Life without Electricity

[Lara]

ABC News said tonight that some areas of Puerto Rico may be without power for 6 months. Water and supplies are now trickling in.

 

[squatting dog]

I guess it all boils down to what your lifestyle is. Wife and I built a house in the Ozarks that basically has everything a prepper could want. Low property taxes that allowed us to own 38 acres, 4 seasons with good growing soil. a year round spring for endless fresh water, (plus one could build a spring house to keep perishables fresh), plenty of wild game for a food source, fishing rivers within walking distance, a year round creek that has me thinking of building a small water wheel, Endless supply of firewood on the property to feed the wood stove, plus I have a ventless propane heater with 100lb cyl and 4 20lb cylinders, and a 220v electric wall heat unit. 9" thick walls with r-30 insulation, a 4000 watt portable generator with gas that I cycle regular. I even have a 5000 watt generator head that mounts on the pto of my old diesel tractor. Add to this the motor home that sits in the yard with a 5500 watt onan generator, 75 gallons of gas in the tank, 65 gal. of fresh water, 530 watts of solar panels on the roof hooked to 6 batteries to power a 3000 watt inverter. All of this is the total accumulation of a lifelong desire to not have to rely on anyone else.
The list goes on. Now, make no mistake, I love modern convenience's, but, if push comes to shove, we can live without them.
Oh, I almost forgot, there is about 100 cans of freeze dried food with a shelf life of 25+ years sitting in the dark room... just in case... well, you know.

 

[tnthomas]

Wow SD, that's a dream setup you got going.

For being located in Southern California this rural area is about as good as it gets.

Have some elbow room, the minimum lot size here is 2-1/2 acres. I'm still working on my survival stocks, have lots of tools

and equipment, probably a couple months water supply, enough firearms & ammo to hold the swat team at bay for a week. ;-)

Gotta work on food stores, I'd be relying mostly on canned goods, working them into current use and replenishing them with newer stock(FIFO).

 

[SifuPhil]

We've been really fortunate over the years in that our electrically heated home has never lost power for more than about 12 hours, though a couple of times it happened in the middle of some bitter cold weather. Once it went out while I was away in FL on a business trip in the middle of January. My poor wife was able to give me updates via her cell phone. Power came back after the electric company fixed something in the line under our street. My wife said the house got pretty cold. When we had a major ice storm here several years ago, our block lucked out, but much of our downtown was dark for a week. It was strange getting out of my car in a pitch black parking garage and finding my way to the train by tiny flashlight.

I can only begin to imagine how difficult it must be for those in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands if you don't have a generator. I referred to this book in another thread, but the book "One Second After" goes into great detail about the impact on society when a small town (and the entire country) loses power after an EMP attack destroys the electric grid. It brought to light things like the shelf life of insulin and how it has to be refrigerated. All the little things we take for granted are gone in the blink of an eye.

Bob, after your first mention of this book I got it, along with One Year After and The Final Day. Finished One Second After, just started One Year After.

I think Forstchen knows his stuff. Excellent read. Thanks for the mention.

 

[tnthomas]

I think there was a recent thread here on EMP and the potential devastation to humanity, as a result of either a celestial or man made event.

I recently watched the following video, very enlightening:

 

[hangover]

I think there was a recent thread here on EMP and the potential devastation to humanity, as a result of either a celestial or man made event.

I recently watched the following video, very enlightening:

I couldn't stand to live that paranoid. I'd rather be at ground zero, and just get vaporized. No time to even feel it happen, and don't have to try to live through the misery a nuclear world.

 

[SifuPhil]

But as has been illustrated by the videos and many tech papers, an EMP would be a far more logical choice for an enemy to use instead of a ground-burst weapon. Far more people would be impacted by the total loss of infrastructure versus a "local" blast.

But yes, a lot of people would agree with you.

 

[Warrigal]

It will definitely be rough for the people in Puerto Rico.

...

It would not surprise me at all if many people come to the United States. It may become a humanitarian option for the United States government to airlift the most vulnerable and distribute them to temporary homes on the mainland until repairs can be made.

My biggest concern for Puerto Rico is that they are the last in a string of natural disasters. Governments, charities and individuals develop a sort of giving fatigue after already helping so many people that it can leave these most recent victims in a precarious position.

Immediately after Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin the population, admittedly much smaller that Puerto Rico, was airlifted out and accommodated all over Australia. It took up to two years for many of them to return and some never did.

 

[Linda W.]

My concern would be that Maria is another in a long string of disasters, worsening in number and intensity over time.

 

[Don M.]

My concern would be that Maria is another in a long string of disasters, worsening in number and intensity over time.

Absolutely! If the scientists who study Climate Change are anywhere near correct, this past few weeks is just a precursor to what we can expect in the future...with increasing frequency. It makes little sense to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild these disaster prone areas, only to see them destroyed again in coming years. It's unlikely that humans and government will take any meaningful action to reduce global warming in time to actually make a difference, so the more sensible approach would seem to be to rebuild in safer areas, and move the people and infrastructure away from these disaster zones. If the scientists are correct, in another century, or two, virtually all the low lying areas along the Gulf and Eastern seaboards will be flooded, and places like Florida will be history. If we can't control the climate, it would seem prudent to begin to take measures, Now, to adjust for the future.

 

[Big Horn]

With rare exceptions, people choose to live where they lived before a disaster. We've seen this in areas prone to hurricanes, flash floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and every other sort of disaster.

Humans cannot control meteorological or geological events. We can only observe and react—if we choose.