To the editor:
I am not a current customer of Central Lincoln PUD, although I’ve spent most of my life living on the northern and central Oregon coast, including 20 years and many storms in Florence. Preparedness was a way of life.
I now live near Olympia, Wash. where high wind warnings come out for gusts to 35 mph — an afternoon breeze in Florence. I laughed when I first heard that, until I discovered that’s all it took for long hours of power outages.
While we endured the same storm you just did and my house’s generator earned its keep for about eight hours each day, it has been amazing to see the different online responses to the utility companies.
Here we have a private-for- profit corporation, Puget Sound Energy. When they asked for volunteers to reduce energy use at peak times 4-8 p.m. for a few days to take the strain off the grid and possibly avoid a blackout, the overwhelming response online was rage and blame and that it was the utility’s duty to deal with it. Some even called for people to turn their heat up higher.
It was very discouraging to hear the amount of selfishness expressed.
When I followed the news around Newport (as I was concerned for a good friend living there and relatives in Florence) I was very encouraged to hear people’s focus was on helping others and supporting the utility, even and despite of much longer power outages.
In emergencies our neighbors are our first responders, preparedness is key, and a community working together gets us through. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.
I am glad many of you are doing that and planning changes in light of the impacts of this storm. Keep it up.
- Cindy Wills/Rochester, Wash.
