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Last week we went over the Coronal Mass Ejection Vs Solar Flare. We found out that in the Event that we have another Carrington event or larger, the power grid would go down around the globe. It would take decades to be able to get to where we are today. This week I wanted to talk about Grid Down Survival, it isn’t necessarily an if, but a when it will happen. If not in our lifetime it very well could be our children or grandchildren that it’ll happen to.
How reliant are we on the power grid?
I’d like to start off with transportation, Whether you like it or not tractor trailer’s are what keeps America running. Sure we have train’s and barge’s, but they can’t deliver product’s right to the store like Semi’s can. Truck’s run on Diesel and now DEF. Sure there are plenty of places that sell boxed DEF, but without power, we can’t pump our trucks with the Diesel we need to get down the road.
Grocery stores only have a 3 day supply of groceries on hand at any given time. So after 3 day’s store’s that haven’t been looted yet will run out of groceries. Our credit or debit card’s will not work, because they require transmitting information back and fourth to the issuing bank. Unless the bank and store’s have back up generator’s, your card’s wont go through to purchase anything.
Sure some grocery stores do have small battery backup’s for each register, but they wont do any good for card transaction’s if the bank doesn’t have power for the server’s.
Hospital’s do have backup generator’s and a healthy supply of diesel, but that supply of diesel is delivered by truck’s. In the event of a power outage, almost all of the non essential electrical section’s would be shut off or would be running very few thing’s. Places like the ER and Trauma section’s would still have juice, but the main lighting would be off to conserve fuel for the high priority section’s of the hospital,
Air conditioning and Heat, yes they are wonderful to have, but when the power goes out, they simply will not work. In area’s that are very hot and humid, you could expect an increase in mold in attic’s and other part’s of the house that have poor ventilation.
Running water is powered by pump’s that keep the pressure high enough to deliver the water throughout the area. So there wouldn’t be any water to cook with, shower or flush the toilet with and no water to clean laundry with.
Cell phone tower’s do have backup generator’s, but they will eventually run out of fuel. Depending on what caused the power outage, your cell phone’s might not even work.
Refrigerators will not keep your food cold, and freezer’s will thaw out. So cold food storage would be out the window.
Those that rely on a CPAP machine would start to have problem’s getting the rest they need.
For the ladies your straightener’s and blow drier’s wont work. No television or internet to pass time with.
There is much more that we rely on, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how many different area’s of our every day lives would be affected in such and event as a long term power outage.
What is the Die Off?
Well, back in 2009 the US Government decided to do an assessment on how vulnerable our power grid was. Every week the energy companies deal with Hacker’s. A Hacker can take down the power grid, usually it’ll just be in section’s not nationwide, but if there was an all out cyber attack on all of the power companies, then it is quite likely that they can do a lot of damage.
William Robert Graham, an American Physicist has warned several times about the dangers of an EMP attack. In a congress hearing back in 2008, he warned them that up to 90% of the population of America could die if we were attacked by an EMP or if we were hit with a CME. That is due to how many Nuclear power plant’s we have throughout the US. After Fukushima he
was certain that in the event of a long term grid down scenario, the affect’s on our Nuclear power plant’s here in the US could have grave consequences.
Next week I will explain just how a Nuclear power plant work’s and the danger’s they pose to Americans.
The rest would die off throughout the first year, up to about 90% of the population. Sure we think we are prepared, but I want to go over some thing’s that you might have looked over.
The Die off is associated with the Fallout after the Nuclear power plant’s melt down. Even if the government can keep the reactors from melting down, there will still be a lot of people dying from starvation and dehydration as well as other things.
How can I survive the 3 month mark?
Well there are a lot of aspect’s to look at. The body can’t go 3 day’s without water, or 3 week’s without food. I don’t know about you, but after a day of not eating, I am not capable of being 100%.
The body need’s a half gallon of water a day to stay hydrated. It is best to store a gallon of water per person per day. Sure you could just go with the half gallon per day, but you will not have water to wash hand’s or eating utensils, sanitation would be very horrible at just a gallon a day. So if you stick with a gallon a day per person, you will be able to keep thing’s clean and not run the risk of illnesses.
So if you have a spouse and a child, for one month you would need 90 gallon’s of water, for 3 month’s you would need 270 gallon’s of water. If you have pet’s you would need more. How much more just depends on the size and breed of your animal’s.
You would also want to have a minimum of a 3 month supply of food on hand, that is for each person that is with you as well as animals. That is a minimum, if you can have a 6 month or more you are in much better shape.
You basically want to minimize the amount of time you would have to spend out in public. People will be hungry and thirsty. Most of the US resident’s only have a 1 or 2 day supply of food stored. So after a few day’s people will be out looking for food and water. They can become violent, just imagine if you were in that situation, where your children were starving and you cant do anything moral about it. Would you just wither away? Or would you do what
ever you can to make sure your family will make it?
I’m not saying that you have to have a ton of guns and ammo, although the more the merrier, you can be sure other’s wont ask nicely for rations. So you will need to make sure you can protect your family. If you don’t believe in gun’s then you probably wont make it the first month.
If you live in a major city, chances are there will be riot’s, vandalism, murder’s and much more crime going on within the first few week’s. As we have seen in the past, a group of people can cause quite a bit of damage. You add most of the town to that, it’ll be nasty.
How can I survive the first year?
Well, eventually food and water will run out. If you don’t have seed’s to be able to plant and grow more food, then you are going to have to scavenge for supplies. I suggest that if you haven’t yet, buy some Heirloom Seed’s. Those produce seed’s every year that you can save and replant for next year. The process keeps going if you save your seeds that is.
Unless you have a Well with a manual pump, you wont be getting water. So you will have to find water. But you don’t want to just drink water from where ever, it could be contaminated with bacteria or viruses. You will need to Filter your water, I suggest you use the Survivor Filter PRO. It is a .01 Micron filter, Bacteria are as small as .02 Micron’s but Viruses can be as small as .01 Micron’s. So if you have a .01 Micron water filter, then you will be able to get out all of the bacteria and viruses that can make you sick. Now chemicals are a different story, they aren’t as easy to filter out as viruses and bacteria are. Each chemical is treated in a different way.
If you are able to make it past the first year, then you’ll know that it wont get any easier to survive, sure you will have honed in on your skill’s, but life in general wont be easy. You will still need to be growing you own food, and getting fresh water.
What else am I missing?
Candle’s and flashlight’s with plenty of extra batteries to last you a long time, you might also look into kerosene lamp’s.
Well, I haven’t mentioned about the Sewage or trash piling up everywhere. We often don’t pay much attention to what happens after we flush the toilet or take the trash out to the curb. There will not be any trash services to pick up your piles of garbage, and you wont be able to flush the toilets for long. If you are connected to the city sewer line, sewage is pumped to the water treatment facilities, so without power, you could expect the sewage lines to
backup into your house. That is if people are still able to flush their toilet with the water they stored, but it can still happen.
Sanitation will be horrible, we won’t all be able to shower regularly and we will eventually run out of deodorant. You can expect to smell some stinky stuff.
I also haven’t mentioned about the Nuclear power plant’s. If they are not able to be shut down properly, they will melt down. I will make an article just about the Nuclear power plant’s and what you could expect from them if things go wrong.
Smoke. Smoke travel’s a long way’s there could be a lot of eye’s out there trying to find where the smoke is coming from, sure there could be just a random fire going, but usually folks are cooking. So try to keep your smoke output very low. If you can, cook with propane or if you have thought of this before hand, you might of invested in a solar oven, or at least
the knowledge of how to make one yourself.
Medication’s, if you rely on medication’s for heart disease or thyroid disease, things like that that you will need in order to live, then that medicine will eventually run out. Now if you still have your thyroid, you can try and manage it. But for those that had to get their thyroid taken out, you need medication every day in order to just live.
Healthcare. There wont be a hospital that you can go to if you fall and break a bone, so you will need to be careful. If you get sick or injured, you will be an easy target. So try not to eat or drink thing’s that don’t smell right or look right.
Weather forecasting will be a thing of the past. Weather forecaster’s use programs and satellites in order to get all the information that they can to better predict thing’s like hurricane’s and tornadoes.
Card or board game’s, if you are just working and worrying around the clock, you can lose your mind, if you have things to do with your family to make things easier mentally, then id say more power to ya, Monopoly is a game that can last for what seems forever, there are other games out there that you could get to help pass time.
90% that seem’s a bit high!
Well, I thought so at first, but the more I thought about it the more I realized just how dependent on the power grid we are. I decided to write about this because I want people to be aware of what could happen in the event of a Nation wide or even global long term power outage. I didn’t write this to scare everyone! So don’t rush to the gun store and supermarket and put a years worth of supplies on the credit card, but you should start taking
the steps today in order to make your chances of survival more likely.
Remember, try and avoid conflict if at all possible. Sure we all think we are a good shot, but them shot’s wont just be one way. If you get shot you risk an infection and death. If you try and fight someone and you end up getting whooped, what good would that do for you and your family?
I would love to hear your thought’s on what you think about would happen. If there is anything that I missed that you feel is important, then be sure to comment below.
Next week I will talk about the danger’s on living next to a Nuclear power plant. I hope you have found my thought’s on grid down survival helpful! If you have, be sure to share it with your friend’s.