Forget about COVID, migration and war with North Korea for a minute, and look at the real threat to the USA’s survival. Our electric power grid is a mess. Most of it hasn’t been updated in decades.
The average age of power transformers in the USA is 40 years, and almost three-quarters are more than 25 years old. Now, compare your home today to how it looked 25 years ago. The chances are you have a lot more electric and electronic devices now than you did then. We’re putting more stress on our grid, even as it gets older.
It’s not hard to see where this is going – we have a serious problem with electricity. In fact the USA has more power blackouts than any other developed nation. Every year storm winds, lightning strikes and snow shut off power to millions of people. That’s bad enough, but there are worse threats to our power grid.
Terrorism is one; a couple of well-placed bombs on transformers could turn off the lights over large areas – and the damage could take months to repair. A cyberattack by a hostile nation like Russia or China could be much worse, potentially blacking out multiple states.
Maybe worst of all is a Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun. A cloud of solar plasma hitting Earth’s atmosphere could cause huge current surges, powerful enough to damage transformers and overheat power lines to breaking point.
An event like that might not just black out the whole country; it could leave us unable to repair the damage. At that point, serious civil unrest is inevitable – and it might not be possible to bring it back under control.
A major failure of our power system could bring society down and leave you reliant on your own resources. Even a short blackout is a challenge, though. What if you lost power for three days during a bad winter storm? Could you survive? Stockpiling these items could make the difference.
Lighting & Heating
Without some source of light you could be losing hours every day. In summer you might be able to get away with sleeping while it’s dark; in winter, without light you’re in trouble.
Make sure you have what you need to light your home:
Candles. Cheap and reliable, candles won’t throw enough light to completely replace electricity – but they’re bright enough that you can still get plenty done when the sun goes down. Store a disposable lighter or matches with your candle supply so you can get one lit in a hurry if you need to.- Kerosene lamps. An old-fashioned solution but still an effective one, kerosene lamps will give hours of bright light on a pint of cheap fuel. They also throw off heat, which is a welcome bonus in winter.
- Solar-powered lanterns. Batteries are a finite resource; no matter how many you have, they won’t last forever. Solar-powered lanterns can be recharged during the day and switched on at night; they’re good for hundreds of charge cycles before their performance starts to fade. A few of these can make a huge difference.
Candles. Cheap and reliable, candles won’t throw enough light to completely replace electricity – but they’re bright enough that you can still get plenty done when the sun goes down. Store a disposable lighter or matches with your candle supply so you can get one lit in a hurry if you need to.Light is not even the most essential item you will lose during a power outage. The average home is heated by devices that require grid power to operate. When winter weather knocks out our power, our homes can become dangerously cold. It is not only a matter of comfort; if the temperature drops too low, our pipes will be in danger of bursting as they freeze.
There are many DIY options for heating sources, and often, they are simple to build. This is the secret to heating your home forever, without being connected to the grid.
Money
Since the COVID pandemic it’s sometimes seemed like we’re living in a post-cash society. Most stores prefer contactless card payments; some stopped taking cash at all for a while.
And, of course, most of us have been buying more online. In a blackout, all that stops and cash will be king again.
Make sure you have some real money tucked away for the day the internet and credit card machines stop working. Remember, in a blackout the ATMs won’t work either.
Fuel
Can you cook, and heat your home, without electricity? In winter, without hot food and a way to keep your living space warm your chances of survival go way down.
A stove that runs on bottled gas will keep you going – as long as you have enough gas stockpiled.
A wood-burning stove is even better; wood is a renewable resource you can collect yourself. Whatever you use, make sure you have enough fuel stored to last at least a month.
If you can, have enough to get you through a whole winter.
Communications
The world has never been so connected, but all those connections depend on electricity. In a blackout you can get very isolated, very fast.
Invest in a solar-powered or hand-cranked radio so you can listen in for emergency messages.
If you can, get an amateur radio set that can run on car batteries – being able to send and receive messages through the ham radio network could be a lifesaver in a crisis.
One of the worst things about a blackout is that no communication will be available to you. Here’s the only way to communicate after a blackout!
Water
Many public water supplies will probably keep flowing without water – but they won’t be purified and safe to drink.
You need to have enough clean drinking water stockpiled to get you through the first phase of a crisis; aim for a gallon a day per person, and store at least a month’s worth if you can.
Longer term you’ll need water filters – with reusable cartridges if possible – or chemical purification tablets.
Food
A blackout means the stores will be closed – and probably looted. Supplies of perishable foods will quickly spoil without refrigeration. Supply chains will disintegrate. Until the crisis ends, you can’t rely on finding food in the stores.
You should aim to have at least three months’ worth of non-perishable food stored, regularly rotated so everything has plenty storage life left.
If you can, either start running a vegetable garden or have the supplies you’ll need to set one up in an emergency.
Even if you don’t have the money or space for a three-month food supply, put aside what you can. Even a few days’ worth of food could be the difference between life and death.
Final Words
Unless a lot of money gets spent on our power grid, a major – perhaps national – blackout isn’t a matter of if; the only question is when. There are too many people in the world who see crippling our power network as a low-risk way to attack us, plus the wild card of the Sun.
Sooner or later, something is going to take down the grid, and our society with it. Make sure that, when it happens, you have the resources you need to carry on without electricity. Electrical power on demand is a luxury, and one that we won’t always have.
You may also like:
DIY Charcoal Briquettes Every Prepper Should Have
5 Ingenious Ways To Refrigerate Your Food Without Electricity (Video)
The Incredible and Efficient Use of a Bicycle as a Bug Out Vehicle
10 Off-Grid Water Systems You Should Have On Your Property
What I Should Stockpile for SHTF: The Great .223 Remington Or The Stalwart .308 Winchester?
one more water is wet article …..
…. But for the person who is JUST discovering what prepping is, this is valuable knowledge.
After all the site IS called “Ask a prepper” not “Advanced prepping skills 2.0 for the seasoned veteran”
if you questioned needing food and water…… not sure what you’re thinking
I was also wondering about survival needs and I looked up what wild weeds and plants can be eaten as well lots of good information our ancestors knew and survived on. Keep searching don’t just stop here so much you can learn. May God bless us all around the world ?
I would LOVE to see your personal website on prepping,
Not one you use per say,
but one you actually build and put together on your own,
Please make sure you have YEARS worth of articles,
Multiple ones a week,
with pictures or even video when possible,
multiple contributors,
and make sure you do this 100% free no charge to the people who do use your site….
Go one, well wait.
Another open mouth, insert foot comment.
well the site gets ad revene so its not out of the goodness of the owners heart here.
the articles are rather bland. i mean come on now…. “did you know your grocery store has food…. ? ”
why not try things like saying “resterturant supply stores or Mornmons warehoues are all over the country and offer discounted bulk items. Thinking a little out of the box… The water is wet and the of coursre every 2 weeks did you know which cars won’t be touched a by emp… with the writer having no knowledge on cars is pretty funny.
I’ll stop chiming in with this all together … . i rather not play with fools
Quote the Raven NEVERMORE.
Goodness for such a self proclaimed EXPERT your only answer for everything is Sarcasm.
I somehow Thought Ask a Prepper was to Share Knowledge, guess from your Vast Experience as a “Tactical PREPPER Expert ” that YOUR Expertise is slamming and BSing folks.
SURPRISE ME, oh tactical expert and Post Something USEFUL and not Cut and Paste from someone’s website.
cut and paste is 90 percent of the articles on this site
Sorry to point out that the “articles of cool information” isn’t exactly a deep article that explains a lot of whats going on.
every so often i do find that one or two people write something of value and interesting but half the time its the same rehashed EMP and what you need to do bs. Or this one … make sure you stock WATER.
People need details about it and not just a flash message of common sense…. Do we need a few paragraphs on the importance of breathing air..
Yes Raven Prepper Expert THAT’S where subject matter Expert are to chime in.
NOT to Snark but to help others.
So far what have you added to the conversation aside from snark?
Definition of expert. X means former, a spurt is a drip under pressure.
Thank You! I too think there’s no need and or room for sarcasm here. If you can’t say something constructive please go elsewhere!!
heard crayons make great candles by themselves to heat and see and cook. Now I buy those cheap garden solar lights and keep them on hand. charge them during the day and use them at night.
have you ever tried it ? They don’t work like they claim in the “jim cobb prepper books”
Thanks for the idea, Martin. Those solar powered garden lights work wel in my chicken yard & coop. Thanks for the idea – I’ll get more, to use in my house. I have solar/wind-up flash lights & lantern. Solar is such a good idea.
One more ignorant comment posted in public by none other that the Raven.
I am a 78 year old woman and I live alone in an apartment complex for older citizens. I am afraid of what is to come, but I trust in the Lord to help me. I still believe that He will take care of those who try to help themselves. I have ordered books and planted several raised bed gardens. I find meat on sale and can it. I am buying bottled water every time I find it on sale. I have bought some solar powered lights for the inside. I need to stock up on ammo for my Ruger. My Son thinks I am going bonkers, but I want to at least be able to survive as long as I can. I bought a charcoal grill to cook on and have stocked up on charcoal and starter. I also have matches by the dozens. What else can I do to survive? I have seen these ads for buying plans for an item that will pull electricity out of the air. Not sure I believe it. Any advice on the electric problem?
Saw the “What happens when you mix cinnamon to honey. Id heard about this mixture, but had little knowledge about it. I’ve heard to is benefical, but didn’t have enough information to actually use the mixture.
So I clicked on the ad…10 minutes later I still didn’t have an answer.. I don’t need a loooong drawn out explanation, just get to the point..
if you have municipally supplied water >>> good chance its water tower gravity pressure supplied and potable water will continue into the grid down – but – that creates another problem when your sewer system incorporates an electric lift station pump – the use of toilets and other lavatory usage will continue until the sewer piping system is filled – unable to be pumped out to the sewage plant it’ll find the lowest point to start backing up >>> better be prepped to handle that eventuality ….
Composting toilet. AKA Humanure
my wife brought home a portable camping toilet, and I also bought the seat that fits on top of 5-gallon buckets along with a couple boxes of thicker plastic bags that are big enough to fit and still have enough bag left at the top to roll and tie them off and can hold weight without tearing when lifted for transport for disposal, whether that is buried or burned. If you bury your sewage, please be sure to wisely select the location and make sure it’s deep enough to not leach back out where you don’t want it to when it rains so you don’t contaminate your water or anything else you don’t want exposed to raw sewage water.
In a real SHTF for an extended period, during the aftermath I expect more people to die from diseases than anything else and am learning what to do and what to avoid, similar to our ancestors did when they had to select where to put the latrines and outhouses. I need to research the composting toilets to see if they would be feasible for my specific circumstances.
As ugly as it is once the grid fails composting toilets are the only reasonable way to deal with human waste. Human manure untreated is a hazard to you and your neighbors water sources.
Putting it into a plastic bag is not going to cut it sorry. Eventually that bag will fail, or a pest will burrow into it and fecal contamination will be all over.
The Humanure Handbook
Book by Joseph C. Jenkins is a wonderful asset for this.
Otherwise at least research how to do a pit privy (AKA Outhouse) properly. Most important factor is the Separation of human urine FROM the Feces. A soggy wet pit privy WILL FAIL in pretty quick order.
Michael: A soggy privy is a death trap as much as any manure pit. Asia is encouraging and teaching people to make a methane generating outhouse. This is what we’re aiming at here. niio
Red any links on how Asia is doing a methane version of a pit outhouse friend?
Might be useful 🙂
Michael: https://www.michaelyon-online.com/gobar-gas.htm
https://www.naturalcapitalpartners.com/projects/project/vietnam-household-agricultural-biogas
I had the diagrams and all in a computer file but cannot find them. An outhouse digester is easy. the pit is only partially buried. It’s sealed, airtight, made of concrete. The floor above is also concrete. The toilet stand pipe drops down to within a foot of the bottom. Livestock wastes are also added, as is water daily. The exit pipe goes from close to the bottom up and out into a shallow pond where duckweed grows for human- and livestock feed. Duckweed is supposed to sterilize the effluent, and kill mosquitoes.
The outhouse. this is very simple. The ‘house’ is about 5 feet in the air sitting on a tall box. Stand pipe and outlet are both close to the bottom, with the outlet pipe higher. Same as before, but climbing a ladder is involved.
Mine will have to have a handpump to get the water up to the garden. I’ll keep looking thru research files, but I have over 27,000 papers 🙂 niio
Mike, here’s a few more details about bagging the sewage. That would be a temporary solution, and I did state the bags need to be sturdy enough to transport for proper disposal. How do I know this? We have three dogs and I use a five-gallon bucket with heavy bags as liners for keeping the “scooped poop” in check until the bag gets full, pulled up, and rolled and tied so it can be transported for disposal without tearing open. I definitely do not plan on having bags of human or pet waste stacking up in the yard, hence the option of burning if needed (watch your winds), similar to old-school military, and I do have a couple of old metal drums I can use to make “burn pit’s” if needed.
If you live in town…. you’re not really prepared
I live in town. I know a lot of people in cities who are prepared. And, prepared better than most you’ll know. Town people often can get things for half the price you pay, especially preserved food, ammo, weapons, and so on, and pay cash where all too often rural folks need to pay by check. Where do you think all those warehouses are that we buy from, but in towns?
Raven, you keep beating that old horse that everyone should move to the country. I submit there wouldn’t be any country left if everyone moved to the “country.” The “country” would be overrun with city dwellers.
I believe that there would be significant die-off if some major catastrophe happened, but even if the die- off rate reached 98%, that would still leave a lot of folks. Even if only half of one percent survived that’s a lot of folks.
Would I like to have 40 acres about twenty miles from town located with a steep hill and an artesian spring-fed lake part way up the hill? Sure and I would like to win the Powerball jackpot when it hits 500 million too.
Then there is real life. It doesn’t provide any kind of useful information to keep repeating that everyone living in a city is screwed. Some of us will survive. What we need is wisdom from the cognoscenti giving us helpful information rather than constant “You living in the city are so screwed.”
Considering how few people prepare and do anything……. for themselves then no.
It is a give and take and sacrifice. Yes you don’t get the short drive to work and you might have to make your own coffee and don’t get the star bucks on the way to work. Not having access to Door dash and any other delivered food to your house is a such bummer. You also have to understand that “your on your own” and defending yourself is up to you for the most part.
Its a shame you have to build community with your neighbors and not binge watch netflick all day long. Oh the internet isn’t 5 terabytes a sec so you don’t get lighting fast anything either.
What you do get is a much lower population density which is VITAL to make it. You have people and a lifestyle that is already in a prepared mindset. You tend to be very independent and have a ton of skill sets you don’t see in the “city living”
The last part is you’re free and able to live a good simple life. The toy’s that the city folks buy (atv and utv) become daily working equipiment and a blast because you don’t need to drive 3 hours to hit up some park. With us its a mode of transportation to the next neighbor or move the feed bags to the coop.
I should add second to last part is having the gardens and animals that your city life forbids……. Its up to you and the “comfortable life vs a working one”
I mean don’t me wrong with it… . Prepareness comes in all sizes but if you’re taking it serious enough then yes ….. city living isn’t going to work. however if you view it as …. have some food for 3 days then ok sure you can make it throughout a 8 hour power outage.
Raven the MasterFool, how about you loan me about $500,000.00 so I can go buy several acres in a remote location, have a concrete house built, and a small underground root cellar/bunker, with at least two potable water wells dug, and a huge solar power system with backup everything so I can move to a more rural location.
hey DZ i guess you can try whats called a bank and go have fun with that. Let me guess one more city fool thinking they can’t abandon the fun easy life of getting everything at your doorstep in min’s.
Oh well like i said some people are serious about prepping and its a lifestyle and others are just playing a board game.
If/when the power grid goes down, your municipal water won’t be around very long because they use electric motors to pump water up into the water tower! There may be electrical generators to power those pumps, but they’re only good as long as they have fuel for the backup generators! And as Illini Warrior mentioned, the sewage thing, they’ll need electricity to power the sewage treatment plants!
A good example of that was right here in River City during the fire that destroyed over 1600 dwellings. Our city had emergency generators to run the pumps in case the juice went out. The only problem is that nobody had ever started them up to see if they ran. I don’t know I’d diesel preservative was ever put in the fuel tanks. My suspicion is that they were started up when installed, shut down and never touched for however long they had been sitting there.
Does your municipality have emergency generators? Are they tested periodically to see if they will actually run? Is the fuel replaced on a regular basis? Is anybody designated as being responsible for the generators?
Go down to a city council meeting and ask the questions. It is easy enough for the city council to find out what city dropped the ball on the goal line and booted it to the other side for a touchdown.
It might have even been written up in the official publication of the assoc of city governments.
Ahh Yes, the duality of gravity on plumbing systems. Ain’t life grand? You are SPOT ON SIR! Throw in sub-zero, or freezing, temperatures and the inherent thermal dynamics of Di-hydrogen-monoxide… When the blackout hits, there will be a lot of folks in the dark, scared, and unprepared. Remember to blackout your windows unless you want lots of moths…
You can prevent awful sewer back ups and all the headaches they bring, by installing a compound check value on the sewer line that comes into your home.
The sewer line comes OUT of a house. If the ‘sanitary sewer’ system ever stops flowing, every house in the city will become totally unlivable due to the stench from all the homes around it, and the fact that idiots will still be trying to use their toilets by pouring water into them after each use. Sooner rather than later, all the toilets, showers, and sinks will begin to overflow with sewage. The system will be permanently blocked up and that will be the end of the sewer system. A sanitary sewer system must have constantly flowing water to keep working properly. This is the Achilles Heel of sanitary sewer systems.
Lol.
Open a neighbor’s clean out cap…
Preferably down wind, far down wind
Raven, where can we sign up for your next “mind reading” class so that everyone, no matter their knowledge, experiences, environment and circumstance, can just scan your thoughts and know everything they need to know.
Look the avg person is just talk…and zero action. If you need the Jim Cobb books of dribble knowledge for 17 a book.. then go for it…. and find out that its the same common sense things. buy food buy water ?
Why not go into debth and talk about what food…… and water is a entire chapter alone depending on sourcing it and filtering it.
There is not going to be a US Blackout. Please stop the scare tactics.
Difficult times are ahead, potentially an economic depression and associated social chaos. The “normal” we’ve seen since the end of WW2 will change. Better to prepare & never need to light a candle. Or, to build a meal from your storage. Or, to dig up your notes about how much bleach is needed per gallon to make it safe to drink. Or, perhaps the most soul-wrenching, having to maim or kill those who failed to prep and now are intent on surviving on your preparations.
Probably not. But your average adult isn’t prepared for a local blackout that lasts more than a few days. I’m assuming by your comment you’re not here to learn about prepping, but probably just to troll… and will be first in line waiting for Uncle Sam to rescue you.
Some of us have experienced ice storms. Two weeks without power is tough. Now imagine it in the current climate.
Lisa, I see you crawled out from the cry room and are back to Trolling. Let me guess, your middle name is “Bliss”, as in Ignorance is…
The USA already has a significant number of blackouts and aside from an EMP or CME, if the utility CONTROL systems get hacked by hostiles, then we may see more serious blackouts that cover larger areas and may take extensive repairs or replacements of components to get running again. I’m actually surprised (and relieved) the Ransomware hackers have not accomplished this yet.
Really? And how do you know this?
ladidadida, go on about your life, but don’t come to my door asking for a handout.
Lisa,
What about the devastating ice storms that the northeast has suffered? What about the freak freeze that Texas recently experienced? Sometimes, nature takes down our grid. I know because I’ve worked in the power generation industry.
In today’s political environment, our enemies bombing/blowing up a few power stations is not beyond the realm of possibilities.
With “climate change” having a direct effect on the sun, it may get mad and hit us with a CME. (As a kid, climate change was called seasons, but now everyone wants you to believe that we can buy our way out of the weather changing.)
One thing not mentioned very often about knocking our our power grid is a strong earthquake.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that when one section of our grid goes down, the domino effect will kick in and cause cascading failures. With 3 major sectors of our power grid, each suppling power to the others, I hope it would be possible to isolate sections from causing a nationwide failure, but I don’t know if the isolation would happen soon enough to stop damage from happening to major components.
For this article and other comments to be putting out “scare tactics”?.. please send me some of your kool-aid or a pair of your rose colored glasses, because you obviously are oblivious to the FACT that our grid is in danger, whether that danger is man made, climate caused, or old age. It is wise to prepare for a local blackout or nationwide outage. Sitting in the dark, waiting for others to come take care of you will only make you regret not heeding the signs, or worse, starving/dying because you believed what the fools in Washington or MSM told you.
Look up and do some research on Solar Flairs.
Look up and do some research on Solar Flairs.
I HAS happened in the past in the US.
Late 18 hundreds.
NE U.S.
What are you talking about? The PDRK is already having rolling blackouts a la third world. If the wind is blowing, the two yes, just two major power companies in the state. San Diego and Los Angeles have their own municipal power companies which provide even poorer service than the two giants, Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison. After paying Huge payouts for failing to maintain their facilities resulting in massive wildfires and multiple deaths they decided every time we have a stiff breeze they shut down the power grid.
They have shut down the San Onofre nuclear power generating plant plus numerous power plants along the coast of the PDRK from the Mexican border to the Oregon state line. Where I live there is a power generating station that sits silent due to the shutdown. Years ago it used to provide electricity to the local area without danger from high winds. Now we get power from coal fired generating stations on the Arizona Navajo nation reservation. But we are “green” while the Indians once again get screwed over by the great white father in Schitzomento.
Arrrrggghhh! ! ! ! Don’t get me started on the mismanagement of our electrical power system! ! !
To quote Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” I’m sorry, but your PollyAnna outlook on our grid system is truly frightening. It is exactly that misguided outlook that enables politicians and utility management to keep sucking short term profits from the system while ignoring long term improvements to insure continued viability of the system.
We don’t have to worry about the crazy guy in North Korea or terrorists or the sun, we are running our electrical system into the ground all by ourselves. No help needed.
That’s just the PDRK. I can’t comment on the other 59 states. I do know that the east coast states are in a more perilous position if that could even be possible than the PFRK because their systems are even older that out here.
Edison’s contractor just replaced a 60 year old pole up the street from me. What a cluster-f__k! Huge crane out because the pile was located behind four two-story houses, so the old pile and the replacement had to be lifted clear of the houses. They set the new pole and it was at that point that some genius discovered that they had brought a pole that was too short. So the replacement pole had to be pulled out and everybody stood around with their fingers in a body orifice while they took the too short pole back and brought out the proper length pole. I don’t know what a crane that size with crew costs per hour. I am confident that it goes for high four figures per hour and wouldn’t be surprised here in the PDRK with its high worker comp rates if it didn’t run in the mid five figures per hour.
I never worked in that field but if I were foreman on the job, my very first such assignment the first question I would ask before heading out would be to inquire who checked the dimensions of the existing pole ON THE GROUND, not from a blueprint. Even I know that all too frequently the “plans” don’t match the as-built. Isn’t that chapter 1 of “Construction 101 For Dummies”?
Do that is part of the problem. It is all other people’s money and nobody gives a rat’s about how much anything costs. It’s the rate/payer’s dome, so we don’t care how much we spend.
We don’t care that our infrastructure is 65 years old with usage skyrocketing with industrial kitchens being built in McNansions and more 200 amp service panels being installed than ever before.
Lisa, you really need to check into the unaddressed problems of our electrical grid before you make such fatuous statements in public
LCC…
(tongue in cheek)
Are you an obama wanna be?? Last I checked, PDRK was only one of 50 states. Where did the other 10 states come from? Has your elementary school diploma expired and you are required to be re-educated under the liberal wishlist?
Let’s see; Washington DC, Puerto Rico, ?????? i guess there may be a chance that Mars could earn statehood, after we nationalize the heck out of bezos/musk money endeavors.. Of course, if YOU get lucky, PDRK will split into the three states it wants to be (if so, I hope you are allowed to live in the good part). Maybe some Meta land will be developed and given statehood, so zuckerberg can be paid even more fiat money.
Well, PIT, I didn’t proof read as carefully as I thought I did. My deep apologies to all who were offended by my gross negligence in failing to notice my error in not catching the mis-stroke of a 5 instead of a 4. How can anyone place any credence in anything I post henceforth with such an fallacious mid-numbering error? To all who were mislead into thing that we had suddenly grown ten extra states, that has not taken place. We still are stuck at 50. As for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands ( is that ever a misnomer) Guam, American Samoa — I haven’t kept track do we still claim Midway as US. Property? Did I miss any— I know you folks all want to be independent — but this U.S. dollars arecso compelling.
Lisa Blake:
There may or may not be a nationwide blackout, but even a local one that is longer than a day or two is enough to mess you up, what with no heat/cooling, refrigeration and possibly no water except for what you have stored.
Plus, let’s not forget regional blackouts like the one that affected the entire Northeast back in the seventies. As bad as that was, most people still had a clue about how to cope. There hasn’t been anything that widespread for decades, until Hurricane Sandy in the mid Atlantic area and the Texas regional blackout last winter. People were caught flat-footed and some died waiting for gubment help that either never came or was too late.
The whole point of the article is to get us thinking about a long term, widespread blackout where you may not have any municipal services, communication or access to funds. There may come a time when you CAN’T drive to the next county for a hot meal and an ATM, due to inaccessibility or their also being blacked out.
So, you need to think about what you need to do to address that. Not sit with your head in the sand thinking that it’ll never happen here. That’s not being prepared.
with biden in charge , expect worst
Complete failure, take down , control , poverty , then slavery
in this order
this it TRUTH
Do the research
find the truth
figure , you must prepare for the worst
no clue , judas joe is in charge
china and russia see us as no threat at all , and now have hypersonic stealth capabilities from space and beyond
not fear , Truth
we dont live in fantasy
Waka doodles out in full force? Stick to the thread. Spout your hate elsewhere.
The thread consists of suggestions on how to be prepared for a potential long-term power outage. It is a fact that we are more in danger of this – under the current administration – than a year ago, so it is wise to be prepared. Hate doesn’t have to have anything to do with reality.
Well our military is already flat out said they can’t win in the next fight…. Not that we won any wars after ww2.
Freeman: You know the cycle. That’s why Preppers exists, to get us ready. Did you ever read Farnham’s Freehold? A novel, but excellent. Wolf and Iron is very good, as well. Something to sit down with and relax. niio
Do we really think the power grid will go down? I don’t think the elites of the US would allow this to happen. I’m sure government will make some underhanded deals if our grid was ever held hostage, as they already have in the past.
Possibly but no one really knows what the future holds. A large enough CME won’t demand a ransom. Best to be ready to live an 18th century lifestyle.
Mike: Well said. niio
…sadly, it is the “elites” that I am worried about the most…
Why do you think they are in the US?
In my opinion, the elites of the world already have an escape plan and it only includes enough commoners to take care of their needs. They have prepared very well for any impending doom they bring upon the world via self inflicted/fake pandemic, the forced vaccines, the scare tactics used to herd the sheep/lemmings into obeying without question, the strategic cutting off of oil, allowing many produces to be manufactured by certain countries (think pharmaceuticals), ect!
It is part of the NWO plan that’s been in existence for a long time. It’s a patient plan that’s being accelerated by the puppets that are in charge in Washington.
Mike: the elites have their platinum med care. There’s been news for several years from them how-to get dual citizenship, best nations to hide in and so on. niio
Bean, I’m a Federal Employee and I don’t trust the government to do anything very beneficial for the general populace if SHTF, so I prepare as best I can within my means, and just like having smoke alarms and fire extinguishers in my home, I hope I never have to depend on it to protect my family.
There is no need for chicanery on the part of our would be rulers. Following Isobell (hurricane) power was out in significant portions of tidewater virginia (over half) for an extended (longer than two weeks) period. My power was among the very last restored-seven weeks after! Quit with the asnine sniping directed toward the neophytes-your shitty attitude guarantees you will starve before I render assistance to your holiness!
Shitty attitude? Sniping? I simply asked for the opinions of the readers of the article. I wasn’t judging. I am genuinely curious and a prepper myself.
bean: Who said anything against you? But, yes, if they had to to grab more power, elitists would cut the wires themselves. Every well-to-do and wealthy have bugout plans, and many have dual citizenship in foreign nations, and their compounds. All are very well-armed and each home has it’s own means of making power. Those who listened to W are using household waste water to make methane. Solar panels and wind generators may well be toast in a nuclear war. We still don’t know what will happen in an international war. The bigger the bomb, the worse windstorms will be, and worse/colder weather will be. May you have a prosperous and happy New Year. niio
Thank you, red. I possibly misunderstood Steve W’s comment in the thread. I’ll have to rearrange some of my existing plans to prepare for this! I’m new to prepping. Wishing you the same for the new year ahead. God bless.
Why all the doubters about the grid going down? That’s the next thing on the list after pandemic to take down a country! What planet are you guys on. For the last year things in this country have been step by step for “New world order”. Better to be ready than not, because even though I I’m all for helping others, I won’t share if it means my family would e in jeopardy!
Natural disasters are definitely a possibility. I’ve worked in the power generation industry, and I can tell you first hand that we’ve already had one terrorist attack on one of our power transmitting stations in 2013 (Metcalf, near San Jose). The FBI has never found the culprit(s). Many people in the industry think that this may have been a dress rehearsal for a larger coordinated attack. You see, Metcalf is one of five power transmitting stations across the United States. If all five stations were hit simultaneously, it would takes months to recover. These guys knew exactly what they were doing; they first went into a manhole and cut a main telecommunications cable, which denied 911 service to the power station. The only reason the police got notified is because my plant was within ear shot of the rifle reports, which went on for almost 20 minutes. The sniper(s) knew exactly where to hit the equipment to bring down the sub station. Over the next few months, our enemies were watching and observing how we responded to this attack. We are vulnerable.
ROB, I REMEMBER THIS!
I think you hit it right on the button as to how it went down and to review what took place after… dry run…
question…. my understanding is if 1 of the 5 go down(or more) it will take far longer than a few months to bring back up.. True?
Yes, and if I recall correctly, it took just about a year to get that transformer station back on line.
I agree Eileen. The take down of the grid is inevitable. It IS part of the plan( NWO) I find it amazing that people choose to live in such deep denial. As for me and my family hey we would do as much as possible to help others who are in dire need however it’s a no brainer that we would sit idly by while people attempted to take what we have carefully put in place in order that we can survive as long as possible. In that scenario the only thing I will share is a hail of bullets. No doubt about it.
I never hear enough about people with swimming pools? Can you survive on pool water that has been shocked with those bags of pool shock? If so, how do you prepare the pool water for consumption? This info could help…
The water would definitely be usable for many uses besides drinking, but information on making it safely drinkable would be a good thing to share in a future article. I don’t pretend to know, but I’m sure the knowledge is out there.
There have been multiple articles on this site and many others on how to make water potable. The internet is a wonderful thing where anyone can look up nearly any information they could possibly want. Just search for “how to purify water.”
I have one of these but there are many similar ones out there.
https://myberkey.com/product/big-berkey-system?variant=vrnt_os3g3vv1P7Pz3R0l&msclkid=f66dc272250f10ad79e4a3b80ee23ebc
definitely put “drain pool and re-fill” on your Prepper List of Priority Actions >>>> proper distillation to breakdown that chem tainted water is beyond most preppers …
Scott, think about a pool that has not had any pumps circulating and filtering the water for several weeks or months, it becomes a stagnant “pond”, so to safely use that water for drinking and food preparation you will need to filter it for debris and also treat it for pathogens such as boiling, or using generic bleach (no additives like perfumes) and write down the amount needed per gallon somewhere you can find it when needed, or some of the better microfilters that are rated to filter pathogens. I keep all three methods available to use if I need them. It would be worth the time to do some research now while access to information is easy, it will be a lot harder if you wait until after the SHTF to try and figure out how to filter and purify water.
Sticking your head in the sand doesn’t solve the inevitable problems we have coming
BE PREPARED…better to be prepared and not need it…than to be unprepared and need it. I am 68 and nurse an 101 year old lady. I am beginning to get her to acknowledge that disaster is right around the corner.
well its not like she would live very long in it. Modern Medical meds is the reason why so many of those old people and the weak have made it this far. Remove that and a mass die off the weak will happen quickly.
It’s hard to figure out. One day Illini Weirdo and Raven Tactical are spot on with their comments.
The next day they are bat shits crazy and criticize and ridicule every article when they don’t know shit from apple butter about the topic.
They must like to stir the pot.Oh well. We don’t have the time or interest for any of it.
Lighting is iffy, but we have gallons of used grease in airtight acid resistant jugs buried on the property.
Water, the pumps will continue because they’re shifting to solar. Electric will, as well, if they go geothermal. Sewer is along the river (which is normally dry) and no building are at that level or below.
Food, scavenge. If desperate, remember how famine survivors in China did it as Pearl S. Buck wrote, they boiled livestock manure. This will taste like what it is, but it was once common enough in Arctic nations and called reindeer salad. When researching it, I was told nothing from predators (dogs and so on) because it contains a toxic fungus.
As I was always taught, a hidden garden hides in the open. If you don’t have eatable ornamental plants in a hidden garden, you’re screwed. Research what’s good in your area as a perennial or at least self-sows. Canna are easier to raise than potatoes, and need the same sort of storage north of Zone 8. They also provide more starch, and are a basic in hidden gardens.
If you live near the ocean, you’re one up on many of us. You have food all over and salt, as well. I live in the middle desert mountains, south central Arizona but understand the land. Learn all you can about what the land requires of you to provide for you.
They also ate kids….. as well durning the starvation of china.
Red:
Actually, the ocean’s bounty is inaccessible except by boat for most people living on the coast.
Don’t forget, if it was a big enough power disruption, untreated sewage will be pouring into the ocean, contaminating shorelines where you might be able to collect mussels and clams and inlets where you might be able to catch crabs and fish.
Also, you will have many other hungry people who will think of the same thing, fighting each other for a few mouthfuls or robbing people of their catch, especially if a group goes out and manages to catch a good amount. There won’t be any way to keep them cold, and fish of any kind spoils quickly.
Add these together and it’s a recipe for disease and mayhem.
You may actually be in better shape to forage, what with edible mesquite, cactus, and other plants and fewer people competing for resources.
Miz Kitty: Any place rivers meet the sea are ‘protected’ and teeming with life. Spring and fall, fish pack the rivers to spawn. Our river is dry. Yes, we have mesquite and cactus, dates, figs, and so on, but like those good fishing spots, they’ll be well-guarded by people and animals. Those things can’t beat animal protein. Fruits and veggies have carbs that change to sugars in the system, and burn out fast. Meat is food for the long run. We’re carnivores down here.
Sea water is heavy in salt. I like pickled fish near as much as I like pastrami and corned beef. Within 5 years after SHTF, expect deer in your ‘hood because few people will have the brass to survive. We’re survivors. niio
Good grief! I visit this site for information. Not to hear personality driven verbal battels over what most of us know will eventually happen. I say drop the personal mud slinging and get back to sharing information on how to survive whatever comes our way – before we run out of time. If someone makes a stupid comment, answer with 3 words, “You are wrong.” Then get back to sharing useful stuff.
We moved back to the rural disrict years ago and since I was raised in the country I already knew how to can, grow what we needed,gather,hunt,butcher,and,survive (my grandparents went through the depression raising 13 kids) my parents believed in us all(4) knowing how to make or make do. Our land has several wells and I also invested in water filters just in case. Lightening hit our sub-station a few years back and our neighbors came to me for advice and water,they just knew that the old lady in the house on the hill would know what to do. Our electric was only out for a short time but at ou r house we were warm fed and hydrated. Try to learn from people who have been there and done it. Don’t just read a book and say you can handle what is coming. You don’t what that is going to be. In closing be happy and safe and teach what you know to any that will learn.
Go geothermal if you have the possibility at all. Yes, it’s expensive but so worth it. Paired with domestic solar, you have the ability to keep warm even in the worst cold.
I wish it could be included in the basic infrastructure, it would be the best investment we could possibly make.
Yes! Kali is replacing nuke plants as fast as possible with geo. The whole nation should do this, as well as heating and cooling for the home. niio
when nuclear power is the safest cleanest and cheapest option…. i rather build more nukes but we have weak leadership
raven: geothermal is both cheaper and may times safer. Kali can’t afford the expense of nuclear and most of the plants are on fault lines. Geo also gives back fresh water, something the coast is in dire need of, even with God blasting them with snow and rain.
If you are interested in the effects of an EMP attack, the US Government released an in-depth study on this subject.
“THE EMP THREAT: EXAMINING THE CONSEQUENCES
September 12, 2012
One can find it in PDF form online. The one you’re looking for is around 400 + pages. In that report, it is stated that the mortality rate for the USA would be around 90% in 18 months to 2 years.
There are a lot of very interesting issues discussed.
Well worth the time to look at this report, even if you only read the introduction.
A couple of things to add:
One – and I’m surprised nobody else brought it up – is the importance of keeping your car’s gas tank topped up, and maybe a Jerry can or two as a backup. Obviously if there’s no power, the gas pumps won’t be working. Perhaps the old timers here just felt it was too obvious to waste time on, but with new people checking in, it’s worth a mention.
Two: Raven T and others here are actually right about the risks to urban preppers over rural preppers. Urban centers are bad enough now as far as crime goes – a prolonged widespread blackout will bring out the worst in these elements. Just look at the unchecked looting that goes on during a hurricane (or indeed, any night in some places).
At least in a rural area (and some suburbs), you have the option for getting the equipment you need to pump your own water, supply your own power, and in many places, dispose safely of your own sewage and trash. Plus you have access to a larger area to grow food and fodder and zoning to keep animals that can supply you with food. City dwellers don’t usually have these options, and anything they do have will be subject to looting once grocery stores are cleaned out.
Three – Rural preppers also have to be armed and ready to deal with any looters coming from the decimated urban centers. Assuming that there is any way to communicate with authorities, response times are going to stretch from minutes into hours if not days.
That goes for emergency medical services, too. Having at least a working knowledge of first aid will be a help and having some basic equipment and the knowledge of how to use it correctly could save a person’s life.
Hope this gets everyone thinking!?
Miz Kitty: As someone born and raised rural I know it’s safer, at this time in town than the country. If someone is screwing around the house, a neighbor will see and report it. If you live without neighbors, you’re a target. After SHTF, it’s going to get a lot worse. This is why people always built villages first, and worked close to home till the area grew settled. Yes, cities and large towns will be bad at first, but people will band together and wipe out thugs. Small towns like this, off the beaten path, will see raiders but a lot of unmarked graves, as well. niio
lol you’re joking right…
Last time we had a gas theif in our neighborhood he was responded with 6 armed men with chest rigs and AR15s… the police when they eventually showed up. Just said well lets go do this and we caught the guy.
I would rather take my chances out in the sticks with good neighbors then living in some town. Who’s neighbors only role in life is to call the city on you for long grass and a truck on jackstands in your yard. Country living you do have to be a true neighbor and work together. Cop’s won’t save you no matter what… place you live in.
raven: I was born and raised country. That’s very nice that 6 men well armed showed up. but if you have that many near you, you live in a village, not country. You don’t seem to know what rural is. After SHFT most people will be took busy and too wary to go traipsing to the neighbor’s. Not knowing what rural means, you probably don’t understand people who are rural are far more likely to be raided, murdered, or have homes burned down by pervs than anyone in town is. The violent crime rate is higher in a rural area, not your village, than in town.
6 men… Me my son and the nieighbor with his 3 kids plus one more guy down the road…. yeah Country…..
the city living… you already have issues with neighbors killing you over food and “black friday sales” We don’t have that issue and blocking off the a few roads’ makes it impassiable to get to our area.
Living in town is just a fast way to die. You can’t grow a garden or you guys fear cooking food due to the smell. I would guess none of you in town heat with wood and where you going to get more wood…. You need a water source that doesn’t exist and all that is in the country.
We handle it on our own and in the event SHTF …. guess a few of our city families will move in with us. thus exanpding our man power and security. I rather work with Neighbors that i built a life with vs .. some tool bag who calls the cops on my dog barking. You’re going to have a blood bath of shitty people who won’t even need to walk down the road to kill you for food.
Agree with you on that.
Why bother calling the cops when SHTF…. i mean that’s the last issue i have with everything going nuts. Most people around here have a gun range on their own land.
Plus equipment, you talk to enough people and find out that your area has enough farm and heavy equipment to move almost anything or build anything. We have a very much do it ourselves mentality and that’s how it goes.
You couldn’t pay men to move to town and i never would again. What a terrible horrible place to live.
Lots of random thoughts…
I’ve been fortunate to have lived on a small rural acreage for 35 years and am very thankful for that. We have our own water well and since Y2K have had a bail bucket to get water if needed.
I’ve always planned to dig and build an outhouse but just haven’t done it yet. Both sets of my grandparents lived in rural Oklahoma and up until about 60 or 65 years ago didn’t have indoor plumbing. It wasn’t one of my favorite things to do to go to the outhouse but you gotta do what you gotta do. I sure was glad when they did get indoor plumbing. LOL Just a thought but a swimming pool full of water if not drinkable and a 2 gallon bucket could certainly flush the toilet a lot of times.
During a massive ice storm several years ago our electricity was off for 9 days. Thankfully we had a wood stove in our house so we stayed warm. I caught rain water under the eves of our house in large trash cans while it was raining so we could flush the toilet. Last winter during the -18 degree weather we didn’t loose our electricity only because we were on the same critical circuit that our hospital was on but we still took up several containers of water for drinking and flushing the toilet.
I worked for a an electric utility company for 33+years. It’s been my experience and JMHO that upper management are a bunch of highly educated fools and they are only concerned about one thing…making a profit! Several years ago the president/CEO of our company and some of his VPs came to our small district one day and put on their dog & pony show telling us about all the changes they were making in the company. I listened and kept my mouth shut as long as I could then I ask why they were making the changes. I didn’t make any points that day. His answer was because ALL the major electric utilities across the country were doing the same thing. It just didn’t make any sense to me. It seemed to me the changes would only hurt the company. I ask why follow a TREND and said that my folks taught me to think for myself and not to follow the crowd. Like I said I didn’t make any points that day.
I’ve been retired for about 17 years now and occasionally talk to some people who still work there. Some of the policies they’re implementing and some of the equipment they’re installing doesn’t improve their customer’s service. Outage times have increaced. The company hasn’t hardened they’re equipment or prepared for an EMP. I’ve ask employees about it. They were totally in the dark and didn’t have a clue about what I was talking about.
I’m convinced its not a question of if but only when our country experiences a total grid down event.
I am a grade school prepper. There is much more for me to learn and to do. I have discovered, though, that to be a prepared prepper I must make prepping a lifestyle. Do a little something every day. Make sure I am preparing (prepping) for a long-term SHTF. Prepping to survive only a week-long disaster is unwise. I may still be a grade school prepper, but I’m learning and doing something each day. Thanks for the article. I have “LEARNED” much from reading articles posted on this website.
Hillbilly, we all start somewhere and no matter how much you learn (and practice, practice, practice) there is always more to learn. My advice is to research what you can, but always be ready to be skeptical because a lot of information broadcast across the internet about “prepping” is wrong, even on this blog. I also recommend to always be honest with yourself what you are capable of, not overextend yourself financially, physically, and timewise, and to please take your time, think things through, and do it right, well, at least as best as you can figure out, and no matter what, everyone’s abilities, situations, and circumstances are all different, so there are very few (if any) any “one size fits all” answers.
Hillbilly, a good way to start is to access what you already know, what resources you already have, and then figure out what else you might need to know and have on hand if disaster happened, starting with natural disasters like floods, fires, storms, earthquakes and such. My wife and I have experienced several Typhoons (hurricanes), Earthquakes, wildfires, and even MT Pinatubo erupting in the Philippines, and I why I recommend starting your preps for natural disasters. From there it’s a lot easier to expand prepping for more serious situations like economic collapse, a serious “Grid Down” event, or even civil war. We don’t want any of these to happen, but it’s just like having fire insurance, it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
dz, thanks for your experienced advised. I never thought of it that way.
Some of the old timers may have seen this done, but people used to use barbed wire fencing to place phone calls between buildings on a farm or between ranches. This article linked below didn’t go into much detail, but I thought that this was useful information.
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/atrocious-but-efficient-how-ranchers-used-barbed-wire-to-make-phone-calls/
MissKitty, that is interesting using fencing for phone lines and is why we keep one copper wired landline in our home active, while still using our cell phones 99% of the time. I am hoping that if the cell phones no longer function the old copper wire landline phone system will still work.
DZ: Yes, I find our land lines are more reliable than the cell phones or internet service that uses microwave towers. As I understand and have experienced, when the power goes down, the local phone centers keep their systems running on batteries. But eventually they will run down in days or a few weeks. So they would not be a long term answer to grid melt down.
Miz Kitty: That’s cool. It’s something to remember when things collapse.
I have a opx I wish I could post. The inventor of barbed wire meets a time-traveling bull. 🙂
niio
Red:
? ??…lol
I can see diy phone lines having an application now, if you have a large property or just want to keep tabs on adjacent neighbors. And I still think kids would find it a fun project. Does the New Woke Boy/Girl/lbgtqlmnop Scouts still do merit badges for that sort of thing?
The tricky part would be figuring out what parts you need and being able to get them. My guess would be used field telephones might fit the bill, but you might still be able to find parts to make something usable. There seem to be plenty of instructions online (at least for the time being) so if it sounds like something usable for your situation you might want to start researching now.
Miz Kitty, God bless you your many kindnesses and vast knowledge. BUT, when are you going to write it all down? While surviving Mass may not seem like a lot to you, it might be interesting to many others. A how-to maybe novelized. I was after Clergy Lady to do the same. Too much of what we saw and experienced as kids is being forgotten. niio
Kitty,
Good suggestion. Going a step further, a barbed wire fence would be a good stealth way to communicate with a neighbor after the grid goes down. If telephones were not available, they could set up a simple signaling system with an LED light, battery, and push button switch at each end. A next step might be to put a solid state buzzer/noise maker at each end along with a list of half dozen signal codes to communicate with your neighbor. Going further, Ham Radio operators could use Morse code for nearly full communications.
Based on our earlier comments about using barbed wire fences for telephone communications, I thought that some might find this article interesting on it’s history in Texas.
https://texascooppower.com/joined-by-a-fence/
What I would really like to know is how to harden my 2007 SUV against an EMP.
I have 5 generators. 3 small champions (2000 watts) and 1 champion (4000 watts) and a 8000 watt generator. So I will have power that is if I can get fuel. I will try to get 100 gallons or more. We own a travel trailer so we will have a roof over our heads. What else do we need. I know it’s a lot. I bought the book “The Lost Ways”. I’ll read that book word for word. Thank you so much for helping where you can.
What about our spiritual needs: that is our need for spirits. Alcohol can be used to sanitize, thin wood finish, clean many kinds of stains, and burn as a motor or stove fuel. It is a great barter commodity. And you can make it yourself, if you know what you are doing. If things really get bad as the gubbermint intends, you can take a morale boosting break to feel good if you drink some (but not too much, of course).