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

New York Times ^ | August 16, 2013 | Matthew L. Wald

[Travis McGee]

A plan to ride a tiger is not the same as riding a tiger.
Planning a takeover is not the same as taking over.
If our grid loses power for one week, it may become an unrecoverable dynamic, once the cities are on fire.
There are not enough cops and soldiers to deal with 100 Katrinas and Sandys at one time, so to speak.

[digger48]

This is why I hoard food, cash, guns and ammo

The Parasite Class will be in a panic within 24 hours.

The 3 days worth of food that groceries have, will be gone the second day.

That’s when the Occupy zombies start eating their own and clawing on your door.

[FlyingEagle]

Trav, ping Laz. He has a datapoint re GA teacher warning kids to lay in a food supply for a few days.

Food is never the problem. Its water. You can go hungry for a long time. Thirsty, not so much.

[FReepaholic]

Chilling:

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

This could also happen as a result of a solar coronal mass ejection.

[PA Engineer]

A cold November without power would kill a lot of people in America’s northern latitudes.

Lack of clean water will kill. No water pumps and sewage treatment. Urban areas would be hell without power. It is neither a north or south thing.

[digger48]

As we saw at the Superdome, too many in the country can’t even take a crap without government assistance

[Jack Hammer]

Yeah, I guess we could all pretty much choose our poison.

There will be more than enough death for everybody.

[oxcart]

Article dose not even mention a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)

“The biggest solar storm on record happened in 1859, during a solar maximum about the same size as the one we’re entering, according to NASA.

That storm has been dubbed the Carrington Event, after British astronomer Richard Carrington, who witnessed the megaflare and was the first to realize the link between activity on the sun and geomagnetic disturbances on Earth.

During the Carrington Event, northern lights were reported as far south as Cuba and Honolulu, while southern lights were seen as far north as Santiago, Chile. (See pictures of auroras generated by the Valentine’s Day solar flare.)

The flares were so powerful that “people in the northeastern U.S. could read newspaper print just from the light of the aurora,” Daniel Baker, of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, said at a geophysics meeting last December.

In addition, the geomagnetic disturbances were strong enough that U.S. telegraph operators reported sparks leaping from their equipment—some bad enough to set fires, said Ed Cliver, a space physicist at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Bedford, Massachusetts.

In 1859, such reports were mostly curiosities. But if something similar happened today, the world’s high-tech infrastructure could grind to a halt.”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110302-solar-flares-sun-storms-earth-danger-carrington-event-science/

[bigbob]

I’m only slightly surprised they didn’t schedule this for Sept. 11...

[CodeToad]

“Lack of clean water will kill. No water pumps and sewage treatment. Urban areas would be hell without power. It is neither a north or south thing.”

You got it. People fail to realize just what a sanitize world they live in.

[PA Engineer]

I wonder how they will simulate massive food riots, looting, and widespread arson, plus shooting at police and fire fighters?

I think clean water will be the opiate of the masses. After 72 hours, either cooperation or the die off will begin. Want clean water? What price will people pay for that?

[Shadowstrike]

and a hot summer in the South would kill a great many too, especially the Elderly or Sick.

[riri]

The east coat would burn from Mass to Miami.

I have about 50k gallons in my backyard and my Big Burkey. Thankfully I live in Arizona and we are all armed to the teeth out here.

[matt04]

More likely dependent on the availabity of diesel fuel for short term outages. In Oct 11, my area lost power for 5-11 days. One nearby municipal water and sewer system ran on diesel power for approx. 7- 9 days without any issues.

That was mostly single family residential and single story commerical properties that don’t require any local pumping. As we saw with Sandy many NYC hi rises didn’t have any backup power to pump water up to rooftop storage tanks. When those ran dry, they were SOL.

[The_Media_never_lie]

The Feds have already seized control of the grid, causing much waste due to over regulation.

[LucyT]

U.S Power Grid

[PA Engineer]

You got it. People fail to realize just what a sanitize world they live in.

I have gamed this one a great deal. I think we would see all the horrors in a grid down imagined by many writers. The one item they fail to address is the massive amount of death from sanitation. This will happen very quickly.

The Auckland power failure revealed a great deal about human nature. People were just lost without modern sanitation services. Numerous reports revealed how people kept using their toilets until they were full. They would then move on to the toilet tank and fill it. The bathtub and sinks were next. Finally, they started defecating in the hallways. Of course without water, the Auckland residents would have either died or fled the city prior to the sanitation nightmare.

It is one thing to provide a water buffalo tank at city intersections. It is an entirely different animal to get a modern sewage system operating. People are just clueless. Electricity to them comes from the light switch.

[PA Engineer]

That was mostly single family residential and single story commerical properties that don’t require any local pumping. As we saw with Sandy many NYC hi rises didn’t have any backup power to pump water up to rooftop storage tanks. When those ran dry, they were SOL.

I agree that will be the case in many suburban authorities. I am not so confident that city owned systems will function that well, even if it is for a short term.

See my 37 for the Aukland incident.

[jonrick46]

Think Super-EMP nuclear warheads. North Korea has them and so can Iran. It simplifies the task of a delivery system. If one of them goes off on the East Coast, it would be total disaster.

[PA Engineer]

Thankfully I live in Arizona and we are all armed to the teeth out here.

I understand what you are saying. I am not worried about the "raiders" that stand out. I am more worried about the neighbors that blend in.