Public Safety Power Shutoffs and the Limits of Technology

For the second time this month, PG&E shut off our electricity this weekend. Unlike the first "Public Safety Power Shutoff," this time, the predicted winds actually materialized. I awoke to howling winds and clanging wind chimes at 5 a.m. Sunday morning. As the day progressed and I watched reports of wildfires in the North Bay, Bay Area, and Southern California on my cell phone, I was increasingly thankful that our power had been shut off. But I also realized that our ever-increasing reliance on automated (and electric-powered) technology can put our safety at risk.

My go-to local source for fire and weather information is usually YubaNet.com. Publisher Susan Levitz and editor Pascale Fusshoeller do an amazing job of keeping up with local conditions - I don't think they ever sleep! If you don't have YubaNet in your bookmarks, here's the link: https://yubanet.com/. But there were times this weekend - even when my phone was charged - when AT&T's cellular network was down. I couldn't access YubaNet, or any other website, for that matter. AM radio - technology from well before my childhood, was the only source of information. And my only radio is in my truck!

On Saturday, I drove to Santa Rosa to give a talk on livestock guardian dogs at the Livestock Conservancy. On the way into town, I received several cell phone alerts (which are VERY loud and obnoxious) warning me that Sonoma County had issued an evacuation advisory because of the Kincade Fire. During the conference, the hotel shut down power briefly to transition to generator power - and I noticed that they placed battery-powered camping lanterns in the men's room (and, I assume, in the women's room). I started home from the conference at 5:45 p.m. - at around 6 p.m., Sonoma County made the evacuation advisory mandatory.

I'm not terribly familiar with the Santa Rosa area, so I was using Google Maps on my iPhone to navigate the best route back Auburn. Because of the evacuation (which had NOT come through on my phone), traffic was building - and the Google Maps algorithm couldn't keep up with the changing conditions. After it directed me to drive in a 5-mile circle, I gave up - and I followed the highway signs to Napa.

All of this suggests, to me at least, that there may be limitations to technology and automation. As a kid, I always looked up when I heard a fire plane overhead - and then scanned the horizon for smoke (a habit that I continue to this day). During bad storms or wildfires, we tuned into the local AM radio station (KVML in Sonora) for updates - I always hoped to hear that school was cancelled, which was announced on the radio (not on a robo-call). And I learned how to read a paper map.

To prove that I'm not entirely a curmudgeon, I will say that Twitter proved to be a fairly reliable source of on-the-ground information during this latest shut off. And Twitter was a way to converse with friends and colleagues about the conditions in their communities. At least while the cellular network was working.

Ultimately, though, situational awareness and a sense of community are probably our most important tools in situations like the one we've just experienced. Calling our neighbors, helping one another through difficult times, watching for smoke on the horizon, have always been important in rural communities. I fear for my urban and suburban neighbors, who perhaps didn't grow up with these necessities. Those of us who did need to share our knowledge.

Now I'm off to buy a battery-powered transistor radio....