Imagine this country without electricity. No, not in the 19th century, when everyone was used to hand-operated tools and industry ran on water and steam power; now, when we’re surrounded by electrically-powered gadgets wherever we go.
Imagine that, in the middle of a normal day, the power grid just suddenly stopped.
It would be a disaster, wouldn’t it? Forget the small stuff for a moment; yes, your house would be dark and none of your modern devices would work anymore, but at first, that would be lost in the sheer scale of the chaos.
Driving would instantly become far more dangerous, as stop lights failed. Airplanes would have to get back down on the ground with no ground-to-air radio or navigation systems.
Most communications would fail – not just cellphones, but most of our landlines too. Only old-fashioned phones would keep working, and outside of earthquake hotspots like San Francisco who has those anymore?
However, here you can learn a very simple and inexpensive way that you can maintain the continuity of comms even without a grid.
And then, once you finally make it through the collapse of society and make it home, you have to deal with all the small stuff. The house is dark and nothing works.
The gas and water are out because somewhere along the network that brings them to your home, something relies on electricity.
The scale of disruption that an electrical blackout would cause in the US is hard to imagine, let alone describe.
How Big Is The Risk?
Is a blackout like this something we need to worry about, though? Is there a real risk of it happening? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. In fact it’s less a question of if it’s going to happen, and more like when. The ugly truth is that our electrical grid isn’t in great shape, and it’s vulnerable to multiple threats.
When we think about threats to our electricity supply we tend to focus on dramatic events like an EMP attack, or even solar activity like a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). There’s no doubt that either of those events could instantly cause chaos on a massive scale.
Related: EMP Prevention Plan: Why Our Government Has Done Nothing
What most people don’t realize, though, is just how precarious the US electrical grid has become. In fact, even if a hostile state (or the sun) doesn’t decide to take it down, there’s a real risk of it just falling over on its own.
The US power grid is vulnerable to extreme weather in a way most Europeans have long forgotten about. While their power cables run safely underground, most of ours are still hanging from utility poles where they can be damaged by high winds or ice.
There are parts of the US where winter blackouts are a regular enough event that most people are prepared for them. In hurricane season, much of the southeast is also ready for the power to go off. To some extent this is inevitable.
Compared to any European country, the US is immense. It just isn’t realistic for us to bury all our power cables. Unfortunately, decades of under-investment in the grid have made things a lot worse.
Is Our Grid In Good Condition?
A lot of our power infrastructure is antiquated. It was designed in a time when the US population was a lot smaller than it is now, and when every home used a lot less electricity.
Now it just can’t keep up with demand – even if there’s enough power to meet that demand, which there often isn’t.
Over the decades since, utility companies have focused on keeping prices low and profits high, and they haven’t spent money on upgrading, modernizing or, often, even repairing the grid.
Seventy percent of our power lines are approaching the end of their planned 50-year lifespan, and some experts think it could take $2 trillion just to catch up after decades of neglect.
Related: I Lived Without Electricity For A Week. Here’s What Happened
Now the Biden administration is spending trillions on infrastructure, but it isn’t replacing old power lines and building new ones. Instead, the money is being poured into renewable energy.
That has its own problems; replace gas power plants with wind and solar, and there are going to be times when it’s cold, dark and still.
People will want power to heat and light their homes – but the wind turbines and solar panels won’t be delivering it. That, alone, is going to cause local and regional blackouts.
What Do We Do Now?
So that’s where we are. Our power grid is struggling to cope with the load we put on it right now; blackouts are becoming routine in some states.
Overall, the average American is left without electricity for eight hours a year – but in many places it’s much worse than that.
Ultra-liberal California is one of the worst affected, but blackout warnings in the Midwest are also on the rise.
We have an electrical system built for a population of 200 million where every house owned one TV, a washer and a refrigerator; it’s trying to cope with a population of 340 million, where every house has aircon, multiple TVs, a host of smaller appliances and a dozen electronic devices that need regular charging.
Our grid can’t handle the demand anymore, and it’s starting to fall apart. While you cannot prevent a blackout from happening, what you can do is become less and less reliant on the grid. And when it will fail you, you better be as prepared as possible. Fortunately, there is a guide called No Grid Survival Projects specifically created to teach you how to be independent and survive the next American blackout.
Prepping for an EMP attack or coronal mass ejection means you’re also ready for a plain old blackout as parts – or all – of our grid just collapses under the intolerable demand being loaded onto it.
The thing is, we need to be realistic about the odds of our preps being needed. An EMP is something that might happen, but blackouts will happen.
It’s time to go back over the preps we’ve made for the day the power goes off, and make sure we’re really ready to cope with that. Because we’re going to have to.
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Interesting equipment lifespan statistics.
All this article has accomplished for me is good luck. I thought it was going to recommend things I can do in case this happens.
America has become a “Laptop Class” of workers. How can you build a house structure by hammer online, it don’t work. Workers have to be on site to physically build the structure. If you don’t think so, go to a construction site to see in person. But the upcoming AI, will probably tell us different with electronic deception.
Yes, and they continue to try to convince people to
buy Electric Cars!!!
What???
And burden the electrical system even more?
I won’t be getting one.
Somehow, and maybe it’s just me, it just seems like that with an electric car you are much more controlled. True, many gasoline powered vehicles today have some sort of sneaky way that can remotely turn your vehicle off, but not like an electric one. OnStar can cause you’re vehicle to power down and then shut off when speed gets slow enough. Remember when they advertised that on TV as an anti-theft feature? Uncle Sam and co. can listen in remotely by turning on the mike in your vehicle. Same with your cell phone. Anyway, i will NOT EVER own a self steering vehicle. Back to topic, best advice for power outage is to keep at least SOME degree of non-perishable food that will feed your family for a month, at least. Bottled water too. As very little bottled water comes in BPA free bottles, be sure to store your water where it’s dark and cool for maximum longevity. To be 100% independent of the grid, and i mean to the extent that if power goes off your automatic switch box kicks over to your b/u power seamlessly and you keep on snoozin in the a/c or heat and notice a lil red light is on the power panel you check every morning while the Keurig is runnin. You then mentally go over a few things in your head to check on the cause of said electrical failure as you prep to fire up the CB or other alternative communications device. You’re not panicked as you have at least a year’s worth of food and some kind of water supply in place. BIG solar panel setup AND a large bank of batteries that can keep heat and cool at correct temps year round. What i just mentioned right there is how everyone should be prepped. BUT, that is a LOT of $. A decent solar array and batteries NOT including installation, NOT allowing for A/C or Electric heat is $25,000. I just checked about 2 months ago. Would love to have one, not in the budget right now. Everyone should keep power outages in mind. First, put away enuf supplies for a couple weeks, then slowly expand your stores to the point of a month’s worth and keep on until at least the 3 month mark. Prepping is not for the faint of heart or wallet. It takes time and effort to be even somewhat prepped.
Yes that’s why “they” want us to have smart appliances, phones, electric vehicles and so forth. It’s about control of the masses.
They can shut off your stuff digitally. Going smart digitally was a mistake as ANALOG was more secure, less surveillance on people.
Who cares anymore, right?
I believe I heard that they are going to be putting a “kill switch” in all new cars. So they can stop you in your tracks.
Buy that Tesla EV that is partly made of CCP parts. America is going CCP dependent then staying American independent of body, mind and Soul.
Buy those CCP solar panels and wildlife bird destroying windmills. Made by slave labor.
The small town I live near has two businesses that have EV charging stations, the local grocery store & the Wal Mart. As I was leaving the parking lot a few days ago I saw an EV charging station maintenance man working on one of the charging stations. I had to laugh when I saw his work truck. It was a gas engine pickup. I wish I had taken a photo!
This is all by design, not incompetence. And they’re not liberals; they’re leftists, commies and satanists
You are dead on as far as the leadership. The Useful Idiots that still vote the Communists into office however still think they are Democrates. They are of course not Democrat’s, they’re idiots.
People not taught American and world history, are doomed to repeat it.
Same stuff happening today with the WWII dictator’s playbook that worked back then.
The projected Butchers Bill for total loss of our electrical grids and associated support infrastructure caused by a successful EMP attack is 95% of the total population in the first year, due to starvation. [Government data not mine] The problem has always been that our representatives do not see this as a priority item and will not designate funds to correct the problem. Note: Our representatives, do have sanctuaries for themselves and their immediate families staffed by our military.
BOTTOM LINE: It all breaks down to whom is classified as expendable.
Hey walls work for those who oppose the Southern Border. Uncle sleepy has a wall around his pedo domain crime family. It works for other politicians as well including Hollyweed elites an RINO’s.
The current govt don’t care about us period. Foreigners first Americans last. Hell the agencies have kicked out USA Vet’s from their hotel rooms back on the streets. The freeloading illegals are taking up the space on USA taxpayer’s dime.
There are preppers who are Americans and we also have on the fence liberal preppers too. Peppers are not all middle of the road to conservative physically or mentally.
Also the Jan-6 BS was a PU-losi-disaster. She knew way ahead of warnings to get LEO and National Guard support to prevent it. She declined causing the chaos.
That was pre-planned with unofficial rogue alphabet agencies.
The Antifa and burners, looters, murderers were the thugs to cause the mayhem.
Does anyone remember a dystopian novel that ended with a very angry mob waiting to greet re-emerging politicians/oligarchs and corporate types who had ridden out a crisis in their Mt. Weather-type bunker(s)? That was some satisfying reading!
Ha, Ha!! to all the liberals, Demoncrats, RINO’s who bought the climate change, gender change and the Green Marxist Deal.
China is smart get people to be manipulated on smartphones and social media addiction. Buy up many American owned businesses and farmland.
Get the puppet politicians to open the Southern Border. Get CCP operatives on and in the China American owned; sold out to the CCP. Then launch predetermined terror strikes on USA military bases and civilian targets for effect. All those politicians, activist and so on, when the next 911 happens be sent to Guantanamo Bay prison.
Yes buy into going totally electric green on a failing non-upgraded national electric grid. See how that is in California Blue Sanctuary State of Marxist education.
It is a good and helpful article and the book you refer to, “No Grid Survival Projects” sounds great but the companion books that are free will do me no good if there is no electricity for a computer to run. I will not be able to refer to to them for help in a ‘grid down’ situation. Please tell the company that I and many others , I am sure, would order them if they could be useful with no power.
Thank you and keep writing the informative articles.
@Susan Webb: just copy/print those ebooks that you may need if SHTF …or take a flash drive full of ebooks to the printer and have them printed up there. (just be aware that any xerox-type machine actually keeps copies of everything printed on it…) Then you’ll have hard copies of stuff you need. I do that with all of my reading material and why I won’t BUY ebooks, but rather buy REAL books to keep. Planning to shelter in, not bug out so It isn’t going to be an issue having books.
Bill Gates is the current farm land baron in the USA. He has quietly been going around buying farm land and idling every piece of it so nothing is produced to help the economy. He is trying to starve us out and decimate the US population. With the power grid, everything is dependent on how the grid goes down. In an EMP or CME situation, everything is gone. If the grid is taken down by taking out strategic substations which create a domino effect power outage then your cars and small electronics will be OK. If either type happens we will be without power for an indeterminate number of years or forever. The power companies that supply power to the grid do not have a back stock of transformers and other parts needed to get back up running. To replace one transformer takes 3 years minimum. If the power is out in Europe as well then there can be no manufacturing of the needed transformers. We do not build our own technology. The administration allowed it all to be farmed out to other countries. If you want to have power you need to know how to build a rudimentary generator to supply electricity with the help of wind or water power. If you have the right metals you can draw electricity from the ground by making a series of earth batteries. Even with that the amperage from an earth battery will be too low to power any useful piece of electronics. You would be able to power low voltage light bulbs which would be useful. The DC motors out of treadmills could be used to generate 36v of electricity when used with wind or water propulsion. Any DC motor can be used as a generator. The best alternative is to learn how to live without the luxury of electricity. If you make your own electricity and are not careful to conceal it, you will be inviting all of the neanderthals to come pounding down your door. Other than that the future looks so bright I have to wear shades.
How about our government pulling the plug to combat global warming, and reduce the population of humans to benefit the animals? I fear that, more than EMP form man or sun. biden is only the puppet.
Our power grid is struggling to cope with the load we put on it right now;
And yet we keep letting massive amount of 3rd worlders into our country to gobble up more of our dwindling resources.
All a part of the overall plan to destroy capitalism and reduce world population. Uneducated like our high school graduates are much easier to control as they cannot think for themselves. This smells like a soros plan to me, it stinks.
“This Will Cause The Next American Blackout”…. I was thinking, Low American Blood Pressure?
Seriously, good luck preparing for this. Do what you can to get ready for it. Visiting Sierra Leone on a mission trip in ’08, about 5 years after the civil war, I noted the condition of their grid – mostly shot up or destroyed and back to the stone age. The place we stayed at had a generator that would run from 5pm to midnight only, long enough to rapidly cool some stuff down in their deep freeze and have lights to clean up by. When the generator shut off, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, very very dark.
The good news about all this is the Liberals , politicians and illegals will be suffering also. Funny is it not?
It’s even more delicious to think that most of the wokest libtards are woefully WOEFULLY unprepared for anything. They may suffer even more.
Someone mentioned transformers take years to build, specifically that would be the substation transformers.
The transformers on the local power poles (or underground pad transformers) are stockpiled by the electric companies along with meters, fuse cutouts/reclosers, etc. Lightening causes most of the damage to these local service devices.
The domino effect would be caused if major sources of electricity (from power plants) were lost, such as during the 2021 Polar Freeze that caused the Texas Power Crisis several years ago that forced the shutdown of most of the Texas Power Grid (to prevent catastrophic damage to the huge power station transformers).
Wind and Solar power are clean but a limited source due to environmental conditions (they need wind and sunlight). Nuclear and Natural Gas is the best sources of constant power. Coal is good, but needs to be cleaned up.
Electric cars are OK, but if no electricity is available? I would buy a hybrid that uses both gas and electricity.
Horror will ensue if Soros bid to rid the grid is did…..I think he, like satan would enjoy the chaos. It would be gleeful entertainment to them and their Demonic Political Party, watching humanity destroy itself.
This article highlights a real problem which I think the move to electric vehicles makes worse.
Powering these vehicles will require a doubling or more of electricity production just to keep them charged up. There seems to be a lack of planning for the power grid just to keep it running at the existing level of power demand.
It’s time for the power industry to get itself into gear!