Living out here on the mesa west of Taos, I am used to a lower level of convenience than many Americans. It is a harsh environment, but we adjust. I am more fortunate than some in that I have electricity and running water. The water being dependent on the electricity. Yes, there have been outages, but usually because a car hit a pole and knocked it out for a few hours.
Until the violent storm of December 14, 2021. We were warned. But not quite for what actually happened. The winds exceeded 100 MPH at the Taos Ski Resort and 80 MPH in town. Several people lost roofs and other parts of houses. Luckily no one died that I know of. I woke up at 6 A.M. in total darkness.
That was when I realized I could not make coffee even after sunrise.
Last summer rodents invaded my propane range and oven, and the damage was too great to salvage. So out it went. I replaced it with an induction one burner counter top model. I already had a Breville Smart oven and a six quart instant pot. The induction burner replaced a thoroughly disreputable hot plate of the $11 dollar variety. It had two settings. Almost cold, and boiling over. I did a lot if research and learned that induction is considered the most environmentally friendly way to cook, better than gas. So I reluctantly embraced the new way. Reluctant because I have been cooking for 58 years and all cooks prefer gas flames.
But my little electric kitchen was working wonderfully. Until that morning, coffeeless and disoriented.
My thoughts turned to refrigeration. I had just done a good shopping and had a lot of food and a full freezer. If I had known what was actually happening I would have acted sooner, but I thought it was a normal outage. The entire county and beyond were all in the dark. The power began to come back on, for the Town of Taos and the richer areas, and then the areas further out. But not my little piece of mesa. It would be 5 days before they repaired the 30 damaged poles and flipped the switch for my road.
I figured out a few things. I have a small cooler, not really big enough. And some ice packs. So I set that up. The freezer was filled to the doors and held well for two days. I ended up putting it all in a big box outside in the freezing air. I secured it underneath a chair. I should have put it all in the car. The feral dogs, or maybe the coyote, tore my box to shreds.
By the second day I figured out how to make coffee on the big flat topped wood stove. I heat with wood and have plenty. Later I was able to make a bowl of soup and even a hamburger on that stove. But mostly it was cold peanut butter and jelly.
The total loss was about $100.
Then there was the lack of water. I had enough to drink and for the critters, but no showers, no flushing, and no doing dishes. Before it was over things were distinctly ripe.
The next problem was communication and internet. Everything slowly lost power. A neighbor gave me a little adaptor for the car. It would take all day to charge the phone and tablet. The hours after the sun went down were an eternity. I got some little candles but only used them when absolutely necessary. The big flashlight developed a short and would go out intermittently. So, no internet, no phone, and no reading. The fireplace, in use every night, provided only a small amount of light. It did provide heat, but much less than normal with no working fan. And yet I was grateful, as the cats and I huddled around it.
Every night I would go online for an hour, until the days charge wore down. But at least I had contact with the world outside. The blackout started near midnight on Tuesday and ended just before sunset the following Sunday.
The local newspaper reports that there were twice as many outages in 2021 than years passed. And I know it is not a local problem, nor is 5 days any kind of record. Among the many things that plague our human existence is the breakdown of our systems, some of them life sustaining. People lived for 200 centuries without electrical power. But sunlight and fire is all they had and all they knew. They were adapted for that life. We are not. Often it is just inconvenient and mildly expensive. Sometimes it is life threatening.
Now that things have normalized, more or less, here are the lessons. In the short term, it is necessary to have a bigger cooler, and boxes sized to fit the car for the frozen items. Also, paper plates, cups, and bamboo utensils. And a little propane camp stove.
The pantry needs to contain some canned soups and crackers, and other easy items. Plus ground coffee or a manual grinder. Some bread in the freezer woukd be a nice touch.
There should be a back up battery powered charger. And ice packs ready to go. And electronics should be kept charged, just in case.Water jugs should be kept filled so things like flushing can still happen, and even a washcloth bath. Candles should be big enough to burn for hours and flashlights should be in working order. There should be a plan in place to deal with everything that is normally dealt with by flipping a switch or plugging something in.
A medium range plan is to get a small generator. Nothing fancy. Probably propane. I truly want to leave petrochemicals behind, but that takes considerably more thought. A small generator could power everything, just not all at once.
The long term plan is 100% active solar, with a tie in to sell back power. That would create real security, at least as far as it goes.
On a larger level, the question is how to get solar to everyone, not just the privileged. The age of petroleum is over, but not the need for power. As the infrastructure, built in the mid twentieth century, fails us, how can we get equitable and decentralized power to everyone? We should all have the security of active solar energy.