As Worries Over the Power Grid Rise, a Drill Will Simulate a Knockout Blow

NYT ^ | 16 AUG 2013 | MATTHEW L. WALD

[Old Sarge]

WASHINGTON — The electric grid, as government and private experts describe it, is the glass jaw of American industry. If an adversary lands a knockout blow, they fear, it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesel fuel and fresh food; shut down communications; and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and the attacks of Sept. 11.

~ SNIP ~

One goal of the drill, called "GridEx II", is to explore how governments would react as the loss of the grid crippled the supply chain for everyday necessities.

~ SNIP ~

Most of the participants will join the exercise from their workplaces, with NERC, in Washington, announcing successive failures. One example, organizers say, is a substation break-in that officials initially think is an attempt to steal copper. But instead, the intruder uses a USB drive to upload a virus into a computer network.

The drill is part of a give-and-take in the past few years between the government and utilities that has exposed the difficulties of securing the electric system.

[MHGinTN]

Fedzilla was just running a drill in Boston, too, when a couple of real bombs set off by known government persons occurred. Just sayin’

[Old Sarge]

"After 4 days without power - most large American cities would be in the MadMax Zone"
Optimist. I give it one night.

Folks, it's worse.

We will not have three days of Walmart stockpiles to feed the hordes and keep them sated.

We will not have a week of normality before the Gibsmedats come boiling out of the urban kraals.

We will have only HOURS.

1965 - Los Angeles - the arrest of a young black man in Watts incites a crowd, which spawns a riot, within one hour of the arrest;
1968 - across America - the death of Martin Luther King touches off rioting in several cities within hours of the media broadcast;
1977 - New York - the grid goes offline at 9:30PM, the looting starts around 11PM;
1992 - Miami - Hurricane Andrew’s winds haven’t even died down before the malls are ransacked;
1992 - Los Angeles - the verdict is announced for the Rodney King Trial, and almost immediately, the city burns;
2005 - New Orleans - the looting started even before the storm made landfall;
2011 - London - a protest over a slain gangbanger turns violent and within four hours, Greater London descends into mayhem;
2012 - Long Island, NY - in the wake of Frankenstorm, enterprising looters dressed as powerline repairmen sneak past the martial law cordon and pillage, with 24 hours of the storm;

Hours, people - not days, hours.

[MHGinTN]

The very first thing to do if/when an EMP strike or grid attack occurs is to fill water containers. The water supply is pumped into tanks which send water via gravity generated pressure. What is in the tanks is what will be available even when the pumps to refill the tanks no longer operate, so fill water containers FIRST. I have bladder tanks for my bathtubs, to store potable water ...

[Blueflag]

Appy —

Actually, there is an optimized altitude that varies slightly by yield and nature of the weapon. That’s about 40-50KM.

So if you were to go REALLY high, then yes, the damage is lessened. But in this case a nuclear device of the right sort optimally excites the atmosphere for the Compton effect at about 40-50KM, and it’s a line of sight effect from there. The pulse is strong enough that the general rule of “energy dissipates proportional to the cube of the distance” doesn’t matter here. If you’re in the line of sight of a nuclear EMP, your unshielded IC’s are screwed by HEMP.

The SHREMP pulse of a low altitude burst is devastating, but a much smaller radius, and is a direct-effect killer, no Compton effect add on.

They both suck really bad. That’s a net.

[duffee]

I’m not as worried about terrorist doing it as I am our own government doing it and blaming it on terrorist, but alas our government would have become the terrorist.

[MHGinTN]

The democrips already are the destroyers of OUR Republic. They deserve zero trust now.

[Salvation]

Read “The Harbinger” by Cahn

[Kartographer]

Water Bob, Marcella APPROVED

[staytrue]

“After 4 days without power - most large American cities would be in the MadMax Zone...”

I think most Americans can stick it out 10 days to 14 days IF THEY KNOW THE POWER IS COMING BACK ON A PREDICTABLE DATE.

If the people don’t know when it is coming back on, then most everywhere will go Mad Max within hours or even minutes.

[ansel12]

Optimist. I give it one night.

Nonsense, the Southwestern US and Tijuana just went through it in 2011.

[Old Sarge]

Upcoming on the reading list, actually...

[Old Sarge]

Water Bob, Marcella APPROVED

A ringing endorsement!

[laplata]

We have a whole house generator installed with enough propane for about a month.....tested it out during Hurricane Sandy. Also have a backup generator which runs on gas.

---

Do you have black out curtains so no one can see your lights and how far away can the generator be heard?

[Kartographer]

What is being discussed is a power outage of a much larger scale than only 11 hours.

[Red in Blue PA]

Most gennies are quite loud. No way around that.

[laplata]

You’re right.

Keep your powder dry and stay safe. :)

[Red in Blue PA]

Hmmmmm. What do all of those stories have in common. Let me see.......

[steerpike100]

Here’s a link to a satellite tracking website that currently shows the track of KMS 3-2, a North Korean satellite that makes several passes over the US daily. If it contained a nuclear device, it would likely detonate when it is over Kansas or Minnesota.

http://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=39026

[Old Sarge]

Well, it is kind of a DARK tale...

[ansel12]

Well thread cop, read the post that I was responding to, it was about a single night.

I will make my own posts thank you, especially in regards to the largest black out in recent years, you can make your posts.