…same as the first, a little bit louder, a little bit worse.

Had a power outage at work yesterday, when I was thankfully not working. (My shift runs Wednesday through Saturday 6 am to 5pm, usually.) This is not too atypical, being in San Diego County where SDG&E both overcharges for power and has insufficient power distribution installed. However, yesterday the issue was due to an aged and insufficiently powerful transformer on campus. (Apparently when they added the new, three story, multi-million dollar building they opted not to upgrade the already old and over-stressed transformer.)

Now everyone is behaving as if we’ve never had such an occurance before, even though we average one a year.

Yes, no one had any idea how to find flashlights, no one knew who to contact for assistance (when elevators shut down mid-floor) or who to contact to find out if the campus was closing or not. But no one EVER knows these things.

Every time we have a power outage there is this flurry of emails, announcements, and resolutions to do better next time… And every time the “next time” rolls around, it’s all a little bit louder, a little bit worse.

Personally, I not only have a rechargeable flashlight plugged in right next to my desk, but… I “know where my towel is.” If only we could reach that level of preparedness on an institutional level… ah well, back to my lunch break.