It gets pretty dark in here. In Oxnard, business was hot for Quinn Engine Systems, a Caterpillar company that sells and rents generators. Just about all rental fleet in the state of California is gone. Employees of the Oxnard company, which usually stocks about 60 rental power-generating units, are now working overtime, scrambling to help their customers find generators. We'll do anything.
People are desperate.
At Verizon in Thousand Oaks, company officials have initiated an employee awareness campaign and had 10,000 posters printed and posted throughout the company to remind employees to cut power usage at work and at home. We're leading the industry in being very proactive. The effects of the power crisis were more serious in Northern California. Kinder Morgan Energy, one of the state's biggest pipeline companies, couldn't move gasoline from major California refineries to terminals around the state for 12 hours. The company is one of hundreds that have agreements with the utilities that give them lower rates in return for allowing the power company to turn off the electricity during shortages.