Posted on 04/15/2017 12:11:29 PM PDT by Fennie
In the wake of warnings that America's power grid could be vulnerable to attack by nations such as North Korea, the Pentagon is developing a solution.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and BAE Systems are developing alternative communication networks for use in the event of a cyberattack on the grid.
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournalism.com ...
They need to work this hard. The fact is that even unusually strong sunspots could cripple our economy. Back to the fact that it is a good idea to prepare for bad events in the future; the Mormons have that right.
https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864
We “started doing that,” when the CCP and WARSAW Pact, was thought to be the future FOE.
Little late to the party boys.
It is really fairly cheap to have a couple months worth of food on hand if one keeps to the basics.
Rice and beans last a long time.
Yes, when it comes to an EMP attack the sun is a much bigger worry. There is no ‘maybe’ about it it will hit us at some point, it won’t saber rattle to give us any warning and it has the potential to wipe out the grid on an entire continent or the entire planet.
Are you referring to Solar Flares?
Are? As in they haven't done it yet? What the blazes would have happened if bozo had set one off yesterday? How about tomorrow, next week or next month? Hey, Kim, pretty please, don't do anything until 2025 at the earliest.
No, I was thinking of CMEs. Coronal Mass Ejections.
Ramen noodle packs. And people should think about water. If the electricity goes out, then water may sooner or later fail to be pumped to your pipes. If an event occurs, immediately toss a clear painting dropsheet of plastic in your bathtub, and fill the tub with water for use later. You will also be able to drain remaining water from your pipes, garden hose and water heater for use. Helps to have some waterproof barrels on hand.
Survival food goes a lot better with water, your life may depend on it.
What the heck does “the grid” have to do with the communications network? These writers are idiots. “the grid” is the electrical distribution system. There was nothing in there about hardening “the grid”.
A CME in the late 1840s - Early 1850s (Note I may have date range wrong!) caused earth to ground sparking on telegraph poles and was reported to have injured some telegraph operators. Imagine what it would do to our IC oriented world!
I’m not sure a basic kitchen appliance like a blender would work after one of those much less anything with a circuit board. Even if you had electricity there wouldn’t much left to do with it.
A lot depends on where one lives on what one might need
I think it was in 1858.
I am now motivated to look it up and get some details!
For some reason I didn’t think it was that close to the Civil War.
Are solar storms dangerous to us?People talking about power failures from solar storms always point back to March 13, 1989 – 23 years ago. A CME caused a power failure in Québec, as well as across parts of the northeastern U.S. In this event, the electrical supply was cut off to over 6 million people for 9 hours.
But it’s possible for solar storms to be even more powerful than the one that caused the 1989 Québec and U.S. northeast blackout. The largest known solar flare took place on August 28, 1859. It was observed and recorded by Richard C. Carrington, and so it’s sometimes called the Carrington Event, or sometimes the 1859 Solar Superstorm. The accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME) traveled to Earth in only 17 hours, rather than the usual three or four days. The largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae, or northern lights, were seen in many parts of the world. Telegraph systems throughout Europe and North America failed.
What would happen if such a powerful solar storm occurred today? And is such a powerful solar storm likely to occur again in our lifetimes? No one knows the answers to these questions with certainty. But scientists have become increasingly aware of the possibility, especially since 2008, when Sten Odenwald and James Green published an article in the magazine Scientific American about the Carrington Event and possible consequences if such a powerful storm on the sun occurred today.
Carrington Event
A former student of mine, a lawyer, worked for Salt River Project, the nearly exclusive water and power provider to much of the Phoenix/Maricopa County area. He got in a couple of fights with his employer, including one about taking precautions to protect the power grid, which in PHX consists of TWO main transformers.
Should those two go out (at the time) SRP had no backup. He urged them to at least get one, and if possible, two. They threatened to fire him, he sued, they all settled. But the replacement issue still isn’t addressed.
Okay riverrunner. Lucky you! I'm in a metro area (SF peninsula). Supposedly, an underground creek flows at the bottom of my sloped back yard, or used to according to a neighbor who lived there 60 years ago when the homes were built. I may be able to dig and then pump water. Otherwise it's a few miles trek to a lake. If the power grid goes down I expect the city water supply will stop and people will panic for water supplies. I have a years stash of food, but only so much water stored.
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