I woke up the other day and walked down to the kitchen to find no light switches working and no time glowing from the clock on the microwave. I thought for a minute there was a power outage — happens a lot out there — but then the fog cleared and I remembered the lights had been on upstairs.

It was just a flipped breaker, likely caused by me forgetting I can’t plug the window a/c into the outlet I had it in. I should know better by now, but at least I was able to sort it out quickly.

Once I got to work I ran across a report by Payless Power. According to their analysis of federal power outage data, Louisiana, Maine and West Virginia are the three least reliable states for power outages in the U.S.

As a whole, only 39% of Americans are highly confident that their power grid could survive a major disruption, according to the report. But West Virginians spend an average of 15.5 hours per year without power, reporting significantly higher outage durations than almost every other state, and having among the least reliable electricity service.

Given the severe weather events we’ve suffered in this region over the past several years, it makes sense that storms, floods and landslides have a lot to do with our electrical grid problems. But our electricity infrastructure is aging and unreliable to begin with.

There’s another wrinkle, according to the report. Though it does not break down these numbers by state, it says 35% of Americans say their emergency supplies would last two days or less; and 8% report having none at all. Payless Power also reports that 37% of Americans report having no backup power solution at home.

A stockpile of emergency supplies and alternatives such as a generator cost money. West Virginians live among the poorest households in the country.

The state has historically been terrible about infrastructure maintenance and updates of any kind, with even recent efforts being forced to target years and years of backlogged maintenance before they can worry about improvements.

Meanwhile, we are attracting some development, but a significant portion of it is low on jobs and high on adding strain to the electrical grid.

What will it take for a Roads to Prosperity-style sense of urgency to be placed on our electricity infrastructure, if we are genuinely interested in attracting large new employers and doing right by West Virginia families?

I have an acquaintance on social media who regularly posts something along the lines of “Power is out again,” or “Anyone know why the power is out in XXX?” It happens often enough that I worry about her sometimes. Her family lives in one of the more rural counties in the state.

But she also has an enormous support network and plenty of places to turn if she genuinely needed the help during an extended outage. Not everyone in the Mountain State is so fortunate.

What if she needed to be able to stay connected (on more than her smartphone) for remote work or school, though? Again, some families face greater challenges than others when there is no power.

According to the Payless Power report, 23% of Americans say their utilities are not investing enough in modernizing and strengthening the power grid in their region. I would guess the number of West Virginians with that worry is much higher.

I am no expert on electricity public policy, so please understand I’m throwing out ideas without knowing which might stick. But it seems to me a multi-faceted approach that starts with being willing to diversify our energy portfolio, and incentivize maintenance and upgrade efforts would go a long way. It might also make sense to find ways to help residents acquire backup power options — battery banks, generators, solar panels, etc.

We talk a lot about how West Virginia keeps the lights on for much of the country. How about if we start doing a better job keeping the lights on, here at home?

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Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com