Waves of heavy rains have been hitting the Sierra Mountains for weeks and recently caused a land slide in an area called Ferguson Slide (didn’t see that coming) on the Merced River near Yosemite National Park. The slide knocked down power lines, which gave authorities a reason to turn away visitors for most of this week. News10 from Sacramento has this report.

Interesting to see that the disaster plan for a National Park, of all places, is so frail that it is just an electrical pole (on a slide) away from shutdown. I can see why they might want to turn away 10,000 people a day who are there to consume energy rather than expend it, but what about the more independent and capable outdoor enthusiasts?

Seems to me a golden opportunity lost for the park to engage visitors who would really appreciate it without power and be willing to pitch in to keep it open. Some of those visitors might also help build a more resilient infrastructure including clean and local energy.

The LA Times points out an extremely high cost of line repairs.

“Mother Nature has flexed her strength with this series of storms,” said Nicole Liebelt, a spokeswoman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Crew members had to be brought in by helicopter to the remote area to work on the problem, she added. Company officials said they hope to have power restored by late Friday.

That has to have run past hundreds of thousands, added to the lost revenue from visitors turned away…what if it the same investment was put towards business continuity so the park was designed to operate without power for a week or even a month?