# Prepare for Six Months Without Electricity



## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

> In a new report that warns that the electric grid is the "prime target" of terrorists, Americans are being urged prepare for the up to six months without electricity, transportation, fuel, money, and healthcare.
> 
> "People no longer keep enough essentials within their homes, reducing their ability to sustain themselves during an extended, prolonged outage. We need to improve individual preparedness," said a just-published report to President Trump.


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...target-of-terrorists-profound-threat-says-dhs

Seems some think we are going to see bad times.


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## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Fear the darkness, search for the light.


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## MikeTango (Apr 13, 2018)

I’d be lying if I said I don’t get a little nervous every time the power goes out these days...


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## Lunatic Wrench (May 13, 2018)

Only 6 months? Anything intelligent I've read/watched on our power grid being taken out say's years to get it back up and running if we were to lose our transformers.They don't stock those things at Costco, from what I understand they build them as they need them, which will take a bit longer with Yavanna pedaling her bicycle generator powering the mfg plants.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Lunatic Wrench said:


> Only 6 months? Anything intelligent I've read/watched on our power grid being taken out say's years to get it back up and running if we were to lose our transformers.They don't stock those things at Costco, from what I understand they build them as they need them, which will take a bit longer with Yavanna pedaling her bicycle generator powering the mfg plants.


I agree. I read the transformers come from Japan and there's only so many of them they can manufacture a month.


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## StratMaster (Dec 26, 2017)

Denton said:


> I agree. I read the transformers come from Japan and there's only so many of them they can manufacture a month.


I had read that most are made by Siemens Germany, and we do not remotely have replacements necessary for a grid-down emergency. Worse, these require special trucks to move them... and there are only a few on each continent.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

I'm hoping to have a 2-3 year supply of firewood by end of this winter. I'll be warm and able to cook.

Have lots of oil lamps and refined kerosene when the lamp oil runs out. Small solar panels a few deep cycle bats and inverters to recharge small batterys/laptop. Some battery radios that have SW band.

Need more dried and canned foods, root cellar is stocked up. Will have to hope it's not summer as the freezer stuff will not last.

Need to fill up a couple of 55-gal drums with non-E10 gas as the service stations won't be pumping, use that for essentials like the chainsaws and tractor.

Will need to get a hand well pump, but have a spring just up the hill, and water collection system when it's not freezing out.

Have thought about a small diesel genny that I can fuel off the 275-gal oil tank for the furnace. That could keep the freezer happy until empty and run the well pump.

I also have been looking into steam powered electric generators that I could power with wood, I have lots of surplus hardwood.

https://greensteamengine.com/

https://otherpower.com/steamengine.html

Have a bunch of bicycles w/plenty of spare parts. Lots of hand tools that don't require electric/fuel.

People with municipal water/sewer will be in for a tough time.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Denton said:


> I agree. I read the transformers come from Japan and there's only so many of them they can manufacture a month.


General Electric was one of the largest transformer manufacturers up until the 1970s. The greedy basturd CEOs and management sold out the business and US workers, at the same time left the environment full of PCBs, while they ran away with lots of loot.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Living without electricity does not worry me nearly as much as it used to.

Mrs Inor and I started building a house in a very rural area in early April 2017 and finished it late July 2018. We built it ourselves. While building, we also lived there. When we started, we had no electricity, no water, no toilets, nothing. We crapped in an outhouse out behind the build site. In a lot of ways, it was a SHTF situation; we were doing very hard physical labor all day, every day. We cooked our meals over an open fire, in a ceramic BBQ, over a propane camp stove or over a rocket stove every day. We washed our clothes by hand in a couple of #3 wash tubs and air dried them. We bathed (initially) with a wash tub and cold water on the back porch. Later, I hung up a solar shower and that helped a LOT.

I learned a lot of lessons from the experience. A lot of the stuff I thought would be challenging ended up being really easy - food prep, sanitation, etc. Some of the stuff I never even considered turned out to be real ballbusters - almost to the point of show stoppers.

The thing that hit both of us the hardest, that we never even considered, was pain management. When doing really physical work all day, every day, you wake up every morning and some muscle or some joint hurts. Some days they hurt so much it is almost debilitating. It took each of us about a month to figure out how to get up and do our work without letting the pain get in the way. We started off, popping a few Advils or Aleve tablets to take the edge off. Within a week, that was tearing both of our stomachs up. The way we successfully got through it was to just take the mental attitude that no matter how much it hurt, we had to get X amount of work done that day. The first few days were miserable. But after that, it wasn't so bad.

So now I am pretty confident, if the electricity goes away I will not like it. But we have the skills that we can get by.


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## Lunatic Wrench (May 13, 2018)

Inor said:


> The thing that hit both of us the hardest, that we never even considered, was pain management. When doing really physical work all day, every day, you wake up every morning and some muscle or some joint hurts. Some days they hurt so much it is almost debilitating. It took each of us about a month to figure out how to get up and do our work without letting the pain get in the way. We started off, popping a few Advils or Aleve tablets to take the edge off. Within a week, that was tearing both of our stomachs up. The way we successfully got through it was to just take the mental attitude that no matter how much it hurt, we had to get X amount of work done that day. The first few days were miserable. But after that, it wasn't so bad.


You pretty much described my typical day.


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## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

Well there are at least two considerations and one is by far better than the other. First is EMP andmthats a SHTF situation and most of us won’t see normal times again and I don’t care how old you are. The second is a lack of power transmission which is bad, but generators, solar and such will provide Preppers with necessary survival. Prepping for both is different but if you are prepared for for the EMP you can handle anything.


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## StratMaster (Dec 26, 2017)

Inor said:


> Living without electricity does not worry me nearly as much as it used to.
> 
> Mrs Inor and I started building a house in a very rural area in early April 2017 and finished it late July 2018. We built it ourselves. While building, we also lived there. When we started, we had no electricity, no water, no toilets, nothing. We crapped in an outhouse out behind the build site. In a lot of ways, it was a SHTF situation; we were doing very hard physical labor all day, every day. We cooked our meals over an open fire, in a ceramic BBQ, over a propane camp stove or over a rocket stove every day. We washed our clothes by hand in a couple of #3 wash tubs and air dried them. We bathed (initially) with a wash tub and cold water on the back porch. Later, I hung up a solar shower and that helped a LOT.
> 
> ...


Good stuff Inor!


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## Yavanna (Aug 27, 2018)

I seem to be better off than you guys, since noone would bother attacking my country ( lets be honest, terrorists do not care much about us in here). Also, the climate is warm, so house heating is not a problem, and I can handle a cold shower most of the days... However, food preservation is a bitch. 
I cook with butane gas ( as 99% of the people here do), and I always keep an extra cylinder at home, this would give me about 3 months of fuel, and I also have a wooden stove ( and wood stocked). 
However, people tend to go berserk around here. Some months ago we had a truck drivers strike, so there it was running water and electricity, but the supplies stopped coming. Most people do not have food at home to last them to the end of the month. In 10 days some places were turning to chaos, supermarkets were mostly empty, no fuel, riots, and so on... Only 10 or 11 days, imagine 6 months


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

Don't count on living off the land on wild game. My guess is after about a month most critters will be shot and eaten. Then what's your plan?


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Chipper said:


> Don't count on living off the land on wild game. My guess is after about a month most critters will be shot and eaten. Then what's your plan?


Eat the city people.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

As I have been saying all along, it's not if, but when. It's just to easy for our friendly neighborhood terrorists. Low risk, mission ease, and high body count is a big inducement. The fact that your seeing more and more MSM attention and warnings regarding a power loss should be your red flag. Wouldn't the holiday season with winter coming be the perfection of timing? 

I can do 6 months standing on my head as far as supplies go, plenty of ammo, food, medical supplies, water, etc. It's the variables that will be the killer. I am as ready as I can be. The first two weeks will be intense.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Grid down will last a few years. Especially if your in fly over country. Who knows what society will emerge from it.


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## Elvis (Jun 22, 2018)

When the local power grid goes down we usually don't know until a neighbor tells us. This area loses power for days at a time at least twice a year but with a solar system with batteries we aren't dependent on the grid.

We do keep some spare parts for the solar system.


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

Yavanna said:


> I seem to be better off than you guys, since noone would bother attacking my country ( lets be honest, terrorists do not care much about us in here). Also, the climate is warm, so house heating is not a problem, and I can handle a cold shower most of the days... However, food preservation is a bitch.
> I cook with butane gas ( as 99% of the people here do), and I always keep an extra cylinder at home, this would give me about 3 months of fuel, and I also have a wooden stove ( and wood stocked).
> However, people tend to go berserk around here. Some months ago we had a truck drivers strike, so there it was running water and electricity, but the supplies stopped coming. Most people do not have food at home to last them to the end of the month. In 10 days some places were turning to chaos, supermarkets were mostly empty, no fuel, riots, and so on... Only 10 or 11 days, imagine 6 months


a full out pre-emtive EMP attack would undoubtly catch your area - it's not a refined & defined type effect .... don't buy into the stupid terrorist EMP attack scenario - if they get a hold of a nuke - it's not being wasted on some airburst and a basket full of hopeful disruption & disaster >>> they want a death toll to their credit before they get crunched - they want DC leveled - NYC hollowed out - LA dropping into the Pacific ....


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## MI.oldguy (Apr 18, 2013)

Short of a tremendous emp attack,many cities in rural areas do have their own power plants to help energize the grid and also to run when grid prices are high as they fluctuate daily. like where we live.unfortunately they phased out the good old coal plants and built a plant that runs on natural gas and diesel.of course,the NG facilities would be off-line.the fuel tank though looks like it would only feed these thirsty finnish engines for a few days.when we had our coal plant the supply was enough to run for it for a month by itself and was proven to do so as the electric board ran the coal plant for a week without a grid tie to see how much coal it would really burn in a situation.then they shut it down because of age and now we have three big ass wartsila plants that caused our rate to go up %30.so,stock up and good luck.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

I'm glad to see an article like this one, because we need more like this in order to wake people up. Stock up on rat poison. They'll be the ones to thrive and of course they carry all sorts of diseases. 

I'm training myself to suffer a little for bad times. I do some fasting, and go without the little comforts a couple times each week. It's gonna be tough on our loved ones who take medications. 

I just wish (hope) we could get that wood burning stove put in before the time comes when we really need it.


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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

Any power outage for any length of time nation wide will be a SHTF country killer. The violence, illness, death and destruction will be off the charts. Anyone thinking otherwise is fooling themselves. We would be lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) to still have half the population alive after 6 months.
And who says that the powers that be (deep state, globalists, Chinese,etc...) do not take advantage of a shorter outage to make it a more permanent and lengthy outage or other attack? It would be a great time to try to fully transform or destroy the U.S. Don't think it would not happen.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Annie said:


> I'm glad to see an article like this one, because we need more like this in order to wake people up. Stock up on rat poison. They'll be the ones to thrive and of course they carry all sorts of diseases.
> 
> I'm training myself to suffer a little for bad times. I do some fasting, and go without the little comforts a couple times each week. It's gonna be tough on our loved ones who take medications.
> 
> I just wish (hope) we could get that wood burning stove put in before the time comes when we really need it.


The perfect Christmas gift for vermin that keeps on giving


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

RedLion said:


> Any power outage for any length of time nation wide will be a SHTF country killer. The violence, illness, death and destruction will be off the charts. Anyone thinking otherwise is fooling themselves. We would be lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) to still have half the population alive after 6 months.
> And who says that the powers that be (deep state, globalists, Chinese,etc...) do not take advantage of a shorter outage to make it a more permanent and lengthy outage or other attack? It would be a great time to try to fully transform or destroy the U.S. Don't think it would not happen.


Exactly correct. This country is 100% dependent upon electricity.
The first few weeks would be horrendous, with a massive die off of those in hospitals and those otherwise life-dependent on electricity such as dialysis patents. The bodies would accumulate rapidly, perhaps so rapidly as to become a major health hazard.
Even those who are fairly well prepared for such an extreme event as total grid failure would be living on borrowed time.


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

My biggest concern is my Nephew. He is a type 1 diabetic and without insulin he will die. I can always get food and water one way or another. I cant create insulin out of thin air.

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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

Sasquatch said:


> My biggest concern is my Nephew. He is a type 1 diabetic and without insulin he will die. I can always get food and water one way or another. I cant create insulin out of thin air.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


That is a very tough spot to be in. Maybe do more research on using a starvation diet if necessary? Also, there is a nasal spray variant of insulin that is available that does not require refrigeration. My oldest daughter is a MODY Type II diabetic that takes glipizide to manage. I have been stocking a pill here and there (got a couple of months worth), but am prepared to make a bold move if/when the time is right.


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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

This is certainly relevant to this thread.



> PRY: Let's Count The Ways To Take Out A Nuclear Reactor





> A new report published by the U.S. Air Force's Electromagnetic Defense Task Force (EDTF) recommends giving highest priority to protecting nuclear power reactors from natural and nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP). According to the report, if EMP causes a protracted blackout, the reactors can "go Fukushima" and spread radioactivity across vast swaths of the United States.


https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/16/nuclear-reactor/


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## Mx201er (Dec 18, 2018)

StratMaster said:


> Denton said:
> 
> 
> > I agree. I read the transformers come from Japan and there's only so many of them they can manufacture a month.
> ...


You guys are all spot on.. large transformers are almost all manufactured in other countries, and I know that most generator step-up (GSU) transformers have a several year lead time. If a solar flare the same magnitude of the one experienced in the late 1800s were to occur today, it would destroy every GSU connected to the grid, and as you stated there are very few spares. I'm sure the several year lead time will increase dramatically if there is no power available for manufacturing.


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## SGT E (Feb 25, 2015)

Lunatic Wrench said:


> Only 6 months? Anything intelligent I've read/watched on our power grid being taken out say's years to get it back up and running if we were to lose our transformers.They don't stock those things at Costco, from what I understand they build them as they need them, which will take a bit longer with Yavanna pedaling her bicycle generator powering the mfg plants.


They do stock 100 watt solar panels for 99$ on sale occasionally at Costco! Sams Club has em for 119$ with an 8 amp charge controller included.

https://www.samsclub.com/sams/colem...lar-panel/prod22420415.ip?xid=plp_product_1_1


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## Piratesailor (Nov 9, 2012)

Lead time for the transformers is indeed the issue. I remember when tropical storm Alison flooded downtown Houston. My building was without power for a couple of months as the transformer was destroyed and another had to be ordered. I seem to recall it was 2 to 3 months that we were out of the building. 

Btw, the power grid is not the only vulnerability. Via the internet / virus / etc the natural gas grid (pipeline) is exposed as are many of the refineries. Years ago, it was all manual valves, then it was local computers but now it’s all connected to the “main office” via the inter/intranet and all of that is vulnerable. Iran is a good example. 

Yeah, picture the natural gas and chemical pipelines shutting down, then the power plants, in the winter in the NE.


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## jimLE (Feb 8, 2014)

Well i got candles oil lamps lanterns and flashlights. But yet.i do need to stock up on food and especially water.


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## StratMaster (Dec 26, 2017)

Annie said:


> I'm glad to see an article like this one, because we need more like this in order to wake people up. Stock up on rat poison. They'll be the ones to thrive and of course they carry all sorts of diseases.
> 
> I'm training myself to suffer a little for bad times. I do some fasting, and go without the little comforts a couple times each week. It's gonna be tough on our loved ones who take medications.
> 
> I just wish (hope) we could get that wood burning stove put in before the time comes when we really need it.


Might wanna stock up on Rat-A-Roni instead of rat poison, it could get bad.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

They are now built in China and Malaysia, and take over a year to manufacture. BTW, do think China would be all that gracious to help us?


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

If the US is EMP'ed or something else happens to take down the grid, will all the illegals go back where they came from. I mean the checks are going to stop!


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

StratMaster said:


> Might wanna stock up on Rat-A-Roni instead of rat poison, it could get bad.


Eeeew!


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## AquaHull (Jun 10, 2012)

Chipper said:


> Don't count on living off the land on wild game. My guess is after about a month most critters will be shot and eaten. Then what's your plan?


I have not obtained any wild game with over 250 miles walked in the forest. I don't shoot tree rats, yet. I've seen 2 deer all year.


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## The Tourist (Jun 9, 2016)

Yavanna said:


> I seem to be better off than you guys, since noone would bother attacking my country ( lets be honest, terrorists do not care much about us in here). Also, the climate is warm, so house heating is not a problem, and I can handle a cold shower most of the days... However, food preservation is a bitch.


The very things you mention are also reasons why "the caravan" tries to break into our country. There is also misinformation for our own people.

One of our biggest areas for fruit and vegetables is California. It has two problems, however. Their governor is teetering on the edge of insanity--and that's no joke. And the area that did most of growing had severe fires. And where fires go, the amount and quality of the water diminishes. There are five states that use water from that area. Rumor has it that California has desalinization equipment, but I've never seen a news story where any was shown.

Our riots are more over politics. We have "talk shows" on the radio here, but for the last several weeks all four of them that I get report on Trump (and how evil he is) and a woman named Nancy Pelosi (who shoots plastic into her face).

My wife has started downsizing, I'm retired now, and the knives are slowly leaving the shelves. We want to get the house in really good shape and we're moving even farther out of the city.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

The Tourist said:


> One of our biggest areas for fruit and vegetables is California.


Did you really mean fruits and nuts?


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## MikeTango (Apr 13, 2018)

Don’t have any experience with Ray O Vac batteries but noticed Lowe’s has a nice sale on the AA’s. $12.97 for 60 good thru the 24th. 


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

I have 6 mixed cases of these
View attachment 94319


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Turkey is the best, followed by Javalina!


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## Mosinator762x54r (Nov 4, 2015)

Inor said:


> The thing that hit both of us the hardest, that we never even considered, was pain management. When doing really physical work all day, every day, you wake up every morning and some muscle or some joint hurts. Some days they hurt so much it is almost debilitating. It took each of us about a month to figure out how to get up and do our work without letting the pain get in the way. We started off, popping a few Advils or Aleve tablets to take the edge off. Within a week, that was tearing both of our stomachs up. The way we successfully got through it was to just take the mental attitude that no matter how much it hurt, we had to get X amount of work done that day. The first few days were miserable. But after that, it wasn't so bad.
> 
> So now I am pretty confident, if the electricity goes away I will not like it. But we have the skills that we can get by.


You know what, and no offense to any millenials or gen z'rs hangin' out on the forum, but I'm going to laugh my arse off at some of these skinny jean wearing offended younger generations when they can't stick their darned nose in the screen all day long and have to swing a maul to break up some wood.


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