[Maru]

Vegetation management, when not done well or not at all, absolutely makes a huge difference in making what would be an easily survivable disaster so much more worse. We have to have lines overhead which makes us vulnerable also. CA might be similar in that respect. It took about a week for us to get back power after a Category 1, which is crazy. We were getting random brown outs and even power loss from light wind, it damaged the compressor on our HVAC system. We have to have battery backup for sensitive items so that the power is guaranteed clean. There was no trimming of trees and vegetation management around sensitive infrastructure when we used to see utility trucks all the time doing this work over the years. Now we see them ALL the time right now because the State went hard against the power companies for not maintaining their areas. People lose their lives during these events, if not from the weather itself, but during "recovery" because they're told a situation is under control when it is not... and in our case, led to people staying in an unsafe home during high temps and some dying from heat stroke because they weren't even considering other options...