Over the last decade, large portions of the United States’ power grid have gone down. From the great Northeast blackout of 2003, which plunged more than fifty million people into darkness, to the 2011 Southwest blackout that left nearly seven million people without power, our power grid has experienced some major problems that are very likely to happen again.
Every year storms routinely wreak havoc on our grid, severely damaging power lines and putting major stress on a system that’s already strained under normal conditions. When Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast of the United States in 2012, we witnessed how bad the problems have become. Over 1.3 million people were plunged into darkness, forced to go without power for over a week. In some of the affected areas it actually took over a month to restore the power.
Since natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and winter storms happen on a routine basis, the reality of the situation is that until the power companies start better protecting our nation’s aging power grid, we will likely see larger and lengthier power outages for some time to come.
In the future, and to some extent even now, wars are going to be largely fought in cyberspace. With little more than a keyboard and a bit of malicious code, a nation’s infrastructure can easily be targeted and taken down—all without ever having to fire a single shot or drop a single bomb.
But it’s not just government infrastructure that we have to worry about. Hackers are becoming so sophisticated that they now routinely penetrate some of our nation’s most secure systems. Banks, Internet companies, and even critical communications infrastructure have all been successfully targeted and penetrated by hackers. In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before one of them is able to do some serious damage to our power grid.
While very rarely reported, numerous portions of key infrastructure have either been infiltrated or probed by terrorists. Because cyber threats have become such a concern, many government agencies have ignored how much damage can be done by seemingly low-tech attacks. In fact, in 2013 an unknown group of attackers was able to penetrate a San Jose, California, power substation. The group was able to cut fiber lines and then fire off over a hundred shots with a high-power rifle into ten transformers.
With so many power stations spread throughout the country, many of them completely unguarded, these low-tech style attacks can be incredibly successful, making them a prime tactic for terrorists.
Back in 1859, when the world was just starting to experiment with electricity, a massive solar flare (followed by a coronal mass ejection, or CME) slammed into the Earth, frying telegraph systems and severely shocking telegraph operators across the country. There weren’t many electronic devices back then to worry about, but if a flare of that size hit today, entire electrical grids could be fried in the blink of an eye.
In fact, back in March 1989, a much smaller flare wiped out five major electricity transmission lines in Quebec, leaving a huge number of Canadians without power for almost twenty-four hours. Had the flare been slightly larger, it could have caused widespread transformer damage that would have cut power for weeks, maybe longer.
Despite huge advances in technology, today’s power grid and many of the fancy gadgets our society has become dependent on are incredibly vulnerable to large solar flares and CMEs that could wipe out an entire grid almost instantly. In a matter of minutes, life as we know it would start to look a lot like the ninteenth century.
Although this is probably one of the least likely threats, there are a number of nations that possess the ability to detonate an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) blast that could shut down an entire country’s power grid.
The effects of an EMP are pretty similar to what would be experienced after a large-scale solar flare or CME, except far more electronic devices would likely be damaged because an EMP has the ability to destroy devices that aren’t even connected to power lines.
You can’t stop nature, but you can take steps to limit the amount of damage it can do. Most weather-related power outages are caused by falling trees. Dead limbs and dead trees are most susceptible to high-wind damage. Removing vulnerable trees from your property and requesting your neighbors do the same, especially if their trees are at risk of falling on your property and causing damage is a good first step. Trim back any branches that are near power lines directly leading to your home, even if the branches are alive.
An emergency generator can make life a lot easier during an outage, but a generator’s exhaust fumes contain carbon monoxide, which can kill you in a matter of minutes. When running a generator, make sure it’s outside and away from windows and vents.
Stay up to date. Hackers often depend on other people to successfully pull off their attacks. By penetrating home computers, a hacker can create entire networks that simultaneously attack their intended target. To make sure you’re not part of the problem, keep your computer’s software up-to-date and make sure you install antivirus software and a firewall on all of your computers.
If you are able to stay in your home after the grid goes down, there’s probably a good chance your municipal water is going to become undrinkable. There’s an even better chance that your local grocery stores will be stripped bare in a matter of hours. Do you really want to be one of the unprepared masses fighting for the last bottle of water?
When people ask me what kind of survival supplies they should stock up on, I tell them to pretend they’re going camping. The same type of gear you would bring on a camping trip (the kind of camping trip that doesn’t include staying in a fully powered RV park) is the same type of equipment that will come in handy during a power outage.