While Bay Area residents have been criticizing PG&E for not being better prepared for the power outages that come with extreme weather, Los Gatos residents are increasingly turning to their community to help get the lights back on.
Enter Mark Zhang, a gaming company executive and “prepper” of sorts who collects supplies in the event of a natural disaster or emergency.
Zhang was just boarding a flight from Taiwan to Singapore when Los Gatos experienced a widespread storm-related power outages last January. After seeing just how extensive the outages were, Zhang had to help. As a prepper, he had collected a few used generators from eBay and Craigslist over the years, and he wanted people in Los Gatos to use them as needed.
So from the other side of the world and about 30,000 feet in the air, he coordinated with Los Gatos Town Councilmember Rob Moore via the Nextdoor app to distribute the generators he had on hand to members of the community.
“I was like, is this a scam, am I going to get stabbed? But no, he was just genuinely a truly kind person,” Moore said.
The success of last year’s generator distribution inspired Zhang to keep at it. Zhang has been distributing eight generators, some battery operated and some gas powered, to people around the South Bay this year, and hosting workshops out of his garage to show people how to use them safely.
North San Jose resident Brenda Barron saw Zhang’s Nextdoor post about the generators during this year’s most recent batch of heavy storms that left thousands without power for days. With kids who needed internet access to get homework done and a fridge full of food that could soon go bad, Barron took Zhang up on his offer for the generator and picked one up from his house.
Zhang taught her how to use it safely and made sure she knew how to set it up. After getting so much use out of it during the two days she was without power, Barron said she was inspired to look into getting one of her own.
Zhang says its been his goal all along to give people the tools they need to take care of themselves and their community in the event of an emergency.
“I have the mindset of preparing not just for myself but also raising awareness in the community and helping the community survive those outages,” he said.
Like Barron, Nicole Rinsky was similarly able to save hundreds of dollars worth of food from going bad with the help of Zhang’s generator. As a single parent with young children, Rinsky, who lives in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, said she didn’t have the ability to buy a whole new generator on her own.
“It would definitely be handy to have, but I also don’t know if I have $800 to fork over for an emergency cost,” she said.
Zhang’s neighbor Paul Grams borrowed a generator from him this year to keep the medical device he relies on, similar to a CPAP machine, running despite the power outage. While grateful to Zhang for the generators, Grams is frustrated with the frequency of the recent outages.
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“PG&E needs to get its act together,” said Grams, a Los Gatos resident for roughly 30 years. “Not everybody can get generators and power backup systems or go to solar power.”
That’s why Zhang is also looking into starting a generator sharing program, in which residents could pay a one-time $150 fee that would give them guaranteed access to a generator in the event of an unexpected power outage for the next 10 years. Zhang would place generators in strategic locations around the South Bay so that anyone who needed one could drive a short distance to get it, and he would cover the maintenance and any potential repairs.
Councilmember Moore has worked with Zhang to get the town’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trained in using the generators. Now a member of CERT himself, Zhang’s passion for emergency preparedness has spread throughout his community.
“The main goal of sharing the generators and hosting workshops is, and will always remain, to increase awareness and readiness within the community so that in the event of a natural disaster we are better equipped to support one another,” Zhang said.
“If there’s one Mark in every city around the country, we’ll be okay,” Moore said.
