Power outages in California

But this year, the rains have been so heavy that there have been widespread flooding for long periods of time. The state's already dry reservoirs are now being drained.

The reason is that since last November, in the past few months, the state of California has been affected by many "atmospheric rivers" - bands of moisture flowing in from the Pacific Ocean .

Every time there is a storm, strong winds cause trees to fall on power lines. The worst was the storm on March 14, causing widespread power outages, including the entire San Francisco Bay Area. Cities such as Cupertino, San Jose, Sunnyvale, etc. all had partial or total power outages.

In particular, a school in San Jose this school year (2022-2023) had 3 power outages, each time taking 7 days to repair, forcing students to stay home. On the street, electrical repair vehicles were running very urgently.

Candlelight dinner due to power outage

Some families had already lost power before so they were well prepared, while others were "newbies" and were in a panic. Families with gas stoves could still heat and cook food, but families with electric or induction stoves had to "survive" with a mini gas stove for camping.

Most families do not dare to open the refrigerator, for fear of spoiling food. Suddenly the power goes out, not everyone has time to react!

My friend's family rushed to 3-4 markets in the morning to buy ice to save the freezer that was about to melt into water, but they were all out of stock! Some other families drove further away, but the supermarkets were either closed or had sold out of ice.

The most annoying thing about power outages these days is… running out of batteries in electronic devices. When the power goes out, the internet goes out too, and the 4G towers can’t meet all communication needs. My friend’s family went to the company to… charge their batteries, literally charging everything from phones to computers.

For those who do not have a company employee or whose company does not allow family members to come in, the only solution is to go to a library that does not have power outages. Libraries in the state are open from 9am to 7pm or 9pm, depending on the day of the week. They have heating, internet, electricity, tables and chairs, and the toilets are very clean.

Take advantage of the company clean electronic devices

But the power outage also brought a lot of joy. It was very romantic, the house was full of scented candles, the garden was brighter than the house because of the solar lights. There was a storm but only strong winds, the sun was still shining so the solar panels were full. When the power went out, I saw how lucky the houses with electric cars were: There was a giant battery to charge!

The whole family ate dinner together under candles, without any electronic devices. After eating, we played hide and seek, created shadows in the light, and when we felt like it, we went out to look at the stars. After the storm, the night sky was full of stars and white clouds... very beautiful. It was almost the end of March but this year it was still very cold, at night it was only 5-7 degrees Celsius but the whole family hugged each other to sleep and it was warm, another beautiful memory!

A friend of mine, after a few days of power outage, said, "Thankfully, the power outage gave me the chance to play hide-and-seek with my kids. I can't remember the last time I played this game with my kids." And he decided that in the future, he would regularly hold "device-free nights" so that family members could connect with each other more.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/thoi-su-quoc-te/nhung-ngay-mat-dien-o-california-20230324203910821.htm