There are many who believe that a future blackout impacting the United States is a matter of ‘if’ and not ‘when.’
The term ‘blackout’ itself is a rather vague word, but in general, it refers to a potential disaster that completely knocks down the United States power grid.
Whether this blackout is caused by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, a solar flare, a natural disaster, how wide of an area it affects, and for how long it lasts before things go back to normal are all questions that remain to be determined.
But that’s exactly why preparation is so important because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future.
And while you may think that the idea of a massive blackout impacting the United States is unlikely to happen, as the old saying goes, it’s better to pray for the best but prepare for the worst than not prepare at all.
Here’s what you need to do before the upcoming US blackout:
Have Emergency Cash On Hand
As a golden rule, you’ll want to have at least $1,000 in cash set aside in your home.
This is because in the event the internet or card processing machines won’t be working following the blackout, you’ll want to make sure you have cash on hand to buy things while you still can.
If a large-scale blackout occurs, it won’t take very long for there to be a massive societal breakdown.
When this occurs, law-and-order will go out the window and stores will become overrun and looted by people desperate for supplies and necessities.
⇒ How To Get 295 Pounds Of Extra Food For Just $5 A Week
The best time to go and buy food and supplies while you still can is immediately after the blackout has occurred. You’ll need to have plenty of cash on hand to make this happen.
Stockpile Food and Water
It may seem like a cliché to say, but stockpiling food and water is one of the most important things you can do to prepare for a blackout.
This is for two reasons:
1. Without food and water, we can’t live.
2. After a blackout hits, it will be very difficult for you to resupply yourself.
Think about how long of a disaster you want to prepare for and then collect enough food and water appropriately. For example, let’s say that you have a family of four and want to store enough food and water for the four of you to last for six months.
As a general rule, you’ll need to set aside one gallon of water per person per day (for both cleaning and drinking purposes). That’s four gallons of water for your family collectively per day, or around a hundred and twenty gallons a month. Multiply that by six for six months, and you get seven hundred and twenty gallons.
That’s a lot of water, and you’ll want to ensure you have enough storage space to hold that water. The best way to store this much water is to invest in multiple big water storage tanks, and then rotate the water out at regular intervals to ensure it remains clean.
Related: 8 Deadly Mistakes When Storing Water For SHTF
For food, you can invest in emergency food supply kits, and pay close attention to the labeling on the kits to see how many days or months the food is intended to last for. Then stockpile appropriately.
Stockpile Other Essentials
It’s also a cliche to say, but it’s also no less important. Besides food and water, there are a lot of other important items that you’ll want to stockpile as well.
These include, but are not necessary limited to:
- Ammunition
- Clothing
- Containers
- First Aid Items
- Gasoline
- Paper
- Personal Hygiene Items
- Plastic Bags
- Prescription Medication
- Propane
Hide Your Stockpile
Or at least don’t make it obvious that you have a stockpile.
This is for two primary reasons.
The first is you don’t want people knowing that you have a stockpile, because doing so will put a target on your back once the blackout has struck.
The second reason is because if martial law is declared, the authorities will attempt to seize control over the production and distribution of food and water to ensure that the civilian population remains dependent on them to stay alive.
Don’t be surprised if law enforcement officers come knocking on your door and literally confiscate whatever they want. This is why having a ‘secret’ storage room is so critical.
Make Your Home More Defensible
Most suburban homes are not very defensible and incredibly easy for determined burglars or home invaders to break into.
And unfortunately, after all the stores in town have become looted and stripped of supplies, homes will become the next major target.
There are five big steps you can take to ensure your home is easier to defend to keep you and your family safe:
- Build DIY traps and alarms against looters and intruders, using this guide.
- Replace all doors leading outside with heavy duty steel doors.
- Replace all locks and hinges to the doors with heavy duty locks and hinges.
- Replace all glass windows with acrylic glass windows.
- Install a hideaway safe room in your home with supplies that you and your family.
Have A Backup Plan
Always have a backup location that you can retreat to, and ideally where you can link to with other members in your circle of trust.
Hopefully you’ll be able to bug in at your home and ‘wait out the storm,’ but if it becomes too dangerous for you to stay at home, you want to make sure you have somewhere to go.
Bugging out of town with no plan and nowhere to go is one of the worst things you can do in any disaster scenario.
Make sure the following conditions are met at minimum for your bug out plan:
- You have a bug out location, preferably in a rural area. It should be shielded from view of anyone on nearby freeways or highways. The location should ideally be property that either you or someone in your circle of trust owns.
- This location should have tents or buildings in which you and members in your group can live in.
- It should have access to a natural source of water.
- You must have at least 2-3 routes of getting to that location. If law enforcement blocks one route, for instance, you’ll need another way of getting there.
- You must be in coordination with family and friends in your circle of trust during and after the blackout. Invest in CB or HAM radios so you can get in-touch with them after the blackout has occurred. You may not be able to rely on cell or internet service depending on what’s happened.
Bugging out on the open road is always risky. But bugging out with nowhere to go is always riskier than bugging out with somewhere to go and a plan of meeting up with other people you can trust once you are there.
For a final piece of advice, remember to not inform anybody of your preparations outside of the small group of people in your ‘circle of trust’ while preparing for a blackout. Doing so is an excellent way to put a target on your back.
Even though your unprepared friends and neighbors may be nice now, when the blackout hits and supplies dry up, these are the same types of people who will knock on your door demanding what you share with them…and they won’t be very nice then either.
What else do you think you should be doing to prepare for the upcoming blackout that hits the United States?
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in regard to having $$CASH$$ on hand for shopping – one of the reasons you prep is to avoid the looting riots – going out to the retail areas after almost any SHTF these dayz will result in confrontation – and – you being a targeted attack ….
if you see the absolute need and the SHTF is on a slow boil >>> hit the remote non-chain retail stores – know their inventory and day/hours of operation – take the backroad route that avoids any major highway & the interstate – good chance a SHTF hits on a weekend and in the weeeee hours of the morning – find the 24 Hour places that have anything SHTF goods …
YOU ARE SO CORRECT, HELLO MY FELLOW PREPPER, I’M A URBAN PREPPER LIVING IN THE HEART OF CHIRAC/CHICAGO, AND I HAVE SCOUTED OUT SEVERAL PROPERTY’S TO BUGOUT IN OTHER THAN MY HOME, BUT THE IDEA OF STORING 700 GALLONS OF WATER WILL TAKE UP ALOT OF SPACE, SO WHAT I HAVE DONE IS STORED 4 55 GALLON DRUMS ALONG WITH PURIFICATION TABLETS AND OTHER ITEMS IF WE HAVE TO LEAVE OUR HOME, MY BUGOUT LOCATION IS ONLY 2 BLOCKS FROM MY HOME AND FROM THE OUTSIDE IT LOOKS LIKE A ALREADY LOOTED BUILDING UNTIL YOU GET INSIDE, DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS ON HAM RADIOS THAT YOU CAN GIVE ME, MY NAME IS LORMAC
not many areas left in Chicago proper that’ll be safe when the crunch comes – you see almost every single day now that the trash takes the EL or drives a stolen car to pirate the non-ghetto …
used to be that it was assured that the trains would be halted, Roosevelt Rd underpasses closed and the Chicago River bridges raised to stop The Hoard from coming north >>> the Gnome was bad enough – Fat Albert is even more clueless, if that’s even possible ….
Good luck, the inner cities will be drug overlord death camps full of sex slaves to survive. Better keep one bullet for the final act.
There is proof that big Democrat run city’s are beyond help. You can’t fix stupid. When generations still vote the same way their grandparents did.
It’s not your Demoncratic Party anymore, it’s Pure Marxism at best.
Chicago has always been a dangerous shooting gallery for decades.
You need an amateur radio license to operate the radio. C.B. radios don’t need licenses to operate….
Chit-cago is one of the worst places to prep and bug in, it’s time to bug out. Or start eliminating the useless 2 legged garbage in their neighborhoods ASAP!
Take your Chit-cago city and surrounding neighborhoods back to the people.
The worst gun regulated State of liberalism and you all still have daily shooting and burials.
Get a gripe takeout the rift-raft. That goes for other big cities around the country. Yes tough love vigilantism is the way to go. All other weak feminized policies have not worked. It will get worse with the Southern Border illegals. They broke the America laws and we Americans all must push back.
when the shtf cash will be no good all the shops would have been raided so what good will be to have cash
We can burn the paper dollars for kindling to warm up those cold beans, Ha, Ha! Try that with digital money.
Ha, Ha, LOL at all the comments posted. Begin to think preppers are a bunch of worry wort’s all the what if’s or that. Prepping today is nothing more than yesterday’s practical traditions. Most American family’s grew up with.
The internet and smartphone generations have no clue. These people are not given the traditional education Americans once had.
No wonder the fairy gender males are stupid and the females are being turned into guys. They got China eating their lunch and illegals taking their taxpaying money for free. Will they learn, really?
I was without water in my house for 4 weeks. I used 2 drums with 30 gallons each–60 total and I was conservative those days.
I let the toilet stay until I really had to flush. I used same dish water till I had to drain–things I could get away with without endangering my health. So, realistically, more like 2 gallons a day is a better assessment.
Replace all locks and hinges to the doors with heavy duty locks and hinges.
Even that won’t help when the cops come to steak your stuff.
They use breaching rounds on the hinges and even explosives to breach the door.
Only way to get back at them is to booby-trap ways in.
Lethal booby-traps.
At least you can take out one or more before they kill you.
Oh and yes, if SHTF, buy everything you can get your hands on even if you don’t need it.
You will appear desperate like everyone else and less suspect.
You will also have something to barter with too.
6 months is no where near enough supplies per person.
Big problems are:
1) where to PUT all that stuff
2) How to protect all that stuff.
3) How to keep the stuff from spoilage.
If you are the only one cooking (smells travel long distances) or have lights on, you alert everyone else you got something that THEY will want to take.
Blackout curtains or similar methods are an advantage.
Cooking – cook AWAY from where your home and stockpile are. Transport cooked foods to your home.
Make sure there is no smoke anywhere near your home. Sends a flag from a distance that someone is nearby (aka you).
Guns/ammo – split them up into different locations so when cops come to steal your stuff, they don’t get ALL of it.
One area not looked at in prepping is the rat and mouse issues where preps are stored. Eventually this will become a battled. I have tried to use the common tactics against those creatures. Some experts say we need to use a combination of tactics against them. If we use only one way these little monsters will become immune to that way.
In our location I have been battling rats, mice, rabbits, raccoons and coyotes in the raised bed gardens. Do use hardware cloth and rabbit fencing barriers.
Using poisons is a personal decision as we have cat and dog along with birds and chickens. So the Dilemma is staying outside for periods with a 22 and pellet gun. But it gets impractical while trying to do other prepping or daily living.
Have tried sonic electronics, useless. The mint oils work for 2 days then the rats avoid it.
There must be some homemade potion that will work. Have heard some animal urine may work to repel the invaders for awhile.
My favorite solution to rats and mice are my cats. They keep the rodents at bay.
Splitting up preps is not very practical for people in the suburbs. These can be discovered by illegals and the homeless anytime you go near your stuff.
Cooking will need to be cold preps with nosy neighbors. But what happens when we get fresh meat or fish? We need to cook them over a fire. Traveling a ways to cook a meal and transports the food back has it’s challenges. You could can mugged for the freshly cooked food.
It is good to be prepared for all occasions.
Our preps are temporary, the long term prepper mindset, eventually see’s it is all temporary. Sooner or later we will need to resupply. That will be the key to prepper survival; resupply.
For the liberals and liberal preppers, BOHICA and kiss your butts goodby.
The other middle of the road preppers and people quit voting for the same liberal democrats that make stupid rules.
The right side of the middle, preppers use commonsense and don’t buy into the lame stream media hype of talking head experts.
The whole system can be healed before the lemming public jumps the cliff to death.
Depend on all out tyranny or complete unthinkable nuke destruction of us.
We will do re-Knitting of the supply chains through barter and trade. The old country store network will come back at some point.
The internet will more likely become a relic of the past, like the telegraph was.
Society will change a bit. Whatever libraries and paper books survive will be the foundation of rebuilding a corrupt public school system.
Maybe Tar an Feathering will comeback to publicly punish the nincompoops who caused our downfall, maybe.
Will America go back to it’s Christian Founding Father’s America or become a secular nation?
Will the Southern Border Wall get built and push out the drug cartels and illegals? Will Hollywood implode and the sexual deviants be purge from there?
What do preppers really believe prepping is all about? Does all preppers think it’s all about focusing on one area of survival?
Food, Water, skills and Shelter is important. We need to widen the prepping scope to look at current events too. What is going on, will this effect my preps?
Do I make changes to, Do I keep what I have, or hoard a perceived item(s) for future trade?
How much is enough to have, to store? Do I live in a home, apartment, a town that will barter? Who are my neighbors can I trust them when the chips are down? Are my family members willing to prep or just me only?
Just brainstorming here, what are your thoughts to prepping?
Items forgotten :
Bibles , Tracks, Literature for witness before the rapture of the saints
not just material possitions , but spiritual preparation
If your house is not ready , rest assured , YOU will be left behind and you will go thru the tribulation of Hell on earth
But Start will be koas, then after YOUR commitment to worship the fake, false system of socialist who dont care about you , just want they can get or what you have for them
God is not dead, out to lunch, out of touch , he see’s all and knows all
The Ten Commandments there for a reason , not just a bunch of words or books
# 1 you must trust, believe, obey
GOD or else you will be stuck in the systems Glut of consumption of the mass
as the bible says
They the world will be eating, drinking , given in marriage and thinking all is well , then the end will come , like a thief in the night , no warning , no notice
Bidens group of morons, idiots, thieves, conmen , criminals will have the answer
LOVE all , Like they Love All , perversion, lust , self gratification , much worse
The Take, steal , blame, and cause many to die who will not Take thier way of life or mark of ownership , or system of Socialist control
Well Best of luck , pray that God opens eyes, turns hearts to him , and exposes LIEs from the liars clubs
just a note : anything you store or have can be stolen, taken, killed for in the name of the good of all
When there is No fear of A higher power , God, Jesus Christ , there is no STOPPING
What do you do when you need prescription meds but the dr will only give you 30 days worth?
JASE MEDICAL OR CONTENGENCY MEDICAL ARE GOOD PLACES TO START.
Chances are you die or buy from a drug dealer, what choice.
I am so glad I don’t have to worry about prescription medications. At 64, I don’t take any, but if I did, I would read up on how I can at least decrease the number of medications I need to take. Even type one diabetics can benefit from an after-dinner walk which will decrease the amount of insulin you have to take.
Some drugs are given for 30 days only because the doctor is afraid they will be abused -like strong pain killers or “street drugs” that can be sold. He is in effect protecting himself from lawsuits. Our maintenance drugs are only given so much at a time and that is because that is all our insurance will pay for.
@Molly B: It isn’t the doctors, it’s the insurance companies that limit Rx’s to every 30 days.(it’s actually 25 days, so I get them at 25 days, which allows me to store 5 days worth every month)
Ask the pharmacy to ask the insurance company to give you a bit more…like an extra 10 days worth every month, or contact the insurance company and tell them you are concerned about supply chain issues (certainly an issue after covid).
My doctor is helpful, when I reduced one medication, she left it at the take 2 per day when I actually only take 1 per day now, and when she increased one Rx, I still get the old amount as well as the new amount so I can take 2 of them and have a stockpile of them.
There ARE ways to stock up Rx’s, but you need to get creative and have a helpful doctor.
The gray-man scenario is always the best, unless you’re running for rule power! You then become dangerous.
For prepper humor check out this short film on YT. Called ” IMMINENT ARRIVAL” Watch until the end.
Another movie, although very low budget, is “Prepper.” Also watch to the end even all the critics as they put little segments. It’s basic prepping, but the fundamentals are there for the beginner prepper.
So tell me, IF all the people grabbed the BOB and moved 50 miles to hide or rough it till things settled some. Wouldn’t we be in someone else’s home and others would be in our home? What is the difference between hiding in another home as compared to hiding in your own home?
Yeah good questions. What does bug = in or out, really mean to novice and old-timer preppers?
Bug-out is a romantic theme or idea put into the heads of preppers.Who coined the bug-out and bug-in concept, the gov’t or the 1970’s survivalist’s?
All those bugging into the rural areas are trespassing, no different of the homeless shitting on the city streets. Even those places will have tons of waste.
The illegals and cartels are also trespassing on private property called America!
Politicians and lawyers will not solve our problems. They will further the issues and make money off the Sheeple believing govt is their god of hope.
Belief in GOD is most important. None of the preps will go with us, they are temporary.
The Bible is more than a religious theme book, it has stories of fornication, murder, incest, perversions. Basically things of normal life in the major cities. Quoting verses gets nowhere in public or on the internet. The DC Swamp is the perfect example of Sodom and Gomorrah; Diversity, Equity an Inclusion are Democrat Blue States chaos.
It’s much more than a theme book, much more than stories. Quoting verses anywhere tends to make cold people colder, and hot people hotter, spiritually speaking.
Hebrews 4:12 isn’t blunted by anything we do or don’t believe or say.
My family situation mandates I have to bug in, but I have blackout curtains or blinds on all of the windows, a basement level man cave that can double as living quarters, and I keep stocks of kerosene on hand for lights and heating. When the power goes out at my place no light is visible from outside when I light the lamps. I do not want anyone thinking I plan on sharing my stash just because they can see the light. I have stores of food, and a good running creek if I need to start dipping into it for filtration purposes. I’m on a septic tank and a well, but need electricity to pump the water up hill. I can dip 5 gallon buckets out, but that sucks badly. My fallback position is 500 miles away so if I don’t have advance notice, we ain’t moving without a really good reason.
Buying all the food was done in a small amount each time I bought groceries, I would add a couple of cans of soup, some salt, seasonings, rice/beans/peas/lentils whatever was most available, and canned meats. The freeze dried packs seem kinda thin on calories, and thick on price, but the #10 cans are a good buy on sale. I have stocked milk powder, with evaporated milk to blend in to disguise the thinness of it, potato slices,cheese powder, black bean burger mix, as well chicken and ground beef. These will be used to stretch the rice and beans, without making it seem too spartan.
As a back up power source I bought 2 solar storage banks, and have wifi indoor outdoor thermometers so I can remotely monitor the temps and plug and unplug as needed to conserve the batteries on one while the other is charging. This is the best solution I can afford at this time, after retirement, when I am setting up my forever home I will price out solar setup vs importing the grid, and determine my ROI on both.
Your mileage may vary, but I am more worried about the HOA Karen’s demanding I support their entitled arse if they knew, than the government confiscated my stocks. The HOA is closer, and has a vested interest.
Dollar Tree has the cartons of milk for emergencies and I have stored them for many months in a cool storage room and had good results.
I have powdered Nido I keep in the freezers but the cartons do come in handy and are no more expensive than Nido if you do the math.
I found the NIdo tastes great if when you mix add a couple drops of vanilla and a tsp of sugar and chill overnight–can’t tell it is powdered.
I’ve been living off grid out in the desert for almost 2 years now… A blackout won’t effect me at all. My chickens, and I will get along just fine for at least six months, perhaps longer.
Keeping an emergency fund is a good idea but if thebpower goes down it’s worthless. None of the chain stores have generators. They will shut down within 15 minutes of the power goes out. I worked for the nation’s largest grocer and its sop to close immediately.
If you don’t already have what you need your screwed.
I doubt there will be an emp attack. Anyone launching one will get wiped out by our overseas nuke forces. Especially subs. The sun is active and you should get at least a 18 hour warning to spend that emergency fund before a cme hits.
More likely now is a cyber or terror attack. Why have 14k chinese come across the southern border. Some have to be agents and I’m sure they know how to bring down the grid with a few men. I’m sure this will be there opening shot to take Taiwan. Take down our power grid and the us will descend into anarchy and won’t be able to save itself. Let alone Taiwan
I think that cash would be useful to have around if you found yourself on the road and needed to get home. Definitely have some cash on hand at least for this case.
Some silver coins would be more useful than fiat money. Silver will always be accepted. Yes, you will end up paying more for what you buy with silver coins but that is time to make a choice – pay more or starve. Get silver coins of small denomination. Skip the gold unless you are very rich or planning on buying a new car or house and need a lot of cash. The newly-purchased silver is very pretty so show a few coins to your friends (if you must) but hide it very securely preferably outside and away from your house.
I was reading the article, and got to the part about having cash on hand, when – I kid you not – the power went out! Only for about an hour, but it’s a fairly common occurrence here in Central Oregon. Hadn’t even thought of getting the generator out by the time it came back on.
Well to start with it looks like they wil be pushing digital currency soon so cash on hand will be useless. unless your home is made of block or brick these two things will be useless {Replace all doors leading outside with heavy duty steel doors.
Replace all locks and hinges to the doors with heavy duty locks and hinges] As most homes of today have pvc siding with foam and sheet rock for walls. and being real a backout will kill over half the poplation to start with, depending on the time of year and location as most are not prepared health wise to be without heat and or AC. then the looters, if you are in a city, good luck those in the country may be a bit better off, but if you are not prepared to kill to defend yourself or family then you are dead Ham radio is going to the new form where you need the internet more and more are turning to this.
A lot has been said about HAM radio and its use in a crisis, especially in a blackout. Something I’ve not heard discussed is the distance the signal will travel without the need of an electrically powered repeater. It’s the same with citizen’s band radio. How far will the signal go? I hardly know anything about either method of communication but I’m hoping somebody out there does know and will share. We have only one shot at survival. No “do-overs”.
My ham set up was design with this in mind i can reach radio to radio 20-30 miles. And have hit repeaters 400 miles away. but this not normal i have backup solar + batteries for power if needed. my antennas are about 80 feet in the air of two different types. Also able to talk on the HF bands go ahead and get your license. check in your local area for local ham radio classes and testing.. a small ham radio you can get off of Amazon the Baofeng radio, a good not to expensed radio that are good for starters i have two of the little handheld and they work great there are several sites online to help you study for the test. also
Consider….
Life is short and death is sure. The hour of death remains obscure,
A soul you have…..and onlly one. If that be lost, all hope is gone
Waste not your time while time shall last
for fater death…’tis ever passed.
The All-seeing God your judge will be,
And Heaven or Hell your judge will be.
All earthly things will pass away,
Eternity will ever stay,