Calif. power cuts leave elderly, disabled in dark
(30 Oct 2019) Residents of a low-income, senior apartment complex in the San Francisco Bay Area say they faced pitch-black stairwells and hallways, and an elevator that shut down during a pre-emptive power outage that lasted two days. People who use wheelchairs or walkers, or who were too sick or scared to move, were essentially trapped at the Villas of Hamilton in Novato north of San Francisco. They say they were without guidance from their property management company or the utility that purposely blacked out much of Northern California to ward off the possibility of wildfires. One woman in her 80s tripped over another resident who had fallen on the landing in a steep stairwell. Others got turned around, even in their own apartments, and cried out for help. "Well, I was watching TV in my bedroom and you know, suddenly there's nothing and it's pitch black and you're there all alone by yourself," said Theresa Metzger, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair. "It is really quite unnerving." Pacific Gas and Electric Co. shut off power to more than 2 million people over the weekend to prevent its equipment from sparking wildfires hot, dry wind gusts. It was just one of four pre-emptive rounds taken by the utility this month. More than 900,000 people were without power Wednesday, some of them since Saturday, by PG&E's estimate while crews battled fires burning in both Northern and Southern California. The multi-day outages turned urban highways dark and blackened shopping malls once glittering with light. People stocked up on food, water and gas and lamented the spoiled food in refrigerators. But the outages are more challenging for older and disabled residents who lack the transportation and money to rush out for ice and groceries, said John Geoghegan, head of the Hamilton Tenant Association. He said about a third of the Villas' 140 residents are too old, sick or cognitively impaired to care for themselves during an extended outage and he said the property management company VPM "abandoned" its tenants. Geoghegan came home Saturday night to find residents milling in the parking lots, some near panic. "They were basically abandoned. And we had a lot of elderly people who were quite afraid and alone during the whole power outage," Geoghegan said. Elected officials and PG and E customers have complained bitterly over the utility's lack of communication and inability to provide real-time estimates of when power would be back on. Residents said temporary lighting lasted for about 12 hours, not nearly long enough for an extended outage. Front doors to the building that are usually locked unlocked during the outage. The landlord, Affordable Housing Access, and property management company, VPM, did not respond to requests for comment. The on-site manager did not respond to a request for comments. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
