Of being powerless and lessons learned

How do you pass the time during a pre-emptive power outage? Board games. Ugh. Board games.

We were on the couch watching The Food Network when the plug was pulled.

Quite literally…Pulled.

Saturday afternoon, the power provider for much of Colorado cut our service and that of thousands of other homes across the Front Range.

It was not unexpected. However, as it happened, it felt momentous.

There was a loud beep from the security system as it shut down.

There was a cascading window on the TV screen as it darkened.

And, then there was quiet. A moment of quiet recognition until The Weed aptly proclaimed, ‘This sucks.’

Saturday marked the first time in all of my years in Colorado that we were pre-emptively powerless because of the weather—weather that I never witnessed as a child growing up on Weld County’s dusty backroads.

Sure, I’ve lived through snow closures and flood evacuations. I’ve been in the dark when power lines snapped beneath heavy ice. I’ve even taken cover during tornado scares. Still, nothing like this before.

With a windstorm predicted to bring hurricane-force gusts to the region Saturday, Xcel Energy announced it would be ‘de-engergizing’ certain utility lines and cutting power to about 55,000 residents.  

Fortunately, The Weed and I were mostly prepared. I shopped earlier in the day for nonperishable finger foods and, well, junk to keep us fed. (I also got a PowerBall ticket that turned out to be as boring as the power outage.)

The Weed wrangled all the batteries in the house. Flashlights were assigned. Candles were assembled. Games were pulled out of closets.

Then, the wind started. It didn’t howl until later in the night. But later it did howl. There were gusts of 97 mph recorded just down the road from us.  

To pass the time, we played board games. Ugh.

As someone who grew up not playing board games, I hate this part of a mini apocalypse. The Weed is always better at games, and I have to play along, pretending I can identify a small straight in Yahtzee. Dear reader: I cannot.

Eventually, it got dark. Like super spooky dark. But also, a beautiful dark that The Weed chose to watch for hours. I chose a bed covered in mountains of blankets and prepared for a sleepless night listening to the gusts coming down from the foothills.

My grandparents used to live in those same foothills directly west of Casa de Weed. As a kid, I remember restless nights in their guest bedroom, listening to the wind barrel through the trees and hit the side of the house with such force I was sure we’d be carried off the hillside.

Those were different storms. Those were gusty blasts not likely to ignite the wildfires now seen frequently in Colorado thanks to a changing climate.

Before Saturday’s storm, there was much talk on the news about wildfires in Colorado and how we are No. 2 in the nation, behind California, for such blazes.

A few years ago, the Marshall Fire cut down more than 1,000 homes and killed two people in the nearby communities of Superior and Louisville. With authorities finding that arcing power lines helped feed that devastating, deadly blaze, I should have been more aware and prepared for the real possibility of Public Safety Power Shutoffs, or PSPS, as they are known in California where they are routinely relied upon to stem fire risk.

Reading up on these power shutoffs has been interesting now that we have lights, computers, and the real-world knowledge we’ll likely be forcefully off the grid again someday soon.

From September to December 2019, California’s three largest utility suppliers cut power to hundreds of thousands of customers for multiple days because of wildfire risk. The fallout from those outages became national news due to the widespread severity (4.3 million total customer hours) and failed communications with 75,000 customers de-energized without prior notice. These factors led to general frustration and outright violence when gunshots were fired at utility line workers.

In hindsight, people have analyzed the costs of PSPS. They suggest the outages cause societal harm that for residential customers include costs of replacing spoiled food, losing air conditioning, and emotional distress. For commercial customers, there’s the lost revenue and production but also the costs of installing backup power. Hospitals might need backup generators. Municipalities might need to coordinate special response plans…It goes on from there.

Back in Colorado, the costs of our recent forced outage are still being tallied but I have already read about one nearby food bank that lost 2,000 pounds of food.

Because the work to restore downed and damaged power lines took longer than our energy provider predicted, three schools in Denver and six in Boulder were closed Monday.

In response, Xcel Energy officials have explained the process they used to decide upon the planned outage and have met with business owners to address concerns about the move.

This is where, hopefully, lessons learned are taken to heart.

With a changing climate and more people living along Colorado’s Front Range, the lessons of the past few days could mean avoiding the next Marshall Fire, saving lives and untold expense.

And, this isn’t just a backyard matter. Around the globe, it’s no time for decisions to be made in the dark when it comes to addressing weather-related threats and climate change.

The past few days were inconvenient for thousands of Coloradans.

Still, there was no devastating blaze. There were no lives lost.

Sure, we were powerless for a few days, but we don’t have to be going forward if we listen and learn.