THE DISABLED AND PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC
By Gary N. Gray

This past spring most Californians experienced at least one rolling blackout. We might be experiencing another one this weekend, as the temperature rises day by day.  This is the price we pay for living in California. We have problems most other states don't have. 

This year the gas and electric bills have doubled and some tripled all over the state. PG & E has shipped-in power from out of state and handed the costs over to the consumers.

A rolling blackout is when all your electrical supplies are turned off by Pacific Gas and Electric. This includes everybody in your block. No lights, no television, no radio, no washing or drying, no cooking and the refrigerator has stopped keeping your food cold.

Yes, if you’re able-bodied you can live without these things for about ninety minutes.      

Most of us just take it in stride, but most of the disabled need greater measures to get over the 90 minutes of being powerless. We cannot can survive without any power for ninety additional minutes. 

Now if you are disabled and lying down in an iron lung that helps you take your every breath, because your body can't do that for you, those ninety minutes could be your death sentence. 

Pacific Gas and Electric current policy is to give disabled residents a two hour notice to move or find a place that has the equipment to help them before the blackout occurs. They will not help move or assist disabled people to get to these places.       

PG&E has stated in the past that there will be more rolling blackouts this summer. That means disabled residents have to look at the news and listen to the radio each morning to see if they have to make arrangements for their lives. PG & E will not be calling them;  they stated that if the disabled resident looks on the bill it will tell him which block will be out the affected day.  Each morning the disabled person has to question what he/she will have to do, with only a two-hour margin of error.

What if the disabled person is deaf and can't hear the warnings on the radio or television? What if the disabled person can't move out of the home during the blackout? These questions were left unanswered by the person I talked to on the phone this morning. The blackout will proceed as planned. 

Next is the issue of the disabled paying their bills. How will disabled people
pay these higher PG&E bills?  Most disabled people are on fixed incomes and cannot afford the current rate increases PG & E plans to implement this summer.

PG&E helps slightly with their CARE (California Alternative Rate for Energy) discount rate. You can call PG& E at 1-800-743-5000 for more information of this program. This will not be enough when the April and May increases come in. A lot of disabled people use heat and cooling to keep their bodies from overheating or freezing. They have limited controls of their body temperature. Disabled folk use more energy just to survive; it's going to cost them more. Something disabled people do not have enough to pay their bills. 

PG & E stated that you could call the state assistance program, which is called HEAP. Each county has its own HEAP number to call to get more information.  If you or any of your friends are having any problems during this time, please call them and they will help you. This state program will pay one month's energy bill for that disabled person. Or you can call your local:

Salvation Army for the REACH
(Relief Energy Assistant Community for Help) Program.
The phone number is 1-800-933-9697

This program will pay the disabled person one month's energy bill. What will the disabled do after they use these two months assisted programs? PG&E has stated that if the customer is in the process of paying their bill, they will not be cut them off but will give them an extension. This extension will be enforced until these customers cease to look for further funding to pay their bills. Will they be cut off of service because they cannot pay their bills?  Only time and PG & E know. 

I would like to share a story about a most wonderful man I met a few years ago. He was a very talented artist. He could draw or paint anything. He was on his way to stardom and fame, and he could make you laugh just by the way he laughed; everybody liked him. He was a joker to love and to make people happy. This friend's life was cut short because of a power outage on his block. He woke up at 11 p.m. and could not breathe. You see, my friend was in an Iron Lung.  He called 911, and the Berkeley police came instead of the emergency squad; the operator could not hear him. She could not hear him because he could not speak loud enough because the air was leaving his body slowly. So the operator called the Police.  My friend never made it to Alta Bates Hospital. 

This is the fear that a lot of disabled people have about these rolling blackouts. Americans will forever miss the talent of my friend, and we will always miss his company.  

Can PG&E be responsible? No one knows, but some of their current procedures are may cause of incidents like this. Disabled Californians need to write their legislators and Congress about this growing danger. Disabled citizens need to make their voices heard on this current energy query, along with able-bodied people who care. []

Gary Norris Gray is a Political Science-History graduate of
Southern Illinois University.  He is a Bay Area Disabled Political Advocate and is currently writing a book on Black troops in
Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, and Moscow between the Great
Wars of 1923-1938.