On Tuesday morning Anne and I took a quick inventory of our emergency supplies and determined that, while a visit to the grocery store to stock up on canned food might not be a bad idea, our family was not going to starve if, in its ongoing effort to prevent wildfires, PG&E turns off the power to our house. Our family might have to take cold showers, and we’d have to give up using the internet, and we might get tired of eating granola bars if the outages go on for too long, but we will get all of the necessary calories for the sustenance of life.
We first heard about potential long-term power outages on Monday evening, and while I had to stifle a certain amount of panic at first, as we worked through our plans for surviving a few days without electricity, I started feeling a bit of gratitude for the exercise. If the power stays on, we will have refreshed our supplies; if it goes out, we will have the opportunity for a test run of our family’s emergency plan at a time when a disaster is not actually happening. Either way, it is good.
It is good also to remember how lucky we are that we don’t have to deal with power outages on a regular basis, but even if we did, we’d survive. When I was a child, limbs falling from redwoods knocked out our power for days at a time every winter. When I was a teenager I lived for a year in Santo Domingo, a city with a fragile electric grid. People learn to adapt and to get by. There is no reason people living in American cities cannot do the same. We are endowed with wisdom and resourcefulness. We will figure it out, it’s good to be reminded how resilient we can be.
We
decided to publish Contact early this week to have it done before we find out
whether or not we’re in a blackout. If you are reading this on Wednesday, that
means you’ve got internet, meaning it’s probable that PG&E determined a
power outage in the Oakland Hills was not necessary. If that’s the case, give
thanks to God, and go check on your emergency supplies and think through your
plans should an emergency actually come to pass. If you are reading this after
a major preemptive power outage finished and power was restored, let’s talk
together about how you survived the lack of electricity. What worked? What
didn’t work? What were the surprises? Do you have any wisdom to pass along?
Either way, I hope we can learn from the experience so that we can live
together in greater safety.
God’s Peace,
Ben