At-Risk Patients Plan Ahead for Rolling Blackouts

When Marvin Miller received the call this week from Southern California Edison, he immediately flew into action.

Although officials promised that rolling blackouts wouldn’t hit any house for more than an hour or so, Miller didn’t want to take any chances. His 83-year-old wife, Phyllis, relies on an electric ventilator to breathe.

For most California residents, rolling blackouts are a nuisance. But for the Millers and hundreds of other Ventura County residents on at-home electric support systems, the power crisis has taken on a greater urgency.

First, Miller made sure he had enough gasoline for the generator he keeps in the garage. Then he charged the two large batteries he has on hand. Altogether, that would provide 18 hours of backup power. For a worst-case scenario, the Millers also have a manual ventilator.

As it turned out, the Millers were not among the thousands of county families and businesses who lost power Monday. And while rolling blackouts were scheduled for Tuesday, none occurred countywide. But the Millers anticipate they will go without power several times in the coming months, until the statewide energy crisis is resolved.

“People have to be prepared,” said Miller, 78, an engineer at Naval Base Ventura County. “If they think the government or So Cal Edison is going to take care of them, they’re not.”

The Millers are registered with Edison as customers with special medical needs, as are about 27,000 other residential customers throughout the company’s coverage area, a spokeswoman said.

But that doesn’t exempt those customers from rolling blackouts, as it does large hospitals and police and fire stations. It just means they get a telephone call in advance if a blackout is anticipated. From that point on, they must fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, the county’s public health and emergency medical services departments keep a database of about 3,000 residents they consider at risk--a broad range of patients from wheelchair users to those on life-support systems. Of those, roughly 200 rely on at-home electric ventilators.

The database gives emergency workers an idea of whom to check on in the event of an earthquake or another situation in which the power could be out for a prolonged period, said disaster coordinator Josh Davies. But the county doesn’t check on at-risk people during rolling blackouts, because they are short-lived and not considered life-threatening.

“All of these life-saving devices have automatic backup of two hours and more,” Davies said. “And all of them have the opportunity to be manually operated.”

But Anne Moore, hospice director for Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Assn., said that’s not much consolation for the bedridden. “It’s still scary to them. They have a lot of worries. Just having the lights go out is scary.”

Months ago, in preparation for impending rolling blackouts, the staff at Livingston made sure all their patients had a backup plan. For those with oxygen machines, extra tanks that could be used without electricity were ordered. And they sent out notices reminding patients to stay on guard.

Even so, Moore said, “They get nervous: What if it doesn’t come back on? It’s the fear of ‘what if?’ ”

The Millers say now that they’re prepared they are not too nervous. But they say they are a little angry about a crisis they consider to be driven by suppliers.

“Once it gets to the point where we’re all happy to pay $200 a month, it’ll settle down and there’ll be no more blackouts,” Miller said. “That’ll be the price.”

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Power blackouts rolled through the state for a second day. A1