GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — Cars waited in line Tuesday afternoon at the Grass Valley Chevron off Le Barr Meadows Road, as people filled their tanks and gas cans with fuel.
Across the parking lot, a similar line stretched from the propane refill station.
People like Amanda Welvaert are preparing for another possible round of PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) this week.
“[I'm] getting gas, getting ready for the inevitable shutoff that we hear about from PG&E so I can run the generator,” Welvaert explained, as she filled two red gas cans with fuel.
She lost a fridge full of groceries in the last PG&E power shutoff, but her concerns this week are more for her patients.
“I’m a medical practitioner, so my patients losing oxygen, losing oxygen concentrators, that’s more than an inconvenience; that’s a serious worry, obviously,” she said.
PG&E tells people who rely on electricity for medical needs, “it is critical that you have a plan in place for an extended power outage.”
However, people commenting at the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) emergency meeting last week with PG&E said that advice is tone-deaf.
“Expecting low-income people and people with disabilities to ‘plan accordingly’ when they have limited options is disturbingly clueless and reeks of ableism and class tunnel vision," said Marge Hall, who introduced herself as a disability climate activist. “This is a lot more than an inconvenience or ‘hardship.’ It’s life-threatening. This is naked abandonment of poor, disabled and old people.”
Disability Rights Activist Deborah Kaplan told PG&E leadership at the CPUC meeting how much a power outage would impact her daily life.
“I live in an apartment building where I get to my place in an elevator. I have to power my electric wheelchair every night,” Kaplan said. “I sleep with a ventilator with oxygen in an electric bed. If a shutoff happened to me – which it didn’t – I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done, and I think my situation is not that unusual.”
Marissa Shaw, an advocate for her community of people with disabilities, said, “There needs to be a specialized group and discussion for people on ventilators because without that, people will die, and PG&E will have further blood on their hands.”
These concerns apply everywhere, but Nevada County is particularly at risk.
“I think we’re one of the oldest counties in the state,” Welvaert said. “Lots of octogenarians: able, capable, bright, active, but still with medical conditions that have serious implications if they don’t have their needs met.”
Older people – and people with disabilities – have needs that, in some cases, require electricity.
Ana Acton is the executive director of FREED, a disability and aging resource center that serves people in Nevada, Sierra, Yuba, Sutter and Colusa counties. During the last PG&E power outage, Acton said, a number of people wound up going to the hospital to get what they need.
“We’re hearing these really dramatic stories about people’s lives and how they’re dealing with (the PG&E power shutoffs). They’re fearful,” Acton said. “There’s a lot of anxiety and concern in people wondering how they’re going to get their needs met.”
Welvaert believes recurring power shutoffs in order to avoid sparking a wildfire is not a sustainable model.
“I recognize we can’t compromise safety for our neighborhoods, but we can’t also compromise individuals’ safety,” she said.
Until a better solution is found, Welvaert said, “take care of each other. Look out for your neighbors.”
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