Elderly and disabled people no longer eligible for PG&E’s portable battery program on power outage-prone Mendocino Coast

FORT BRAGG, 2/28/24 — Despite the Mendocino Coast regularly being subject to power outages, some lengthy, PG&E has restructured an emergency battery power program in a way that unintentionally excludes the Mendocino Coast. That program provided portable battery backup for oxygen concentrators to the elderly and disabled and other sick people, who need oxygen for survival at worst, comfort at best. The program now is available to anyone who relies on medical machines in narrower fire areas, regardless of income.

During the last big power outage, people at Fort Bragg’s Moura Senior Housing suffered as their caregivers ran all over town looking to fill oxygen tanks, if the patient even had one. The battery backup devices power oxygen concentrator machines that create oxygen from the air, and which won’t work when the power is out. The concentrators have largely replaced oxygen tanks, but without a battery backup, they are useless in a power outage and can be life-threatening during a long outage.

With another storm coming this weekend, locals are once again getting ready for power outages that might hit the coast. This storm probably won’t result in PG&E warnings as did the statewide atmospheric river and winds blitz that hit in early February. But given that it’s the coast, locals can expect some outages.

The only oxygen supply business in Fort Bragg, Apria, closed several years ago. During this last crisis, the hospital and police department were overwhelmed dealing with the power outage; they were not equipped to fill oxygen tanks, even for those who still owned one.

The battery backup devices that can keep those oxygen concentrators working were once available from PG&E to low-income people around the state on both its low income and its “Medical Baseline” program. But somewhere along the way — local politicians this reporter contacted don’t know when — PG&E made the program available only to individuals who live in high fire-risk zones and Fort Bragg’s status changed and became excluded, along with other areas.  (The details will be explained in a follow up article in early March). PG&E wanted to emphasize that the battery backup devices should not be relied upon for long term power outages, only as temporary relief. People here used them to stay breathing until their caregivers, also isolated and traumatized by the power outages, could get to them.

Some inland areas of Mendocino County are still eligible. The devices cost $3000 or more otherwise.

A dozen different local addresses were entered by this reporter in the search line.  All came back ineligible, including Moura Senior Housing. Without any answers from PG&E for a two week period about the program, it was impossible to know if there are any exceptions, or if the entire Coast is ineligible as it appears.  (PG&E has since said that one cannot use the search line to determine eligibility, but also determined those addresses are now ineligible)

Two other PG&E programs for generator rebates and for a device that makes a generator work with home power systems are also only available in high fire-risk zones. The Mendocino Voice was unable to determine if those two programs were ever available outside fire zones or not. They are not restricted to low-income persons as was the portable battery program, which is now not restricted in that way.

PG&E did not respond to seven messages from this reporter over more than a two-week period about when the program was abandoned for the coast and the frequency of power outages on the coast versus other areas. This reporter also contacted the press office and another office at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the PG&E Rate Payer Advocate’s office and State Sen. Mike McGuire’s office. The question boils down to whether the program can be returned to remote places such as Fort Bragg and Mendocino, with lots of low-income, disabled and poor people, not to mention all those folks living at the end of dirt roads who may be unable to drive or even escape during power outages. Sen. McGuire is looking into the issue and any responses from him will be in the follow up article in early March.

Fort Bragg Mayor Bernie Norvell and 4th District Supervisor Dan Gjerde did respond right away. Norvell said he was unaware that the battery backup program was no longer available to all those seniors living in the housing that surrounds Adventist Health Mendocino Coast hospital. “When a program is canceled, we often don’t hear about it, even if we heard about it when it was announced,” Norvell said.

“We have had power outages so often here on the coast for so long we have learned how to take care of each other during them,” Norvell said.

Gjerde said he would contact Assemblyman Jim Wood regarding the program. “The Mendocino Coast suffers loss of electric power nearly every year, and usually multiple days a year,” Gjerde said. “It’s perplexing why PG&E does not include the coast in its free battery program for its most vulnerable customers.”

The community stepped up to help

With a power outage looming this weekend, that working together spirit Norvell mentioned is now in play. Caregivers have been stocking up on oxygen. The Fort Bragg Food Bank has decided to donate one of its generators to Moura Senior Housing. During the last power outage, members of the community and public safety officials stepped up to aid citizens. PG&E says early February was one of the worst power outages in state history. And perhaps that’s why the utility missed the fact that power had gone out at Moura Senior Housing, came back on briefly, then went out again when a transformer blew. Moura residents went without power for two days and two nights and residents scrambled for oxygen, while others around the area already had their power back on.

Moura and two other senior citizen complexes form a ring around Adventist Health. Other units in that ring are apartments, disabled housing, housing for the previously unhoused, low-income housing and working family housing. All of those, including Moura Senior Housing, were turned back on first by PG&E, as the utility has  a priority list. However, the power went off again at Moura and then stayed off. PG&E did not notice. When residents looked on their phones at the PG&E link to know when one’s service will be turned back on —- it said power had been restored. When people tried to call to report the power was off, they couldn’t get through. Pretty soon their cell phones were dead, and many can’t drive or walk.

A couple of people did have the portable battery machines from when they were available. Several people who rely on their caregivers found the caregivers were stranded by the storm or dealing with serious problems themselves.

One man was stuck in his electric recliner the entire time, and nobody knew. Others gathered, frigid, using flashlights in the day room at Moura.

“I’m from Montana so I was in my shorts, but most everybody seemed cold and shivering and wrapped in blankets,” said Moura resident Laura Augusta.

“We have 38 units for seniors here at Moura Senior Housing. Some people need to be on oxygen, which is powered electrically. Others have serious health issues that need to be addressed,” Augusta added.

The residents made a battle plan. Two ladies who are ambulatory said they would go several places for help. The best idea they had was to go to the police station and ask to speak to Police Chief Neil Cervenka.

Augusta continued the story. “As soon as they explained the problem, the chief immediately dropped everything and came to our aid. It was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Augusta moved to Fort Bragg in about 2000 and operated a vintage home and antique store in a restored home with the Stables, a renovated 19th century stage and horse facility.

“He contacted PG&E, and they came fairly quickly to restore the power,” Augusta continued. “But even before they got here there were uniformed officers coming over to help us and check on us. There were hot meals from Harvest Market and hot coffee from Thanksgiving Coffee [a local coffee company]. [The seniors] were all freezing and overdressed and holding onto that coffee as if it were a life-giving force.. It was the best coffee I have ever tasted,” she said.

“The meals from Harvest Market were enough to feed 50 people for lunch and dinner. We hadn’t had hot meals or even coffee for several days. These weren’t just little lunchboxes, it was hot lasagna; one vegetarian, one meat. There was a wonderful big green salad, garlic bread, even cupcakes for dessert. That was one excellent meal. I was so grateful to all the people who hurried to our aid and impressed at our small town,” she said.

Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka explained that when the power came back on briefly, the local transformer that serves Moura blew. Chilly residents may have all turned their power on at once, he suggested.  Cervenka said PG&E was overwhelmed by the power outage and for some reason Moura was overlooked, despite being on the priority list.

There were many corners of the community that came together for Moura. “I got phone calls from Home Health services that a lot of us are on here, and they were making their due diligence rounds, calling everybody to see if we were okay or if we needed anything,” Augusta said. 

“And I thought that was such a good thing. That was above and beyond and then they gave the police the list of all the people so that police went door to door one at a time with over 100 names on their list…  There were two young ladies from the new task force [the Care Response Unit] who also helped out.”

Police in Ukiah were involved in a similar rescue of seniors during the same storm.

While individual unit generators are forbidden in Moura and in nearly all apartment complexes, due to the noise and fumes, the Food Bank plans to donate its generator to power the day room where seniors gathered and planned their own rescue.

Augusta liked that idea. “If this were to happen again, being able to charge our phones and have hot coffee made all the difference. I say a big shout-out to the police. There was the chief, the captain and at least five other police officers in uniform. Oh my goodness, we are all working on being better prepared next time.”

There are many other things people can do to prepare for a power outage. The Mendocino Voice has a list here that describes good disaster planning (see end of article).

Cell phones may or may not work. This reporter’s did not in Cleone. Augusta’s did, but she had trouble getting somewhere where she could charge the battery. Landline phones generally work in an outage and did for this reporter, but one needs to use an old-fashioned phone that does not require electricity to function, such as a rotary dial phone. Augusta found out that the medical alert system she had did not work in the power outage. “It just kept giving me the message, Power not found.”

People are warned to keep their oxygen tanks full, as waiting to do so until the storm hit was a disaster. Steel portable oxygen tanks are used as backups for concentrators by some, although they hold only a limited supply of oxygen.

Coast resident Hannah Nelson tried to help someone in the Moura Senior Housing who needed oxygen and found that it was very hard to get on short notice. The hospital was able to have power thanks to a generator, but that power is limited.

There were bright spots, led by Harvest Market. Fort Bragg Planning Commissioner Jary Stavely was delighted to find Redwood Coast Seniors, Fort Bragg’s senior center’s lights on amidst a dark town. He went in to have lunch with other grateful people. The lights were also on at City Hall, where people went to charge phone batteries.

Harvest Market’s generator has made the store a community center since the 1990s. The Safeway generator is famous for failing. When a rush for groceries and gas went on this time sections were blocked off. Many items were gone from the store as scared people stocked up. Back in the day, the Safeway manager had a give-away in the parking lot of frozen meats, and a big town barbecue was held.

Power outages have lasted a week or more for coast residents at least six times since the 1980s.

The February outage illustrated how quickly people can become isolated on the remote ridges of the coast and even in the city of Fort Bragg. People are now thinking about the need for more established disaster hubs with generators, such as the Albion Fire Station provided this time. 

Dr. Jennifer Kreger has headed a group intent on helping the coastal community establish more disaster hubs and routes out in case of a quake, tsunami or fire. For inlanders, the coast, while isolated, could be a better place to ride out a disaster.

While PG&E did not provide answers about its portable battery program in time for this article, they did explain just how bad the early February storm was:

“The storm that hit Northern and Central California on Sunday February 4^, was one of the strongest, single-day winter storms in three decades,” replied PG&E spokesperson Karly Hernandez by email.

“It was a cyclonic storm that developed much closer to shore than had been forecast resulting in the largest single storm producing multiple customer outages in nearly 30 years affecting 1.85 million customers. Wind gusts exceeded 90 mph in isolated spots and widely topped 60-85 mph. High gusts and strong sustained winds caused an incredible amount of damage across our service area, including breaking or toppling 946 poles, requiring us to restring or repair more than 2,839 spans of powerlines and damaging or destroying 485 crossarm and 378 transformers. PG&E had over 5,300 employees and contractors, including more than 628 crews, on storm duty, working to restore power to our customers. Between the start of the storm on February 4th and the evening of February 8th, PG&E crews were able to restore more than 1.83 million customers, more than 86% within 24 hours,” Hernandez wrote. 

In her February 19 email, she said that the second storm, from last week, didn’t compare to the first. “During that cyclonic winter storm, at its peak, there were approximately 60,000 customers without power in PG&E’s Humboldt Division, which includes Mendocino County. The winter storm we are currently experiencing has had a far lesser impact and currently in the Humboldt Division we are seeing 4,119 customers affected.”

After the story was complete, The Mendocino Voice received news that some people on the coast can qualify for the  Self-Generation Incentive Program’s (SGIP) Equity Resiliency rebate. “The rebate can help with the cost of installing energy storage. During a power outage, this backup energy can help power your devices. We uses the “Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS)” and wildfire history to confirm you qualify for this rebate. Learn more and apply on the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) website or our SGIP webpage.”

There is also some assistance for people on the Medical Baseline program and the low income California Alternative Rates for Energy (CARE) program, but with no responses from PG&E on these questions, people should call for themselves to find out more. The PG&E website specifically says that people on medical baseline must be in fire risk areas.

(This story was updated on March 2 to include additional information)

Mendocino Voice Winter weather resources:

• Check your specific forecast at this link along with the National Weather Service advisories and warnings, as well as their Facebook page and their Twitter page
• Check the CalTrans QuickMap for current road closures or call 1-800-GAS-ROAD
• Check for current accidents at the CHP traffic update page
• Traffic cameras can be seen here
• You can also check out the Weather Underground to look for weather stations in your area.
• Check the PG&E current outage map to find or report power outages
• NWS is seeking snowfall reports, and you can submit them to this website. 
• We recommend meteorologist Daniel Swain’s Weather West Blog as a good place to find more in-depth current weather analysis

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