Giving Compass' Take:

• California is proposing to intentionally shut off power as a practical way to combat and prevent wildfires, but planned outages might end up doing more harm than good. 

• Older adults are disproportionately affected by the fires, and many live with chronic health conditions that require electricity to help them throughout the day. What are alternative ways that the state can specifically assist the elderly during this time?

• Learn about how wildfires exacerbate health challenges for low-income Californians. 

California utility companies are increasingly triggering power outages by their own accord to try to prevent wildfires. But the practice may endanger elderly people and individuals with power-dependent medical devices.

While intentionally shutting off power may be a practical way to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires, is it worth the risks?

Indeed, planned power outages may be hurting the very populations they seek to protect.

These wildfires disproportionately affected older adults because older adults are more likely than other age groups to be socially isolated, to face challenges with evacuating, and to have chronic health conditions.

Likewise, when the power gets turned off to prevent wildfires, older adults are likely to be at risk for injury or death. While the impacts on individuals unprepared for a power outage are unknown, other weather events indicate that health risks for the elderly are significant.

Within California there are at least 176,483 electricity-dependent individuals.

Despite the fact that these individuals are unlikely to be enrolled in a registry with their county or city or with their electric company, this population is frequently included in public health and health care emergency plans, where they receive education on how to create a personal preparedness plan to best preserve medications and, in some instances, access backup power generators.

By 2030, there will be 10.9 million older Californians. most of whom are likely to prefer aging in place if national surveys are any indication.

This presents a challenge for public health authorities: how and who should locate older adults during emergencies. This should also be a consideration for utility companies.

Read the full article about California wildfires by Joie D. Acosta and Regina A. Shih at RAND Corporation.