We had a power outage in our part of town the other day.  It lasted about 4 hours and we got a smattering taste of life without power.  I turned on my laptop but the WiFi was out of course.  No ability to charge iPhones.  I mentioned to my co-residents that a week or more without power would be a catastrophe.  The food in our freezers would thaw and spoil.  Our iPhone batteries would lose their power and no chance of recharging them.

 

Taking out a nation's power grid would lead to chaos and riots.  Electric cars would be useless.  But so would ICE cars when they had no place to go to pump gasoline.

 

We would need open fires to cook with.  Those of us who live in cities would soon run out of food as deliveries stopped.

 

It wouldn't take long before we were living in a post-apocalyptic world.  It wouldn't take nukes.  Just conventional weapons to take out the power grid.

 

Noel

Or simply a key server down, Noel.

Your words reminded me of yesterday: during the afternoon we had a Whatsapp and Instagram outage here in Argentina (at least). After it recovered, we had server outage in my office, and work was basically paralyzed. Luckily for us, it was almost at the end of the day, so we agreed to leave earlier. Those minutes we "lost" weren't going to be productive anyway.

It was coincidence, but we couldn't resist joking that this situation would be a good trigger for a catastrophe.

 

Which is why I nabbed a generator. Ideally I should have probably grabbed a solar powered one, but at least the one I got uses both diesel and propane.... I also keep reminding myself to grab a solar phone/device charger or three.

3 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

I also keep reminding myself to grab a solar phone/device charger or three.

Which would be effective only if all of your contacts also solar phone chargers.

Noel

Last weekend's storm`s destroyed some solar farms in the UK, one in Wales less than 12 months old will take another 6 months to repair. some without power for days.

Edited December 12, 20241 yr by G-RFRY

On 12/11/2024 at 9:32 AM, birdguy said:

Taking out a nation's power grid would lead to chaos and riots.

Yep, and our fearless leaders know about the vulnerabilities yet won't allocate much money toward hardening and securing the power grid and power plants. 

However, it is apparently important that we spend money to do that for other countries...

Dave

Nuclear is the answer.

thats why i got solar  panels on  my roof,   wind  turbine in the  back yard,  backup  battery  for  storage  of  the  solar  panels  ,  and  of  course  i  have  also got  a water  turbine  generator  from  the  stream that i  had  across  my back  yard

Some say that after two weeks with no electrical power, a western society will descend into chaos and people will revert to their most basic instincts.  I think the two weeks time estimate is being very optimistic.

11 hours ago, Fielder said:

Nuclear is the answer.

It is.  However, the plants and grid must be protected.

Dave

3 hours ago, stans said:

Some say that after two weeks with no electrical power, a western society will descend into chaos and people will revert to their most basic instincts.

Well, 90% of people under 35 would lose their minds and fall into a profound depressed state about 2 days after their smartphones stop working.

About 35% of people would lose it within a few days after the fast food joints and restaurants close since they hardly know how to make their own sandwiches.

Everyone else would hold on for about a week until all the frozen and refrigerated food goes bad and the grocery stores are emptied out, and then they, too, would lose it.

We would have a Mad Max scenario within a couple of weeks.

Everyone talks about a nuclear holocaust, but few mention an EMP which takes out the electrical grid.  In the USA it would take at least several months to replace thousands of damaged transformers, which is enough time for everything to completely fall apart.

Dave

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

Well, 90% of people under 35 would lose their minds and fall into a profound depressed state about 2 days after their smartphones stop working.

Is this considered a good thing or a bad thing?

 

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

About 35% of people would lose it within a few days after the fast food joints and restaurants close since they hardly know how to make their own sandwiches.

Waffle House would still be open. 😄 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index

 

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

Everyone else would hold on for about a week until all the frozen and refrigerated food goes bad and the grocery stores are emptied out, and then they, too, would lose it.

Some people grow their own food.  I can neither confirm nor deny that I am one of them.  I will only say that baby lambs are absolutely adorable.

I guess this would be one version of The Great Reset.  

Hook

Locally we got a taste of this in September when Helene blew through here. Very miserable, even deadly time for so many. Many weeks for some locations to be restored. We still have debris not yet picked up on my street. So there has been microcosm of this event around the country at times.

I recall watching a documentary many years ago about a hypothetical total and permanent grid collapse in U.S.

Day 1, Day 2.......Day 100, etc...basically back to animal roots....maybe that documentary is out there. Will try a search.

Regards

Peter.

7 hours ago, Peter Webber said:

Day 1, Day 2.......Day 100, etc...basically back to animal roots....maybe that documentary is out there.

While not a documentary, I have read a trio of novels by William R. Forstchen which is a cautionary tale of what would likely happen after the U.S. is subjected to multiple, nationwide EMP events that totally obliterate not just the electrical grid, but all non-hardened electronics:

One Second After - One Year After - The Final Day

"The only thing more terrifying than this masterfully crafted story is the possibility of it actually happening -- and not a darn thing being done to protect us."

Edited December 14, 20241 yr by n4gix