DHS says that Americans need to be prepared for a power outage of up to 6 months

[BugoutBear]

The Ruling Classes surveillance network and the upcoming 5G control system require a lot of electricity.
If and when the power goes out in a given area, the forced inconvenience to the Peasant Class will have to greatly out weigh the need to control and watch them.

Bit of a conundrum isn’t it?

On one side if the power goes out for an extended period of time the unwashed, peasant masses will weed out the useless and infirm among them. Keep them fighting amongst themselves. I have no doubt the people in control will make this happen to protect themselves from a backlash.

And on the other side if the power goes out for an extended period of time the “Elites” lose a bit of control, but I bet they have thought this scenario out already.

[Spike n Ree]

I'm sure the story to prepare is from DHS. I'm very impressionable, and when I saw how different a picture they showed - I thought it worth posting.

[Miradus]

Sage advice is sage advice, no matter the source.

The powers that be don't want an outage. It would disrupt the whole bread-and-circus routine too badly. The Kardashians goes off ... even the most ignorant of people start thinking about the state of affairs and that doesn't benefit ANYONE in charge.

But assuming absolute competence in their capabilities is foolish. They promote and elevate due to ideological and subservience considerations, not skill and confidence. Most people who would be qualified engineers and caretakers have long since fled the system.

I live in a location where there's only minimal grid access anyway, and only at a very great cost. But like almost every poor area, EBT is the largest income source. I can provide for my needs ... but not for my neighbor's needs, and his neighbor's needs, and their neighbor's, and so on.

[dissimulo]

You can't prepare for everything, so you should prepare for the most probable things first. The probability of a six month power outage is very low for most people. Also the amount of prepping that you need to do depends on your circumstances. If we're just talking about a power outage, then the main thing that people will need is water. Just about any American could go two weeks without food and come out healthier. There are things that can make your life a lot more pleasant though. A wood stove, a hand pump for the well (if applicable), and a small generator sure make long periods without power a lot easier to tolerate. But the main thing that you will need to go six months is knowledge and adaptability, because such a long period is going to be unpredictable.

[Miradus]

I got a good foretaste of what a long-term outage might look like when the volcano started erupting here and lava caused about 1,000 homes to be evacuated (thankfully not ours). Some notes from that:

-The government was very late to help. Shelters were set up immediately by other charity groups, but over the long haul ... the charity groups became exhausted. They factionalized. Some of the native Hawaiian groups started refusing help to whites when their own supplies ran low.

-When the national guard showed up, it made problems worse, not better. There were reports of the national guard (stationed to prevent looters) actually doing a lot of looting. Several soldiers were reportedly dismissed from duty quietly after they were caught extorting locals for money, sex, or drugs.

-Almost everything the government said was a lie. They were trying to keep tourism numbers high so they lied about the severity of the issues.

-Within about a month, those who had the means to go elsewhere did so, meaning that those left were in need of permanent attention. They were simply never going to be re-homed. They had no money, no resources, no friends or family, and no motivation.

-Once free food and shelter started flowing, the dregs of society from all over the island arrived. Druggies, thieves, mentally ill, etc. But they didn't get along in the shelters and soon would be kicked out and walking in the local areas ... which put everyone not impacted by the lava flow directly in harm's way.

-Theft and violence skyrocketed for multiple reasons. We couldn't leave home as a family, instead having to post one armed adult on guard at the homestead at all times. Attempts on our solar equipment and generator were made and repelled by our dogs. (Many big dogs around your homestead is a necessity. Our animal shelters here are almost always empty of big dogs. Everyone knows this.)

-The police were useless. Absolutely useless in every regard. They wouldn't come if you called. They wouldn't file reports because then the true crime rate would be revealed. Do not rely on them.

-The crime rate fell after a number of criminals went 'missing'. A couple were found dead in the road, shot full of holes. The criminals were slightly slower to realize the police weren't a presence than the good citizens were. Each time you'd see a missing persons poster somewhere, and the person's family crying on Facebook about how "they were just starting to turn their life around." So it was pretty clear that they didn't turn their life around quite fast enough. I think some of it was criminal-on-criminal violence, settling scores and dealing with informants. But I know at least some of it was homeowners dealing with a problem and simply not calling the police to report it. I know this because they started running radio announcements telling people it was a crime to do that, which means they had no way of policing it. Nobody was calling the police to report they heard gunshots.

There was a lot of good things which I saw too ... but this is just a summary of the bad. It wasn't all bad, and I did learn which of my neighbors I could rely on and which I could not.

[Rob_0126]

I got a good foretaste of what a long-term outage might look like when the volcano started erupting here and lava caused about 1,000 homes to be evacuated (thankfully not ours). Some notes from that:

-The government was very late to help. Shelters were set up immediately by other charity groups, but over the long haul ... the charity groups became exhausted. They factionalized. Some of the native Hawaiian groups started refusing help to whites when their own supplies ran low.

-When the national guard showed up, it made problems worse, not better. There were reports of the national guard (stationed to prevent looters) actually doing a lot of looting. Several soldiers were reportedly dismissed from duty quietly after they were caught extorting locals for money, sex, or drugs.

-Almost everything the government said was a lie. They were trying to keep tourism numbers high so they lied about the severity of the issues.

-Within about a month, those who had the means to go elsewhere did so, meaning that those left were in need of permanent attention. They were simply never going to be re-homed. They had no money, no resources, no friends or family, and no motivation.

-Once free food and shelter started flowing, the dregs of society from all over the island arrived. Druggies, thieves, mentally ill, etc. But they didn't get along in the shelters and soon would be kicked out and walking in the local areas ... which put everyone not impacted by the lava flow directly in harm's way.

-Theft and violence skyrocketed for multiple reasons. We couldn't leave home as a family, instead having to post one armed adult on guard at the homestead at all times. Attempts on our solar equipment and generator were made and repelled by our dogs. (Many big dogs around your homestead is a necessity. Our animal shelters here are almost always empty of big dogs. Everyone knows this.)

-The police were useless. Absolutely useless in every regard. They wouldn't come if you called. They wouldn't file reports because then the true crime rate would be revealed. Do not rely on them.

-The crime rate fell after a number of criminals went 'missing'. A couple were found dead in the road, shot full of holes. The criminals were slightly slower to realize the police weren't a presence than the good citizens were. Each time you'd see a missing persons poster somewhere, and the person's family crying on Facebook about how "they were just starting to turn their life around." So it was pretty clear that they didn't turn their life around quite fast enough. I think some of it was criminal-on-criminal violence, settling scores and dealing with informants. But I know at least some of it was homeowners dealing with a problem and simply not calling the police to report it. I know this because they started running radio announcements telling people it was a crime to do that, which means they had no way of policing it. Nobody was calling the police to report they heard gunshots.

There was a lot of good things which I saw too ... but this is just a summary of the bad. It wasn't all bad, and I did learn which of my neighbors I could rely on and which I could not.

You ought to write a book on this. Maybe some of this reality would set in with those who would read it.

As the end of all things approaches, it will only get worse. Thank God for Jesus Christ and His provisions.

[Miradus]

Better to just put the pearls where the wise can find them than to cast them before swine. :)

Some other thoughts while I'm thinking about it ...

-Many people stole the supplies the Red Cross provided and then sold them. Because the air quality across the whole island was so bad, FEMA delivered thousands of filter masks but there still wasn't enough. Roadside stands popped up with people selling whole boxes of the things for $50 each. Some of those people were assaulted and robbed by angry locals who knew where they got them.

-The island's own illegal alien population (Micronesians, not Mexicans and South Americans) fared very well because they are insular, familial, and tight-knit. Since then I have made a point to pick out a few Micronesians and deliberately frequent their businesses and make friends. These are communities which know how to lay low, how to endure, and how to function without going to their (mostly corrupt) government. Make them an asset, not a liability.

-Absolutely distrust your government. I heard from numerous people who called in to report lava flows and surfacing in their area suddenly found they were evicted from their homes by mandatory evacuation. The national guard had roadblocks to 'prevent looting' but when they did return to their homes they found the homes had been looted anyway.

-So let's discuss looting, Hawaiian style ... it impacts mostly 'unattended' properties. That's anywhere they know you're gone for a day. I hear mainlanders who have summer homes here complain about this frequently and it's not entirely a lava emergency situation but it was worse then. Some people who fled the area and weren't checking on their homes frequently came back to discover their ENTIRE HOME taken apart and stolen. Your front door is gone. Your siding is gone. Your roof panels are gone. The plumbing is gone. Anything that can be taken apart and driven away in a truck is GONE. Some returned to just standing frames. Toilets gone, even septic tanks dug up, dumped, and stolen. And in many cases, it was their neighbors who did it. People who lived in the same general area. People who were waiting and watching for them to leave because they weren't part of the local community.

BUILD COMMUNITY.

I don't care how poor your neighbors are, what color they are, where they're from, what their politics are, etc. My nearest neighbor is a die-hard Bernie Sanders supporter with a Code Pink bumper sticker. But if his dogs start barking in the middle of the night, I'm out there with a floodlight and he's the same for me. We just have a general agreement to discuss fishing, the weather, the idiots who drive too fast down the main road, and never ever mention politics.

The other nearest neighbors, about a half-mile away, exist entirely on EBT and are perpetually needy. And I make it a point when I drive to town to see if they need a lift, or to walk by and chat with them on weekends to make sure everything is going cool. Ran out of food again? Don't worry, buddy. I'll send one of the kids over with a $5 bag of rice. And at least ten times now I've heard the man of the house down there in the road blowing an air horn to scare away people who don't belong on our street in the middle of the night. He serves, more or less, as our middle-of-the-night neighborhood watchman.

I cannot stress that enough. Build community. Overlook the people problems with class, race, and politics. These people are your only defense against the much wider societal breakdown which is going to occur.

[Laura19]

Wow, thanks, Miradus! A first hand account. I learned a lot

[KingsX]

There have been rumors that Russian hackers are focused on the US electric grids.

The Texas grid, Ercot, borrows and lends power with Mexico when needed.

Reminds me of a Russian poster who threatened to nuke Texas... I told him to prepare to make war with Mexico too since much of its population now lives in Texas.