By JANIE HAR and JOCELYN GECKER
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) — With no electricity for the fourth straight day Tuesday, chef and caterer Jane Sykes realized she would have to throw out $1,000 worth of food, including trays of brownies, cupcakes and puff pastry.
She also had little hope of getting a good night’s sleep — there was no way to run the machine she relies on to counter her apnea.
“I don’t think PG&E really thought this through,” she lamented.
Frustration and anger mounted across Northern California on Tuesday as the state’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, began another round of widespread blackouts aimed at preventing its electrical equipment from sparking wildfires in high winds.
Millions of people have been without power for days as fire crews race to contain two major wind-whipped blazes that have destroyed dozens of homes at both ends of the state: in Sonoma County wine country and in the hills of Los Angeles.
Read the rest of the story on AP News
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Maybe it is just me, but if I had a thousand dollars worth of food, I think perhaps I just might go shopping for a propane or gasoline driven electricity generator. That probably would also drive her C-pap machine that she needs to sleep at night. That seems to me a more intelligent course of action than getting angry and throwing valuable merchandise out.
One doesn’t need to power every electrical device in their home or business, only the absolutely essential ones and it seems as if refrigeration would be an essential piece of equipment for a chef.
As a contingency against losing electricity in the recent wind storms we have had I purchased dry ice from a local source. I haven’t needed it, but it seemed to me to be a cheap back up to keep my refrigeration devices in a sufficiently cold state to negate having to toss expensive food due to spoilage.
If this silly nonsense about turning off electricity continues, I will certainly look into purchase a generator to run my freezer and refrigerator.