Modern Pompeii

AD 79.  Pompeii, a city just a couple miles from Mt. Vesuvius.  Ash and pumice rained down on the city until a pyroclastic flow finished off the city.

AD 2020.  Sacramento, the capital of California.  Lightning strikes are the probable cause of several wildfires in the area such that ash fell from the sky like snow much of today.  The sun is orange, and the sky gray.

Throw in that decades of Democrat control in the state (read green! energy) means that when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine, many are at risk of planned "rolling" blackouts.  If the sun shines too much and it gets too hot, PG&E, he utility that powers most of Northern California, worries about its poorly-maintained lines will spark wildfires, and they shut down the power.  If the wind blows too much, they shut off the power so as not to stoke wind-fed wildfires.  California's previous governor, in his usual sneering way, says the way to "get through" this is to just conserve energy by turning up the temperature on your darned air conditioner.  It's a modern-day "malaise speech".

The reality is that green! energy ideals and poor government management have reduced California to 3rd world energy expectations.  Good job, California liberals.

The Pompeiians didn't expect to have electricity, but they also weren't raised to consider reliable electricity as being a prerequisite for modernity.  There was a time when California's people weren't as crazy and its government not as incompetent.  Those days have passed.