86 hours without electricity

In August of 2003, while working as a piano store manager, I saw the lights dim for about 30 seconds, then flicker, finally failing entirely, unaware that I was experiencing the first moments of a blackout that covered much of the northeastern United States and parts of Canada.  The area on the west side of Cleveland where I was living and working saw its power restored within 24 hours.  Many others experienced a far longer period without electricity.

Almost exactly 20 years later, just after midnight on Friday, August 25, 2023, I was awakened by a howling noise outside our home in South Euclid, Ohio.  Noticing my electricity was out, I looked out my bedroom window and saw branches on the two large oak trees on our front lawn bending with the wind in a manner I did not know was possible.  Unaware that tornado warnings had been issued locally, I took no special precautions, but went back to bed, confident that power would be restored in short order. 

When I awoke again shortly before 5:00am, I looked out my window again and saw darkness.  Grabbing a flashlight and stepping outdoors, I spotted our recycling bin upended on my neighbor’s property.  I gathered the scattered recyclables, returned them to the bin, then returned the bin to its proper resting place.  Branches of varying sizes were scattered throughout the property.  I heard a work crew nearby.  Following the sounds, I saw they were dealing with a fallen tree one block over.  Walking back to my own street, I saw a tree leaning on a power line. 

Clearly, this was no ordinary storm. The Cleveland area received a record number of tornado warnings within a short space of time – with several touching down and one causing extensive damage in Cleveland’s Midtown district.  Our area is used to winter challenges, summer heat, and seasonal thunderstorms – multiple tornadoes, not so much.  As I wrote in an email to a young relative: Some people will just say “Oh, the climate has always been this way.”  But I am more and more inclined to believe that Mother Earth is pissed-off at us humans, and I don’t blame her.  Beyond a doubt, we are the primary cause of climate change.  Tornado warnings were almost unknown in our area – but we’ve had several in the last 10 years, last night’s caused a lot of damage, and the number of severe storms has increased exponentially.

After Dan left for his job, I headed to my employer’s campus to work (I’ve been largely working from home since the early days of COVID).  As information came in about the extent of the storm and blackouts, I decided to book a hotel for Friday night.  But I was hopeful, as the total number of customers lacking power had gone from over 224,000 without power at 8:00am to 160,000 by 4:00pm.  After work and before heading to the hotel, Dan & I spent about an hour cleaning up the yard.  Fortunately, there was no damage to the house – including to our new storm windows.  A few days before, a major rainstorm confirmed that our street’s newly refurbished water runoff inlets were functioning well, with none of the flooding on our street we’d become accustomed to after even small rainfalls. 

After awakening in our hotel room Saturday morning, Dan & I headed back home to see power was not restored, largely as I expected given that I was following the outages listed on First Energy’s website.  I took advantage of the relative quiet on our street to make some piano recordings – fortunately, my old Mason & Hamlin upright does not require electricity.  

Piano by candlelight

We spent the rest of the weekend seeking out places to go where we could pass the time in relative comfort: walking in some parks, dining at restaurants, seeing a film – while periodically checking to see if power was restored.  While driving around, we saw the damage in Midtown.

Damage at the Dunham Tavern Museum

  

I also perused social media, posting information where useful, and observing posts and comments from various people.  A long-held belief of mine was confirmed: An appallingly high percentage of people have no idea how the world around them works.  I saw posts blaming the mayor of my municipality and those of other municipalities for everything from the time they were without power to the presence of flooding.  In our area, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is responsible for maintaining the sewers; if your street floods, contact them.  If your local creek floods, well, that’s what creeks do when it rains, and if you made the decision to live next to a creek, that’s on you.  If your power hasn’t been restored yet, the mayor has no control over that.  For what it’s worth, I will comment that the South Euclid services department was at work clearing branches as soon as the weather had cleared; further, the city advised that people could come to city hall if they needed to charge their devices.   

I have no complaints about the line workers from First Energy who worked long hours to get power back online – to say nothing of the many workers who came from outside of Ohio to help.  They worked their butts off.  The problem, as it often is, stems with poor management, from the CEO on down – which puts profit over providing a service which people rely on.  They did not prepare, and their communications were poor.  For example, I signed up to their automated system so I could be informed when my power was restored.  Within a few hours, I received multiple communications giving conflicting information.  First, I received a text that power would be restored by 2:00pm Monday; a half hour later, another text stated the power would be restored by 8:00pm Wednesday – followed by an automated phone call stating the same; 40 minutes later a further text stated that power would be restored by 4:00pm Monday, followed by another text 20 minutes later that power had been restored.  It had been out for 86 hours.

Make up your mind.

Here are some lessons learned from the past week’s experience:

Northeast Ohio’s tree canopy needs to be better managed, especially in more densely populated communities.  Our tree canopy is a wonderful thing – relatives and friends who have moved out of state have told me how much they miss it.  The two oak trees on my property, which I spend plenty of money to keep trimmed, provide enough shade to keep my electric bills at a reasonable level.  But in communities such as South Euclid, trees should not be permitted to grow without a plan for management – especially those trees which are near homes or power structures.  The repair of our localized loss of power was delayed because a large tree fell onto an unoccupied house, taking down several power lines and a transformer with it.  

Tree damage at a nearby house

The other item is something I’ve believed for years: The United States should embark on program to upgrade, modernize, and protect our energy grid from hazards including weather events and hacking.  Wherever possible, utility lines should be moved underground.  A colleague of mine did not lose power, largely because her community is newer and their power lines are underground.  Those of us who live in older communities, and who pay the same for electricity, should enjoy the same reliability.  The nationwide migration of utilities underground would be a massive undertaking, but no more than the building of the Interstate Highway system or the infrastructure created during the New Deal.  It would require cooperative efforts from Federal, State, and Local governments along with utility providers.  The biggest obstacle is the lack of leadership in both parties to lower the hammer and make it happen – because an effort of this magnitude would require at least partial public funding, which would require a tax increase on the wealthy.  So, a project such as this, which would have the added benefit of greatly improving aesthetics in our neighborhoods and commercial districts, will likely not happen in my lifetime. 

As I said in the email to my young relative: Our climate is changing.  We’re not going to be able to conserve our way out of the climate crisis.  We need to be prepared.

On Religion and the Environment

 

Several years ago, I mentioned my concerns about the environment to an acquaintance of mine.  This person replied “I don’t worry about that, it’s all in God’s hands and there’s nothing we can do about it” or words to that effect.  My respect for this person, which wasn’t particularly high to begin with, dropped precipitously on that day.  This same person referred to Earth as a “Hell” and that he was unafraid of death because he would be in “Heaven.” 

But it did bring to light the lazy theology I encounter among many of the religious – particularly Christians.  “We should do whatever we want to the Earth: pillage, exploit, destroy; because God created it for us and gave us dominion over it.  No need to worry about that happens here on Earth.  We the Righteous will be rescued during the Rapture.” 

Per the Book of Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over [the] fish of the sea, and over [the] bird of the heavens, and over every living thing that is creeping on the earth."

Fair enough.  According to God, humans are in charge.  But just as when a parent gives a child a gift, it seems doubtful God would have intended humans to trash said gift.  Can you imagine if God had given Adam a car and said “crash it and don’t bother to wear a seat belt, for I can create a new vehicle and repair your injuries.”

There are two possibilities: God or gods exist; or he/she/they do not. 

Religions of all stripes portray humans as the children of God, who is generally depicted as male, and who has created us in His image – or half of us.  What do parents want of their children, particularly their adult children?  To break the gifts they are given, mismanage their resources, and run to their parents whining and begging for help?  Or do parents want their children to stand up, grow up, support themselves, solve their own problems, and be productive citizens who contribute not only to themselves but to their fellow humans and to their planet?  Any reasonable parent would want the latter, and so would any deity worthy of the name and of worship.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that no god(s) exist, and that we humans are truly on our own, and that no one is capable of protecting our planet except for us – if it’s not already too late.

In either case, it is best to protect the gift that a god may, or may not, have given us.  Our planet need not be a “Hell”, either literally or figuratively. 

Response to a chain e-mail

An email chain has been going around, purporting to be a response to a comment by a “young cashier” about the environment.

The use of certain terminology (e.g., “nappies” for diapers, “petrol” for gasoline) indicates that the writer was British, so I can’t vouch for the timing of some events such as switching from bottled to store bought milk. But I'm sure there's an American version of this going around. So, I’d like to make a point by point response:

Bottled milk hasn’t been delivered in the United States for decades. In fact, I’ve never seen it in my 44 years – although the 70 year old house I live in has a miniature door for milk delivery. Frankly, drinking milk after childhood is not healthy, and is also hard on the environment. Besides, didn’t the delivery of bottled milk to each home result in the burning of more fossil fuel?

I can’t speak for the cashier, but I certainly recycle my pop cans and beer bottles! Our generation had to fight your generation to get city hall to make recycling available.

Speaking of generations, is this writer 90 years old? Escalators have been around for at least a century. Are you really blaming 20-somethings like the cashier for escalators?

More and more young people, and even those not so young, bike or walk whenever we can. That’s why some of us are so passionate about walkable cities and suburbs – and why I supported rezoning at Oakwood. We’re trying to reverse the growth of the exhurbs brought about by Eisenhower’s Folly. As for gas guzzling cars: that was the product of earlier generations - my car is certainly not 300-horsepower – more like 123.

So, you washed your babies’ diapers rather than getting disposables? Good for you. And how many kids did you have? Probably too many. Generations such as yours that popped out five and more kids per couple are responsible for our huge overpopulation problem. Thanks for breeding like rabbits in heat! (Not that that’s just a problem for an earlier era.)

Sure, we use more appliances. We have larger TV screens, since thanks to the
economic collapse caused by the older generation we can’t afford a night out at the movies – with the expensive tickets, food, and gasoline it takes to get there. Walk to the movies, you say? No, we can’t walk to the movie theater – thanks to the suburban sprawl you invented, it’s out of reach.

We make do with compact fluorescent lightbulbs, even though they make us look pasty and don't work with dimmer switches.

Ordinary people, by and large, do not make use of styrofoam and bubble wrap – it’s corporations, the large behemoths that run out of control thanks to deregulation by your generation.

You may have used a push mower to cut the lawn, then you doused the grass with toxic fertilizers - which entered the runoff and damaged our water supply. See the next paragraph.

You drank from a water fountain? Oh, yes, you did – and it was segregated! Some of us need to drink bottled water because your generation demanded tax cuts and neglected the infrastructure, which made the water undrinkable.

I’d love to take the bus, but your generation created the car-worshiping America that made bus service the transportation of last resort – where one often can’t even feel safe.

And yes, I DO take reusable bags to the grocery store!

Oil Addiction

Over a month ago, there was an explosion on British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, causing 11 deaths and leading to the worst ecological disaster in United States history. As of this writing, the disaster is ongoing, with no end in sight.

The oil spill as seen from space, May 24, 2010.

There have been calls to boycott BP. (Disclosure: I get my gasoline at Costco.) I sympathize with and share the public’s anger at BP. But anger at one oil company, as if another company could not have just as easily done the same thing, is beside the point.

The heart of the problem lies with us humans in general, and we Americans in particular. It’s worth noting that all of the oil spilled between April 20th and the time of this post only equals about one hour’s worth of consumption in the United States. Americans make up 4.5% of the world’s population, but consume 24% of the world’s petroleum. This is not BP’s fault, although they certainly act as one of many enablers to America’s oil addition.

Obviously, the relationship between the government and the oil industry needs to be examined and reformed. For over a generation, the oil companies have enjoyed a buddy-buddy relationship with Washington, and have been able to view the Federal government as "a mere appendage to their affairs". It would be easy to blame this on the Republicans, who receive a greater share of political contributions from oil companies and are more resistant to alternative energy, but in truth this is a systemic problem which transcends parties.

Many, especially those living in the Gulf region, have criticized President Obama’s response to this crisis, and their criticism is apt. The Administration has pointed out that the President is neither an environmental scientist nor an oil rig engineer, and that he would just “get in the way” if he spent a lot of time down there. But such a defense points to a fundamental lack of understanding about the power of the Presidency. Harry Truman stated that the greatest power the President had was the “power to convince someone to do what they ought to do” – the power of persuasion. If you’re an oil company executive or an engineer, you’re going work a lot more urgently if the President of the United States is standing behind you breathing down your neck.

It’s not just the oil executives who need persuading. Our leaders, including President Obama, need to summon the courage to tell it like it is to the American people. Our addiction to oil is destroying our ecosystem, funding our enemies, and jeopardizing our economic future. The President needs to immediately sign an executive order halting further offshore oil exploration and draw a line in the sand by saying “as long as I am President, there will be no new offshore drilling. Our coastal waters do not belong to the oil companies; they belong to the American people.” He also needs to point out the ridiculously low prices Americans pay for gasoline, which has helped to fuel overconsumption. If the Europeans can live with $5/gallon gasoline, so can we. Of course, President Obama won’t do this. He’s no Harry Truman.

Finding a better way to get from here to there is not rocket science. We have the technology for alternative fuel vehicles that can run on electricity and natural gas. A decade ago, General Motors famously killed a popular electric car right out of the gate. Honda produces a natural gas version of their Civic, but just try getting one. Buses in many major cities, including Cleveland, already run on natural gas. Embracing these two approaches does not entail any great sacrifice. The other day, I saw a Vespa being driven down my street, and I thought, “gee, somebody gets it.” People can also start using bicycles for short distance trips, and considering the epidemic of obesity in the United States, we’ll be killing two birds with one stone. (Um, perhaps the bird analogy is out of place given the context of this post, but you know what I mean.) Certainly, there are some people who genuinely need larger vehicles, like farmers. But too many Americans buy large vehicles as extensions of their egos. In 1992, Jerry Brown, then a presidential candidate, proposed a “feebate” under which anyone who bought a gas guzzler would have to pay a $1000 fee to the government, while anyone who bought a fuel efficient vehicle would receive a $1000 rebate. A classic carrot and stick approach, Brown’s idea was ignored in the cheap energy era of the 1990s. It’s overdue for enactment.

The problem lies with us. The solution lies with us.


*Addendum: Another problem our nation needs to confront is suburban sprawl. The federal government must embrace policies which encourage people to live closer to where they work. In most cases, this means encouraging a return to cities and inner ring suburbs. It also means discouraging the continued growth of exhurbs. We must reverse the flight from the cities which took place from the 1960s onward. Part of this is by allowing the price of gasoline to rise to a sustainable level. Another solution is for more equitable funding of schools, so that city districts receive their fair share of funding. (America’s bass-akwards system of school funding is a subject for another post.)