california has had its share of wildfires. southern california edison (sce) is being sued and blamed for starting several wildfires, most notably the thomas fire.

sce has responded by stating that among other measures they are considering turning off all electric service in advance of "extreme and potentially dangerous weather conditions".

https://www.sce.com/safety/wildfire

they have stated this outage might last for a week or more.

this raises a host of questions, let alone numerous unintended consequences.

how does one prepare for such an event? like a hurricane, only longer duration?

to have a natural-gas-fed backup generator could cost 4,000$ + installation. for an event that might never happen.

your thoughts solicited and appreciated.

Short answer - Do what we did during the Thomas fire - cope with the situation. We were without electricity for several days and we left the fridge shut almost all that time. Food came through just fine withno significantloss.

I keep lots of solar and battery powered lights handy, as well as a battery powered radio, plus the radios in our two vehicles. I can keep the phones charged from the vehicles or from a couple of portable solar panels.

Most of my power tools are battery powered and are backed up by hand tools.

Cooking can be accomplished with a variety of camp and backpacking stoves. I keep about three weeks of fuel available.

Fortunately I live fairly close to the coast and temps are fairly moderate. About twenty miles away, temps are much more extreme and one would have be "inventive." = do outdoor, strenuous stuff early.

If your electricity in involved in your water heating system, solar heated shower bags work very well. I have used them extensively and they are great.

I'll bet non-Californians would have some valuable imput.

Humankind advanced without electricity for thousands of years. We can survive for a week without voltage.