My multi-day PG&E power shut off diary

PG&E and AT&T stupidity has devastating effects on everyone near where I live

Sheri Byrne-Haber, CPACC

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Screenshot from PG&E website stating that power had gone off with no estimate of being re-established

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The first time PG&E tried to burn my house down, it was September, 2007. I was at work, and the CFO ran into my office shouting “I think I just saw your house on fire from the Channel 5 news helicopter.” A transformer had blown less than a quarter mile up the road, and we were lucky the wind was blowing the other way. Several days later, we were allowed to go home. PG&E was fined, the owners of the property the transformer was located on (not us) settled, but things like our slurry-seal roads being trashed only 2 years (from the weight of the fire fighting equipment) never got fixed. I always buy the “all you can eat wheel alignment” plan at Wheelworks (Hi Jeff). He does not make money off of me.

The last fire P&E started near my home was the day after the Paradise fire, and we were trapped. There was a live line in the road which PG&E wouldn’t “de-energize” (their term for shutting off a power line) until the first responders arrived. That took 45 minutes, during which time we had little in the way of updates which was beyond nerve wracking. I was then I was escorted out with hoses being sprayed over my car and spent the night at relatives.

And there was a third fire in between the first two without quite as much drama. The common denominator? A combination of PG&E incompetence, and PG&E placing greed over safety. They failed to sufficiently clear brush or cut trees, had faulty equipment, and clearly do not give a damn about people’s safety regardless of what their commercials say. But they had no problem paying out exorbitant executive bonuses in the twelve years they were responsible for three fires near my home. PG&E’s bad actions combined with their lack of prevention screams louder than any words ever could.

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Sheri Byrne-Haber, CPACC

LinkedIn Top Voice for Social Impact 2022. UX Collective Author of the Year 2020. Disability Inclusion SME. Sr Staff Accessibility Architect @ VMware.