Lessons from Darkness

The 2011 Southwest Blackout

On Thursday, September 8, 2011, at about 3:38 pm PDT, darkness descended upon the San Diego–Tijuana area, southern Orange County, the Imperial Valley, Mexicali Valley, Coachella Valley, and parts of Arizona. Referred to as the 2011 Southwest Blackout or the Great Blackout of 2011, it was the largest power failure in California history and it left nearly seven million people without electricity, bringing the San Diego metropolitan area to a standstill.

 In addition to closing all public schools in San Diego County School Districts, federal courts, and most major universities and community colleges in San Diego, the outage forced restaurants, grocery stores, and households to throw away enormous quantities of food that had spoiled due to lack of refrigeration. Perishable food losses were estimated at between $12 million and $18 million. Water quality was also affected and some neighborhoods were told to boil their tap water or drink bottled water for several days afterwards.

“Trains, planes, ships, and trucks stopped moving and grocery store shelves were emptied,” says Kendell Lang, co-founder and CEO of Fusion Farms Puerto Rico. “People were simply not prepared and it came as a shocking revelation to me that I needed to do something to protect my family in the long term against this kind of regional and potentially national catastrophe, whether it be anthropogenic or natural in cause. I vowed to make sure my family wouldn’t ever be vulnerable to that situation again.”

 The 2011 Southwest Blackout only lasted a few days but when you think about natural catastrophes like earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes, the devastation can bring a community or nation to its knees for far longer than a few days. In the case of Puerto Rico, which suffered two powerful hurricanes within a few months of each other in 2017, it took 328 agonizing days for the power grid to be restored on the island; and even then repairs that have been made are temporary in nature.

“The situation is fragile. We continue to experience outages on almost a weekly basis: a reminder of just how unreliable the electricity grid remains,” says Kendell. “Where are you going to get food and water from if your airports, harbors, freeways, and railway lines are all shut down for weeks or even months?”

The Take-home Lesson

The 2011 Southwest Blackout occurred on September 8, 2011, just days before the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. It also occurred mere hours before the United States Department of Homeland Security warned the American public to be wary of another attack leading up to the anniversary. And so, the first public reaction was the widespread concern that the blackout was the results of terrorism. Thankfully, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and San Diego Gas & Electric ruled this out early in their investigation, finding the culprit to be a very unlucky single Arizona technician whose boo-boo had derailed the entire southwest of the United States of America.

But why it happened isn’t really the point here.

“The fact that the entire power grid to San Diego was so vulnerable got me thinking because of how the general public panicked during this outage,” said Kendell. “Society appears to be orderly until a basic need is stripped from us: food, water, shelter, power…without any of these things, chaos is a flip of a switch away and it’s truly shocking how quickly we descend into anarchy.

“If there’s anything to be learned from living through two blackouts – the Great Blackout of 2011 in San Diego and the almost yearlong blackout on Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria – it’s that the modern family is perfectly unprepared for any kind of disaster. We rely entirely upon the roofs over our heads, the electricity in our appliances, the few days’ worth of food in our small pantries, and the water in our taps to protect and sustain us.”

In places such as Puerto Rico, which is routinely hit by severe Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, this is totally insufficient. Better preparation and sustainable, long-term solutions are needed. This is precisely the philosophy Kendell Lang and his wife and business partner, Lisa Jander, are upholding with Fusion Farms Puerto Rico, which seeks to establish a reliable, sustainable, and hurricane protected source of fresh vegetables, leafy greens, and fish protein for the island through vertical aquaponic farming.

“Everything we’re doing is in spite of the island’s ailing infrastructure and its vulnerability to severe storms,” explains Kendell. “Using hurricane protected buildings, renewable energy, rainwater collection tanks, a closed-loop farming system, and capital from our crowd-funding campaign on Start Engine, we don’t have to rely on anyone else. And this is why we believe Fusion Farms is going to succeed, come hell or high water…literally!”

About Fusion Farms

 Fusion Farms is the first indoor aquaponic farm of its kind on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. The concept seeks to transform the unused Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) buildings that are scattered across the island into hurricane-protected, vertical #aquaponic farms. Within this contained and controlled environment, vegetables, micro-greens, and herbs can be grown and supplied to the island, greatly reducing its dependence on imported fresh produce. Furthermore, Fusion Farms will be able to supply a fresh, #sustainable source of fish protein, since Tilapia are an essential component of aquaculture.

For more information about Fusion Farms and to become an investor, go to www.fusionfarmspr.com or email [email protected]