I know we have had this subject before, but I wanted to renew the subject.
Irene and all others from this area, let us know how much this has effected you! Every day at noon I watch the news, I can't believe them turning off power to thousands, especially businesses. How do you survive?

I just mentioned in another post my town ahs underground utilities, so power hopefully doesn't go off here, but yes, in places that are on fire Pacific Palisades, Porter Ranch and Riverside county, definitely power will go off,
to add to their problem, they do put in on the news for a warning,, but it doesn't go off for long, at least for fridge items to spoil.. Flashlights and candles help.

The wind is blowing like crazy in east San Diego. They keep threatening to put out the electricity but has not happened yet. My flashlight is by my bed.

TL;DR version: Northern California wildfire and PG&E shutdowns cause strange, apocalyptic “new reality”. Californians are not pleased with their electric company.

Hi Everyone! I’m in the North (SF) Bay. Most of Marin and large portions of Sonoma County are without power. Schools are closed and town are ghost towns spotted with businesses, like Costco, that have generators. Some businesses have stayed open in a twilight capacity, without lights and some services. Most grocery stores and families have lost everything in their freezers. Ice, batteries, and bottled water are hot commodities. There are places (community centers) to charge phones and small devices, but only a couple and the wait can be long. I know there are resources for people who are hungry, but we are fortunate not to need those. I live about 30 miles from the fireline. There is not much help here for evacuees without power. In the past, the churches and others opened as shelters and fed people during the fires. Many people stayed with family and friends in the powered down houses. It’s like unplanned camping. In your house. With guests. We lost power for 48 hours, have it back now, but only for 24 hours, and then another planned shutdown for another day or two or? Those who didn’t know anyone had to go to San Francisco or Richmond to find a place to stay. Of course there were a few large shelters in Marin, but they were full before they were even announced. Hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

We actually feel fortunate as 50% of our town is still without power. They expect their outage will be Saturday-Wednesday continuous. Cell phones do not behave well during a widespread outage, as many towers require electricity to run and are not properly backed up. It has been very difficult getting up to date information for us because of the outage. We had a guest and his dog visit us for a couple of days. His evacuation has been lifted and he returned home to no power today. We have also been lucky that we have a gas stove that had continued to work.

The positives are community building, unplugged family time, etc.

In those areas people should have solar chargers for their cell phones. You might not be able to make calls, but you can watch movies and TV shows you've downloaded to your phone.

I received from my cell carrier AAT@T an email giving free internet and service to those in need. L.A. is also in a crisis, seems like the whole city is on fire with the highest winds 90 miles an hour coming Wednesday eve. My power is not out, but six miles from here (Canyon Country) the town is still burning and now without strong wind, the firemen are getting a hold on it. Answering John's statement about "people in those area's" needing solar chargers, one never knows before hand where a fire is going to start, they are always in different area's and with arson, campgrounds and uncertainty no one can be prepared as to when and where. They have a way of telling if fire has been started by arson and technology is a big help. Still can't be controlled.

Yes, I know there are fires in Southern California as well. It seems every year now, fires break out in Southern California and north of SF simultaneously. My heart goes out to those affected more than I have been.

I have found that being prepared for an outage means something different for everyone. We have lots of camping gear, so we were good in many respects. I have ordered an AM/FM radio with multiple charging capabilities, that also is a flashlight and emergency cell phone charger. I have a lot of portable chargers and keep them charged. Also laptops can be used as chargers for phones. What surprised us most was the lack of ability to use our phones at times and the difficulty getting news. I have downloaded a season of a show on my Netflix now that we have WiFi.

Also, cash only at most open places, no working ATMs and no gas pumps will run.

I grew up in Riverside in the '70s. I remember fires being farther away. It's just awful hearing what you guys are going through. I know living it is even worse. I have a jump box (that you jump the car with) it has a car charger port on it. I used it when I was doing free gov't phones under the tent. I also have 3 portable batteries for my cell phones or tablets The bigger jump box they sell at Walmart has an inside plug (ac or whatever it's called).

Today at WalMart, I saw tiny portable AM/FM radios and weather radios with five options including hand crank starting, You could get news, talk, music, and weather reports from the transistor radios-- as long as the batteries were good. You could always get weather info from the weather radio-- as long as someone can crank it. I did not know if this would help anyone here. It seems like everyone (including cease) is tech savvy now.

Yeah, so they finally turned off our power. I woke up to thundering winds and no power. Then a fire broke out about 2 miles away and they blocked all roads out. So we had no electricity, my phone died and there was no way to escape. What a fun 3 hours that was! The fire was put out and the roads finally opened. We were without power for over 24 hours which is not long considering what N. Cali has had to deal with these lasf few days. I want to move!

The hand crank or battery radios are great in an outage. It doesn’t matter how tech savvy one is, most of the cell towers are not working. A family friend was evacuated and we didn’t know until he had spent the night in his small sedan with his large dog! This is a tall man in his 70s, so we were not happy that we had no way of knowing what was happening.

WoW! My heart goes out to you all. I can not imagine for the life of me what it would be like to loose what is being lost. Now I wake up every morning and am thankful for what I have. When someone complains about anything my answer is, at least you have everything you need.
"Nothing takes your mind off your own troubles like serving someone else." Stay safe.

I am putting my "memory" albums, letters from my daughter when she went to college in the car....I have all my pictures in my phone....so far we're o.k., but the wind has it's own control, and the Ronald Reagan Library, a beautiful piece of property was in danger, burning all around the homes below called the Presidential Development.....my good Coach handbag is already with me.....a little humor needed. I agree and if anyone needs a room for a few nights, I have extra bedroom/bathroom....you survive Shopper 8 by not losing your mind and taking one step at a time...never panic.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2019 07:39PM by Irene_L.A..

I have a friend in Southern California who I can't get in contact with. I'm kind of worried about him, he's elderly with health issues.

Where does he live, name city and I'll find out if power is off.....

He's in Riverside. I've tried messaging his family on FB. But no one is really active on FB so no responses yet. I think he was living with a neice and unfortunately, I don't know her name.

Riverside is having severe fires and evacuations..I'm sure he'd call when things are normal.

Irene I have a friend in Ventura, Jim Gray printing, could be retired. Emailed him yesterday, no answer.

@shopper8 wrote:

Irene I have a friend in Ventura, Jim Gray printing, could be retired. Emailed him yesterday, no answer.

Huge fire broke out in a town in Ventura, probably no power. I got a phone call power would be out, but didn't reach my area......hope your friend is o.k., I'm sure his business is closed.

Thanks Irene, haven't heard from him. We grew up as teenages in the same town, hung out like The Fonz! Vanilla Coke, jute box, and teen stuff. He has been out in California for years, just lost his wife a few years ago. We are in touch only about once a year.

Winds have died down in San Diego which really helps. That was a crazy 4 days.