Terror attack on grid would collapse U.S.

UPI ^ | 9/4/03 | Shaun Waterman

[truthandlife]

Government scientific advisers and officials painted a grim picture Thursday of the consequences of a terror attack on the nation's power grid, saying that any outage that lasted longer than a couple of days would reduce urban centers to chaos and collapse the economy.

[sarasota]

Well let's just call more attention to how terror can bring the US down. Sheesh.

[Portnoy]

I wonder how many AMericans have restocked their supply of batteries, candles, water and canned goods?

When the blackout hit here in Detroit, the only thing I was in short supply was gas. I know have at least 5 gallons of gas in a gas can. One week after the event, I have all my supplies restocked.

guarenteed, most people who waited in long lines and complained about the lack of supplies haven't prepared for the next event. (Especially here in Michigan where its almost certain you will lose your power once during the winter months....

[af_vet_1981]

Well let's just call more attention to how terror can bring the US down. Sheesh.

The terrorists already know. The common citizens are ignorant. Now at least they may have the time and inclination to do something practical to plan for emergencies, power grid loss being one of them.

[sarasota]

What can the "common citizens" do to effect this?

[LurkedLongEnough]

I wonder how many AMericans have restocked their supply of batteries, candles, water and canned goods?

That's all good, but add guns & ammo too.

"Economic collapse" is bad, but what is worse is that it would set the stage for an attack by brainwashed fanatics who have been preparing for just this kind of chance. There's only one answer to a serious attacker....

[af_vet_1981]

What can the "common citizens" do to affect this?

You can pray.

You can collect water, food, flashlights, batteries, candles, matches, blankets, guns, ammunition, radios, fuel, and take a stand to support the War on Terror and those who are waging it.

[null and void]

Soviet Stratgy for Nuclear War, by Douglass and Hoebert (This book is a couple decades old.) said that the #3 target, after our own nuclear capability and military C³I is the power grid.

The targeting is fairly obvious to anyone who thinks about how to bring down our society. Perhaps not so obvious to ordinary US residents...

[lonestar]

I was thiking the same thing. Why not draw them a picture?

[sarasota]

The grid has already been on the internet. I saw a piece on cable news where a grad student's thesis was classified because he'd written a "how to" paper on the various US grids, complete with diagrams. Since that time I understand much of this info has been pulled (this from the Army Corps of Engineers)...but it's been out there for quite some time.

[Squawk 8888]

"With power out beyond a day or two, both food and water supplies would soon fail. Transportation systems would be at a standstill ... natural gas pressure would decline and some would lose gas altogether -- not good in the winter time ... Communications would be spotty or non-existent. ... All in all, our cities would not be very nice places to be... Martial law would likely follow," This scaremonger obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. Firstly, it is unlikely that a grid failure would cause widespread outages for more than a day- the first thing Ontario did in the last outage was disconnect from the grid and some power was flowing within 5 hours, the whole province was back within 24 hours. Some areas never lost power because they were near powerplants that disconnected from the grid. Finally, his scenario of social unrest is a bit OTT- parts of Québec lost power for 33 days (Montréal was dark for a week) and everyone managed. Never underestimate the ability of resourceful individuals to make things happen.

[finnman69]

Buy a generator, batteries and bottled water.

[Free Trapper]

It's the "un"resourceful individuals that would be the problem,as always.

[randog]

So the experts say that bad things will happen if we don't have electricity? Sheesh, where do I get a job making predictions like that?

NEWSFLASH: Weather expert randog sez things get wet when it rains!!

[mtbopfuyn]

Not to sound like little Tommy, but it deeply saddens me that so many people STILL don't have a clue. Every day the power is interrupted somewhere in the US and many times during the winter and for extended periods of time. If those normal occurrances hadn't enlightened people, one would think the Y2K scare would have. 9/11 couldn't have been a bigger wake-up call. But apparently they still are in the dark, in more ways than one, after the latest major grid failure.

This is the lowest we've been on supplies, but it is intentional as I'm sorting through things right now. It needed more than the normal rotation of items. We'll be living on the edge the next few weeks but I'm aware of the situation and will begin restocking this weekend.

[upchuck]

If you're wondering how to prepare for something like this may I suggest reading a very interesting book? With all due respect to the FReeper of the same name, "Alas Babylon"^ by Pat Frank is a must read. Frank wrote this book in the late 60's. It's the story of folks in a small town in Florida and how they survive an atomic attack from the former Soviet Union.

Granted, atomic attack causing national destruction is much less likely today and the Soviet Union no longer exists. But the book still does an excellent job of portraying what these folks go through and the fruits of planning and not planning.

I have read this book many times, it's one of my favs. And I have used it as a "how-to" guide in my personal preparation for "what if."

[null and void]

ping

[Ancesthntr]

Soviet Stratgy for Nuclear War

Excellent, though scary, book. I've had it since the mid-80's, and I review it every few years or so just to remind me of what could have been.

[redgolum]

As an engineer in the energy business, we have often joked that a few guys with a high powered rifle could take down the grid. Blow out a few transformers in the right place and cause the type of rolling blackouts that we say in the Northwest.

That being said, in my home state of Nebraska, losing power for a few days or weeks would probably result in a mini baby boom.