Thousands in Sacramento lost power for 3 days or more. Can SMUD do more for vulnerable seniors?

Source: The Sacramento Bee  |  By Cathie Anderson

Only an air mattress separates Sacramento resident Linda Barnard, 73, from the frame of her hospital bed, an electrical pump steadily alternating the pressure to prevent pressure sores and to improve her blood circulation.

Consumer advocate Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said the utility should have been working in advance to identify residents such as Barnard who depend on medical equipment. The utility should be providing generators in advance, he said, to people who need them.

“The utility can’t do this alone, but I think it’s important for them to take some initiative to grow the network and have resources on ahead of time because, guess what, we’re going to keep getting these atmospheric (river) storms,” Toney said. “With climate change and everything, they’re going to keep coming. As bad things are now, we’ve got to figure out how we can minimize the impact and part of that is through good preparation but also reports and analyses.”

Toney urged Sacramento residents to require the board of directors for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District to hire an independent investigator to assess how the utility performed and how it could do better:

“Was the response time reasonable? Were the notices reasonable? Did they do a good job of identifying medically vulnerable customers ahead of time? Did they contact them ahead of time? Did they bring them portable generators? When people asked for portable generators, did they have enough? How long did it take?”

There’s a whole series of questions that could be asked, Toney said, and it’s hard to tell how a utility is doing when you’re in the middle of an emergency.