[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]

What a lesson this outage can teach us. Earthquake prepareness is important to everyone in this area. Food, water, transportation. Be prepared.

I was told the federal agency wouldn't let the city workers in the investigation area to get the power reconnected.

Are we one of the only developed countries that still hasn't isn't running its wiring underground? How embarrassing for Palo Alto to be crippled for the entire day and that our City had no generators to keep at least some power going.

I also wonder why airplanes are even allowed within a 50 mile radius of such a critical tower?

The whole day shows how ill-prepared our City is for any emergencies. I certainly hope we all got our share of lessons learned today. I sure did.

Cynthia:

Embarrassing for Palo Alto? How exactly?

I'm sure Palo Alto Utilities would be happy to underground the city's entire electric distribution system, and also build enough backup generation to serve the city's entire electric load -- provided you and everyone else in Palo Alto is prepared to pay about 4x as much for electricity as you do now. My guess is most people would probably rather keep their current rates (which, by the way, are among the lowest in the state) and run the risk that once every decade or so they might have to go a whole day without power. Based on the level of the outcries you hear whenever there's a proposal to raise rates by a penny, I'm pretty sure I'm right.

And by the way, if you created a 50-mile no-fly zone around that particular tower, you'd have to shut down three of the country's largest airports. If you did this to all critical infrastructure around the country you'd basically eliminate the country's aviation industry. Sounds like a reasonable solution to a once-in-a-century event!

I believe you mean twice in a century.

Web Link

This was a very mini crisis and I think people should use it to make sure they have on hand the important things for an earthquake.

> I'm sure Palo Alto Utilities would be happy to underground the
> city's entire electric distribution system,

The City started an undergrounding project around 1976. It costs (if memory serves) between 1600-6500 to underground electrical/telephone on a per-house basis.

But this was a high-voltage feed coming in from PG&E. In this day and age of "terrorism", we need to remember that a very small explosive device could have the same effect. The idea of undergrounding all of America's high-voltage lines is not very realistic. Maybe it's worth looking at locally. But having more than one feed would make more sense.

To Menlo Park Jim:
Palo Alto would have all the economic resourses to do the pertinent infraestructure upgrade to the electrical and gas distribution network if only city hall had not used the Palo Alto utilities Dept as a source of income to the General Fund. People have to get up their butts and let them know that such a practice has to stop.

I happened to make a purchase at a resturant in Town and Country, this Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately, they were having a software
problem and I paid cash. Did any other business have this problem in the Downtown area? Does an electrical outage cause glitches
to the Internet? The Downtown Library also had online issues this evening.
My home DSL (AT&T) in the nearby area has been operating as before
the loss of electricty, although AT&T did not function during the outage. The service I use is not wireless.