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| SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | OCTOBER 2017 | 3 By Sandra Moyer FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN SUN LAKES On Sept. 6 around 6 pm the electrical sub-station on 22nd Street had two circuits go down. As a result of that failure, many sections of Sun Lakes and the city were without power for about two and one- half hours. Although there were many people who had real concerns, fortunately, to our knowledge, none of our residents were seriously affected by the outage. However, this incident brought to light some deficiencies in our ability to respond to the situation and communicate with the community. One of these deficiencies was the inability to communicate with security. When the power went out so did the land lines in the affected areas. People could not get information as to what was happening or when the incident might end. This also meant that anyone needing assistance that tried to call the main gate could not get help. The only way to talk to personnel at the front gate was to drive there, but if your car and/or golf cart was in your garage, and you were not able to manually open the door, you could not do that. Another problem was the confusion in reaching the EPAP organization to rally the troops. It appears that no one, other than the EPAP coordinators, has a phone list to be used in an emergency. As a result, it took more time than it should have to get a hold of them and address the problem. I will say that once we did find out who to call and got a hold of them they were terrific. They responded immediately with generators and manpower to insure recharging stations were in place for those residents with medical devices that ran on batteries. They worked with security to see that all gates were either manned or shut down to secure the community. Those residents with medical devices were a major concern. We were told that some of the units had a maximum battery usage of two hours. There was no telling how long it would take to restore power. The last time we had an event like this it took eight hours to restore power. This led us to two concerns. We needed to know who was going to need to recharge their batteries and if they had the ability to get to the Bus Room where the station was set up. This was where the neighborhood Zone Captains were needed. Unfortunately we had no list of the Zone Captains. As a result, we were left calling people throughout the community whom we had cell numbers for to ask them to get the word out in their district. The point is, in my opinion, we dodged a bullet. My fellow Board members and I agree that the communication system needs to be vastly improved. As you are reading this, the Board has already requested a meeting with EPAP Coordinators, Safety & Security Committee, District Delegates, and PCM Management. We are working to insure all that is within our resources will be addressed to help our residents during any emergency. Food for Thought: Someday everything will make perfect sense. So, for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason.

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