Each year millions of people are affected by power failures. Every one remembers the
Northeast Blackout in 2003 that affected
more than 50 million people. In the past 6 years, about
100 million customers were affected.
- 2004 - 18 million customers affected in 86 separate incidents.
- 2005 - 18.5 million customers in 75 separate incidents.
- 2006 - 15.3 million customers in 77 separate incidents.
- 2007 - 7.3 million customers in 76 separate incidents.
- 2008 - 27.4 million customers in 149 separate incidents.
- 2009 – 9.5 million customers in 69 separate incidents.
Were you one of them?
What causes Power Failures?
The
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) tracks power reliability statistics and generates reports on power outages in their
Electric Power Monthly reports. They show the staggering statistics of the millions of customers that lose power each year from
major outages. These outages happen for a variety of reasons.
The majority of outages are weather related:
- Hurricanes cause widespread outages.
- Snow and Ice storms cause severe damage to power lines.
- Wind storms bring down power lines in many areas due mostly to fallen tree limbs.
- Other causes include animals, equipment and cable failures, accidents, and planned outages.
How do you protect yourself?
We strongly recommend that you
do not use candles when the power fails because:
- There are over 16,000 candle related fires annually.
- An average of 140 deaths each year from candle related fires.
- Property damage exceeds $300 million in those fires.
- Candles used for light during power outages caused about one-third of all fatal home candle fires.
Only a small fraction of homes have permanent power backup generators - they are costly and complex. There are also many tragic and unnecessary deaths from portable generators when not used properly.
PowerSURE® Power Failure Lights are safe and effective for lighting your home at night. You can safely navigate your home without using the main lights, and you can be secure in knowing that your home will never be totally dark again - even with the inevitable power failures that are sure to come.
