Those generator costs definitely look odd, but even ignoring them, I think there’s a legitimate point here.
I’m told that people who receive social security benefits for their disability only get a maximum of $900 a month, and they lose money if they somehow accumulate more than $1000-$2000 in savings. Bear in mind that people with such severe disabilities are much less likely to have jobs and much more likely to be living in poverty.
How do they afford even $500 for a generator?
The “community resource centres” are only open during daylight hours, by the way, and each one only has capacity for 100 people. There’s one centre per county.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the power company to make better provision than that for people whose lives may be on the line. After all, the power company are the ones who’ve failed to clear the trees and scrub away from their power lines in the first place.
The article only scratches the surface, by the way. There’s a lady on Twitter who’s been posting a lot of detail about the disability aspect of this (you’ll need to scroll down a bit):