[agwa]

This article is vague (and overly alarmist); other sources I have read indicate that the threat is to SF's municipal power company, which provides power primarily to municipal buildings (including, most notably, SFO!). The vast majority of people in SF and the Bay Area get their power from PG&E, which has power plants in many more places than just Yosemite.

More info: http://www.sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=391

[tomsaffell]

Yes, the NPR article is alarmist, verging on irresponsible.

A few facts, with sources:

- The water coming out of Hetchy Hetchy is still well within the 'usable' range [1]

- The total loss of power is 293 MW (Holm and Kirkwood), which is a tiny percentage of the power generated in CA [1,2]

- The SF PUC is already dealing with the loss of those 293 MW: San Francisco is making up the difference in power generation by accessing power in an existing power bank and purchasing power on the open market. [1]

- PG&E is reporting no problems in their network (at 10:20 PT) [3]

Keep calm, carry on. Perhaps take it as an opportunity to turn of the lights you're not using, like you should every day ;)

1. http://www.sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=711 (see chart) 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Calif... 3. http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/customerservice/energystatus/gr...

[ChuckMcM]

Its only alarmist if it doesn't get worse :-) Seriously though, alarmist or not, its serious. This fire is growing and not contained. There exists a non-zero chance of it creating a serious impact into the available clean water supply. And this is to a county not exactly known for its fiscal responsibility or ability to respond well to crisis.

[pyre]

But at least San Francisco has maintained it's charm! That's what's really important.

[larrys]

To that point nothing about it on either news.google.com or the front of the NYT or WSJ (but there is something about graphene being a wonder material that is igniting a patent frenzy.)