Seniors at California Complex ‘Abandoned’ During Blackout

Elected officials and PG&E customers have complained bitterly over the utility’s lack of communication and inability to provide real-time estimates of when the power would be back on.

Marie Hoch, president of the Hamilton Field of Marin Owners Association, which does not include the Villas, got a call Monday. She visited the three buildings that make up the complex and found apartments without heat and electric stoves that did not work.

“I thought it was particularly upsetting that they knew the power outage was coming,” she said of management.

Zuzak didn’t leave her floor until after Monday night, when power was restored. She spent the two days ping-ponging from one end to the other, checking on neighbors.

Her friend Patti Zahnow, 77, who also uses a walker, says she was too frightened to leave her apartment.

“It was really dark. They put a floodlight up that wasn’t working,” she said. “They should have a floodlight that works.”

Residents said emergency lighting came on in the windowless hallways but lasted for about 12 hours, not nearly long enough for an extended outage. Battery-operated front doors to the buildings that are usually locked became unlocked during the outage.

“It’s pretty disconcerting for the seniors who were fairly unprepared or have difficulty orienting at nighttime,” said Maureen Wagner, 64, who serves as a caregiver for her sister, who lives at the Villas.

Resident Helen Wagar, who is in her 80s, was returning to her third-floor apartment from walking her dog, Pixie. She was climbing the stairs, in the dark, when she tripped over another woman who had fallen on a landing.

Wagar’s knee is swollen. She never found out the identity of the woman.

“It was black as pitch in that stairwell,” she said. “I never did see the girl at all.”

Story cited here.

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