What Happens if the Grid Goes Down?

What if the lights go out?
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2012/02/05/what_if_the_lights_go_out/?page=full

(SNIPS):

• We don’t pay attention to power except when it annoys us -
  
  
• But we’d better all begin paying more attention. The grid, for a host of reasons, may be ill-equipped to meet all the enormous challenges it faces. For so long, the market for doomsday scenarios of powerlessness has been cornered by survivalists prattling on about Mayan calendars and end of days.
  
  
• If our society is more reliant on power than at any time in history - without it, we’ve got no commerce, no communications, no clean water - and if power becomes less reliable in the future, the big question is: Will we be able to hack it?
  
  
• THE TROUBLE with the future of power isn’t that there is one big problem that could croak us. It’s that there are a host of them, any one of which could croak us. Let’s group them into three categories.
  
  
  
  
  • Bucket No. 1 involves what the insurance-policy fine print calls “Acts of God.’’ Here we’re talking about all those “storms of the century’’ that seem to be arriving with unsettling frequency. Although people can debate the reasons behind it, by now the trend is clear, says Tierney, a partner with Boston-based Analysis Group. “Extreme weather events will be more common.’’
    
    
  • Let’s call Bucket No. 2 “Acts of Terrorists.’’ Among these, there’s the old-fashioned physical attack on the bulk power system, either at its source of generation or somewhere along its transmission route. There’s the newfangled cyber attack on the computers controlling our interconnected grid. And then there’s the otherworldly-sounding attack by an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, weapon.
    
    
  • Finally, Bucket No. 3 is the “Ailing Grid’’ itself. In many places, the infrastructure is as old and stooped as a pensioner.
    
  
  
  

Well, they are working on problems 2 and 3, but it looks to me like they have a long way to go.

I agree with your statements that we need to pay more attention to it, and how dependent we are on it.

I think the most we can hope for, in any region, is about 6% of us paying attention and preparing for the worst. I wonder what we can do to get those local to us to pay attention, without making them think we are crazy.

I think rural people pay more attention than city folk. We're used to the lights going out, especially in storms and in winter. Almost everyone around me doesn't call themselves preppers, but they're prepared for lots of things, including having extra food, tools, and other needs. They also have a variety of skills to fix things that may go wrong.

When the Power Grid Fails – 10 Things You Need to Prepare
https://commonsensehome.com/when-the-power-grid-fails/

  The power grid is one of those things that most of us take for granted, but it's time to acknowledge that it's getting older, reaching capacity and under attack. In the article “Bracing for a big power grid attack: ‘One is too many'“, USA Today states “About once every four days, part of the nation's power grid — a system whose failure could leave millions in the dark — is struck by a cyber or physical attack.” Without a preparedness blueprint in place, most of us would be in bad shape with an extended grid outage.

In this post, we'll discuss why the power grid goes down, and how to prepare . . .    ---CONTINUED---

my Bug out Location that i lived at I was on the end of the line 20 miles out Constant brown outs.. so 95 % of my lights there are solar/battery I did have HW solar panels to pre heat water but finally to many leaks & pump burnouts ..I live in the city now. so it will never get fixed. But I have some solar here too.a 20 watt on the shed & 3 LED's lighting it off a lawnmower start battery.
keebler

I'm about as prepared as anybody can be for a power outage, at least I think I am. I live in an area that the power goes out at least several times a year, mostly do to weather.

I have 3-165 watt solar panels that charge 2 separate battery banks for the house, I have 1-45 watt solar panel that charges a battery bank in the garage. I have a 100 watt solar system in the faraday cage. Several generators and 150 gallon of gas on hand.

sounds great. Glad your prepared.
best friend installing a back up Dual fuel 7K generator for me.but will be Manual. connect mostly for barn ,shed, well & septic pump. for emergency's
keeb.

My septic doesn't have a pump, I have a 1940's homemade version. I have a shallow well and my pump is in the basement, 110 volt, my battery bank will handle that.

My biggest generator is 5800 watts, so that'll run my big freezer and refrigerator. The hot water tank will be run on an as needed basis in the summer or we'll go swimming in one of the ponds, winter water will be heated on the wood burners.

I also have a 3200 watt generator and 2 of the harbor freight 900 watt (2 cycle) generators. Have had them for years and they sip gas.

I'd like to get a dual fuel one, but I got too many generators now.

We live on wetlands. It literally goes right under our sunroom. We have a big sumpump that has a battery back up. One year, the battery leaked an invisible gas-like residue that collected under the basement stairs (where it's located). It did NOT set off our 'regular' smoke/carbon detectors ... but our house-alarm system is so sensitive that it picked it up and the fire department were there in a flash. They told us that the house could have exploded . The carbon monoxide detector connected to the alarm system paid for itself that day for the rest of our life. It's so sensitive that it picked up a non-monoxide gas! We watch our battery VERY carefully, now.

Just something to think about & remember if you have a battery back up for a pump.

Wet cell batterys give off Hydrogen,(explosive) when charged Fast or large discharge can actually Boil the sulphuric acid. (sulfer smell) I perfer the small 18 AH 12 volt gel cell batterys for safety. about $35.oo on the net. I have converted (2) wall lamps to 12 V with 7 watt LED's, alligator clamps on the color coded wire for hookups. Out at my Bug out I have a second well 75 ft--- i bought a 12 volt deep well pump... that's my emergency pump when Grid is down. i can cross connect using a washing machine hose -Double female fittings. each well have spigot's on them

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-russia-building-super-emp-bombs-for-blackout-warfare/

I guess we will start adjusting our preps. If the government is willing to talk about it its a pretty fair bet the other guys all ready have the weapons.....

Hummm, if true, really don't look good on those maps for anybody.

I really like Bill Gertz as an author, but he isn't a scientist or nuclear engineer. I don't think he pretends to be, either. Sadly, most of the people on the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States weren't nuclear engineers, but they put together a report that makes people think they are.

Almost all of what is in that EMP report is accurate enough for consumption by the general public or congresscritters, but if you are preparing for survival, you need more precise information than what is in it.

The definitive papers written on the subject were written by Conrad L Longmire, in the 50's through the 80's, but were classified until recently. They were unclassified before the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States did its studies, but they chose to use less accurate, but easier to understand materials when they did their studies.

I began writing about EMP on another forum, but my work there was lost when it was rebuilt. I will begin, over the next few weeks, to write on the subject again.

(I will start a separate thread for that.)

@TRex2, You had great information on the other forum. Too bad that got lost in the forum changeover. Hope to read more here when I can pop in.

NJMike wrote:@TRex2, You had great information on the other forum. Too bad that got lost in the forum changeover.  Hope to read more here when I can pop in.

I am in the process of reviewing all the material again. I found the commission updated all of their reports, so I am going over them all again (the ones I saw before were dated 2008).

As I said, I am going to open a new thread to discuss EMP (man made) and CME (Solar induced) events in more detail.

Thanks TRex, for helping us rebuild what was lost.

The lights are off down here. We had 60mph winds today which knocked a line down somewhere. Whole area is out.

Why Prepare? For stuff like this. Our genny started 60 seconds after the outage.

Well, it appears that we have gotten better at repairing and replacing transformers.

https://www.kspr.com/content/news/Fire-in-sub-station-causes-power-outages-near-Mtn-Home-510956962.html

There is a lot more on this story, so I will post it when I find it.

This was within 100 miles of my home.

https://www.ky3.com/content/news/Fire-in-sub-station-causes-power-outages-near-Mtn-Home-510956962.html

MTN. HOME, Ar- A fire in a substation left 1,500 North Arkansas Electric customers without power. Crews have worked to restore power to nearly 400 of those customers..

The Southland Substation is located near Mountain Home. The utility company says the outages could last several days.

In the past, the repair of this station would have taken a couple years, but they are saying that replacement transformers are available, and they expect to have it completely repaired in about 3 months.

This is a smaller station, so I don't know if they have made similar strides in repair capabilities for larger stations.

i read about that else where.it's been slow going for me in the of food preps as well as other preps.but yet im getting there.but yet i do have over a 6 month supply of food.i deffently need more water thoe.and something in the way of a life straw.

7 Things You’ll Realize After Living Without Electricity
https://urbansurvivalsite.com/living-without-electricity/

  f you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live without electricity for a long time, just ask the people of Puerto Rico. Many of them lived without power for nearly a year. And according to a Harvard study, the death rate in Puerto Rico nearly doubled after Hurricane Maria do to a lack of air conditioning and medical care.

It has been estimated that if the power went out all over the United States for a full year, 90% of the population wouldn’t survive. That’s how dependent we are on the power grid, which is a scary thought considering that a cyber attack or an EMP could bring it down at any time.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the luxuries we take for granted. Here are seven things you’ll realize after the power grid goes down.    ---CONTINUED---

7 Shocking Truths About Living Without Electricity
https://rethinksurvival.com/7-shocking-truths-about-living-without-electricity/

  Electricity helps to keep us cool (and warm), cook our food, light up the darkness, wash our clothes and dishes, and keeps our most nutritious foods from spoiling, to name a handful of amazing uses.

The following is an honest look at how truly important electricity is to our modern lives and dives deep into seven ways that electricity–and living without it–WILL be shocking to so many people who have come to rely solely on modern society and the conveniences that it brings, especially power…   ---CONTINUED---

7 Terrifying Realities Of Long-Term Blackouts (That You’ve Probably Never Considered)
https://www.askaprepper.com/7-terrifying-realities-long-term-blackouts-youve-probably-never-considered/

  (SNIP) ... For the purposes of this article we are going to call a long-term blackout a period without power to major infrastructure, residential and business operations for a period of 3 months or more. In this time the base for civility will be shattered and the consequences of missing basic public services will be widespread.   ---CONTINUED---

11 Things You Need to Have Ready for when the Power Grid Fails
https://www.askaprepper.com/11-things-you-need-to-have-ready-for-when-the-power-grid-fails/

(SNIP) ... The loss of the grid, whether through an EMP attack, terrorism or cyberwarfare is the nightmare scenario – everything we depend on coming to a complete stop. If ever there was a difficult survival scenario for us to face, this is it. Modern society is so dependent on electrical power to operate, that the loss of the grid would leave most people at a loss for what to do.

(SNIP) ... So, here’s my “top ten” list of things we will need to have ready, so that we can meet our own needs, when society no longer can meet them for us. ---CONTINUED---

6 Things To Do Immediately In An Extended Blackout
https://www.askaprepper.com/6-things-to-do-immediately-in-an-extended-blackout/

  (SNIP) ... The neighborhood is dark… upon getting in the car and turning on the radio, I get a local station on generator power, explaining an EMP has gone off. Since we are a small town out in the desert, it may be 3-6 months before it is restored!

Thank God, with my limited budget, I have prepared as best as I could. What would your family need in an extended blackout? Start getting that stuff now, before it’s too late.   ---CONTINUED---

Question... Would you really want to show the rest of the neighbors that you have a generator or wait for a while ???

Dave58 wrote:Question... Would you really want to show the rest of the neighbors that you have a generator or wait for a while ???

We have an all-house generator that goes on for a weekly test. Walking around the development, they are getting a bit more common to see now. Still a novelty, but we aren't the only ones now.

15 Things To Do When The Power Goes Out
https://urbansurvivalsite.com/15-things-power-goes/

(SNIP) ... Even if it’s only out for a few hours, your whole routine is disrupted–no TV, no microwave, no dishwasher, nothing. But as long as you know what to do, it doesn’t have to be a major disruption.

When the lights go out, the following things should be done in order to stretch resources, keep your family calm, and make the power outage more tolerable. ---CONTINUED---

Why 90% of the Population Would Die Without Electricity
https://urbansurvivalsite.com/population-die-without-electricity/

(SNIP) ... if we were able to live thousands of years without even the concept of electricity, why would we suddenly all die without it?

While it may seem as if going without electricity would be nothing but an unfortunate inconvenience, the truth is much more harrowing. To better understand why 90% of the population would die if the lights went out, consider the following ways in which losing electricity would impact our society. ---CONTINUED---