If the entire United States was to lose electricity for 6 months, how would you ensure you and your family’s survival?
I think that people who answer along the lines of “I’d cook on the grill in my backyard and play board games with the kids while the Internet is down, and just wait a few days for the government to fix everything” or “What’s all this talk about guns? So no one can watch T.V., big deal,” either didn’t read the question or don’t understand the way things work.
How would you survive a power outage which occurs across the entire country? Power runs farms, factories, hospitals, fuel pumps at gas stations, and almost all forms of communication. Banks can’t give money without power. Store registers can’t run without power, and even if you’re lucky enough to find a store that will hand-write a receipt, they can’t take credit or debit cards without power.
With no pumps to fuel delivery trucks, grocery stores will be empty within three days. Everyone with cash will get the good stuff, and the looters will get the rest. Most people have less than five days worth of food in their kitchen pantries. You have more food than that? Great. Your neighbors don’t, and by neighbors I mean the hundreds of thousands of people around you, including the ones who can smell your burgers sizzling on the backyard grill.
Did your kid just burn his hand reaching for a hotdog? Too bad the ambulances aren’t running for the same reason that the grocery trucks aren’t. Or the trucks that deliver gas to the gas stations. The big underground tanks at gas stations are refilled every few days, so when the trucks stop coming by to refill them, even the police cars and ambulances have no way of refueling.
Time to start thinking about those guns, because after about three days, when most of the people in your city are out of food, and the pharmacies stop filling prescriptions because they can’t verify anything without phones or an Internet connection, and the ATMs stop dispensing cash, and the police are unable to respond to emergencies, and the garbage is piling high in the streets, and the fire department can’t put out all of the house fires from the sudden increase in amateur chefs trying to figure out how to use that old hibachi, and everyone who self-medicates with nicotine or alcohol or anti-depressants is running on empty, and literally every single store in your city has been stripped to bare shelves, things are going to get really ugly.
How to survive a massive power outage:
1. Be prepared. You should be storing food, water, batteries, flashlights, personal hygiene items, and medical supplies (including prescription medicine and antibiotics). Yes, water depends on electricity to get to your pipes.
2. You should be able to cook food safely. It doesn’t matter if your stove or range are electric or gas, all utilities rely on electricity for delivery. A propane camp stove and bottles of propane should be included in your storage preps. Bottled propane is much safer to store than any liquid fuel, and it never goes bad.
3. Have at least a few good-sized fire extinguishers, not just that tiny one under the sink that’s been there for the last ten years.
4. Be ready to defend yourself, your family, and your belongings. If you live in a “safe” country with little or no private gun ownership, you are now at the mercy of anyone bigger, stronger, or meaner than you, or any group that outnumbers you.
5. Buy (or download for free) the “LDS Preparedness Manual” and read it. Of all the books that I own or have read over the years, it’s the single best resource for anyone who truly wants to be prepared. The book is on Amazon and the free download is available as a .pdf file from many locations. Here’s one, and you can Google it for many others:
6. Have some way of charging electronic devices, such as a solar laptop charger or a hand-crank battery and cell phone charger, along with a good supply of rechargeable batteries. Even if cell phone coverage is down, your cell phone can be used to store valuable data such as copies of important documents, e-books and .pdf files, survival and medical apps, and even just games and photos for keeping your morale up. A tablet or laptop can be used for the same purpose, although it will take longer to charge them.
8. Develop a good library of reference books on subjects like backyard gardening, first aid, vehicle maintenance, home repairs, hunting/fishing/trapping, camp skills, and urban survival. Have both paper and digital copies when possible. Paper doesn’t need an electronic device for reading, but an entire digital library can fit on a thumb drive, is easily copied for others to use, is obviously much more portable, and can be read on almost any device.
7. Network with like-minded people. Make plans with people in your community now to band together during times of crisis. There is safety in numbers.
The most shocking video can be found below:
Prepper1cense 