A Footnote to AI's Achilles Heel*
Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child.
[NB: This article is a follow-up to AI's Achilles Heel ]
For decades - probably since High School - I've quipped that if some catastrophic event occurred and disrupted all the basics - water, food, and shelter - most people would starve because they couldn't recognize food in the wild. "Where can I find a canned tomato soup tree? Do you known anyone who's growing Ticino spaghetti plants?" Alas, the superpower with which I'm cursed is wrecking havoc on my fellow citizens.
This past weekend the front range of Colorado experienced a not-uncommon Wind Blitzkrieg. In anticipation of potential fires, the local power company (Xcel Energy) decided to shut down the power grid early in the storm. No doubt, they learned a lesson about just how fast a wind-driven fire on the front range can spread from the Marshall Fire in 2021.
For us, the outage lasted three days and two nights. Lacking a suitable backup for the sump pumps, I was up every couple of hours to plug the pumps into a generator and clear the wells. Standing outside at 4 AM, I was watching the large pine trees in our yard whip back and forth in a way I hadn't seen before. Sure enough, after what sounded like a microburst, two 40' trees fell over. One fell between my neighbor's fence and their house and the second fell into the street (See picture above.) Except for the trees themselves, there was no damage. Lucky.
The darkness didn't prevent NextDoor - the "localized" social media swamp that occasionally has something relevant to us - from lighting up.
Class action lawsuit? That's a solution? I didn't need Xcel to tell me the power was out. The lights went out, I was notified. But I'm an observant kinda guy who likes to pay attention. And I'm doubtful gigantic public utilities respond to being shamed. But let's try anyway! Shame on you, Xcel Energy! What would your parents think?!?!
Suffering guppies, Batman. Quelle horreur!
Another post, since deleted, complained about having lost $1K worth of groceries from their refrigerator. This prompted Q and I to peer into our refrigerator and do a quick estimate of value. We came up with maybe $200 if we had to replace everything, much of it half or more used, with brand new items. All we could figure is this tortured soul had lots of expensive meat and exotic condiments. Or maybe 10 children.
I could go on, but I don't want to make too much light of other people's...er...suffering. Unknown are the number of people who relied on electricity to power oxygenators, CPAP machines, and other medical devices. These are the people I feel for. I've been in this position with a sick family member and it makes for high anxiety.
One stark lesson from this little experience is just how much we rely on electricity and the effects when the utility company can't supply our needs. This outage lasted a mere three days and most everyone's batteries had long since died. The outage was localized, so people could drive a short distance, buy supplies, and generally find all the comforts of home fully powered on. Had this been much more wide-spread and of a longer duration, the effects would have gone much deeper once private generators began running out of good 'ol fossil fuel. AI rule the world? I don't think so.
A second lesson was just how unprepared people in our area are for things like simple power outages. As I mentioned, wind storms are just a thing we live with along the front range. Sort of like people living in Buffalo, NY, know about the lake effect or people living in Tucson, AZ, now about the heat. Alas, expecting everyone to know a bit about now Nature behaves where they're living and to prepare accordingly is a recipe for being disappointed.
We were fine because I have backup generators in the form of internal combustion engines in our automobiles. Attaching a 5kW-sized and relatively inexpensive inverter to either of them and we can power the essentials - refrigerator, sump pumps, and coffee maker. Several small solar panels keep our cell phones fully charged. Even so, each time this happens I discover yet another weakness in my preparations. This time, it was the sump pumps. If I'd had a backup battery for each pump, those would have eventually died. So I'm working to put water powered backups in place. Then if the power or the pump itself fails, my basement stays dry and I get a good night’s sleep. If the city's water pressure dies, there are much bigger problems afoot then just a few sump pumps sitting idle. Were that to happen, maybe we should be sure to cut the power, too.
* Hahahahahahaa! A footnote to Achilles Heel. Hahahahaha! (I love a good scherzo, but maybe it's time I step away from this computer thing-y.)
If you have any questions, need anything clarified, or have something else on your mind, please send a DM or email me directly.
The whole time, all I could think was "How did you not notice the power was out for 13 hours??" At that point, I would sue the neighbour for that remark. On a side note, glad everyone was safe and the trees didn't injure anyone.