The following blogpost was featured on ModernSurvivalOnline by our good friend John Rourke. Good info on prepping & blackouts.
Power outages can be caused by a wide variety of sources including general utility problems, winter storms, lightening strikes, wind storms as well as grid overload. There are numerous other causes but for the purpose of this article the fact remains the same…….the power is out.
Depending upon your geographic location, housing type, environment, and overall health – power outages can range from a minor inconvenience to a serious threat. Summer heat can be serious threat to the elderly without air conditioning and frigid winters are a threat to everyone absent of heat.
Growing up in the northern states of New England,I had my fair share of winter power outages as a child. In my youth power outages were adventurous and often exciting. The power would flicker, go out and my parents would get a flashlight, a few candles and build a roaring fire in the fire place. To an 8 year little boy – this was awesome and I knew everything would be fine.
Nowadays as an adult I no longer view the loss of power as “fun”. In 1989 I saw the effect that Hurricane Hugo had as it knocked out power in theCharlotte,NCarea. Some residential areas were without power for up to 3 weeks. Water pumps did not run. Gas stations could not pump fuel. Food in refrigerators and freezers that were not consumed went bad. It was a miserable experience and people were not prepared. Seriously – it was ridiculous how unprepared most people were.
In 2011 severe weather traveled throughout the southeastern United States and I was caught right in the middle of it. Hail up to the size of softballs fell from the sky and caused severe damage to homes and vehicles. In my area power was lost to many thousands of households for several days. This type of storm and corresponding power failures created not just tremendous property damage – but life disruption as well.
In October of 2011 an early snowstorm traveled up the East Coast of theUnited Statesand caused over 2 million people to lose power.
Power failures happen all the time – some bad, some not so. Taking a few logical steps like putting together a “Black Out Kit” can make dealing with most any power failure a bit easier and safer too deal with.
Continue reading HERE.
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