Plane Crashes Causes Power Failure to Palo Alto

As it is my routine, I was getting ready for working watching the local morning news show when all of a sudden the television shuts off, the lights go out, and all the electronic devices that where connected to an outlet light up. The first thought that came to mind was, "Did I pay the electric bill this month?" I knew that the Palo Alto Utility company would not turn off the lights without warning, so my thoughts moved on to the fuse or some other electrical glitch. At the same time, in a Murphy's Law morning moment, I was dealing with a sick child. About 15 minutes after the electricity went out, I headed out to Walgreen's to pick up some children's cough suppressant. The morning was dense with a thick fog not usual to the Palo Alto area. We have had some unusual weather lately, but nothing compared to the Snowmageddon experienced in the East Coat. I usually take the residential 'back roads' to avoid traffic lights and heavy traffic, so I didn't notice the extents of the power outage until I reached Walgreens. Walgreens was closed. I check the time, checked the store times, checked the time again and realized that the outage was not limited to my home. I drove down to Safeway on Middlefield Road, and their power was out too. At time I thought that the power outage affected only my local neighborhood since Palo Alto is not some hermit community in the mountains and because other than fog, we have not had any bad weather. I decided to go down to San Antonio Road, wow what a mistake. Most of the traffic lights were out, so every intersection became a four way stop and every commuter became 40 minutes late to work. I soon realized that the power outage affected a greater area than I had imagined, so I headed back home avoiding crazy drivers, mad traffic and chaotic intersections. I took West Bayshore Road, which parallels 101. Along the way, I saw employees of Loral Space & Communications standing around the company parking lot, waiting for the lights to come back on. Past that, on residential streets, I saw an unusual amount of folks drinking coffee out in the lawn. I saw one guy with what looked like a police radio or large walkie-talkie.

I later found out that a small twin engine plane crashed into a power transmission tower in East Palo Alto, causing the death of all on board, and a large amount of damage to several homes. At this time, I thought to myself, "We'll the power company is on it, I'm sure in an hour or two the power will be back on. No worries." I was so wrong. As of this writing, I have been over nine hours of loss of power. The power outage has not only affected my local community Walgreens or Safeway, but most of the city of Palo Alto, from San Antonio Road to parts of Menlo Park and Redwood City in the north and parts of Stanford including Stanford Hospital to the east. Downtown Palo Alto, including the shops along University Avenue, is either closed or working without power. I've heard from friends around the bay that companies outside of Palo Alto have also been affected, for example a small company relies on a Palo Alto company for their Voice Over Internet Phone (VOIP) services, so their office has no phones. Friends at other companies have reported downtime with their mail servers for the same reason because these service providers are located in the Palo Alto area.

At this point, there is still no power, and I can't even fathom the amount of loss of revenue, merchandise, and productive this has cost the whole of Silicon Valley. Like it is the procedure of the Federal Aviation Administration, a final report on the crash will be completed in a few weeks, so I can not make judgment as to the cause of the crash. What has surprised me the most about this whole ordeal is the complete single point of failure. I can't believe that one power line could black out the whole city of Palo Alto, a major hub of technology companies and venture capitalists. Throughout the course of the day, I have begun to question our ability to effectively respond to terrorist attacks, infrastructure damage due to earthquakes, etc. I can't believe that the city of Palo Alto utility company does not have any contingency plan, alternative solutions, or backup (no pun intended) for a failure to one single transmission line. This incident sheds light to the weak points of our infrastructure.

I still have the hopes that power will be available tonight. I don't even want to look inside the refrigerator.