How to Survive a Power Grid Attack

How long can you survive without clean drinking water, gas, or power? Learning how to survive a power grid attack will give you an upper hand at avoiding these eventualities associated with power grid attacks.

Learn with us some of the answers to the frequently asked question about surviving a power grid attack.

RELATED: What to Do in a Power Outage

How to Survive a Power Grid Attack | Everything You Need to Know

How to Survive a Power Grid Failure?

Water

Unless you have well water, a declining water supply will be your most significant source of alarm during a power outage, thanks to a failed water system. The risk of losing the most basic necessity in life should have you stockpiling water and preparing for the fact that the water supply you know may never come back.

If you are wondering how much is enough, a gallon per person per day should be a bare minimum. This includes any pets you may be having. Keep in mind that you will use this water for other chores around the house, like cooking and cleaning.

What's more, you can also make a stream or river near you your source of water provided you boil and treat the water to ensure it's safe for drinking. Beyond that, consider digging a well in your backyard for a guaranteed water supply.

Food

Like with water, you also need to stock up with plenty of food supplies in preparation. The chances are that your local stores will not be bringing in food for a while during an outage, which means that food already available on the store shelves will run out fast.

To avoid the hassle of dealing with the manic rush to get the last bits of food in the grocery store, consider stockpiling on dried and canned foods that your family loves eating.

In cases where you might have a hunch of an upcoming electricity outage, consider cooking all your raw meals. While this doesn't make them non-perishable, it extends the food's lifespan for a day or two, which can go a long way during a disaster.

Communication

Regardless of what causes a power grid outage, your cell phone is designed to still function for at most four hours after an outage. This is thanks to the FCC regulations for every cell phone tower to have a four-hour backup battery.

The trick is to utilize this four-hour window wisely when the power grid fails to reach your family and friends to make necessary plans. However, keep in mind that your communication devices will continue functioning correctly even after power grid failure as long as you find an alternate source of power.

Note: In the worst-case scenario of electromagnetic pulse, you will not have the four-hour backup power as electromagnetic pulses will drain the battery immediately.

Light

While a source of light is not as pressing as other survival items in this list, walking around in the dark can cause injury and potentially death. The last thing you need is to add another problem on a power grid failure.

However, while your first instinct will be to stock up on flashlights, batteries, and LED headlamps, be open to the fact that they may not necessarily work, mainly in the case of Electromagnetic pulse. Therefore consider keeping a few candles handy and have appropriate holders to reduce the risk of fires.

Summer and Winter

Some power grid failures are worse than others. For instance, a power grid failure during summer would mean that you go through your water reserves faster than you typically do. What's more, it would also mean a lack of channels for staying up-to-date with forecast warnings, especially when you have children, pets, and older adults.

On the other hand, winter would bring the opposite problems to summer. Finding a way to stay warm, especially if you do not have a propane heater, has to be the most pressing.

However, the risk with propane heaters is the carbon monoxide threat, which can be difficult to catch without detectors. This only emphasizes the need to prioritize learning how to survive a power grid attack.

Is There a Threat to the Power Grid?

Yes. The U.S. power grid is now more vulnerable to cyberattacks than ever. These cyber-attacks could lead to widespread and prolonged blackouts leading to the loss of all electrical services.

According to the 2021 annual threat assessment report, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are the most significant threats in a rising number of non-state actors and countries with cyberattack capabilities.

Electricity generation and distribution are invaluable to day-to-day life in America. A compromised power grid will therefore mean that our everyday lives are disrupted down to the minor aspects.

Prioritizing the power grid's cybersecurity is therefore critical in ensuring its resilience and reliability.

RELATED: Building a Power Outage/Blackout Kit

What Would Happen if the Power Grid Was Attacked?

Besides electricity, natural gas and water would fail soon after when the power grid is knocked out. This also means that other essential services that rely on these three pillars would also cease to function. This would come to the simplest things, such as garbage collection, cooking, and communication.

This is 2.5 times more likely to happen now than in the 1980s because of an aging power grid. As of 2021, the power grid is 31 years old on average, which is old to have the resilience to withstand cyber attacks.

What Are the Chances of a Power Grid Failure?

Cyber Attacks

Cyber attacks are by far the leading potential causes of massive power grid failure. This is so much so that various arms of government like Congress are actively preparing towards possible malicious attacks to knock out the American power grid by foreign state perpetrators or terrorist groups.

Keep in mind that these cyberattacks don't have to be anything significant. Low-level cyber attacks are more than capable of knocking out power in certain parts of the country for weeks.

Though these localized outages may mean that things will be easier for you, you will still have to prepare for localized power grid attacks.

Electromagnetic Pulse

Nuclear weapons detonated in low orbit are the other possible cause for power grid failure. When discharged in low orbit at high altitudes, these nuclear weapons are more likely to cause more harm when dropped on a city.

In low orbit, nuclear weapons are likely to interact with the atmosphere, including the ionosphere, where electrons facilitate most satellite communication. This could result in localized power grid outages or, in the worst-case scenario, power grid failure in close to half of the country. Either way, none of these scenarios is ideal.

Failing Infrastructure

With an old and failing power grid that also happens to be poorly maintained, we do not need solar flares or other external attacks to knock it down. It is already headed there without any external influence. If anything, a power grid failure in one part of the country will rapidly spread to other regions due to interconnectivity.

Solar Flares

Solar flares pose a threat to the power grid the same way electromagnetic pulses do. The only difference is that solar flares are natural occurrences that humankind cannot control. While the possibility for the sun sending solar flares may seem unlikely, it has happened before.

If anything, it has a pretty high chance of happening again, even more than an EMP.

Watch this video by Yanasa TV on power grid cyber attack | winter chaos widespread long lasting blackouts:

There you have fellow preppers. Power grid attacks may seem farfetched. However, it is not until you are a victim of one that you realize that power grid attacks are as real as the air you breathe and can strike at any moment.

When this happens, the last thing you want is to be unprepared which you will no longer be thanks to the informative information herein.

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