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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | AUGUST 2020 19 Just in case: Check with your committee chair to confirm meeting place, date, and time. PLANNED AND UNPLANNED POWER SHUTOFFS Nothing brings people out of their homes faster than losing their electricity. We rush outside to check with our neighbors to see if it was an individual or a neighborhood-wide power shutoff. Power shutoffs can be planned and unplanned. Planned power shutoffs can be the result of routine maintenance or for saving energy. We recently had some maintenance last Friday. We were given a time in the morning but they wound up coming at one in the afternoon. We received texts on our cell phones about three weeks before; then we got a couple of emails and finally a letter in the mail. Energy savers may have their power shutoff during a very high use period like during a heatwave. They usually receive some sort of advance notice. We never signed up for it because we liked a little cool air to help us sleep at night. Unscheduled power outages are the result of damage to transmission lines or from a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). Traffic accidents sometimes take out power lines or transformers. SCE crews work quickly to repair the damage and it is usually restored within a couple of hours. A PSPS from a high wind event may last for days. Public Safety Power Shutoffs or PSPS for short were allowed by electric companies by the Public Utilities Commission after it was determined that the town of Paradise had burned down by a fire from a downed power line. A PSPS is usually requested during a time of high winds and heat and dry vegetation. SCE carefully monitors the weather with many weather stations installed along their transmission lines. They have plans to install another 850 new stations within the next two years. They already check Cal Fires vegetation moisture index. SCE has begun to replace live electric lines with insulated wire and they have begun to cover their insulators. Like earthquakes, PSPSs require you to take some steps to save your food by having extra coolers or freezer bags. Four Seasons EPC meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 10 am. Our meetings are now on Zoom because of the pandemic. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, Aug. 18 at 10 am. ~ Michael A. Mendoza, srmendoza@verizon.net Emergency Preparedness Committee Stay safe. Take action. Create your emergency plan today by following the tips listed below: • Update your contact info with your local energy company • Identify backup charging methods for phones and keep hard copies of emergency numbers • Plan for medical needs - identify meds that need to be kept cold or devices that need power • Plan for the needs of your pets • Update your emergency kit • Designate an emergency meeting location • Know how to manually open your garage door For more information on creating an emergency plan, go to prepareforpowerdown.com.

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