldn’t want to, like, die, y’know? But hey, that’s not my fault if I don’t. Noooo, I want the mean ol’ utility to buy me one instead.
:person_facepalming:
I give up.