What's Been the Impact of the Fires & Blackouts to Date?
The PG&E blackout has ended (for now – fingers crossed).
The Mill Valley Chamber remains ready to help you and your business any way we can. To that end, we created a Public Safety Power Shutoff and Disaster Preparedness Toolkit to help you plan ahead for the next incident. CHECK IT OUT HERE.
We welcome your feedback! Email us with feedback here.
We'll continue to update the Toolkit with the latest info available. As you know, there's also a ton of news news and information to digest about the impact of the fires and PG&E power outages. Here's a rundown of some of the most important info of the past week or so:
FULL IMPACT ON LOCAL BIZ NOT FULLY KNOWN – BUT IT WAS SIGNIFICANT
Robert Eyler, Sonoma State University professor and chief economist of the Marin Economic Forum, told the Marin Independent Journal that the outages of October are unlikely to leave a devastating “footprint” on the general local economy. That said, he noted that businesses that were struggling before the outages could suffer from the unexpected spoilage and loss of traffic that could push them into failure. Companies whose business was disrupted because of factors such as lost computer power could also sustain damage, and lost revenue for Marin's tourism sector could lead to reduction in hotel and sales tax revenues for local governments.
DO YOU HAVE A SENSE OF HOW THE OUTAGE IMPACTED YOUR BUSINESS FINANCIALLY? LET US KNOW HERE.
CAN YOU BE COMPENSATED BY PG&E?
Don't hold your breath. PG&E has said businesses and residents can file claims to be compensated $250 for businesses and $100 for residents for outage loss, but that only covers the blackout on Oct. 9. According to the Mercury News, there are no current plans for similar rebates for the three shutoffs that have followed since then, but the utility is “open to having a policy discussion with state regulators and others.”
CHECK WITH YOUR INSURANCE BROKERS AND UPDATE YOUR COVERAGE
An illuminating report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggested that there remains a significant gap between the amount of insurance coverage small businesses have and the amount and type of damage they have sustained: “Because small businesses are such important economic drivers in our country, learning more about their levels of natural disaster preparedness is critical to understanding mechanisms of nationwide economic resilience and recovery. We find that although most firms that experienced disaster-related losses did have insurance, the types of coverage appear to be mismatched to the actual damage experienced. This leaves critical gaps that need to be addressed and better understood.”
MARIN'S FOOD SUPPLY WAS SQUEEZED
With so much food needing to be thrown away after the blackout, Marin's food supply has been squeezed, according to the Marin IJ, with plenty of empty shelves in the aftermath of the outages.
CELL PHONE TOWERS FAILED
The long outages underscored the reality that cuts to electricity also translate to a blackout of emergency communications, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Here's a piece about the impact of federal climate change policy on the fires raging in California and the related PG&E blackouts. “This is the climate change that scientists have been telling us about for years and we’ve buried our heads like ostriches.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
On the larger issue of fires and outages, Cal Matters created a fantastic roundup on many of the possible ways to reduce wildfires and their impacts, including scaling back home development in high-risk areas, putting utility power lines underground, build micro-grids that limit the scale of outages, break up PG&E, and much more, along with the likelihood that regional and state leaders will look to implement some of those solutions.
The folks at Vox suggest California make massive investments in solar, micro-grids and distributed energy resources. Great read.
Bay Area interest in solar arrays and backup batteries has skyrocketed, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Marin Independent Journal reported that a group of Mill Valley residents has filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that a new ordinance aimed at preventing wildfires was adopted without a proper analysis of its environmental impacts?
Lastly, there was a beautiful-yet-ominous piece from Mill Valley writer Jacques Leslie in the Los Angeles Times: "We faced no war, no imminent danger, and when electricity returned on Wednesday afternoon, we cheered. But what remains is an unrelenting whisper inside our heads that says we’re on a path that ends in chaos."
Let us know if you've seen something that would be useful for your fellow business owners and we'll add it here! As always, reach out anytime at 415.388.9700 or info@millvalley.org with questions/thoughts. We'll be organizing a workshop later this year on backup energy options.
The Mill Valley Chamber remains ready to help you and your business any way we can. To that end, we created a Public Safety Power Shutoff and Disaster Preparedness Toolkit to help you plan ahead for the next incident. CHECK IT OUT HERE.
We welcome your feedback! Email us with feedback here.
We'll continue to update the Toolkit with the latest info available. As you know, there's also a ton of news news and information to digest about the impact of the fires and PG&E power outages. Here's a rundown of some of the most important info of the past week or so:
FULL IMPACT ON LOCAL BIZ NOT FULLY KNOWN – BUT IT WAS SIGNIFICANT
Robert Eyler, Sonoma State University professor and chief economist of the Marin Economic Forum, told the Marin Independent Journal that the outages of October are unlikely to leave a devastating “footprint” on the general local economy. That said, he noted that businesses that were struggling before the outages could suffer from the unexpected spoilage and loss of traffic that could push them into failure. Companies whose business was disrupted because of factors such as lost computer power could also sustain damage, and lost revenue for Marin's tourism sector could lead to reduction in hotel and sales tax revenues for local governments.
DO YOU HAVE A SENSE OF HOW THE OUTAGE IMPACTED YOUR BUSINESS FINANCIALLY? LET US KNOW HERE.
CAN YOU BE COMPENSATED BY PG&E?
Don't hold your breath. PG&E has said businesses and residents can file claims to be compensated $250 for businesses and $100 for residents for outage loss, but that only covers the blackout on Oct. 9. According to the Mercury News, there are no current plans for similar rebates for the three shutoffs that have followed since then, but the utility is “open to having a policy discussion with state regulators and others.”
CHECK WITH YOUR INSURANCE BROKERS AND UPDATE YOUR COVERAGE
An illuminating report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggested that there remains a significant gap between the amount of insurance coverage small businesses have and the amount and type of damage they have sustained: “Because small businesses are such important economic drivers in our country, learning more about their levels of natural disaster preparedness is critical to understanding mechanisms of nationwide economic resilience and recovery. We find that although most firms that experienced disaster-related losses did have insurance, the types of coverage appear to be mismatched to the actual damage experienced. This leaves critical gaps that need to be addressed and better understood.”
MARIN'S FOOD SUPPLY WAS SQUEEZED
With so much food needing to be thrown away after the blackout, Marin's food supply has been squeezed, according to the Marin IJ, with plenty of empty shelves in the aftermath of the outages.
CELL PHONE TOWERS FAILED
The long outages underscored the reality that cuts to electricity also translate to a blackout of emergency communications, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Here's a piece about the impact of federal climate change policy on the fires raging in California and the related PG&E blackouts. “This is the climate change that scientists have been telling us about for years and we’ve buried our heads like ostriches.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
On the larger issue of fires and outages, Cal Matters created a fantastic roundup on many of the possible ways to reduce wildfires and their impacts, including scaling back home development in high-risk areas, putting utility power lines underground, build micro-grids that limit the scale of outages, break up PG&E, and much more, along with the likelihood that regional and state leaders will look to implement some of those solutions.
The folks at Vox suggest California make massive investments in solar, micro-grids and distributed energy resources. Great read.
Bay Area interest in solar arrays and backup batteries has skyrocketed, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Marin Independent Journal reported that a group of Mill Valley residents has filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that a new ordinance aimed at preventing wildfires was adopted without a proper analysis of its environmental impacts?
Lastly, there was a beautiful-yet-ominous piece from Mill Valley writer Jacques Leslie in the Los Angeles Times: "We faced no war, no imminent danger, and when electricity returned on Wednesday afternoon, we cheered. But what remains is an unrelenting whisper inside our heads that says we’re on a path that ends in chaos."
Let us know if you've seen something that would be useful for your fellow business owners and we'll add it here! As always, reach out anytime at 415.388.9700 or info@millvalley.org with questions/thoughts. We'll be organizing a workshop later this year on backup energy options.