[crazygringo]

Electrical outages aren't all that common as a regular thing in the first place, and for package delivery it's not unreasonable to expect packages not to be delivered during a multi-day blackout.

As for emergency vehicles specifically, that's what backup generators are for. And it's not like there are that many emergency vehicles in the first place. Keeping 3 fire trucks charged, or 4 ambulances, in a single location, with a generator, is pretty trivial all things considered.

The main vehicles that will probably remain gas are snowplows (often garbage trucks with a plow attachment). In major winter storms, snowplows need to operate continuously and are parked together rather than dispersed among small sites the way emergency vehicles are. But for that very reason, forced electrification isn't coming for them. Planners and lawmakers are very aware of these situations.

[KennyBlanken]

> for package delivery it's not unreasonable to expect packages not to be delivered during a multi-day blackout.

Except for plenty of people who rely upon package delivery for medications which can have very limited shelf-life, or require being chilled, with limited time before the icepack or dry ice melts?

[crazygringo]

If it's just your chilled weekly food cook-at-home kit, the company will just eat the loss usually. No biggie.

While if it's a medical emergency, you should always have a backup plan anyways since packages get delayed for days all the time even without blackouts. Just last month an Amazon package of mine took 3 weeks to arrive because the UPS had temporarily lost it I guess.

UPS is not a life-saving service, and nobody should be relying on it as such.

[orangepurple]

> Electrical outages aren't all that common as a regular thing in the first place

Oh my sweet summer child. You haven't spent enough time in the midwest. Power outages can occur on windless sunny days and last for a really long time.

[JKCalhoun]

Twiddling my thumbs in Nebraska for a few years now. No power outages in my neighborhood.

Maybe you mean Texas?

[crazygringo]

You're right I haven't. How often do they happen and for how long? Minutes or hours or days?

Is there anywhere that tracks stats nationwide?

[orangepurple]

Hours to a handful of days usually. If I knew where they were I would spend less time driving across the county trying to find places where the lights are still on where I can fill up my truck and gas generator. Since I got a briefcase sized gas generator I don't have to worry about food thawing or myself overheating in the summer since I can run box fans in the shade. They generally provide enough juice to power on a whole house natural gas heater in the wintertime.

[crazygringo]

Oh yikes, sorry to hear. Makes me more thankful for big-city grid reliability I guess. Thanks for the info.

[local_crmdgeon]

Never had a blackout in NYC or KC