I feel for you. When I first moved into my house, the infrastructure in my area was antiquated and my power would go out every time it rained. I do have a small battery back-up that will recharge my tablet and phone, but no other back-ups. I was a little crazy with even an 8-hour power outage. I can't imagine dealing with it for days, especially when the weather is hot and I need a fan. Not sleeping well would certainly make me cranky.

Instead of snow birds, Californians will become fire birds, leaving at the beginning of El Diablo/Santa Ana wind season. Either that, or people will end up going off the electric grid if at all possible during the danger months.

We're on a trip but our power was out from Saturday night too until this afternoon when it came back on. Not for that reason but we'd left home before the first shutoff so this is now twice. I'm expecting a mess when we get home in a few weeks and I hope no damage resulted from water on a kitchen floor not designed to handle standing water.

Good luck to you caflower, I hope you're back on by now or soon.

I'm so sorry for you. We're coastal too and the longest we've been without power was 3 days. That was my limit as to how long I could manage and ours was storm related, not man made. We were sharing a small generator with neighbors, so while we lost what was in our refrigerators, we were able to run power to our freezers intermittently and keep those frozen.

I feel a little like a dinosaur but I insist still on a landline to this house. The one hardwired phone I have is in my bedroom. So many I know have gone to battery phones only while I hang on to mine. It may never happen again but we did have many coming over to use it, call family, their insurance agents in the days after that storm. Or to briefly use that little generator for a partial charge to their phone.

My sister NE of me in a little valley near Seattle loses power somewhat often. They have the big generator that will almost run their whole house. Fan to their propane furnace, refrigerator, lights, hot water...They are immensely popular in winter since they can offer heat, hot food, showers.

Elmer - Just heard on the news that they are talking about another power shut down Tuesday 6AM to Wednesday 3PM. We just get the power on and they are going shut it down again! I can't believe it.

Hope your floors are not too badly damaged. Do you have anyone you can call to check on things? Good luck.

Sorry you're having to deal with that and I can imagine how frustrating it is. Hope your power is back on for good soon. We used to lose power for days at a time and getting a generator has been a life saver. Even though they are noisy, once you get your new generator set up, it will give you so much peace of mind.

I was in the Sonoma/Napa area over the weekend and was stressing out yesterday about finding a place to fill up my tank before heading home. I was surprised to find that while Calistoga had no power and therefore no gas, St. Helena just down the road had power and I had no problem filling up the tank there.

The wind was like something I've never seen before in California and seeing the billowing smoke as the fire picked up from the winds was kind of frightening. I don't know how far you are from that area, caflowerluver, but hope that things stay safe where you are.

"Do you have anyone you can call to check on things? "

Thanks for the sentiment. Yes, we have keys with a couple of friends but if there's damage, it was done with the first shut off. I'm okay waiting until we get back, it is what it is. Hopefully nothing too serious.

Everyone is different but when I hear of or experience a power outage, rather than a generator, I prefer to use my car to drive to where the power is on. I don't like camping at home. I'm also a CPAP user and can't sleep without it. I have a battery that's good for one night. After that, I hit the road.

I'm completely fine with tossing what was in the fridge and freezer. The fridge was relatively empty and we keep little in the freezer anyway.

I hope you're okay and not too inconvenienced.

So the power is out for days. Is no one going to work and none of the stores are open?

My son and DIL, also my parents are still without power since Saturday 8PM. They had to throw out everything in the freezer and fridge this morning. No ice to be found anywhere, store shelves empty. We are now expecting another potential shut off tomorrow, which may affect me this round. I'm as ready as I can be. One of the fires yesterday was across the freeway from my other son. They were in the process of evacuating and heading to my house, but were texted "all clear". While the PG&E website hasn't crashed like it did several days ago, getting any info concerning power restoration for current situation is impossible. Stay safe!

I feel for you, but at least you aren't experiencing all the other bad things that usually come with power outages like hurricanes or blizzards with trees down, roads closed, buildings damaged, or feet of snow. We've had 2 major power outages here as a result of storms, one lasting 7 days and one lasting 6. Not fun...but then again, we regained the milky way with no light pollution.

When we had the storm that left the community without power for up to 10 days (we in our neighborhood were on the same grid as our hospital and were restored soonest), we had invitations and opportunities to go where there was power and be comfortable. We had friends, neighbors who were elderly and chose to stay closer to them. All pitching in and helping each other. We shared lights, radios, lanterns, generators and had some amazingly good food cooked over wood and gas grills ;0) We brought out the best we had on hand since we were going to lose it in about another day in coolers.

Roads into and out of town were blocked unless one had 4 wheel drive which we did. But that also meant no ice, food coming into grocery stores, no gas so we were being careful not to drive too much once we had decided to stay and tough it out.

The San Jose Mercury News had an editorial after the first power shutdown a few weeks ago. Saying, if the Bay Area were a separate country, it would be the 19th largest economy in the world. We can't and shouldn't have to live with a 3rd World power system that requires massive shutdowns when the wind blows.

Complicated problems - decades of irresponsible mismanagement by PG&E. What exists is as if a 1950s era system had been constructed using surplus wire found along the road, discarded Lincoln Logs, Erector Set pieces, and surplus Elmer's Glue. PG&E is in bankruptcy because of liabilities from fires caused by downed lines a few years ago and the system needs to be rebuilt. I've heard it said that to shut power down, someone needs to climb a pole or use a cherry picker at each junction to manually do it. Repeat hundreds/thousands of times to accomplish a shutdown, and then retrace steps to get it back on. Segments are too large and redundant pathways don't exist to isolate potential problem areas.

In its favor, it's dealing with a territory that covers large patches of uninhabited area. Transmission lines are inadequate and many pass through forested areas.

Customers will have to foot the billions of dollars of cost to bring the system up to needed standards and it will take a LONG time to get there. In the meantime, power gets shut off over too large an area every time because of the nature of what exists now and takes too long to get turned back on.

Everyone is frustrated.

A number of years ago, Wisconsin had big ice storm that took down power lines and wrecked equipment. Some dairy farms were without power for 3 weeks. They were desperate.

Don't forget why PG&E is so quick to shut down power lines, probably including ones that don't need it. They got blamed for starting some fires because they kept the power up as long as they could. They were sued. The company is making sure that doesn't happen again.

First world frustrations that are totally understandable from all sides. Everyone getting a generator and schlepping gas is the answer for most. Possibly paying by the gallon will heighten people's awareness of our energy footprint and do what we can to scale back when we can?

The root of the problem is poor (that's too gentle a word) forestry management. Get the flammable brush cleared and there won't be an issue with power lines starting fires. I live in the country, heavily wooded country and even during drought there isn't the fire danger because of proper forestry management.

It's very unfortunate that those that didn't vote for or support the wacky policies in Ca have to suffer beside those that did. Maybe this will be an opportunity for sanity to prevail there.

I feel bad for all of you who are dealing with this. We in this particular area of Central Florida also have to deal with frequent power outages due to the terrible violent storms, hurricanes and heavy forest and brush that is allowed to exist under the lines. They are always out cutting limbs but they only cut back to a certain point, then in just a few months it grows back again. After all this is Florida, you can almost see trees and brush grow here. When we moved here, the first time I came home after they had trimmed I was aghast at the butcher job they had done on some of the trees out near the road. I mean, pine trees with the trunks lopped in half just below the lines or all the limbs cut on one side, making it heavy on the other side. Not a good thing for pine trees. I emailed them and asked them why on earth didn't they just remove the entire tree instead of ruining it like that. I got a call from them saying that if they had known that they had permission to do so they would have. So I told the guy that they had permission to take down all the trees directly under the lines, better that than what they had left. So the next time they did. We had to remove the stumps but it was better than what they would have done. Another thing they do is spray something on the underbrush that kills the plants but they just leave it there, so all you see is ugly dead brown stuff on the side of the road. Technically the property is still owned by the adjacent land owner and it's up to them to remove anything they don't like.

I feel your pain Caflowerluver. I moved from an area that backed to National Forest. Foliage so thick it could go up any minute....to a "firewise community". We did buy a generator tho. Last year a winter storm took down power lines. No power for 4 hours. Which is fine, if that's the longest we're without power. We have radiant heat in the floors. That's ALL that heats the house. Can you imagine if the floors froze?! The neighbor across the street had to run to the store to get gas....for the generator. His wife has medical needs. He didn't think ahead. This year he's preparing the house...to sell it. They're moving to Florida.

I hope the generator arrives soon. They're a real value to us, who live in the woods. Take care.

What a mess for all concerned...not only safety-wise, but comfort-wise. Living without power is no fun. We also lose water when the power goes out, which is doubly awful.

I have a small generator that can run the fridge and freezer, at least alternating them every few hours. I have a cpap and don't want to have to run the generator all night to power it, so bought an "electric generator" which is just a storage battery with a DC adapter for my cpap, so the battery will last longer than if I ran it AC. I can charge the electric battery during the day when I run the generator and have it at night. Apparently, it will run for 3 or more days on a charge, so I feel prepared if we have a bad winter here. I feel really sorry for people without the resources to prepare in a similar way.

Thanks everyone for your words of support. I wish the power company would get their act together, but it has been too many years of mismanagement. We are use to power outages during winter storms, but they weren't long lasting. The only time it went for days, was after the 1989 earthquake.

We didn't go to a hotel partly because it is hard to know who will be open and partly the expense of $200 a night. But the main reason is our my son has Autism and hates change, especially sleeping in a strange bed. We haven't had a vacation in over 20 years because of that.

My heart goes out to all those in the fire area who have lost everything. My house burned down when I was 5 and we lost everything we owned except the clothes we had on. I can close my eyes and see our house burning and my mother crying and that was 62 years ago. You never forget.

I got to have my Cpap machine last night and slept from 10PM to 5AM. The difference a good night's sleep makes is amazing.

Elmer - what battery are you refering to that you use with your Cpap machine?

I'm so sorry, I feel really frustrated for those of you who have lost their power and are dealing with the uncertainty, discomfort, loss of food and such. People who live on the outer parts of our community have lost power. The map nearest our house has been removed from the SCE consideration, so hopefully we won't get hit any time soon.

I saw something on the news this morning that the state is planning to regulate how long they can cut power to people in these situations. With all the new fires, I have to wonder how much good this is actually doing?

I agree with you about the possibility of losing power in a disaster, but in my book, this isn't the same thing. I get that this is suppose to help with disastrous fire outbreak, but what are the unintended consequences? A lot of people can't afford generators or to replace food. The low here on Wed is suppose to be 24- colder in the mountains where they have cut power. Not everyone who lives in the mountains is well to do, some communities here are rather humble.

Ah, just frustrated and feel your pain. I wonder if the communities where the big wig PG&E execs live have lost their power?

I'm so sorry for all of your troubles especially with making sure your son is comfortable through it all. I hope it is all resolved quickly. Fire is so scary!

As an aside have you tried the singing technique for helping with your breathing at night? it works for people with obstructive sleep apnea. It did help my sister-in-law a great deal. It took a few months to see good results though.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265011.php#1

Raye, you make a good point about forest management, but I think it is important to note that in California approximately 57% of the forest land here is owned by the federal government. The rest is privately owned with the state owning just 3-4%

Those figures vary slightly depending on the source, but not by much. With the federal government holding the majority of the land, they have much more control over forest management practices and policies than state and local governments.

California Land Ownership

Yesterday the winds were calm here, giving firefighters the opportunity to make some progress on containing these fires. Today the winds are expected to pick up again. What we really need now is rain. Our rainy season should have started 2 - 3 weeks ago, but there is no rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. Our fire seasons are starting earlier and lasting well into fall. We never used to have big fires like this in late October/early November.

I have been on edge for the last week and won't be able to truly relax until we get a good soaking rain. I'm sure I'm not alone feeling that way; it's very unsettling and the wind also makes people edgy and irritable. Edit to add that wind speeds in recent days have been 50 - 60 mph with gusts of 80 - 90mph. That kind of wind makes it nearly impossible for fire fighters to get the upper hand on a fire.

I live in a heavily wooded, semi-rural area where the power goes out frequently. But to my knowledge, never intentionally :-) And a storm is not a necessary contributor to the situation - tree branches or even entire trees can come down whenever - although it is a pretty safe bet that a good storm will result in an outage. And they can last anywhere from 4 hours to four days, depending on circumstances.

If you can manage it, generators are a godsend!! I share one with my housemate (separate residences, same structure) that powers all the essentials - heat, hot water, refrigerator/freezer and some but not all outlets (living room, kitchen and master bedroom only). I miss the stove but the microwave and other small appliances work. Ours is powered by propane so no need to rush out to purchase gas. The tank is on an automatic refill schedule and nothing else is powered by the propane except for the gas fireplaces.

I feel so bad for all of you particularly those who have lost their homes. But being without electricity is horrible for long periods. We need to buy a generator because we have two koi ponds that depend on circulating water. One year the power went out and husband said they'd be okay because the power would be on soon. it wasn't and many died so my son in law rented a generator to save the remaining.

"Elmer - what battery are you refering to that you use with your Cpap machine?"

I'm on my third battery. What I have now is this one:

https://www.cpapsupplyusa.com/Respironics-Battery-Pack-1028869.aspx

The other two I had were not this brand but like this, lithium batteries:

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed-power-station-cpap-battery-kit-airsense-aircurve#specs-tab

You aren't tied to a battery of the same make as your machine, 12 volts is 12 volts. Be careful that the battery has enough capacity, given the pressure setting of your machine. When on battery power, turn off the humidifier and the heated tube if you have them.

Another approach, cheaper but a bit less tidy, is to use a slow discharge 12 volt marine battery. You get 1) a wire setup with large alligator clips to clamp on to the terminals that have a 12 volt socket attached (like in your car, used to be called a cigarette lighter socket), 2) get the right cord with a 12 volt plug on one end and a plug compatible with your CPAP machine on the other, and you're done. As I said, less tidy, because you have what looks like a car battery sitting by the side of your bed though it can be a smallish one if 12 volt. You'd also need a charger for a 12 volt battery but this alternative approach winds up being cheaper and giving you a battery with much more capacity than the Lithium ion batteries.

((((HUGS))))

I'm so sorry for everyone caught up in this mess, but isn't the cause evident?

When I heard "PG&E", my mind went straight to, "Oh, I remember that stock. It paid good dividends." *Nobody's* friend now, eh? This is the predictable outcome of unregulated capitalism. Stay tuned for more unpleasant surprises.

I wonder about the consequences of thousands of people burning gasoline to run generators. When storms cause power outages here, there are subsequent house fires and people die of asphyxia.

Thanks Dawn, I'm seeing a lot more in the news about the past several decades of improper forestry management being the true issue. Shows how important logging and controlled burns is to the health of the forest.

We don't have the issues with power outages here since our lines are underground.

This is the battery pack to run a cpap that I bought...longer lasting than a strictly cpap battery pack and a little more versatile than a marine battery, easier to carry and nicer to look at. I had to get an adapter to use the DC instead of the AC (although it will power via AC) for longer run time for the cpap - it claims 3+ nights on DC with the humidifier and heater hoses turned off.

It will also power your computers/charge phones, etc. It can be plugged into a car cigarette lighter to charge, or a wall plug when your power is restored. You can use it in a tent or camper/rv, or take it to a picnic site to power something. Totally quiet, not like a gas generator, although they call it an "electric generator." You also can charge it with optional solar panels, which I didn't get. Not enough sun here in the winter to make it worthwhile, but might be a great option in CA or other sunny places.

Emergency Battery

Some of the problems caused by forest (mis) management are also logging and replanting with one species only (for making $$$). The diversity of plants in a naturally occurring forest helps regulate things like disease and fires. The way trees are replanted now in areas that have been logged - simply as future crops, (and how it's been done for too many years), allows fires to spread faster under super heated conditions where a healthy, naturally sprouted forest would provide some regulation.

Can you imagine what two thawed turkeys smelled like in a fridge that did not have power for many days! Had to get rid of the fridge! Yes, being with out electricity for very long is not good at all.

Sue

Whether crossing over private or federal land, utility companies have easement zones that are their responsibility to maintain or not. Forestry management has nothing at all to do with easement maintenance. And a number of the major fires of this fire season were in areas that would not be described as forests.

Poor equipment maintenance and antiquated monitoring and control systems are also significant issues.

Some people don't like their formed-in-advance biases to be influenced by facts.

It's an interesting twist to hear about the forestry management and how it contributes to the wild fires. Visiting National parks we became aware of the idea of leaving the dead fall to nature...There needs to be a balance in these policies and the welfare of humans needs to be weighed heavier it seems.

Elmer is right on. PG&E has been derelict in their duty for many years; profits have been the motivator for them to do little in the way of maintenance. And yet we do and will pay for their greed--our bills are high. Public utility companies, especially monopolies, should not be privately traded, for-profit companies.

Olychick is right about logging practices. Logging can be beneficial
to forest health when the trees are thinned rather than clear cut, the
slash (debris that results from logging such as all the branches that
are cut off of the downed trees and smaller trees that are damaged
during logging) is removed and a diversity of seedling trees planted to
replace those taken during logging operations.

Unfortunately, it costs more time and money to log that way, so many companies opt for the cheaper way which is to come in and clear a swath of land. My property
shares a border with a large logging company and they come thru here
about every 10 years to log. Last time they were here, they left piles
of slash and did not replant. Those slash piles are now tinder dry and
highly flammable brush such as manzanita has grown where trees once
stood.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I would
like to share several 1000 words with all of you. We have 3.5 acres in
the mountains and spend a great deal of time thinning trees and clearing
brush. On our property there is an abundance of wildlife including
birds, lizards, frogs, squirrels, rabbits, foxes, coyotes, deer, bears
and the occasional mountain lion. The trees are healthy and not over
crowded and there is very little brush or fuel on the forest floor.
Tree branches are cut from the trees to a minimum height of eight feet
to remove ladders which allow fires to get up in the tree tops.

This is our property - we will be out thinning again this year as soon as
the rains start. It's too dry to run a chainsaw right now:

The property next door to us is owned by people who haven't been here in
25 years. Brush has accumulated, the trees have become over crowded and many are dead or dying. The brush is so thick that it's nearly impossible to walk thru
the woods. You literally can't see the forest for the trees.

Between the two properties, there is a power easement. The local
power company contracts with tree companies to maintain the easement
which is kept cleared to a width of approximately 50 feet. Two winters
ago, a tree dropped a very large branch on the power lines and snapped
one of them. We were on vacation at the time and not aware of this
until we returned.

Our nearest neighbor saw smoke coming from the area of our house, and knowing we were gone, decided to investigate. What he found was a live line that was sending out sparks and that had melted all of the snow around it for a distance of 30 feet. The power
company was called, shut off the power and fixed the line. Thank God it
was winter and not summer.

If it had been summer, those sparks and a little bit of wind are
all it would have taken to light up the neglected property next door.
There are no simple solutions to this problem and all of these things -
maintaining equipment and easements, forest health and forest management
are connected. Of course, not all fires start in forested areas, but
many do and I personally think that investing in improving the health of
our forests thru thinning and removing brush along with responsible
logging would be a gigantic step in the right direction.

Another thing to consider is the size of the easements. I looked it up last
night and the width of an easement is determined by factors such as the
voltage of the lines and whether or not the area is urban or rural.
According to what I read, the maximum easement is 200 feet, but many
(such as the one shown above) are much less than that. With pines and
douglas firs reaching a height of 150 to 200 feet, those widths are not
enough no matter how much time utilities spend clearing and maintaining
their easements. But, property owners don't want to give up that much
space to utilities nor do they want their large and beautiful trees
removed.

I don't know what the answer is, but I think it's important to take into account all of the above factors when discussing this issue as there are no simple one size fits all solutions. Power companies such as PGE haven't done a good job of maintaining their
equipment, but there are other factors at play too. The neglected
property I've shown you is but a drop in the bucket but it illustrates the
conditions that exists in many of our forests, but I hope that they give
those reading this thread an idea of the problems we face.

The problems are huge. But, I'm so angry with PGE right now. We were without power for 4 days in an area I understand never should have been shut off! I threw out two refrigerators full of food. Our problem pales in comparison to others', but PGE is messed up in so many ways. I read they have trimmed only 30% of the trees in forest areas they agreed to this year! I agree with Elmer re the mismanagement. Dawn, we have a vacation house in such an area; that sort of forest mismanagement is all over.

Dawn, we have a vacation house in such an area; that sort of forest mismanagement is all over.

Yes, I know, maddie. That's what makes it so scary. It's like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at any time all over the state. One little spark from a downed power line or a malfunctioning transformer and up it goes. That's why I feel that the problem has so many different facets - we can't point to just one thing and say that's the issue, fix that and we're all good.

However, I realize that make those who have been without power and who have lost food feel any better. Their suffering is real too.

I'm so terribly sorry that so many are going through the power outage and also the threat of fire. And being out of town is even worse. We had this happen one year, but fortunately, DD lives nearby and didn't go to the Vineyard that summer as baby was due in less than a month. So she went over and cleaned out the two refrigerators/freezers for us. It would have been one smelly, nasty mess otherwise!

From the time we moved here in 1984 until I actually bought a whole house generator, we had annual power outages of anywhere from 5 to 10 days. Believe me, in the summer, that's a LONG time, and they were nearly all at that time. The 10 day one was in January due to an ice storm and we were in Paris and the pet sitter was in the house with our dogs. It quickly became a really mess, due to the pet sitter's utter incompetence and flighty nature. Fortunately pets and house plants survived. I don't know about the pet sitter - never heard from her again and of course, I had payed her in advance. She was a total idiot.

The emotional relief of having a natural gas powered whole house generator is enormous. I ned now worry when we're gone for a month in the summer, or when a pet sitter is in the house. And now that I need oxygen 24/7, that is no longer a worry, either. If one can afford it, anyone who need oxygen or a CPAP machine really should have a generator, preferably one that is not portable. It needs to come on automatically when the power goes out.

I fully commiserate with those who feel their local utility company is taking their money and providing poor service. I have seen power outages when I watched a squirrel be electrocuted on the big transformer in the utility easement at the corner of my lot. Of course, that should NOT be possibly - there is supposed to be INSULATION to prevent such! Our power company is maniacal about trimming trees but NOT about maintaining their equipment...until recently.

Since installing the whole house generator, we've had several power outages but the longest was for about 8 hours. I'm still very glad to have it. I can't go 8 hours without oxygen and my batteries on my portable won't last that long. The only option is to go to a hospital or a motel. It's a lot nicer to stay at home with a generator running.

Good luck to you all! I hope it's better soon!

I see that California Edison is also having power blackouts due to fire danger so it's a state wide issue not just a single electrical provider issue.