Families with medical needs worry for the next power outage

The temperature in Kathy Ballard’s house dropped to 40 degrees on Feb.15. She and her husband stayed at a hotel for four days because their home lost heat.

On top of that, she worried if the power goes out when she sleeps, she might not be aware when her medical device loses power.

Lincoln, Nebraska hit an average high of 0 degrees on Feb.12, and the frigid temperature lasted almost a week. The Lincoln Electric System urged customers to start conserving energy on Feb. 13. Two days later, the company’s regional reliability coordinator, the Southwest Power Pool, declared an Energy Emergency Alert Level 3 and began rolling blackouts.

According to LES, a rolling blackout is a planned power outage in a location, ranging from 30 to 60 minutes before moving to another location. This is due to the shortage of power to keep up with customers’ demands.

Ballard, 44, has been using a CPAP machine for 10 years. Her medical condition, obstructive sleep apnea, happens when the muscles in her airway relax, restricting airflow. The machine supplies continuous pressure of airflow to help her sleep at night.

Ballard later discovered the loss of heat in her home wasn't due to a rolling blackout. Instead, her furnace went out. The electricity was running at her home.

Ballard had no back-up plans should she experience a power outage. Ballard’s doctor’s office told her there was nothing they could do about her situation since the machine is a plug-in device.

"It is scary because sleep apnea can kill people in their sleep," Ballard said.

Another resident whose family has a medical issue shared similar concerns about the outage. Jama Young’s 5-year-old son requires oxygen supply when he rests.

Young’s stepfather, who was taking care of her children on the morning of Feb. 16, informed her about the power outage when she got off work at 9 a.m.

Young’s son has a birth defect called spina bifida. According to Mayo Clinic, it causes Chiari malformation, a condition where the brain tissue extends into the spinal canal. This condition has affected her son’s ability to function the way our bodies should when we’re sleeping.

“In my son’s case, when he goes to sleep he quits breathing,” Young said.

Normally, Young’s son would have an oxygen concentrator that plugs into a power socket. A tubing connects the oxygen concentrator to a nasal cannula. Then, Young would place the nasal cannula over her son’s nose and loop it over his ears.

However, when the power goes out, Young’s son would have to rely on an oxygen tank. Young was worried that the electricity wouldn’t come back in time before her child’s oxygen level dropped to 40mmHg, which is below the required level of around 90mmHg.

"There are people who need heat, need oxygen, need medical equipment," Young said.

Like Ballard, Young’s loss of heat at home wasn’t due to the rolling blackouts. It dawned on her to check the fuse box when she noticed steam coming out from her neighbors’ homes, but not hers. Young reset the breaker and the power was back on.

She has since ordered more oxygen tanks from her child’s hospital and made sure to check the fuse box every hour.

Laurie Gregg, system operation manager at LES said people with vulnerable medical conditions are unfortunately on nearly every circuit. LES reminds customers to have a back-up plan, such as a generator, if they require electricity for medical issues, Gregg said.

Meanwhile, on LES’s Facebook page, customers commented on how LES’s power wasn’t cut off when the city had rolling blackouts.

Lucas Fahrer, a former LES employee, defended the company, responding to Facebook users that LES needs electricity at work to make sure customers get their electricity back.

Fahrer said if people stopped to listen for a few minutes, it would be much easier for them to understand the situation rather than rushing to judgment.

“They’re transparent, they’re a not-for-profit, they’re a community agency,” Fahrer said.

LES has a live outage map on their website aside from rolling updates on their social media accounts. Laura Giboo, senior geospatial analyst at LES detailed the map shows customers areas impacted by the rolling blackouts; areas in red signify a current outage while areas in orange signify the anticipated outage areas. She said LES uses a third-party software, ESRI, to update the latest data every 10 minutes on its website.

Fahrer explained Lincoln was asked to conserve energy so that power could be diverted elsewhere where people were having more severe outages. Gregg said LES was instructed by SPP to reduce energy consumption to avoid a more widespread power outage. For example, the entire Eastern half of the U.S.

Fahrer said the condition in Lincoln is nowhere as bad as other parts of the country. His sister who is in Austin, Texas, had no electricity running for the entire day on Feb. 17. Even then, she was helping out friends and family who had been without electricity for 36 hours.

Gregg said, “We understand this event caused much confusion and frustration, especially as news of the first rotating outages was released.” Once the public received information about the reason for rotating outages, Gregg said customers who were once frustrated began helping to spread accurate information.

On the contrary, some Lincoln residents weren’t heavily affected by the rolling blackout.

Mark Friend who left for the gym around 5 a.m. on Feb. 16 noticed his whole neighborhood’s power went out when he came home an hour later. He lost about 30 minutes of work time in the morning.

While waiting for the power to come back, Friend had Special K Fruit cereal with yogurt, using his phone as a light source. Then, he read The Appeal by John Grisham on the couch near his end-table candlelight.

Likewise, Anjaneshwar Ganesan, a UNL physics and mathematics major, woke up in the morning to find his digital clock’s time reset on Feb. 16. He estimated that his power went off from 7 a.m to 8 a.m.

Ganesan’s main concern was the possibility of the outage extending over three hours. By then, his laptop battery would have been drained, and it would be annoying for him to complete his work on his phone.

Ganesan didn’t find the rolling blackouts a huge deal. In comparison, he has experienced power outages in Congo, where he lived for 10 years, that could last an entire day.

Gregg said LES has learned from this experience, such as making quick adjustments for the power outage map to display upcoming up outages. On behalf of LES, Gregg thanked media partners and customers that helped ensure the public had accurate information.