Russell Williams
Well-Known Member
What happens if the power goes off? If, in a heat event such as this, power only goes off to a small area of Washington County then the situation can be managed by transferring people at risk to other areas of the county that still have power. What happens if the entire County and some of the surrounding areas are without power and the heat index is over 100°? People no longer have large verandas to go sit on
Today I started to think about this problem. People who could not drive far enough to find motels that had electricity would need to be sheltered in areas that had a means of providing air conditioning and these areas would probably be the public schools. According to school personnel the emergency backup generators in the County public schools will not carry the air-conditioning. Therefore powerful generators would have to be brought in from some other place. Today I started to contact the schools and the County to find out what plans are in place. As best I can tell there are no plans to deal with a countywide power outage.
These are some of the things that must be done. A source of powerful generators needs to be located. A means of transporting the generators to the schools needs to be developed. Several people must know how to hook the generators up to the electrical system of individual public schools. Since the gas stations will no longer have power to pump their fuel a means must be found to provide fuel to the generators once they have used up their existing fuel supply.
Some of the most vulnerable people, those living in retirement communities who are no longer able to drive, will require transportation to the schools that have air-conditioning. Perhaps the county bus service can provide this transportation but the public school does have a lot of buses. However how will the bus drivers be notified that they are needed? If the power goes out will the cell phones work, and will be regular telephone system work? I do not know. If it looks like there might be a power emergency an e-mail needs to be sent out to all of the school bus drivers to tell them that, if a widespread power outage occurs and it looks like this widespread power outage will exist for more than three hours the bus drivers need to contact the central office of the Board of Education to find out if there is a need for them.
Hopefully the problem of a widespread power outage will not develop tomorrow because the mechanisms to solve such a widespread outage are not yet in place. This week may not be the last hot days of summer and this may not be the last hot summer in the history of Washington County. I request that the Board of Education put on its agenda developing a plan to deal with a widespread power outage and the transportation of, perhaps hundreds, perhaps thousands of people to places where the heat will not kill them.
Yours truly,
Russell Williams
Today I started to think about this problem. People who could not drive far enough to find motels that had electricity would need to be sheltered in areas that had a means of providing air conditioning and these areas would probably be the public schools. According to school personnel the emergency backup generators in the County public schools will not carry the air-conditioning. Therefore powerful generators would have to be brought in from some other place. Today I started to contact the schools and the County to find out what plans are in place. As best I can tell there are no plans to deal with a countywide power outage.
These are some of the things that must be done. A source of powerful generators needs to be located. A means of transporting the generators to the schools needs to be developed. Several people must know how to hook the generators up to the electrical system of individual public schools. Since the gas stations will no longer have power to pump their fuel a means must be found to provide fuel to the generators once they have used up their existing fuel supply.
Some of the most vulnerable people, those living in retirement communities who are no longer able to drive, will require transportation to the schools that have air-conditioning. Perhaps the county bus service can provide this transportation but the public school does have a lot of buses. However how will the bus drivers be notified that they are needed? If the power goes out will the cell phones work, and will be regular telephone system work? I do not know. If it looks like there might be a power emergency an e-mail needs to be sent out to all of the school bus drivers to tell them that, if a widespread power outage occurs and it looks like this widespread power outage will exist for more than three hours the bus drivers need to contact the central office of the Board of Education to find out if there is a need for them.
Hopefully the problem of a widespread power outage will not develop tomorrow because the mechanisms to solve such a widespread outage are not yet in place. This week may not be the last hot days of summer and this may not be the last hot summer in the history of Washington County. I request that the Board of Education put on its agenda developing a plan to deal with a widespread power outage and the transportation of, perhaps hundreds, perhaps thousands of people to places where the heat will not kill them.
Yours truly,
Russell Williams