Guest Post by Paul Bedard
A lone taxi drives through the darkened canyons of New York’s lower Manhattan neighborhood after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the eastern seaboard, setting off a cascade of flooding, fires, and power outages throughout the metropolitan area and beyond, Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. A national cyber attack on the power grid concerns most Americans.
The recent Russia-linked cyber attacks on a major gasoline pipeline and a beef distributor has the nation on edge of a far more devastating assault on the nation’s electric grid.
Facing intelligence community predictions that 90% of the U.S. population would die in a year-long blackout, a new survey shared with Secrets shows that a sizable majority of Americans are now worried they are unprepared for even a short grid shutdown.
What’s more, a huge 86% believe that the grid is vulnerable to an attack, one that looks more likely in the wake of the cyber hacks of Colonial Pipeline Co. and JBS USA.
The Survey Monkey poll, conducted for Protect Our Power, endorsed calls to spend more to save the grid from an attack.
Cyber attacks have recently emerged as a major threat, joining the potential for an electromagnetic pulse attack by Russia, Iran, China and North Korea, which have programs to build those weapons.
“Our poll clearly shows that a substantial majority of the American public are aware of and concerned about the vulnerabilities of our electric system, and they expect Congress to act aggressively in addressing this urgent threat,” said Jim Cunningham, president of Protect Our Power.
Among the findings pulled from the poll:
- 70% would feel unsafe in the event of a power outage of two weeks or more.
- 66% believe their quality of life will suffer with an outage lasting more than seven days.
- 64% say they are unprepared for an extended power outage that will last more than two weeks.
- 16% believe the federal government is doing all it can to prevent an attack on the grid.
Grid work would likely be part of President Biden’s infrastructure legislation and the poll could help to add support for it. Protect Our Power has also developed a plan for Congress and the White House to follow to speed fixes.
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Surprising it’s that high, after all, 100% of their time is being spent protecting us from a non-existent SARS-CoV2 virus. Perhaps they can re-engage the Solyndra boys and girls to help them jump start the process.
With all of the low information people, I am surprised it is that low. I would expect a number of 33% supporting government on any question.
If white supremacist terrorist racists were targeting the grid, the government would be all over it. 16% are stupid because the government is doing nothing. We are lucky because they would screw it up. If the grid goes down for 2 weeks we are in deep shit.
“Protect Our Power has also developed a plan for Congress and the White House to follow to speed fixes.”
Government does not “fix” anything and in fact, usually hampers the actual solution from ever being implemented. Government demands diversity and moar diversity hires will only exacerbate the problems we face as a society.
Stopped reading at “Russia-linked.”
Most people are unprepared for everything. What a fucken revelation.
Knock out the grid. People need to get a reality check anyhow. Not that I think it will do anything.
ZFG, out.
P.S. Chicken Little is jealous of all the Russia excuses. He just wants the sky to fall again. Eat a dick.
I have to agree. I almost stopped where you did, Zulu, but I actually checked the Russian link from the Washington Examiner. The only article that I saw regarding the ‘Russia link’ did not declare that Russia did anything to hack the grid, pipeline, or JBS. It only said that they thought Russia could, sort of, maybe, kinda like, if they wanted to. I had to stop as the bullshit was so high it was starting to spill over into my knee high rubber boots. I did read the rest of the disingenuous post by Bedard just to be sure why I would never bother reading anything by him again.
>>>I did read the rest of the disingenuous post by Bedard just to be sure why I would never bother reading anything by him again.
Ditto here. Anyone who describes himself as a “Washington Insider” should be looked upon with suspicion, at a minimum.
This article sounds like a psy-op to get right wing doomsday preppers on board with Biden’s “infrastructure” bill – which is really 75% woke-ass bullshit. I’ll take my chances with the EMP, Bedard. As if President Harris and the ruling junta would have any competency at maintaining the grid anyway.
“Grid work would likely be part of President Biden’s infrastructure legislation and the poll could help to add support for it.”
The author wrote this line with a straight face? So much to laugh at in one line.
Yeah, I got to that part and wished it had been written earlier so I could have saved myself reading the damn thing
Will the government that ruins everything it touches protect us this time?
The country is unprepared for many things. We tend to react to circumstances. I read that if a power transformer goes out it takes weeks to get another one. Everyone talks about electric cars. The grid can barely work as it is. I haven’t heard anything about improving the power grid. They do plan on building many new charging stations. Backups for solar and wind? Better close those useless NG-powered plants.
Nuclear power? I did read that Bill Gates wants to build a plant in Wyoming. I think many older plants should have a new modern designed plant built on the grounds where the old plant is. After the new plant is built, up and running, THEN shut down the old plant. Joe Biden needs this speech about getting rid of fossil fuels before a suitable replacement is already working.
Our food chain and how we feed the country needs a lot of work. We send massive amounts of food to China. Growing crops without fossil fuels? Putting our trust in population reduction advocates to feed us healthy and tasty insects and be involved in experimental vaccines.
At least we have a dynamic leader like Joe Biden to lead us into the future. His belief in the Constitution and freedom is inspiring. We can trust him to resist the influence of China and Communism in the U.S.A.
You can trust him, he’s not like the others.
We were unprepared to be ruled by satanists, but that doesn’t concerned the assclown who wrote this at all.
Lost me at “Russia-linked.” Sorry, this is the Deep State at work all over again….as if they ever stopped.
“The recent Russia-linked cyber attack”
If you honestly believe this, then you have zero business writing non-fiction.
FWIW the Bitcoin extorted from Colonial (and recently recovered) were largely stored in California, which is exactly what you’d expect Boris and Natasha to do.
Its OK, really, you have some time. They won’t smoke the grid until they get a substantial amount of the vehicles on it.
Or not.
In today’s dollars, pv systems are cheap…
I know I’m preaching to the choir but, if you haven’t read “One Second After” by William Fortschen you need to.
Or better yet “The Road”.
that waaar nukes
I look better in candlelight. 🙂
Grid down will be a vacation for me in the sticks, but a complete nightmare in the cities. Keep your cars filled up going forward. If you don’t have emergency food and provisions by now, do it ASAP.
I hope I never see another Paul “Retard” Bedard article ever again. Horrible article.
The Repo market and money printing were getting too much attention and like majik along came the Trump Flu. That slowed the money velocity and economy and Medical Martial Law. Now that the Monetary reset is approaching it needs cover and like majik here comes the Cyber Terrorists to shut down the banks, and loose the Splivs and Wiggers from BlAntifa to terrorize the only possible resistance until they turn the lights back on and announce how broke YOU, are and welcome to full on Oligarchy soon to be monarchy headed by Harry and the Mulatto.
70% would feel unsafe in the event of a power outage of two weeks or more.
– The other 30% don’t know that refrigerators run on electricity.
66% believe their quality of life will suffer with an outage lasting more than seven days.
– The other 34% believe that Netflix will still work on their laptops.
64% say they are unprepared for an extended power outage that will last more than two weeks.
– The other 36% think they are prepared and everything will get back to normal after 2 weeks. They are wrong.
16% believe the federal government is doing all it can to prevent an attack on the grid.
– The other 84% have watched something other than CNNMSNBBC in their lifetimes.
Greetings,
I fully expect the loss of the grid as that is what the WEF is wargaming and we all know how conveniently their simulations turn into reality. I expect that they’ll wait for an excuse like a really hot day or a made-up cyber attack to drop the grid. Really, the only question that remains is whether or not they’ll drop all 3 of our grids or rotate the blackouts around or, perhaps, just shut down Texas – who knows?
It is entirely ridiculous to think I can just flip my home to run off of solar energy. But, what I have done is to acquire some solar panels, inverters and battery storage enough to keep my small electronics charged, charge up the drone, run some light and charge up my gardening tools. Yep, I replaced all of my gasoline powered tools with 40v electrical systems. I have a lawnmower, two chainsaws, hedge trimmers and even a rototiller that all run off of the same style battery.
When we lose the grid, people will still want to charge up a Kindle to read a book or maybe they will want to chop up a tree or drop in a garden and I’ll be able to provide those services for whatever gold and silver they might happen to have.
Good to be able to charge up electronics, but a freezer should be #1 priority. Frozen two-liter bottles would be worth more than just about anything when people’s food is defrosting/spoiling.
I’m having a natural gas powered backup generator installed this week. I keep wondering whether natural gas pipelines will still need the electric grid to function. Anyone have any insight?
The pumps and distribution branches need it but you can get a simple propane converter and have a large tank delivered to your back yard.
How long either will be available after it goes down is a crapshoot.
I got one that burns gasoline or propane.
Good bolt cutters and head to the Blue Hippo stands.
My thinking is if the worst happens they’ll be stopped cars and trucks with gas in them. I just steal it. Have siphon will travel.
I just bought a manual siphon. Heading to the highway.
Generators are fuel hogs.
Propane tanks of the old school just had a valve on the tank to shut it off. After the Texas Freeze, I’ve been looking into propane stoves, propane heaters, etc.
We’re so happy to have our propane for cooking and two emergency heaters. Been looking into coal for heating. Very inexpensive by the ton.
And if you keep it out of the sun it is non perishable and super compact. By eastern anthracite, it’s clean and smokeless. Make sure you buy a real coal burner because it needs a shaker grate to work. If you get a combo wood/gas/coal cookstove you’ll be all set.
Thanks. A large shed would be an issue to accept, and carrying the bags down into the basement as well. We already have a “Fireplace Xtrordinair” appliance in the fireplace on the main level, but the energy expended to cut the rounds and split the wood…manually will become problematic as I get…uggg…elderly. Admittedly, we lost a lot of money banking on coal several years ago. I just naively never believed that ‘our’ gov’t would destroy a legal and important industry just because.
A simple tarp cover next to the house is good enough and a ton or nut size anthracite is very compact. We used to heat those old two story uninsulated farmhouses all year with 1 or two tons.
Maybe so. Can’t store next to the house because of the steep topography.
Falcon/Anyone interested.
Here is a full range of coal/wood options.
https://woodstoves.net/heco/520-Heco-wood-coal-cookstove.htm
And also here.
And here.
https://stovesandmore.com/product/ashland-deluxe-new-decade/
Watching a major metropolitan area grid down situation from where I sit would be great fun.
That article was an insult to everyone here at TBP. Perhaps it was posted to hammer home just how shameless these ‘hack journalists’ are but who here needed to be reminded? At least we now know who Bedard is and free to just not bother with his crap.
Knocking out the grid would certainly be a disaster for many. For some, as I read in the comments, have back up energy plans to manage and survive. I say that’s great and well done. My concern is not so much with jus not having access to the grid because such back up measures are available. However, what happens if our communication satellites are attacked and taken out? I do not know but wouldn’t that disable the military, internet, crypto, and mobile phones, etc. as well as not being able to charge our EVs or freezers (if you do not have back up, that is.)? If both the grid and communications go down, it would leave us with nothing but smoke signals, log drums, and yodeling.
Very entertaining trilogy of a post EMP America
===
New York Times bestselling author William R. Forstchen tells a story that might 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 that sends our nation back to the Dark Ages.
A war lost because of a terrifying weapon, an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP).
And it may already be in the hands of our enemies.
Months before publication, One Second After was already cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read. It has been discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a realistic look at EMPs and their awesome ability to send catastrophic shockwaves throughout the United States, literally within seconds. It is a weapon that The Wall Street Journal warned could shatter our nation. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail-Safe, and Testament , this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future . . . and our end.
“In a Norman Rockwell town in North Carolina ….ex-servicemen recall “Korea in ‘51” as military action by unlikely people becomes the norm in Forstchen’s sad, riveting, cautionary tale.”
-Whitney Scott, Booklist
“…fans of such classics as Alas, Babylon, and
On the Beach will have a good time as Forstchen tackles the obvious and some not-so-obvious questions the apocalypse tends to raise.”
-Publishers Weekly
“The only thing more terrifying than this masterfully crafted story is the possibility of it actually happening—and not a damn thing being done to protect us.”
-W.E.B. Griffin & William E. Butterworth IV
“A blood-chilling wake-up call that chaos and death are but a power plug away…Stock up on food, water, medicine, and batteries now. This horror could happen tomorrow.”
-William B. Scott, coauthor of Space Wars
http://onesecondafter.com/index.html
I’ve read the whole series by Forstchen. I’m not an expert in electrical nuance, but as he describes it…..all electrical circuitry is fried after an EMP.
Computers or phones hooked to the harddeck get fried. Anything with a chip is rendered useless. Old pre-computer vehicles, SBSs/4wheelers and such are only modes of quick transportation.
I won’t tell you how the third book ends, but you won’t be surprised to find out who was the culprit.
https://www.empshield.com/?matchtype=e&network=o&device=c&adposition&keyword=emp%20shield&hsa_acc=5309225077&hsa_cam=1903118787&hsa_grp=1163283628026920&hsa_ad&hsa_src=o&hsa_tgt=kwd-72705498302483%3Aloc-4129&hsa_kw=emp%20shield&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&msclkid=ca7d02c43f911f4b775f627ad38cac4b&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Search%20%7C%20Branded&utm_term=emp%20shield&utm_content=EMP%20Shield
got one installed in the truck and one on the main house panel, and a manual fuel pump.
I am not sure where this bullshit comes from but it is laughable. Have you ever heard anyone make a sensible argument as to why 90% of the public would die from not having electricity? Does that seem reasonable to you?
The main thing people need to stay alive is food and water. Does the loss of electricity hamper a farmers ability to grow crops? Do cattle and other livestock depend on electricity? Does the earth have one less drop of water if there is a grid failure?
First there is no reasonable scenario in which the entire grid would be taken down, only parts of it. At the point where one transformer is blown, or circuit breaker is tripped, everything downstream is dead and therefore cannot sustain damage.
Second, in the event of a grid failure, the complete and total resources of the entire nation would be concentrated on getting it functioning again.
Essential functions would be the focus, and brought back online quickly. Every municipality of even modest size have portable generating stations built into semi truck trailers which can be used as generation stations.
Every power company has fairly large storage yards filled with transformers for repairs.
Every coastal city has contingency plans in place to use large ships to power infrastructure. A single aircraft carrier can power a whole city. Just as factories quickly retooled and began manufacturing masks during COVID, factories would begin repairing and rewinding damaged transformers and switches.
Most essential services could be restored in a week, and most residential service within 3 mos.
They have been spending billions working to safeguard the grid now for 20 years. Don’t buy into the doomsday bullshit, it is just to keep you distracted from the real risks you should be focusing on.
I agree with you, but a lot of people will accept the 90% number because it was asserted by “experts.” In fact, I predict that 90% will accept the number for exactly that reason. Prove me wrong.
Just in time logistics, dead. Many automobile electronics are extremely sensitive. Transformers are not manufactured in the US anymore. I certain type, I can’t recall the name. China is the go to for those, and they take months to manufacture. 330 million or say 100 million w/o electricity would quickly devolve into chaos.
Jdog you’re assuming they would want it turned back on right away. 3 months to restore residential and there will be no residential to restore. Americans have received cradle to grave indoctrination in Me-ism with a capitol Me and we have a weeks worth of food in store at best. I wish I shared your optimism regarding americans with a small a.
I would wager that not 5% of the population have provisions for even three weeks.
falconflight…..That’s correct. I’d wager not one week. But it’s not just that. One can die by so many different ways if/when the grid goes down. Most people have no idea of proper sanitation as in purifying water, dealing with human fecal waste, disposing of the dead and many more things.
Why should they? They live in a 1st world country set in 2021, not a country blown back to the 1800’s with all the knowledge of how to survive that time unknown for most.
The loss of electricity doesn’t have to last a year to be catastrophic. A few months will do nicely, as contaminated water supplies will bring back the handmaiden’s of disaster: Dysentery, Hepatitis A and E , Acute respiratory infections, typhoid, and a host of others.
This is beside the first wave death toll of people on meds for diabetes, asthma, etcetera, and the people who need medical equipment to survive.
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, so I’ll stop after a last observation: A whole lot of people will die.
You’ve channeled all the high points of what would occur, and like you said, it wouldn’t take a year, but a mere few months of systemic disruption to result in a mass die off. The non potable water being the prime challenge.
Most Americans have sufficient fat stores for 3 months or more.
I am not assuming anything, unlike the dickweed that wrote the article, I worked in management for one of the largest utilities in the country and I know exactly what I am talking about,
I disagree and do not share your faith with govt fixing anything.
I recall that when there was a major power outage that left New York City and the Northeast in the dark that the city went batshit crazy. Sort of like BLM looting on steroids. I would be less concerned with my toaster not working and more with keeping my family safe.
The ice storm that hit Quebec and eastern Ontario took weeks to repair and it was deadly cold and people died as a result. The govt sent in the troops to lock everyone down. My elderly parents lived in small town Ontario and were rescued but only because my brother was a staff sergeant with the Ottawa police force. The military let him through their blockade because he was a policeman and he was able to bring them to his home that still had power. Otherwise, two old people would have been trapped in their freezing cold and dark homes cooking on a BBQ out in the garage. It might have very well been their doomsday scenario.
The government does not fix shit. Utilities with a few exceptions are all private corporations. The outage you are referring to was decades ago, and the industry has been completely overhauled since then. Will jogger filled cities turn into Mogadishu? Probably, but if you live in a jogger filled city then you should expect that. Most of the country would survive just fine.
I have worked several major outages caused by natural disaster and understand what is involved in getting the lights back on. There is an entire industry of private contractors who specialize in utility repair after disaster, in addition to the army of regular industry workers. The grid is protected by state of the art technology. Put it this way, do you know what happens if you stand in a bathtub full of water and drop your hair dyer in it? Nothing. Because every home built in the past 40 years has a GFI in baths and kitchens to protect idiots. Do you really believe your bathroom is better protected than the national grid? Never mind I am wasting my time on idiots. Continue to be chicken little and believe asshats like the one who makes money writing fear porn.
Good luck with that.
talk to some of the people in metropolitan areas which have taken a direct hit from a major hurricane-
some of them have had to go months & months w/o electricity–
in the current year you can not farm without electricity. You are going to need it to to deliver the fuel to the tractors at a minimum. There are not that many horses left.
Yes that is true, there is no such thing as manual pumps anymore ….dumbass.
Check out http://www.disasterprepparer.com. Dr. Arthur Bradley owns and runs the site. best source I have found for emp/cme protection. You can also find his videos on utube(sorry) under emp doc.
taken down.
sorry, http://disasterprepparer.com
this is about solar,not lights out but there early this thursday am there is going to be a sunrise solar eclipse that will be quite a sight–there is a map of viewing areas in this link–
https://spaceweather.com/
I stopped reading at “Russian linked”. Anyone that ignorant shouldn’t be writing, but we know the real reason.
“70% would feel unsafe in the event of a power outage of two weeks or more. 66% believe their quality of life will suffer with an outage lasting more than seven days. 64% say they are unprepared for an extended power outage that will last more than two weeks. 16% believe the federal government is doing all it can to prevent an attack on the grid.”
I think the must have interviewed Millenials. These idiots don’t feel “safe” with when a mild flu virus hits town. And the last thing they’ll have to worry about during a prolonged outage is their “quality of life”. Morlocks, meet the Eloi!