„Never waste a crisis …“

Even though a health crisis of this magnitude may be unprecedented, utilities at least know that at some point, they will likely contend with a natural disaster of some kind. Thus, under the direction of their crisis teams, many utilities have been able to react quickly to set up confinement command centers and institute a roster system to operate effectively with maybe 30% on-site staff, while the rest work from home. They have also been able to ensure paychecks to their workers and they're helping their hard-hit customers by halting disconnections for non-payment. While utilities have disaster mitigation in their DNA — given the centrality of their services and the potential impact caused by storms, wildfires, and seismic events — they also recognize the situation is different this time around. For one thing, we might all have to weather this particular storm for a longer duration.