Southern California Edison is planning considerable work in Idyllwild for the next six months. Although Edison has mailed a letter to local customers, the Mountain Disaster Preparedness group has scheduled a public meeting with Edison officials from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at Town Hall.

“They will give us some good specifics about power outage and plans,” said Mike Feyder, MDP president. “Especially up here in the cold weather, outages are not just an inconvenience. Without power, some have no heat, no hot water and it hurts those with medical needs.”

Edison staff will describe the work planned this summer and fall, discuss past outages and problems, and chronicle the wildfire mitigation outage in December 2017, according to Feyder.

They will have staff to offer recommendations for residents who may have medical needs dependent upon availability of electricity, suggestions for the elderly and limited-income families, as well as verify the phone numbers and addresses of local customers.

“I’ve asked them to talk Hill-specific issues,” Feyder said. “Examples of elevator use would not be needed here.”

He expects some talk about how power gets to the Hill and where crews are located to respond to outages here.

Also, he hopes Edison people will leave with a better understanding of this community, what our issues are and what we expect.

If there is sufficient interest, Feyder said MDP is willing to schedule on another day a separate community meeting to educate people about the nuances of purchasing a generator for emergencies.

“I’ve spoken to two local electricians. They can discuss the difference between gas or propane generators, the danger and how to safely bring power into your house,” Feyder said. “These are complex issues and I’d like to get good answers for the residents.”