I don’t think most people really realize just how bad it would actually be.
Most of us would have trouble living without our electrical toys. I’m not sure we can even imagine the overall impact, just like trying to imagine what the mentality was like in the days of Columbus, when everyone KNEW the earth was flat. We can’t really identify with that...we’ve known for hundreds of years it’s round. We can’t really know what the ambient mentality was, even those of us who remember the days before the computer was invented. Or more correctly, reduced in size to fit on a desk...
Same here, I don’t think we can really imagine what it would be like, even though we’ve all no doubt seen it on TV hundreds of times. Bonanza, Clint Eastwood movies, Gunsmoke...
And many people don’t really appreciate just how vicious and barbaric people can be when they face starvation. I read a book a while back about a plane crash in the Andes, the few who survived resorted to cannibalism in days just to survive. There was only one reason they didn’t start killing each other. Plenty bodies from the crash.
When the lights go out, any and all stores that carry any type of food will be looted in days, maybe even hours. Widespread rioting will be unstoppable. If the power goes out across the US, millions will die in the first week. Not from starvation, by violent small groups or gangs thinking they will gain control. Or just striking out against humanity in general. Police departments will probably be wiped out in no time, given the wide scale distrust of police in general these days.
All of the things we have come to depend on will stop working. Water, sewer, gas pumps, refrigerator and heating/AC, computer, cell phone, GPS, TV, radio, vehicles, everything that requires electricity. With no mass communications, you won’t even be able to find out how bad it is until a starving gang attacks your neighborhood.
If you survive the first month, you have a huge problem. Do you know how to hunt and fish? Grow a garden? Without chemical fertilizers and insecticides? (my garden has been organic for 30 years or more) Where will you get seeds to grow it? (I’m stocking up, many places have them on sale now) Make your own clothes? Tan animal hides? Carpenter? What do you do when your fishing line is old and deteriorates? Know how to make a net? Have twine to do it with? Plenty ammo? Know how to clean and oil that gun, and fishing reels? Oh yeah,...oil to do it with...
And what do you do in locations where wheat is difficult or impossible to grow, or you don’t have the room for several acres of it? No flour. Sugar? Salt? Eggs and milk? Know how to make soap? (no, I don’t)
Water...I have a shallow water well, I can just drop a 5 gallon bucket in, I’ve done it when a tornado hit and we had no power for 3 days. Also have a lake nearby, that can be made drinkable without a lot of trouble. Have a bow and arrows, need a few more arrows though, know how to use it, plenty game out here. Know how to skin almost anything.
I could go on, that’s just the beginning. I’m not sure just how many people wouldn’t know how to function without modern conveniences. I did it for 8 years, where we lived it would have cost us $450 per pole to put electricity in, a mile of poles meant we told the electric company to take a hike. For 8 years I used a kerosene lamp to read every night. We did have a propane refrigerator, that won’t be available this time...we grew a garden, late 70’s and we were already growing all organic, don’t like poisons, water was the biggie. Brought it in from town and filled a 55 gallon plastic barrel with a pipe and faucet going into the kitchen sink.
Here’s a good trick. Put a shower head in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. Simple quarter turn valve. Hang it on a pulley, so you can raise it and tie it off, heat water and 2 people can get a shower, and both can wash their hair. You learn pretty fast how to conserve that 5 gallons of water...I promise it works great, I used one for 8 or 10 years. Put the shower nozzle sticking out the side, not vertically out the bottom.