WOOLSEY: Stormy preview of electric-grid crash

The Washington Times ^ | July 19, 2012 | R. James Woolsey

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Some two weeks after Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta warned of a potential “cyber-Pearl Harbor” involving a possible attack on the electric grid, Mother Nature took the cue and hit the East Coast with a storm that left millions of us for days without electricity from the grid.

Some said silent thanks for that old generator they’d thought to stick in the garage. Though it wasn’t a cyberattack, but Mother Nature gave parts of the grid a good lashing anyway. On my country road south of Annapolis, two transformers were blown down from their perches on telephone poles, and the leaking oil and surging electricity produced 20-foot flames. In the meantime, our driveway was filled for days with 15 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. trucks and about 25 electrical workers from Arkansas erecting new poles and replacement transformers. And that was just to deal with five days of outage, caused by falling tree branches, for a very small community on one short country road. What would it have taken to deal with damage that was far more extensive across a number of states because it had been planned by a group or nation that wanted, above all, to destroy our society?

The electric grid is the heart of our ability to function as a society. We have 18 major infrastructures that keep our civilization operating — water, sewage, telecommunications, transportation, etc. All 17 of the others depend in one way or another on electricity. Imagine what it would be like for an electrical outage to last for months or years as a result of a cyber- or terrorist attack instead of merely for days.

[houeto]

Ping!

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Thanks. I was meaning to ping him.

[FreedomPoster]

If things are working right, you’ve got to be *fast* at Free Republic!

[Gritty]

Small portions of the grid were just out for over two weeks but it was barely in the news. Now just imagine huge multi-state sections of it knocked out for many months or years.

What would your neighborhood or town look like in about 6 months - long after the gasoline for the few available generators ran out, heating/air contioning went out, food stopped reliably arriving, modern medical care ceased, and ...?

I have heard a lot of this sort of warning lately. Are Woolsey and others well connected trying to tell us something is up?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Maybe they’re itching for a federal takeover of the electricity grid.

“You shall haff ze electricity only att our pleassure!”

[houeto]

Now just imagine huge multi-state sections of it knocked out for many months...

Like, between now and November?

What would your neighborhood or town look like in about 6 months - long after the gasoline for the few available generators ran out, heating/air contioning went out, food stopped reliably arriving, modern medical care ceased, and ...?

6 months?!? Unless you're in a Amish community, neighbor would be killing neighbor long before that FRiend.

I have heard a lot of this sort of warning lately. Are Woolsey and others well connected trying to tell us something is up?

Same here. It is uncanny and unnerving considering the sources.

Question: If a large swath of the country had their lights turned out what would the rest of the country think about suspension of elections?

I'll throw in my guess. They would be so busy saying, "Man I'm glad I'm not over there with 'THOSE' people.", that elections would be the last thing on their minds while they still enjoyed some of the creature comforts.

Of course everybody would be affected to differing extents and my answer was off the top of my head without a lot of thought about it.

-houeto.

[Yardstick]

Unless you're in a Amish community, neighbor would be killing neighbor long before that FRiend.

In the highly improbable case of the grid going down for six months, most communities would figure out a way to keep things going even without electricity.

[af_vet_rr]

I have heard a lot of this sort of warning lately. Are Woolsey and others well connected trying to tell us something is up?

I heard a similar sentiment in the 1980s. Plenty of experts talking up people becoming survivalists because of a war with the Soviets.

The problem is there are plenty of scaremongers out there trying to stir things up to get visitors to their websites or people buying their books.

[old curmudgeon]

In the first place, it is absolutely stupid beyond belief that we have a power grid.

Spitting them back up to the days of the 1960’s or so would insure that if one system went down, it would not take the others with it.

It would make more sense to disconnect them from each other but have a means of connecting them should it be necessary or desirable.

As our parents used to say, “Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.:

But then, what did they know. Old fogies.

The real scary thing is that our banking system is set up the same with that world banking crap.

[Gritty]

The problem is there are plenty of scaremongers out there trying to stir things up to get visitors to their websites or people buying their books

Yeah. I hope you're right.

But for the life of me, I don't know what books or websites Woolsey or Gingrich are peddling regarding this subject.