America's Power Grid Could Go Down!

[AdvancingTime]

If you want a vision of real "gloom and doom" take a moment and ponder the possibility of a devastating cyber-attack on America's power grid. It was recently revealed that an attack on America's power grid is not only possible but likely and that we as both a country and as a culture are shockingly unprepared for such an occurrence. Those of us that have suffered through a few days without electricity will testify that it changes everything.

But what if the power went out in a number of states affecting millions of people for weeks, even months? It seems that if the lights go off because of such an attack, that they will remain off for quite sometime, and that power will be difficult to restore. The article below titled, "Power Grid Down" delves into just how unprepared both the government we as a people are for this kind of event.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2015/11/power-grid-down.html

 

[bucs90]

I'm sure Obama is on it....

 

[irosie91]

I am electricity compromised-------I can calculate on the BASIS of Ohm's law----
but I really do not UNDERSTAND why little electrons running around can do
stuff------as to POWER GRID------I had the impression that there are LOTS AND LOTS of them grids-------all over the country------not just ONE BIG GIANT UNIVERSAL "grid"

 

[Pete7469]

Nothing would improve the gene pool faster than having all the lights go off.

Once the food ran out in the cities, the ghetto rats would start cannibalizing the bed wetters before drifting out into the country to be shot by people who know how to fend for themselves.

Come on coronal mass ejection!!

 

[irosie91]

Nothing would improve the gene pool faster than having all the lights go off.

Once the food ran out in the cities, the ghetto rats would start cannibalizing the bed wetters before drifting out into the country to be shot by people who know how to fend for themselves.

Come on coronal mass ejection!!

the Cosmos will not cooperate with your fantasies-----even if you pray

 

[August West]

I'm sure Obama is on it....

I thought Bush took care of this.

 

[EverCurious]

It's true that the lower 48 has a more interconnected network than my home state of Alaska (which literally only has /one/ for like 80% of the population) However, it is not just a matter of connecting networks, but also about how much power is used from said connected networks. A similar concept would be trying to power something that takes 2 AA's on only 1 AA battery. If a major network was taken out, there would be brownouts and huge swaths, perhaps even entire cities, left without power for however long it would take to replace the damaged parts. If it were a power station, the effects could indeed be devastating - though one would hope that neighboring areas would lower their consumption to help alleviate the overall draw on the remaining station. And of course, its entirely possible that not all power plants are running at peak output as well, so it might be that turning up the output from remaining stations would make it a non-issue (in the long term.)

They say that a power outage, in general, would take at least a week before it became a "concern" for the general public and caused panic. The answer of if we could repair the damage to network lines within that week is generally going to be yes (excepting the power plant attack scenario, which I addressed a bit above.)

 

[Delta4Embassy]

If you want a vision of real "gloom and doom" take a moment and ponder the possibility of a devastating cyber-attack on America's power grid. It was recently revealed that an attack on America's power grid is not only possible but likely and that we as both a country and as a culture are shockingly unprepared for such an occurrence. Those of us that have suffered through a few days without electricity will testify that it changes everything.

But what if the power went out in a number of states affecting millions of people for weeks, even months? It seems that if the lights go off because of such an attack, that they will remain off for quite sometime, and that power will be difficult to restore. The article below titled, "Power Grid Down" delves into just how unprepared both the government we as a people are for this kind of event.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2015/11/power-grid-down.html

A prolonged power outage would have dire consequences. Most people aren't equipped or skilled to live sans power. Looking at how animals spend their time, most of it is getting food. Minus electricity, that's people as well. Very few of us hunt any more, and few of these do it out of necessity. Yet if the lights go out, and stay out for an extended period of time, most of us are gonna be starving to death. Without power, gas pumps don't work to fuel supermarket trucks to get from warehouses to supermarkets so no edible replacements will be forthcoming.

 

[Pete7469]

the Cosmos will not cooperate with your fantasies-----even if you pray

It's not something I pray for.

However if Trump or Cruz win the election and moonbats commit a Jonestown collective sort of mass suicide I would view it as a net gain.

 

[Fang]

My generator would become a very hot commodity. But so would gas - if you can even get it. Refrigerators, sump pumps, security systems. People would seriously need to protect themselves. Even when a storm approaches the East Coast with a threat to take out power for a day or two there's a run on batteries, TP, eggs, bread, ice, etc. A prolonged power outage would be an absolute disaster.

 

[Care4all]

When the Northeast had that power outage in 2002, (I believe) everyone's power was out but Maine's, who was not tied in to the National grid....but sharing electric with Canadians, I believe?

However, since then, some of the power companies have tied in to the National grid....I think this will now hurt us if the National grid we are tied in to gets hit....

In the late 90's Maine was hit with an outage that lasted 30 days for some of the State....it was tied in with a Canadian outage from an ice storm....and surprisingly enough, my neighbor's tell me, up here, they were ALL PREPARED for it because it was Winter, and up here we all have generators, and kerosine heaters with fuel, or wood stoves, and lamp oil for oil lamps and food for at least a month stored for Winter preparedness, and water...and if we run out we can use the snow or ice to melt.

Some friends have a wood stove that has a spot to heat hot water for the house thru old radiator heat and showers... run through pipes from their wood stove/oven antique thingy....it's a huge antique oven stove water heater....a beautiful piece...so they say everyone of their friends came to their house to shower once a week, during the outage....lol

We lost electric up here for nearly a week a few year's back at Christmas.... after that point we bought a generator, Kerosene heater, an inverter thingy to run from the car for low electricity use, a portable router that runs on batteries, battery lanterns....and stocked up on water and food, batteries, emergency radio thingy....

so, we are all set and ready...as most, way up here....

 

[EverCurious]

Prolonged, meaning like 3+ weeks, and depending upon the road system of the area and what not.

I'm not sure how it is in the lower 48, but up here almost all the stores have a generator for outages that last more than like 5 hours that they can flip on to ensure their freezers stay on and they don't lose all the food (it's a good business decision.) Back in the day, like 10, maybe 15 years ago, it was not unusual for my entire town to lose power for a week or so - it had very little impact upon us as far as perishable's and stuff because the stores were still taking in stock with their generators keeping everything on. The state also used to have a bunch of commercial generators on hand to give out to various cities' stores in the event of a prolonged outage. (We have a lot of little towns that only have one store up here.) So you might suggest to your reps, if one is seriously concerned, to keep some generators on hand in case of such an occurrence (if they don't already have some and you didn't know heh)


Wood stoves are probably the best defense to a prolonged outage as Care4All mentioned, a wood stove not only provides heat but you can use it to cook meals and sanitize water and such. We've gone for weeks sans power without much more than a minor inconvenience (like having to bring in rain water or snow to flush the toilets and the milk spoiled kind of thing) because of our wood stove. Ours is from the late 70's and it heats the main 2,400 sqft house quite easily, if not a bit unevenly heh

 

[PaintMyHouse]

America's Power Grid Could Go Down!

It's not "could", it's Will Go Down, or more correctly, be taken down. It's just a matter of time.

 

[irosie91]

America's Power Grid Could Go Down!

It's not "could", it's Will Go Down, or more correctly, be taken down. It's just a matter of time.

I hope not in the winter

 

[PaintMyHouse]

America's Power Grid Could Go Down!

It's not "could", it's Will Go Down, or more correctly, be taken down. It's just a matter of time.

I hope not in the winter

That would be the best time, or in the heat of the summer.

 

[EverCurious]

Is it odd that I actually prefer when the power goes out in the winter because it makes water more easily accessed (aka snow vs having to wait for it to rain)?

 

[PaintMyHouse]

Is it odd that I actually prefer when the power goes out in the winter because it makes water more easily accessed (aka snow vs having to wait for it to rain)?

Either way, plan for it. No food, no power, no water, no gas, no banking, no Internet. They already know how to make that happen, they just haven't yet.

 

[EverCurious]

heh I'm not worried about it because I'm /used/ to living without power for long periods of time. I believe the last one was 11 days in 2013, seriously wasn't even a blip on my radar of concerns.

But yea, most folks are not at all ready to weather such a thing. Prevention /is/ worth a pound of cure

 

[depotoo]

Florida will survive. We have generators here, including gas stations.

If you want a vision of real "gloom and doom" take a moment and ponder the possibility of a devastating cyber-attack on America's power grid. It was recently revealed that an attack on America's power grid is not only possible but likely and that we as both a country and as a culture are shockingly unprepared for such an occurrence. Those of us that have suffered through a few days without electricity will testify that it changes everything.

But what if the power went out in a number of states affecting millions of people for weeks, even months? It seems that if the lights go off because of such an attack, that they will remain off for quite sometime, and that power will be difficult to restore. The article below titled, "Power Grid Down" delves into just how unprepared both the government we as a people are for this kind of event.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2015/11/power-grid-down.html

A prolonged power outage would have dire consequences. Most people aren't equipped or skilled to live sans power. Looking at how animals spend their time, most of it is getting food. Minus electricity, that's people as well. Very few of us hunt any more, and few of these do it out of necessity. Yet if the lights go out, and stay out for an extended period of time, most of us are gonna be starving to death. Without power, gas pumps don't work to fuel supermarket trucks to get from warehouses to supermarkets so no edible replacements will be forthcoming.

 

[Care4all]

Prolonged, meaning like 3+ weeks, and depending upon the road system of the area and what not.

I'm not sure how it is in the lower 48, but up here almost all the stores have a generator for outages that last more than like 5 hours that they can flip on to ensure their freezers stay on and they don't lose all the food (it's a good business decision.) Back in the day, like 10, maybe 15 years ago, it was not unusual for my entire town to lose power for a week or so - it had very little impact upon us as far as perishable's and stuff because the stores were still taking in stock with their generators keeping everything on. The state also used to have a bunch of commercial generators on hand to give out to various cities' stores in the event of a prolonged outage. (We have a lot of little towns that only have one store up here.) So you might suggest to your reps, if one is seriously concerned, to keep some generators on hand in case of such an occurrence (if they don't already have some and you didn't know heh)


Wood stoves are probably the best defense to a prolonged outage as Care4All mentioned, a wood stove not only provides heat but you can use it to cook meals and sanitize water and such. We've gone for weeks sans power without much more than a minor inconvenience (like having to bring in rain water or snow to flush the toilets and the milk spoiled kind of thing) because of our wood stove. Ours is from the late 70's and it heats the main 2,400 sqft house quite easily, if not a bit unevenly heh

We have a center brick fireplace in the Cape....it is super duper big and heats the whole house, the brick chimney goes up through the master bedroom upstairs and there is an outlet for a pipe to hook up a wood stove to the chimney in the master bedroom.

I can just walk in to this fireplace opening, I am about 5'3''....you can hang things on iron rods to cook over the fire....

The problem with it, is it uses a LOT of wood and is not nearly efficient as a wood stove, so we don't like to use the center fireplace. (plus it gets smokey sometimes when starting it up)

Agree, one wood stove...will save your life....it's a jack of all trades, bundled in to one...