This article on power outages is brought to you by OPALCO’s Member Services Department.
Eastsound Member Services Representatives (below) are Karin Becker, Ginny Reagles,
and Kathy Buscher.
Why
are you having an unplanned power outage?
Unplanned power outages can be caused by weather, equipment failure, birds, squirrels or other animals on the overhead lines or in the transformers, or boats anchoring over submarine cables.
Although we regularly have trees and brush in our rights-of-way cleared to minimize outages, this doesn’t always prevent outages caused by fallen trees – a 40 foot tree that is thirty feet away from the transmission lines can fall down and cause an outage. Even a branch touching a line is enough to cause the power to go out. If the power is out in a large area, the crew has to inspect the entire line to make sure the power will remain on once we re-energize.
Our main transmission lines are overhead. It is easier to locate problem areas and make repairs on overhead lines than underground cable. On the other hand, under-ground cables are not affected by the wind.
What to do when your power goes out?
When your power first goes off, please do the following prior to calling us. This may be a quick fix for you, and it saves us time in determining the extent of the outage and estimating the cause.
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Check your fuses or circuit breakers.
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Check with your neighbors to see if their lights are out.
To report an outage, you may either call OPALCO’s regular number (376-3500) or the outage number (376-3599). When you call 376-3500 after hours, you will get our generic message and will need a touch tone phone to access the menu. If yours is one of the first calls regarding the outage, you will press 1 and get our after-hours dispatcher. The dispatcher will contact our crews, and, if extensive, our office staff. With our new phone equipment, we can record a message letting everyone know where the outage is and update it when we receive information from the crew. With the recorded outage message, we can inform more members who call in than if we had eight employees answering the phones. If you don’t hear your outage on the message, follow the prompts to notify us of your outage.
Do not worry about bothering us – you deserve to know what is going on. Sometimes when power is restored in an area, one or two members may still be without power (due to a variety of reasons), and we need to know about it so we can make sure everyone’s power has been restored.
Try to avoid opening your refrigerator or freezer. If you keep them closed, they will do their job for about 36 hours. If it looks like the outage will last longer, you might want to put some of the food in an ice chest with ice in it.
Keep an outage preparedness kit handy with warm blankets, flashlights, battery-powered radio and plenty of batteries on hand.
During a major power outage, keep your battery-operated radio tuned to any one of these five radio stations that we will update periodically:
| KGMI | 790 AM | KBAI | 930 AM |
| KPUG | 1170 AM | KISM | 92.9 FM |
| KAFE | 104.3 FM |
Use candles with caution – never leave them burning unattended.
If you are running a standby generator, you must be absolutely certain that the unit is isolated from the power source any time it is generating current - if it is incorrectly hooked up, one of our crew could be seriously injured. If unsure, please contact an electrician.
If you must use propane, natural gas, fuel oil or wood, you should know the flu-like symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, which are persistent headaches, sleepiness, lack of energy, nausea, dizziness, weakness, reddening of the face, burning eyes, and shortness of breath.
During power outages, turn off your hot water heater and unplug all appliances (except
one light to let you know when power has been restored). This helps OPALCO pick
up the load, and it is much easier on your appliances. Wait about five minutes after
the power comes back on to switch your appliances on to make sure the system is
stabilized.
Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding when we are working to
restore power to your homes and businesses.
Friday Harbor Member Services Representatives Jeanie Fodor, Joyce Smith and Emily
Orr.
