101 Survival : Power Grids Down; GRID COLLAPSE

You wake up and there is no electricity. WHAT DO YOU DO ?

If there is no communication, no lights, no television, no heat, no transportation and no movement, what do you do? Being confused and concerned would be the first reactions. Trying to get answers, where to get food, warmth in the winter or cooling in the summer time, where to get drinking water would be the first priorities.

But WHAT IF, THERE WOULD BE NO HOPE OF GETTING THE ELECTRICITY BACK ON for weeks, months or even years, what would you think then ? Panic would set in with everyone, but those with logical minds would start to plan what and determine how to survive without electricity.

Priorities would be in some sort of order like survival of you and your family first, but most would try to see that everyone would be able to be taken care of. When food and water start to run out, these thoughts might change to just family, only. The items on the list of priorities would be drinkable water, food, shelter, clothing and those items that would be needed for survival.

What could cause a Power Grid Failure or Collapse ?

In these times, there are many occurrences that can cause a power grid to fail or collapse. One of the main concerns now is the EMP bomb, in which, if exploded over a city could disable that city or if exploded high over the United States, could fry electronics coast to coast. Other concerns could be the CME and Solar Flares from the sun and there are major threats with Cyber, computer generated, Attacks.

These are real and active threats that could shut down the electricity to power plants, nuclear power stations, cities and countries. The sun shoots off very violent explosions of highly energized particles and plasma that hurls its force toward Earth. If the hit is direct, the force can fry and destroy electronics, energize metal objects and concentrate powerful energy into any type of electrical energy using object, building up heat and melting components and coils.

There are many nations and enemies of countries that would want to destroy other nation's economies. One of the ways would be to destroy the energy grid, in which most industrialized and computerized nations depend on to survive and thrive. The EMP or Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb could easily serve this purpose to partially destroy or totally cripple the electrical grid.

According to the FEMA "ElectroMagnetic Pulse Protection Guidance, Volume 1, The Theoretical Basis for EMP Protection", a 500 Kilometer high-altitude Burst from an EMP bomb over the Kansas City in the United States could reach both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Any antennas, metal pipes, railroad tracks, metal conduits, electricity carrying wires or any type of long metal structures can aplify and collect the incoming surges of electronic energy, causing more damage to any electronic device it is connected.

The Rogue Nations and Enemies of the countries of the industrialized and computerized nations could be hit hard from the emerging nations short distance missiles armed with EMP bombs. With only a fishing vessel in any harbor, these nations could easily detonate an EMP bomb above any of the major cities, causing almost total breakdown in transportation, communication, society and the economy.

One of the new causes are the cyber attacks, resulting from hacking, viruses and reprogramming by using the computer and electronic networks. The cyber attacks can disable or destroy generation stations, disable and breakdown the transmission of electricity through the grids and also short or melt components.

Then, there are the more normal causes like storms, lightening, earthquakes, overloaded circuits from too much usage, tidal waves, wrecks and malfunctions at the power-stations. These are more controlled and easier to fix than those that create multiple outages across the country at the same time.

When the electricity goes out for some time and will continually be out for an extended time, the items that you will need will be drinkable water, high calorie food, shelter, clothes, protection from the environment and sanitation. The neighbors are your best friends when it comes to survival because there is power in numbers. Each neighbor that you become friends with will become a link to survival in the case of no electricity. On the other hand, when supplies get low and survival instincts kick in, some people totally change into beasts and killers.

You will need about one gallon of drinkable water per day for each person. A person can only live about 3 days with out water, so this is the very most important factor that you must consider. You must have water to survive!!! Each gallon of water weighs a little more than 8 pounds, so when a person or family has to move, this is considerable weight to be moving. A proven water filter should be on your list of survival items to have in case of emergency.

The need for high energy food is necessary for survival in the case of no electricity, cold and intolerable conditions. A person can live about 30 days without food, depending on the environment, the weight of the person, the activities performed, the health of the person and physical condition of the person. To have easy to prepare food, high calorie content and a long shelf life are more considerations for the survival of you and your family.

The electrical grid is very important to the welfare of everyone in large countries that rely on modernization, communication networks, banking systems, electronic commerce, electronic money and buying. Without electricity, it is almost impossible to buy or sell in the modern countries. Almost everything runs on electricity, ranging from fuel, transportation, trucking, food, stores, banks, water systems, hospitals, sewage systems and the government.

In the short time, everything and everyone will try to get along, peacefully. When survival items start to run out, people will start stealing, start looting and there will civilian unrest. Before this happens, you must have made the decision to stay and make the best of it, have gone to a retreat elsewhere or hide. There will be those that will stay with their neighbors and try to defend for themselves, while waiting for the help to arrive. There will be also those in smaller neigborhoods where each will try to help their neighbor, sharing, providing for each other and helping each other.

There are basic needs that you will have to have, so the top ones will be listed below.

You will need drinkable water, a must of one gallon of drinkable water per person per day. A good reliable water filter is recommended.

You will need high energy food, easy to prepare and easy to eat. Food must have a long shelf life and have a high calorie content. Extra vitamins and minerals are also recommended. Chocolate bars are valuable in the event of low energy and dejection.

You must have extra clothes especially in cold climates. Wet clothes will kill you in cold weather and a change of clothes will be essential for survival. Extra blankets are recommended.

The collapse or disabling of the electrical grid also means that the banking, commerce, money and retail systems will also be down and not operating. This means no money, no buying and no selling of goods, unless you can barter. To have money in your pocket is good for a while, but the price of goods will skyrocket because of the law of supply and demand. The black market will flourish and bartering will become the standard of commerce. Have some money put back and also some items that could be used for bartering.

There are also items that should be in the the list, such as matches, knives, twine, rope, toilet items, toilet paper, band-aids and more. A tank of propane would come in handy for heating and cooking. A bug-out-bag and Get-out-of-Dodge bag should be prepared for the event of any emergency.

If the neighborhoods and neighbors can work together, there is a chance that each can survive together. If not, there will be chaos, breakdown in society, killings, stealing and civilian unrest. In the event of the electrical grids going down, there would be enough combined knowledge, food, water, technology and information to survive as a whole unit. Selfishness, greed and unwillingness to trust each other would do more harm than the grid going down. People can work together to produce and prepare food, distill or obtain drinkable water and combine efforts to survive.

The Quakers, Mennonites and Amish have learned and have been trained to live and function without electricity, so living and thriving without electricity can be obtained. Lifestyles would have to change and manual labor would be part of the daily chores. Fishing, hunting, planting, growing and raising animals would become part of the lifestyles needed for survival. The main key to living as these do, is togetherness. The people have to work together to keep the close knit community alive and thriving. They plan together, work together, plant together, build together, harvest together and come together as one.

The problem with this type of living, is that vast amounts of land has to be obtained for growing food, raising livestock and for the livelihood of the community. The large city threatens this type of lifestyle because the amount of people can not be supported on the amount of usable land that is available in and around large cities. Large populations consume enormous quantities of food, resources and consumables. The possibility of survival in the large cities becomes almost impossible because of the availability of food and water and because of large gangs taking over and competing for needed resources used for survival.