There has been a major power outage

on the long peninsula to the west of us. It is being blamed on the very dry weather and the consequent build up of dust and dirt on the insulators.

The economic consequences of this will be big. People have lost more than just "a bit of food in the 'fridge". There are businesses which have lost far more than that of course but there are others that are unable to open. Fuel is short because it cannot be pumped at the stations. Schools have been closed - many of the children come in by school buses that do not have fuel and there is no power at their school anyway.  People have been told to keep their phones for emergency use.

The area is not quite as remote as the one we lived in when my parents were the two teachers in a tiny school in a tiny community. That school had no power. If the Senior Cat needed to make a phone call in the dark of a winter evening he had to take a torch and go over to the school (where the phone was) and hope the couple who ran the telephone exchange could get him the number he needed. There was no way for anyone to get us if there was nobody at the school. 

There were two school "buses" there - actually VW "Kombi" vans. They were driven by farmers who needed the extra money and refuelled on the farm from forty gallon drums. I suspect a few farmers in the current black out area can do the same - and others wish they could. Some of them will still have their own power supplies and others will wish they did as well. 

All this should be a wake up call for everyone. I suspect there is much more to the prolonged black out than some dirty insulators. It is all too likely that there are other areas of neglect...and what has happened to that big battery that was supposed to be a back up for the much vaunted "renewable" power supply?

The situation should be a wake up call for everyone. We are power dependent now. I am writing this using power. There is an overhead light on as I do it. The refrigerator is on. Today the temperature is rising again - to the level where I will be very tempted to turn the air conditioning on at least for a short while. That will use power too - if I feel I can afford it. We expect to have power, the convenience of power at the flick of a switch. The world depends on power, indeed our safety depends on it.

I also wonder how the younger generation who "don't read" and do not play board games or indulge in crafts are doing now that their screen based entertainment is not working. Our state newspaper has been running a series of articles on the way the Covid lockdowns have affected young people. Perhaps it is time for them to consider another article or two about the way a lack of power would affect them as well.