Vegetation and saturated soils continue to be the leading cause of power outages across forested regions, coastal zones, and wind corridors such as the foothills of the Cascades. When soil is waterlogged or when parched ground suddenly receives heavy rainfall trees come down, taking power lines with them. This is a permutation of a pattern that is now being played out across our globe.
As the planet warms, these conditions become more extreme. Bomb cyclones, hurricanes, monsoons, and other intense weather systems are colliding with an aging electrical grid, highlighting the urgent need for energy resilience at both community and household levels. Utilities are working to adapt, but the pace of modernization hasn’t kept up with the scale of the threat. When major storms strike, widespread and prolonged outages are no longer the exception with more damage occurring.
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