By Francis Taylor, Executive Editor
Just as each household should have an emergency earthquake preparedness plan, in the event of a power emergency one should also have an emergency plan in place for extended outages for every member of your household, including pets. It is wise to follow the direction of local law enforcement and firefighters for evacuations and road safety. Know about your city or county’s emergency plans and sign up for available emergency notifications from local agencies.
Keep necessities on hand from medical prescriptions to canned goods. Keep a supply of
essentials in an easy-to-access location, so you can get to them quickly, even in the dark.
If you rely on electrically powered medical equipment, have a backup power source. Southern California Edison (SCE) has a Medical Baseline Allowance program, which provides electricity at the lowest available rate. Information about the program and application instructions are available at sce.com/mbl.
To get up to date information during power outages, including emergency as well as maintenance. and rotating outages, bookmark sce.com/outage map on your computer and download the MySCE mobile app on your phone.
You can manage outage notifications and sign-up for alerts by visiting the customer preference center to set up notifications for any type of SCE outage. To make sure that SCE notifications reach you, please review the contact information they have on file for you at sce.com/mysce/preference-center. You can also sign up to get PSPS alerts for any address in SCE’s service area at sce.com/pspsalerts. This can be helpful for those who visit, work, or have relatives living in a high fire risk area. You can receive all outage notifications by text, email, or phone call.
During a power outage, stay away from downed power lines or damaged electrical equipment — call 911 or 1-800-655-4555. Power outages may impact traffic signals, so use extreme caution and treat all intersections with non-working traffic signals as four-way stops. Remember to check your emergency supplies to be sure you have a battery-operated radio, flashlight and fresh batteries. Use flashlights instead of candles to avoid fire hazards in your home or business.
Disconnect all sensitive electronics to prevent damage or loss of data. If you have electric gates orgarage doors, learn how to operate them manually. Batteries and generators help keep lights on, medical equipment powered, and phones charged when you need them most. Batteries can be used indoors, but gasoline and gas-powered generators should only be used outdoors. Connect appliances to the generator and do not connect the generator into household circuits, as that can be dangerous for repair crews.
