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Forum » Our Vulnerable Electric Grid: Why Preppers Plan For A Blackout
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Thread: Our Vulnerable Electric Grid: Why Preppers Plan For A Blackout

post 1633405463 03-10-2021, 08:35 AM
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Our Vulnerable Electric Grid: Why Preppers Plan For A Blackout

I've personally been aware that the US electrical grid is highly vulnerable for about 15 years thanks to an astronomy professor.

Many in the prepping community use a 2 week power outage as a baseline for minimum preparedness.

A large scale power outage could potentially last a lot longer than 2 weeks. There is actually a government group that has studied what could happen to us if we were to be without power for a year.

The estimated that 2/3rds of the US population would be dead after a year without a functional electrical grid.

But for some reason, even though there is a high risk of the grid going down (1 in 10 risk or Coronal Mass Ejection for the decade; only one potential trigger event) nothing has gotten done about it.



Cliffs:

- grid could be taken down by cyberattack; estimated 70% to 90% likely in the next few decades

- grid could be taken down by a Coronal Mass Ejection; estimated 1 in 10 chance in the next decade

- electromagnetic pulse attack (aka: EMP)

- physical attack on power stations/transformers; if you take out 9 high voltage transformers you can take out the entire grid- these transformers are massive, cost millions of dollars,the lead time is a yearand just transporting them would be a major challenge

- radio frequency weapons could be used to destroy these same transformers

Over a decade ago the Congressional EMP Commission estimated it would cost 2 to 4 Trillion to protect the grid.

We haven't spent possibly $4 Trillion to prevent up to 2/3rds of our population dying, knowing it needed to be done and could be done, for more than 10 years.
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post 1633405793 03-10-2021, 08:39 AM
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We haven't spent possibly $4 Trillion to prevent up to 2/3rds of our population dying, knowing it needed to be done and could be done, for more than 10 years.
Sounds about right for government work.
post 1633406793 03-10-2021, 08:53 AM
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Originally Posted By TugOfPeace⏩
I've been prepping with cooking alcohol fuel and other necessities.. the biggest gap in my preps is water. Need to get two 55 gallon drums
Good.

Strange but true- exposure to the prepper community and mindset encountered during the 2008 financial crisis contributed to me losing a lot of weight.

Unbelievable as it might be I don't spend all my time worrying about potential bad things happening. I just generally have a "thirst for knowledge", even though I'm aware that knowing what is happening or why it is happening may not make a damn bit of difference in the outcome of a situation, or could even increase your suffering.

One of the factors that would make you most susceptible to die in this kind of event would be dependence on prescription medication or medical devices which suddenly become unavailable.

In 2008 I was obese with a 3 year old and a known strong family history of type 2 diabetes. Not like I wanted to be diabetic anyway, but the possibility of being diabetic in some kind of disaster scenario with a dependent child upped the stakes significantly.
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post 1633406883 03-10-2021, 08:53 AM
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Texas last month was a perfect example of how unprepared most people are. 3 days no power or water caused absolute panic.
2 weeks is not that hard to plan for but most people just don't think about it because we have become so accustomed to everything always being easily accessible.

The really scary scenario is when 2 weeks becomes 2 months. If you live in the city or the suburbs, you are probably fuked.
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post 1633407013 03-10-2021, 08:55 AM
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Securing the power grid, or any other national security initiative, doesn't get votes as well as sending people money by borrowing more than we'll ever be able to repay does. Since the politicians in power now will either be long dead or have a collection of wealth producing assets that aren't based on the USD's "value" they only care about buying votes now.
post 1633407183 03-10-2021, 08:56 AM
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This why I have solar panels an electric generator and a backup gas generator a well a and capacity to grow all my own food. When chit hits any utah miscers are welcome to come to my farm and ride it out.
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post 1633407373 03-10-2021, 08:59 AM
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I read somewhere that if our grid went down for 1 year, 90% of Americans would dead by the end of the year.
post 1633407433 03-10-2021, 09:00 AM
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Originally Posted By dingler⏩
This why I have solar panels an electric generator and a backup gas generator as well a well as capacity to grow all my own food. When chit hits any utah miscers are welcome to come to my farm and ride it out.
If **** hits the fan anyone without will be coming for those with. You better be prepared to kill to protect what you have.
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post 1633407453 03-10-2021, 09:00 AM
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Originally Posted By dingler⏩
This why I have solar panels an electric generator and a backup gas generator as well a well as capacity to grow all my own food. When chit hits any utah miscers are welcome to come to my farm and ride it out.
The preparation mindset shared by most Mormons is a decent reason to live in Utah. I think they are a little odd with some things (special long underwear, "baptism" of deceased people), but the Mormons and United Methodists do a lot of good when it comes to community needs.
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post 1633407523 03-10-2021, 09:01 AM
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Speaking of the globalist lunatics that want the worlds population to be 500 mil. Coordinated global power outages would accomplish that in record time. Much better than a silly virus.
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post 1633407843 03-10-2021, 09:05 AM
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Originally Posted By JoshSP1985⏩
If **** hits the fan anyone without will be coming for those with. You better be prepared to kill to protect what you have.
^^^This. Most will hesitate to kill their entire neighbors family over a gallon of water....and then suffer the same fate.
post 1633407903 03-10-2021, 09:06 AM
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Originally Posted By RIKTER⏩
I read somewhere that if our grid went down for 1 year, 90% of Americans would dead by the end of the year.
Checks out. 82% of people in the US live in cities, and almost all of them would be 100% screwed if they had to rely on their own two hands for an hour
54% of young adults between the ages of 11 and 24 have never seen a cow in real life.
post 1633408253 03-10-2021, 09:10 AM
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Originally Posted By JoshSP1985⏩
If **** hits the fan anyone without will be coming for those with. You better be prepared to kill to protect what you have.
I live in a small mountain town, most everybody here has similar prep in place. We are a tight knit community and would definitely protect each other if it came to it.
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post 1633408283 03-10-2021, 09:11 AM
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Originally Posted By kcadrenalin⏩
Texas last month was a perfect example of how unprepared most people are. 3 days no power or water caused absolute panic.
2 weeks is not that hard to plan for but most people just don't think about it because we have become so accustomed to everything always being easily accessible.

The really scary scenario is when 2 weeks becomes 2 months. If you live in the city or the suburbs, you are probably fuked.
City people are generally helpless and plan for nothing and they've been groomed by the govt to think someone will always be there to help them. Hence why when things got uncomfortable for them who's the first entity they started blaming?
post 1633408433 03-10-2021, 09:13 AM
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Originally Posted By monster0ultra⏩
Prepping is retarded. If society collapses, just die, SRS.

You're all going to die around age 80 anyway. It makes no sense to worry that much about prepping for a scenario where society collapses when you're 60.

You could die every time you drive your car, it's just a question of probability. To use the car example further, if you've got a shiny new car that costs 50K, it makes sense to buy comprehensive insurance on it. It doesn't make sense however to buy insurance on it that costs 5K a month because that exceeds the value of the car after a year. Prepping is over insuring your life.
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post 1633408643 03-10-2021, 09:15 AM
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post 1633408663 03-10-2021, 09:15 AM
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Read this latest Mitch Rapp book. It's fiction, but literally based on this exact scenario and science.



Kyle Mills even has an author's note in the beginning saying that the scariest part about this book and the scenario, is that he had to make virtually nothing up. The storyline itself was pretty much the only thing in the book that wasn't real. All of the issues with the electrical grids, incompatible power stations, overseas manufacturers, lead times, length of the blackouts and how many would die due to different direct and indirect consequences, the costs the fix the issues upfront, the costs to fix the issues after the fact should something like this happen, etc. is all 100% fact.
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post 1633408823 03-10-2021, 09:16 AM
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Originally Posted By monster0ultra⏩
Prepping is retarded. If society collapses, just die, SRS.

You're all going to die around age 80 anyway. It makes no sense to worry that much about prepping for a scenario where society collapses when you're 60.

You could die every time you drive your car, it's just a question of probability. To use the car example further, if you've got a shiny new car that costs 50K, it makes sense to buy comprehensive insurance on it. It doesn't make sense however to buy insurance on it that costs 5K a month because that exceeds the value of the car after a year. Prepping is over insuring your life.
Um, okay.

But what if someone is, say 20 to 40 years old, there is at least a 1 in 10 chance of a significant power outage, and this person has dependent children?

Prepping for nuclear war/runaway climate destruction isn't like prepping for a power outage. A power outage could cause widespread death, but it isn't like the planet would become unlivable.*

* possible exception for areas near nuclear power plants that aren't shut down properly/cooled
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post 1633408973 03-10-2021, 09:18 AM
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Its not that 2/3rds would be dead within a year, its that you'd need to kill 2/3rds to keep the power grid down

hell, I'm pretty confident you could get the grid back up with 1/10th the population.


we'd figure something out

loss of gps, however, would be permanent....

Our USAF or possible USSF manages GPS, and they wouldn't let it die easily...its the backbone of national defense now.

Maybe I am being overly positive, but I don't see our grids collapsing in anything short of an all out "1 in a 100 people survive" apocalypse.
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post 1633409353 03-10-2021, 09:22 AM
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Just learn to live without power bro

Wood stove, fireplace, etc.

Jfl @ humans in the 21st century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_decline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societal_collapse#By_absorption
post 1633409453 03-10-2021, 09:23 AM
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fuaaarrk. I remember back in 2012 when they were selling those food buckets at walmart. Everyone I talked to was prepping. People storing food and water underneath their houses, building bunkers, buying more guns and ammo.




I took it somewhat srsly and still have like 10 gallons of water, and some canned food but that would really only last me a few weeks. Would definitely like to get back on the prepping grind, because it was fun.
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post 1633409483 03-10-2021, 09:23 AM
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Originally Posted By katya422⏩
The preparation mindset shared by most Mormons is a decent reason to live in Utah. I think they are a little odd with some things (special long underwear, "baptism" of deceased people), but the Mormons and United Methodists do a lot of good when it comes to community needs.
I found out about this a few months ago, but the LDS church runs Home Storage Centers with seriously good prices.

https://providentliving.churchofjesu...s-map?lang=eng
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post 1633410053 03-10-2021, 09:29 AM
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My body is ready for suppressed tech to free us all from the constraints of power companies.
#
post 1633410123 03-10-2021, 09:30 AM
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I personally don't think humans are cut out for living in a high tech industrialized civilization. This system consumes far too many resources and relies on complex technology and supply chains. It's just too fragile. Low population tribal agrarianism is probably the only truly sustainable long term society. Turning away from that in the pursuit if industrialization and vast wealth was one of the worst mistakes humanity has ever made.
post 1633410653 03-10-2021, 09:35 AM
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Im down with anarcho primitivism. watch society breakdown after 3 days with no power. Imagine 3 weeks, let alone 3 months. Cannibalism, rape, murder, etc will all be normal. Stay frosty boyos
post 1633410973 03-10-2021, 09:39 AM
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Originally Posted By nickh04⏩
fuaaarrk. I remember back in 2012 when they were selling those food buckets at walmart. Everyone I talked to was prepping. People storing food and water underneath their houses, building bunkers, buying more guns and ammo.




I took it somewhat srsly and still have like 10 gallons of water, and some canned food but that would really only last me a few weeks. Would definitely like to get back on the prepping grind, because it was fun.
You'd probably be much better off with a portable and effective water filter that you can hide. 10 gallons of water makes you a sitting duck, if people are dying due to lack of water you definitely don't want to be stuck in your house with 10 gallons of it or trying to lug 80 pounds of water out of town. If water is only unavailable for a short while you can always go down to some **** pond and pull some out, using the portable filter to make it drinkable.
post 1633411113 03-10-2021, 09:41 AM
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I know folks in the prepper space. If you talk to common folk about this in regards to what happened here in Texas with the power grid they call it victim blaming LMAO.

waaaaah big daddy government didn't save us!

Good thread BTW I have some small prep stuff but not full out. Water, food, medical mostly.
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post 1633411243 03-10-2021, 09:42 AM
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post 1633411413 03-10-2021, 09:44 AM
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Been prepping a lot over the last year, need to step up my blackout kit tho
post 1633411593 03-10-2021, 09:46 AM
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People like to crap on the 'preppers'. But the truth is when the Texas storm hit people that prepared were warm and comfortable. They had food. Water. Warm blankets. Emergency power sources. Heat. Etc. Sometimes I wonder what percent of American's can source and purify water. Grow a vegetable garden. Harvest fish/wild game and butcher/prepare for cooking. Etc.

I live at the edge of a city but I made sure I could get to fishing and even hunting spots within walking distance if need be. Yard is big enough to grow veg and raise chickens/rabbits also. Live in a cul de sac and have good enough relations with my immediate neighbors to not need to worry about them murdering me to steal my schit in the event of something catastrophic happening. Etc.

I really think I'd be fine should some kind of long term emergency occur. But I do believe nearly all urban/city dwellers would be in a bind. I wonder how many of them would be willing to harvest local cats/dogs for food if need be.

Originally Posted By monster0ultra⏩
Prepping is retarded. If society collapses, just die, SRS.

You're all going to die around age 80 anyway. It makes no sense to worry that much about prepping for a scenario where society collapses when you're 60.

You could die every time you drive your car, it's just a question of probability. To use the car example further, if you've got a shiny new car that costs 50K, it makes sense to buy comprehensive insurance on it. It doesn't make sense however to buy insurance on it that costs 5K a month because that exceeds the value of the car after a year. Prepping is over insuring your life.
1. Some people have a strong will to live. You might not. But don't assume everyone is cool with rolling over and dying when times get tough.

2. Not everyone is forever alone. Some people have families. People they love and care about. Etc. Its not about surviving forever. Its about ensuring the people you care about survive safely and comfortably as possible.
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