Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, warning of the potential consequences of wildfire-related power outages for the state’s 1.6 million veterans.
Wilkie’s letter, sent Monday, warns that preemptive outages — designed to prevent wildfires — “could create significant life-threatening issues for the region’s veterans.”
The secretary asked the governor to update the VA about his plans to “mitigate the potential hardship.”
The secretary’s office did not indicate how it wants California VA to handle the outages. Veteran Health Administration facilities have backup generators. Individual veterans and private VA providers may not.
The governor’s office did not release a response.
The VA San Diego Healthcare System released a statement saying home-based care providers check on patients during fires or outages.
Insulin must be kept cool. The VA recommends veterans keep cold packs in the freezer as a backup, in case of a power outage.
