Power Day
Power Day, September 5, 1990, was the day the Boulder Free Zone successfully restored electrical power after months of post-plague outage, marking a decisive turning point from survival toward reconstruction. The event, led by Brad Kitchner and the Power Committee, involved a controlled switch-on that caused a brief overload and a small fire but ultimately succeeded, transforming the community's morale and its practical capacity to face the coming winter.
Background and Preparation
After the superflu pandemic had killed over 99 percent of the population, Boulder's power grid had been dead since late June. The Free Zone's Power Committee, under the direction of Brad Kitchner, had spent weeks rewinding burned-out generator motors and repairing the power station's infrastructure. A test on September 1 had briefly brought electricity to North Boulder, but one generator overloaded and caught fire because too many household appliances had been left on when their owners died. That failure taught the committee a crucial lesson: before the full switch-on, every unoccupied building had to be cleared of electrical loads. Kitchner organized a "Turning-Off Crew" of a dozen volunteers to go through Boulder and shut off everything that had been left running—stove burners, electric blankets, televisions—to prevent a city-wide fire when the juice came back on. Ralph Brentner agreed to fill two fire-department tanker trucks at Boulder Reservoir and have them standing by at the power station. The public meeting on August 18 had approved the Power Committee's plan, and by September 4, Kitchner was confident enough to announce that the switch-on would happen at noon the next day.
What Happens
At noon on September 5, Brad Kitchner threw the switches at the power station. The air-raid siren atop the County Courthouse came on with a huge, braying whoop, scaring many people into the streets; some ran for their cellars until Kitchner found a fused switch and turned the siren off. There was an electrical fire on Willow Street, quickly put out by a volunteer crew. A manhole cover exploded at the Broadway-and-Walnut intersection, flew fifty feet, and landed on the roof of the Oz Toyshop. An auto-body shop on outer Pearl Street exploded, and Rich Moffat, sitting across the street with a bottle of Jack Daniel's, was killed instantly by a flying panel of corrugated steel siding. Despite these incidents, the power held. Fluorescents buzzed into life in the hospital where Fran Goldsmith was recovering from a whiplash injury; Stu Redman watched them flicker and catch, unable to look away until they had been glowing solidly for nearly three minutes. The lights came on all over Boulder, and the community celebrated.
Consequences and Aftermath
Power Day transformed the Free Zone's practical situation and its collective psychology. Refrigeration became possible, allowing fresh food to be stored. Electric lights replaced gas lamps, and the prospect of electric heat for the coming winter became real. The event also deepened the community's sense of identity and accomplishment: they had rebuilt something essential from the wreckage of the plague. For Fran Goldsmith, the return of the lights was bittersweet—she cried because Nick Andros, killed in the Free Zone Committee bombing three days earlier, was not alive to see it. Stu held her and found himself hating Harold Lauder, who had set the bomb, more than ever: "Harold had not just killed Nick and Sue; he had stolen their light." The successful restoration also strengthened the committee's standing, allowing them to turn the community's attention toward the longer-term threat from Randall Flagg in the West. Power Day was the first concrete proof that the Free Zone could not only survive but rebuild, and it gave people hope that they might face the coming winter—and whatever lay beyond it—with something like the old civilization's tools.
