Electricity out = social unrest

We're always hearing and talking about how screwed people are in major metro areas would be if some catastrophe like no electricity or empty store shelves in the 21st century. This would lead to massive social unrest and crime. At least in theory. And I believe it...

So how do you explain what's happened on the east coast for the past week? It seems things have been pretty orderly, even in this heat. I expect if it hadn't been, I would have read about it on drudge. I'm not saying that I'm disappointed, perhaps I'm just surprised and relieved. It doesnt mean it cant happen, but i would have thought if anywhere, the dc area would hve been prime location for this. Perhaps people can be orderly? Thoughts?

Maybe the bulk of people in the affected area didn't get the memo on how they are supposed to behave in a power outage as defined by zombiedoomsday.com?

With the outage not being nationwide and there being an end in sight, I can understand why people are keeping their wits about them. An indefinite power outage would bring the bad out a lot faster I think.

Do you remember when new york was without power for 3 days a few years ago? No unrest

As long as water and food distribution network are up, people behave. Take out electricity completely out to the point where there is no way to pump fuel and so on, then you'll see the same looting and chaos as in Katrina. That one started to go bad lesser than a week.

Everyone behaves themselves for the most part until desperation sets in. Three days without electricity isn't enough. It has to be the right combination of factors for a long enough time.

Orderly? I've heard from a friend in Columbus Ohio they've had 20 murders since it started. And if he was a little quicker he probably would have had to shoot the guys trying to break into his apartment while he was in there sleeping.

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Originally Posted by ChadAmberg

Orderly? I've heard from a friend in Columbus Ohio they've had 20 murders since it started. And if he was a little quicker he probably would have had to shoot the guys trying to break into his apartment while he was in there sleeping.

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It would be all over the front page of the Columbud Dispatch if it were true and it's not so I highly doubt it.

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Originally Posted by SA Friday

Everyone behaves themselves for the most part until desperation sets in. Three days without electricity isn't enough. It has to be the right combination of factors for a long enough time.

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I agree, it is extremely frustrating but people were out working to fix the infrastructure.

But I am also glad to see people held out longer...they act like 6 days is a really long time and in this heat it can certainly seem like it.

One thing that keeps people home, good or bad, is severe weather. If it's too hot or too cold, people just stay home.

Once people get hungry and thirsty, then you start to have problems.

I lived outside Omaha Nebraska back in the late 90's when they had the big snowstorm that knocked power out for as long as three weeks for some older parts of town that had tree's come down on the distribution lines. The local utility had a hard time responding because of the downed tree's and in some places the snow that was never cleared from some roads. People stayed pretty level headed except there were reports of portable generators getting stollen. Bad guys would see who had lights on in a blacked-out section of town, and take-off with the generator as it was running, usually late at night.

Funny thing, the first thing to sell out of every hardware store, dept. store, or builders supply in the area was Chain Saws, Portable Generators, Snow Blowers and Snow Shovels. Luckly, I lived in an area that most of the disribution lines were clear of overhanging tree's or were undergound, so I think I lost power for no more then three hours or so.

I have a portable generator. I bought it for Y2K. Had a friend who worked at Sears and got me a smokin deal. I used it for construction a few times, but it's only around as a mid-term backup since I have a wood burner in the house, and can survive without electricity for a long time.

I also have mutiple chain saws, snow blowers and snow shovels. Usually keep severial gallons of fuel around for everything from the Bobcat to the snowmobiles, so my only concern is long term since fuel eventually runs out.

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Originally Posted by dropped_71chevy

With the outage not being nationwide and there being an end in sight, I can understand why people are keeping their wits about them. An indefinite power outage would bring the bad out a lot faster I think.

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This. When people get word that "power should be restored in XX hours/days" they are reassured that normalcy will be back shorty and they don't panic.

If the word is "Everyone east of the Mississippi is out of power due to an EMP attack and power is expected to be out for 6 months at least" the S will HTF in short order I suspect.

I think people are behaving because they do know the utilities companies are actually out there working the problems. They still have flowing water, so they can cool off and at least stay hydrated. They also still have food, so they're not hungry. Now, that being said, you take away power, take away potable water, take away food sources, then you have a problem. A very large problem.

Which begs the following thoughts. What happens in a sort of middle-scale nuclear event? Water and food sources contaminated. People with radiation sickness and contaminated. Animals running loose, etc.
Part of me believes the smaller communities will be better off. Towns in the 500 to 5,000 range for a population. It is easier for a small town to bind itself into a cohesive unit than say someplace like Denver or Westminster or Boulder.

We saw from Katrina what can happen to a major city when the entire infrastructure falls completely apart. Most of us I believe have learned some lessons from that. You can bet your bottom dollar that the initial Federal response will be swifter and much more harsher in some regards. FEMA knows it is a limited entity. They have neither the man-power or the organization so effectively handle major disasters. They are more likely to follow the protocols used by the DoD and hire private security contractors to handle problems, policing, security, etc.

That is a frightening prospect as those same corporations have demonstrated time and again that they are above the law, they make the law and rules and do as they will when enforcing them.
Just food for thought.....

My parents have handled 2-3 weeks without power following an ice storm in the NE. It's wonderful what having a wood stove, a pitcher pump and a store of food can do. [Beer]

Thing is, there wasn't any unrest... people banded together for food, heat, water, checking on the elderly, etc.

Course that was rural... cities got messed up a lot worse.

Natural disasters have been around forever. There just happens to be a lot more people now in densely populated areas all over the world. These disasters certainly can ruin lives and throw cities and whole regions into chaos. But I personally think an area would fair far worse from something more sudden, like an EMP or even a cyber attack targeting our precious wallets. When something happens that is quick and unexpected, and we all lose use of our smart phones and our 401k's and the like disappear, that's when people's true colors come out.

All that to say: Be adaptable. And don't be cought with your pants down.

Ask yourself this question, would your own government use a high-level detonation for EMP to prep an urban area for assault during a major incident?

There actually is a protocol for this and yes, they would. The reasoning behind it is that it allows for absolute communications and movement disruption. It allows them to move freely without facing heavily organized opposition.

Cell phones, radios, radio stations, TV stations, almost all vehicles would cease to work, not to mention the power grid.

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Originally Posted by SpikeMike

Ask yourself this question, would your own government use a high-level detonation for EMP to prep an urban area for assault during a major incident?

There actually is a protocol for this and yes, they would. The reasoning behind it is that it allows for absolute communications and movement disruption. It allows them to move freely without facing heavily organized opposition.

Cell phones, radios, radio stations, TV stations, almost all vehicles would cease to work, not to mention the power grid.

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Do you have a source for this protocol? I think by this point, we would all be pretty established in our bug-out or bug-in locations.

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Originally Posted by SpikeMike

Ask yourself this question, would your own government use a high-level detonation for EMP to prep an urban area for assault during a major incident?

There actually is a protocol for this and yes, they would. The reasoning behind it is that it allows for absolute communications and movement disruption. It allows them to move freely without facing heavily organized opposition.

Cell phones, radios, radio stations, TV stations, almost all vehicles would cease to work, not to mention the power grid.

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A statement like that is going to need some substantiation.

It wouldn't surprise me if there was a protocol in place to use an EMP on U.S. soil but I'd love to see the proof as well.

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Originally Posted by SpikeMike

Ask yourself this question, would your own government use a high-level detonation for EMP to prep an urban area for assault during a major incident?

There actually is a protocol for this and yes, they would. The reasoning behind it is that it allows for absolute communications and movement disruption. It allows them to move freely without facing heavily organized opposition.

Cell phones, radios, radio stations, TV stations, almost all vehicles would cease to work, not to mention the power grid.

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I agree with the comments above. This comment deserves a tinfoil hat until proven otherwise.

No reason to conclude mass hysteria in electrical outage. Food thaws, people get annoyed, and for extended outage in NE USA, birth rate is higher 9 months later. Only uncertainty and fear or threats results in hysteria so be assured. Water outage for more than 3 days is lots more serious (see Haiti earthquake and medical conditions.) You can do quite well without electricity which also means no phone or internet for most people and no communications either unless they have radio skills. Suggest you earn a ham license and join a local CERT group to help out and you will feel better and be useful in an emergency.

Holy crap...
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07...or-second-day/

And: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...86U01G20120731

Crazy big power outage there. But as India folks are used to frequent (albeit shorter) outages, no one freaked out.