Tuesday, February 8, 2011

State of Emergency


Today started not much different than any other. Meditation, check email on my phone, put espresso on the stove, take a few mice that were trapped last night outside, and then turn on the radio to see what’s happening. After six days, Taos is still in a STATE OF EMERGENCY!!!

For those of you who don’t know, six days ago a Texas power outage caused 32,000 New Mexican homes and businesses to lose natural gas service. About half of those without service live in Taos and the surrounding areas where, on the day of the outage, the temperatures dropped to -42 degrees with wind-chill. Taos residents were warned only thirty minutes before the outage that would affect residents’ abilities to heat their houses and use their gas stoves. By the time I found out there was an issue, the whole town was sold out of space heaters and they were talking about a power outage that could happen during the peak use hours starting at 5pm. The powers that be informed the radio that it was only a rumor, but it didn’t stop the power from going out that evening.

I’m not one to spread conspiracy theories, but little by little pieces of information have been chipped from the adobe lined fabric of our community, and now there is a pile of mud in the center of the floor that is hard to dispute. Rather than share this here, I urge you to go to http://www.ktao.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=245&Itemid=220 where you can listen to a never ending stream of callers giving first person accounts of what is happening, and go to The Taos News at http://www.taosnews.com/ for breaking news.

What I will share are some of the crazy things that I have heard and seen during the past six days. First, Taos was CHOSEN by the power company to be one of the few communities to be without service, and six days later 30% still haven’t been turned back on. Local professionals who are certified to turn the gas back on were not deployed for relighting efforts because they are not union members. Residents were told not to turn their gas on themselves. The next day they were told that if they felt comfortable, they or someone they trusted could attempt to turn the gas back on. The national guard and various other entities deployed to turn peoples gas back on are driving around confused because they don’t know whose gas is turned on and whose isn’t. Two days ago people were told to leave them alone to do their work, and now they are told to flag them down because they have no idea who still needs to be shut back on. Citizens have rallied to help each other offering wood, food, places to stay and moral support. Other citizens are yelling at the people who show up to turn their gas back on and one even threatening to get his gun because they had to wait so long. One worker got bit by a dog. 16 fires have been reported since this began. The power is scheduled to go out again this evening, but only for an hour or so. Snow continues to fall.

I have not been affected directly by this state of emergency. I live in a house where a small wood stove provides heat at night or on cloudy days, and south facing windows keep it warm during the day and well into the evening. My water comes from snow and rain from the roof and a small propane canister is more than ample for cooking. I still feel for those in the community who aren’t as fortunate as I, and I have helped out where I could. On one level I think that informed finger pointing is important. I believe that however this ends up, light will be shined on the system that we trust to support us. I fear that this is going to leave us with a sense of insecurity that could, if left unaddressed, lead to more states of emergency in the future.

When disasters like this occur, I see how much is possible when a community gets together to help themselves. Ultimately, the only control we have is how we treat each other and how we live our lives. In this situation we can see that the grid and infrastructure is fragile. What would happen if we didn’t have electricity or gas for an extended period? What if phone service wasn’t available? What if the grocery stores closed down? Scary thoughts? If so, what can we do to make them only a slight inconvenience? I’m not suggesting we all go solar or bulldoze our houses and build earthships, at least not yet. What we can do is meet our neighbors and know who is who in our area. During the time I spent listening to community members talk on the radio there were leaders who stepped up selflessly to help their neighbors. It was also apparent how powerful a calm voice can be keeping a potentially volatile situation from exploding. Thanks KTAO DJ Paddy Mac and other speakers on the radio.

I didn’t move to Taos for stability, I moved to Taos because I believe that instability has tremendous potential. We have sunshine, we have wind, we have soil to grow our food, we have resources in which to build houses and we have able bodied, intelligent neighbors who can help turn these things into a sustainable community that can have plenty of abundance to share with other communities in need. Maybe they CHOSE Taos because they believed that we were a community who was capable of going without. Wouldn’t it be great if in the future we were the first to volunteer?

1 comment:

trapezum said...

nicely written, Scott!