The most realistic SHTF Senerio I've ever seen! must see for city dewlers.

[Protector]

https://youtu.be/T_RVhHPOLqk terrifying to think about. Not having any backup or fortifications

[Protector]

https://youtu.be/YPJPnMKpSws American version! Although not as good as the British version. Opsec and fortifications are key

[Cedar]

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[Alan Georges]

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^^^what Cedar said!  Will watch over the weekend.  Thanks for posting, Protector.

[David in MN]

I actually fear losing power quite a bit. If we have a broken stoplight it virtually shuts down major roads. We lack the mental capacity to tell whether US-169 or 109 street has the right of way without a machine telling us the answer. If you live in the burbs and the grid goes down you just aren't getting home. Your fellow citizens will park at every broken light and look at each other for hours.

The major divided highway we live off of had 2 stoplights between the freeway exit and our subdivision when we moved in. Now it has 6. Apple, Google, and Ways will all advise going the long way around and U-turning to avoid this road. If the grid goes down it will take hours to go the 3 miles.

I'm not all that scared of a blackout. I lived through a 9? day blackout outside of Milwaukee as a teenager and we were fine. But we were in a small town with 1 stoplight and no electric transport. So people just did their thing. Cold showers aren't fun but you get by.

The complete lack of transportation is what gets me.

[Cedar]

I have not watched the video yet, but SP and I have been living without electricity (sounds like the grid goes down in the video?) since October 4th, 2017. So for 4.5 months now. I do run a generator every 3-4 days to charge the 12 volt batteries to keep the propane water heater happy, but I have entirely written off the fridge and freezer, we have been using mostly canned meats. Occaisonally rehydrated chicken or beef jerky, sometimes fresh (But mostly canned). We have lived with no real lights in our dwelling, except for a few solar outdoor lights, which you can read by. When the generator is running for the trailer batteries, we do charge DVD player batteries, vacuum the floor, when we do travel we plug stuff I to the truck to charge. But laptops, DVD players, cell phones are not essential. Nor is the hot water actually.

I know living without electric is rather doable. SP actually prefers it this way when I teasingly asked her if we should get electric in the new house when it is built. I reminded her about maybe a refrigerator might be nice, and she conceeded we could have one of those.

I am still calling for a directional driller on Monday, and hopefully electric asap, but living without any electric for 4+ months has made me not too overly concerned if the grid goes down, which it will, when we have our Cascadia Earthquake.

Cedar

[Protector]

Very cool Cedar! I know a guy that runs his cabin with led lights/ a used car battery and a 40watt panel. So lights are dirt cheap. I actually want to do this in my home because it's the biggest pain for us in an outage. Ya it's about cyber attack but it could be the ice storm/ emp/ hurricane. What affected me the most is families being/ separated. Preppers being attacked because kids didn't have opsec/ no egress from cities and how not having a MAG is fatal long term. Smell of food/ generator noise. I prepare for everyday life but being ready for at least 6 months of job loss prepares you for most other things

[Protector]

How marauders could break in with ease in any situation. Even the bunker set up got overwhelmed in an instant. Fortification is way more important than I first thought
 

[outoforder2day]

I was in NYC during the blackout of '03. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Everyone was jovial, if a bit annoyed, and everyone used it as an excuse to party since they were all out of work for the day. Non-electric taps were opened freely. Food was given away in many restaurants. It really was surprisingly relaxed.
Turns out, the city can't physically hold all the people it has on the ground at once. Many intersections were so crowded that you could barely get around on foot. If you had a car, you just parked it and waited. We (ARES Team) joked about the island being so packed that people were bound to bet pushed into the rivers on either side! That didn't happen, that I know of, though.
The biggest issue past physical capacity were the fires that night. People wanted light at night, so the candles came out. Turns out, most people don't know how to use candles safely.
Power was restored early the next morning (2am or so?). I can't imagine what would have happened if the city was without power for another two days.

[mountainmoma]

It is too bad that people tend to panic or be stupid, as it is true that everyone could go a week as long as water was provided. Hungry, yes, but you wont starve. The advice to stay inside and not try to go anywhere is sound advice, if people would do it ! You can just go to bed when it gets dark, too. People are stupid to mess with dangerous lighting or cooking solutions, but it is realistic that they would ! The biggest problem, after water, is if heating is needed, so if it happens during the very cold months, then people would try dangerous methods to stay warm.

[Protector]

They sell led lights that look like candles with batteries at dollorama! We used our solar powered garden lights in the 2-3 day outage near toronto about 15 years ago. Solar powered spot lights work really well too from costco. Lots of options

[Alan Georges]

I know a guy that runs his cabin with led lights/ a used car battery and a 40watt panel. So lights are dirt cheap. I actually want to do this in my home because it's the biggest pain for us in an outage. Ya it's about cyber attack but it could be the ice storm/ emp/ hurricane.

It is surprisingly simple.  Chris Haynes spells out how to do it for not much money.  Here's his interview with Jack, with a link to his how-to book: https://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/haynes-on-off-grid-tiny-homes
Just being able to charge a phone, have a reading light, and recharge a few AAs to run an AM/FM radio and get the news can be done for about a hundred bucks, maybe cheaper.  After doing without any power at all for several weeks following Katrina, you appreciate how good having just a tiny trickle of reliable electricity can be.

[Protector]

Thanks for the link Alan! Great info their