10 things the recent D.C. power outage taught us about a real, large-scale collapse

Natural News ^ | 7/8/12 | Mike Adams

[Kartographer]

#1) The power grid is ridiculously vulnerable to disruptions and failure

#2) Without electricity, acquiring food and water in a major U.S. city can become a difficult task

#3) Most people are simply not prepared and therefore worsen any crisis

#4) Cell phones are a fragile technology that can't be counted on in an emergency

#5) The internet is wildly vulnerable to natural disasters

#6) Many people have no clue what to do in an emergency

#7) 911 and other emergency services are quickly overwhelmed or completely offline

#8) A national grid-down situation would be far more complex to repair

#9) Modern cities are built on systems that have little redundancy

#10) Mother Nature will humble humanity

[Kartographer]

I understand that a few FReepers have a grudge with Mike Adams, but I thing over all this article is a fair assessment of the recent VA/DC power outage.

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!

[molson209]

lots of those trees that crushed houses looked like they were rotten in the center of the trunk ,just waiting to fall down

[nascarnation]

Don’t know who the guy is, but most of what he wrote makes sense.

Without electricity, heap big trouble Kemosabe.

I suspect the reason it didn’t turn really ugly in DC is because the LEO presence there is massive.

In Cleveland, Detroit, or Chicago it likely would have been pretty out of control.

[Tzimisce]

#11 - our government doesn’t care about the suffering of the little people

[grumpygresh]

Any recommendations for generators?

[PapaBear3625]

#11: If you switched your phone to fiber-optic service, your landline phone will only work for a few hours after power goes out. A decade ago, the phone system supplied its own power over the phone line. Now, with fiber, it relies on a rechargeable battery in your basement, which will only last a few hours.

[MeganC]

“Any recommendations for generators?”

Yes.

1. Buy something that is QUIET so your neighbors don’t hear it and try to steal it.

2. Have a professional install it *inside* your house with the exhaust routed out an inconspicuous place on your roof.

3. During a crisis be SURE to turn off your lights, radios, and etc. at night so no one can see that you have power.

4. Buy something that is fuel efficient and powerful enough to run your refrigerator and your well (if you have one) and then buy a second one as a backup.

5. Buy a large enough firearm with plenty of ammo to protect it.

[Kartographer]

"#3) Most people are simply not prepared and therefore worsen any crisis."



Do be that guy! Don't be the guy standing on the bridge waiting for FEMA to bring him a bottle of water, an MRE and a warm blanket so as to provide the Network Anchors their background ‘Money Shot’.

I am not saying that you have to prep for Mad Max/Book of Eli, but things can easily breakdown for 30 to 60 days during which basic supplies, goods and services stop, banking stops (No checks No Credit Cards, No Debit Cards so on...) now how many people do you think are ready for such?

And between those not ready and those who have always had the ‘gubberment’ hand them everything what do you think the reaction will be?

Their reaction I think can be summed up in one of my favorite quotes:

Quark: Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes. ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’: The Siege of AR-558 (#7.8)” (1998)

For those who are just starting or are old hands at prepping you may find my Preparedness Manual helpfull. You can download it at: http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf

NOTE! THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD. I DO NOT MAKE ONE CENT OFF MY PREPAREDNESS MANUAL!

For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, a extra couple changes of oil and filters for your car, tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.

As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”

Or as the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. NIV Proverbs 22:3

Lastly this for the doubters and the scoffers.

“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger. Underestimation can be fatal.”

[molson209]

#11 - our government doesn’t care about the suffering of the little people

if Bush was president ,the Dems would be on TV attacking him ,but with Obama ,nothing ,crickets

[Paladin2]

It's always a BIG deal when calamity hits DC or NYC. Not so much in flyover country where folks seem to get hit more often and are more prepared to cope, on average.

Of course the media hand wringing alone is enough to make eschew living anywhere close to either place.

[Paladin2]

It's always a BIG deal when calamity hits DC or NYC. Not so much in flyover country where folks seem to get hit more often and are more prepared to cope, on average.

Of course the media hand wringing alone is enough to make me eschew living anywhere close to either place.

[Kartographer]

I don't have any certain one or even brand in mind. I would say if you can afford it and you live some where with frequent power outage that a backup unit power by natural gas would be good, but there was a FReeper in Virginia and a tree ripped up the gas line to his when it went over so one never knows!

Anyone have any recommendations?

[discostu]

#11 things don’t really collapse

Really, things have gone pretty smooth in there. Civilization has a lot of inertia.

[MeganC]

Wow, I’ve just looked at your .pdf and it is amazing! Thank you for posting that!

[COBOL2Java]

#11: If you owned this car, you were screwed!

[mamelukesabre]

forget it.

As soon as the sun goes down you will be a magnet for thieves and bandits. People do not go to sleep when it is 90 plus degrees inside their homes. They will go wandering about like the walking dead creating all kinds of mischief because there is nothing else to do in the dark when the power is out and you can’t sleep.

[PLMerite]

“I suspect the reason it didn’t turn really ugly in DC is because the LEO presence there is massive.”

That, and a couple of other things.

The power outages were spotty so a person could go somewhere to cool down, get ice, etc.

It was just too damn hot the first two days for anyone to get too riled up. Food was still availale, and power restoration started in some neighborhoods on Monday.

If everyone who was without power Friday night (like me) was still without power a week later, then it would have started to get bad. I got power back tuesday night and in the meantime had been able relocate a few miles up the road to someplace with electricity, comms and a/c.

[Paladin2]

Inverters hooked to a car battery or two are pretty quiet. The pseudo ("modified") sine wave ones are cheap and can run radios and lights well on extension cords run into the house. The car can recharge the battery. That works well for a couple of days ('cept for the 'fridge/furnace). A sine wave inverter can run the motors in a furnace or 'fridge, but they cost more). A couple of solar panels would be a big help

I'd think that a Diesel generator would be the way to go as it's easier and safer to store Diesel than gasoline).

I'm not sure how long the natural gas utilities will be supplying gas when the big one hits, but as long as you have a good supply of gas or propane, you might consider a generator powered by one (or more) of those fuels).

Redundancy or alternative power supplies would seem like a good idea.

[I Drive Too Fast]

That would fall under “Charging times will vary” as in VERY long.

[driftdiver]

Depends on what you want to run. Honda makes some good portables that are gas powered.

They sell a lot of propane powered ones here for the backup systems. They are hard wired into the house. You can put a fairly big propane tank or just a 20 pound one to power them.

[Secret Agent Man]

11. GOD is in 100% control of “Mother Nature.”

[Tanniker Smith]

“I suspect the reason it didn’t turn really ugly in DC is because the LEO presence there is massive.”

It took a moment to realize what you were talking about.
Now, I'm thinking about what it would be like if we could send all of DC into Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).

[Steely Tom]

Modern cities are built on systems that have little redundancy

Redundancy costs money and doesn't vote.

The dollars that might have gone for redundancy are desperately needed to buy votes to keep incumbent politicians safely in their jobs.

[Secret Agent Man]

Yeah they’d be screaming about fema not being there. No peeps at all. It’s the state’s responsibility to fix all this, not Obama’s. Libs are just so hypocritical.

[OldPossum]

#11: If you switched your phone to fiber-optic service, your landline phone will only work for a few hours after power goes out. A decade ago, the phone system supplied its own power over the phone line. Now, with fiber, it relies on a rechargeable battery in your basement, which will only last a few hours.

Because of this situation I have an old style, hard-wired phone in my house. It keeps on going when the power goes out.

[conservativesister]

Congressman Bartlett held a seminar about the terrorists trying to attack the power grid and bringing it down.
1-When it goes down it will probably be out 10-14 days.
2-The local grocery stores have supplies for the community for 3 days.
3-If the semi’s can’t get fuel for re-stocking there is no food in your community.
4-Have a 30 day supply of water and a 15 day supply of food minimum.

[SnuffaBolshevik]

"Any recommendations for generators?"

I bought a diesel generator for a few reasons:

1. The fuel lasts far longer than gasoline while being stored.

2. No fussy electronic ignition components to deal with. (EMP?).

3. Diesels are inherently more efficient than gasoline generators as far as power produced per gallon.

4. A properly cared for diesel, due to its heavier construction, will last longer than a gasser.

Now the downside - Diesel generators are far more expensive than gassers and are harder to start when its cold. There are far fewer choices available as compared to gasoline models. They are louder as well (although my "silent" diesel is reasonably quiet).

As far as someone said up thread, if conditions are so bad that you have to worry about the zombies stealing it or taking over your place, it won't make much difference if it's gas or diesel. You'd better have lead, copper and steel available to protect it and your family.

[familyop]

Gloom and doom? See the opportunities in disaster scenarios.

For example, see the foreclosures against government employed/pensioned NIMBYs after the bond collapse in our near future. They turn into zombies, attacking neighbors with ever more illogical false accusations, vandalizing properties of others, etc. Don’t know why. Anyway,...

Build a fence sufficient to keep zombies in a large lot (yes, in). Build the rendering plant for processing products from formerly government-supported zombies. Viola! Entrepreneurial initiative that pays off!

And don’t forget the other example: suburban livestock.

;-)

[logitech]

Anyone have any recommendations?

Honda

And forget about that little gas tank. Fit it to use a 5-10 gallon boat tank. You won’t have to get up in the night to refill.

Katrina tested!

[PapaBear3625]

My wife’s friend has a natural gas standby generator at her house, rigged to automatically start if she loses power. Natural gas gets interrupted far less often than electric (and there’s an option to make it also accept propane). You can get a 7kW generator for $1,800, and a 17kW for $3,700 from Home Depot. Sound level is 66db

[UCANSEE2]

TEN THINGS WE WILL DO in response to the DC POWER OUTAGE.

1. Nothing
2. Nothing
3. Nothing
4. Nothing
5. Nothing
6. Nothing
7. Nothing
8. Nothing
9. Nothing
10. Nothing

BUT, a vast amount of money will be spent doing Nothing.

[PapaBear3625]

Because of this situation I have an old style, hard-wired phone in my house. It keeps on going when the power goes out.

I have an old-style hard-wired phone to supplement my cordless phones. It still died after a few hours.

Before fiber, the copper phone lines carried power as well as signal. With the switch over to fiber, this is no longer the case.

[SVTCobra03]

1. Buy something that is QUIET so your neighbors don’t hear it and try to steal it.

No such thing as a "quiet" generator. You can purchase an anchor, chain and lock made by Kryptonite that cannot be defeated by a bolt cutter. If they bring a cutting torch, they will make enough noise to alert you. That is why Colt make AR-15's.

2. Have a professional install it *inside* your house with the exhaust routed out an inconspicuous place on your roof.

Only if you want to start a fire in your house or die of carbon monoxide poisoning.

[Yardstick]

Lastly this for the doubters and the scoffers.

Yes, we understand it's the doubters and scoffers who really get your goat. As such, they are the chief villains in your revenge fantasies.

If you guys made a movie it's certainly true that the criminals, gangbangers and feral types would be bad guys, but they would be played by extras and more or less disposable cannon fodder. The real bad guys -- the ones who wouldn't be vanquished until the very end -- would be the doubters and the scoffers. And their vanquishment would be in the form of being forced to BEG from the preppers.

It's that sweet moment of begging, the big Get Even, that lies at the dramatic heart of your hobby. It's what gives the whole thing its zest and what really compels you.

[Boiling point]

All freepers should read a book called One Second After. It is a great disaster novel about an EMP attack and was very well researched.

[UCANSEE2]

In Cleveland, Detroit, or Chicago it likely would have been pretty out of control.

The monsters are due on Maple Street.

[Yardstick]

1. Buy something that is QUIET so your neighbors don’t hear it and try to steal it.

That's right -- your neighbors are the enemy. They are zombies and will try to steal your C rations.

[pingman]

Low speed, propane/gasoline dual fuel powered. Google “diesel generator Bangor, ME” for everything you need to know.

[expat2]

Sounds good, but how do you get gas when the gas station pumps have no power?

[carriage_hill]

5-Have LOTS of *protection* at-the-ready.

[prairiebreeze]

Water is the absolute hardest thing to prepare IMO. I can’t come up with good ideas for water storage for long periods of time. A week maybe...forgetting about anything but basic washing, of course.

[expat2]

Rendering plant? Better a butchery for making meat pies which can be used as barter.

[expat2]

Plan your survival near a stream or fresh-water lake.

[Political Junkie Too]

11. If our nation's leader can't even deal with a little hot weather in their own town, why are we expecting them to manage the health care system nationally?

-PJ

[TNoldman]

Prepper ping

[Vermont Lt]

I went through the snowstorm in new England last October/November. We went about ten days without power.

We learned our lesson.

We got a generator large enough for the house. We always have extra fuel. Every week I change out 1 five gallon contain into the truck and get it filled with new gas. Never more than four weeks old.

We always had plenty of food. But now we have radios, batteries, and extra lights.

Sometimes you learn easy, sometimes hard.

[ReaganGeneration2]

One Second After was a shock. About 95% of Americans dead.

Need recommendation on a solar generator that’s at least 1800 kw.(1800, 1801 whatever it takes). Can work inconsistently with sunlight, but needs to be relatively inconspicuous. Is there one like that?