Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2020 6:03:56 GMT -6
in a country like Britain where most people are so used to flicking a switch and obtaining power/light/heat should the electricity grid ever shut down then its GAME OVER for the majority of the population. as to what could cause this, it could be EMP/Solar Storm or any sort of cyber attack, it could just be a severe winter and a prolonged set of storms, a country where the main supply grid goes ABOVE GROUND stretched between pylons is open to all manner of possibilities. the power grid is the weakest of the 3 core systems, the others being finance/banking and communications, and once that shuts down most of modern life goes with it. I did read something several years ago that if anything were to blow the electrical connections in the grid it would take anything up to 2 years to replace them all, this is because the spare parts required are not kept "on the shelf" but have to be specially ordered from abroad-probably CHINA everything seems to come from there these days and would take several months to make and ship each one to the UK. then there is the" tiny" (sic)matter of replacing the old burnt out fittings with the new parts.
|
|
Jim_K7JLJ
Junior Member
JN14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me...
Posts: 64
|
Post by Jim_K7JLJ on Jul 8, 2020 5:25:32 GMT -6
IIRC, 90% of transmission transformers come from S.Korea and take a year to build. Almost all reports made by Congressional committees on the issue say 90% of Americans will die after a year without power.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2020 5:33:36 GMT -6
I doubt it will take a year for 90% die off, most people will be dead within a month or two, especially if it happens over winter time, most people will die from cold, starvation, dehydration and disease.
|
|
|
Post by JIM on Jul 9, 2020 7:30:23 GMT -6
I agree with you on that one lonewolf.to many ppl can't do for themself, like growing a garden of any size.to canning it.or they can't even change a lightbulb,then there's the one's that are fully dependant on doctor prescribed drug's just to stay alive.then there's the one's in hospital's and nursing homes,now we have the coved-19.id be amazed if it tàkes longer than 6 months.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2020 7:44:05 GMT -6
well anyone that relies on outside help isnt going to survive for long, be it someone waiting for surgery, someone who has to have dialysis, I'm sorry but all cancer patients will have had it, anyone in a nursing home that relies on being fed by staff. pharmacies and hospital drug cupboards are one of the first that will be attacked and looted after the collapse. most people in the UK (non preppers) dont have much more than 3 or 4 days worth of food in the house, a week if their very lucky, and of course most sheeple drive their cars virtually on empty and only fill up when the warning light comes on. and we have an obesity and diabetes crisis in the UK. once the power goes off most will have nothing to cook on, thats if they had anything to cook in the first place. I'll give it 2 months, 3 months at the outside. modern life will come to a halt very quickly once the supply chain collapses.
|
|
|
Post by brownbear on Jul 13, 2020 0:10:08 GMT -6
Electricity and its "connectedness" is a real issue. As Lonewolf, so rightly, says we have become utterly dependent in the UK on simply "flicking a switch", to the extent that I know people that don't even bother keeping a torch and spare batteries (I even know someone who says they don't need one as they have a torch app on their phone). We saw a glimpse of what a supply chain breaking down looks like with the panic buying over coronavirus. There were even reports of people brawling over packets of toilet rolls. A dependent society is not an independent society
|
|
|
Post by texdanm on Aug 16, 2020 12:18:47 GMT -6
Electricity is the root of our civilization. When the power goes down at a nationwide level you can kiss all forms of communication over any distance past yelling goodbye. No landline phones, Now cell phones because without the towers they are useless, No television, no radio other than a few temporarily battery-powered or generator-powered small broadcasts. You won't know what is happening twenty miles away much less on a statewide, nationwide, or worldwide level. The water and sewage systems will be gone. Cars and trucks may be able to go for a little while but when the gas is gone you will be walking. If you plan on having power during any major system breakdown you are not prepared for much of a disaster. I don't even include anything that needs power in my plans. All a generator will do for you is put off the inevitable and if this is actually TEOTWAWKI it is going to attract a lot of the WRONG kind of attention. We are going to have to make so many life-altering changes. Darkness will once again shape our lives and nights. How long will your candles last, how much fuel do you have for lamps or lanterns, How many batteries do you have??? a year after the power goes down the nights are going to be DARK. The winter will be COLD and the summers will be unbearable hot with little relief unless you live near water. Along with this darkness, you will also live in a world that is silent as far as it entertaining you. This silence will be deafening to people that are used o having a TV, Radio, or any of the many other music and entertainment devices that many have running 24 hours a day. You might even be forced to talk to someone!!! When my daughter was little we turned the TVs and radios off for a month every year. Usually, it would be in May or June. That got her ready for Summer when we spent a LOT of time outdoors and didn't watch much TV. It was always an interesting adjustment. Usually at night after supper we would just go and sit in the living room as we were used to and then would get up and go either outside or back to the table to play games. try just going for a week without using any kind of electronic entertainment. No TV, radios or any sort of music makers other than ones that you power like instruments. Another worthwhile experiment is to go for a week while eating as little as possible. NEVER eat more than once a day and make that meal as minimal as possible. In a post-apocalyptic situation, you will possibly have to deal with these and a lot of other things at the same time. NOW while you can give them a try one at a time. I regularly fast for a day or two and have done so for up to a little over two weeks. You will be amazed at how your body deals with this and will also find that the hard part is the mind and not the body. Doing these sorts of things will prepare your mind for stressful things. It is like working out and walking so that you will be in shape physically. Knowing that you can go for long periods without actually starving to death will take a load off of your mind. My Mama was SURE that she would pass out if she didn't eat each meal exactly on time much less miss a meal. She would start getting the vapors if it was a half-hour past mealtime. I drove her crazy refusing to eat for days on end. Most of our lives are ruled by beliefs and rules that we made up for ourselves. In a survival situation, you HAVE to be able to set ALL of those made-up beliefs aside. Unless you are a diabetic or borderline diabetic after three days your body will make a shift and stop trying to force you to eat. Your body is AMAZING!!! Primitive people often for various reasons were unable to acquire food. Your body can adapt to this and then start breaking down the fat in your body to fuel you. As long as you eat carbohydrates it won't do this. In starvation times your best thing is to eat a little dry meat. In meat, there is something called El carnitine that makes your cells able to take in fat molecules and break them down for fuel. In the spring and fall, there are fruits and lots of easy things to find. When you eat these they make you hungry and desire more and more of them. This is your body fattening up to carry you through the hot summer and long cold winter when there are no easy high carb meals available. A little meat will help your body make the shift to a mostly meat diet. Meat affects your body in a very different way. The meat will make you sated and sleepy so that your body can better digest this material. The fruits will make you full for a little while and then try to demand MORE. You need to know and understand your body's rhythms. We each are a little different and the only way to KNOW what your body CAN do is to force it to do some of its tricks. This will be easier each time you do it just like running will get you in shape to run more and farther. Don't just prep by stacking up things. Prepare your mind and body for dealing with times when things won't be so easy. Hi to all my new friends. My name is Dan or Danny and I have been into Self-sufficiency, survival, and prepping for all of my life because my Dad was that way before me. I am getting old now but my knowledge is backed by over 60 years of practice and doing a lot of the things that would make my life less dependent on the modern powers and conveniences. When I was younger I used to spend at least a week alone in the woods every year to see just how well I could live there with little more than a small one-man tent, a knife, and a hatchet. The tent was for the rain and the mosquitos. If it didn't rain I didn't need that and I always made the shelter of wood and tried different styles.
PS: I am a writer and can type as easily as I can talk and as Lonewolf can tell you I am long winded...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2020 0:39:22 GMT -6
I think modern people are literally SCARED of silence, I know most city people are frightened of the countryside, and most people even on holiday have to be entertained, once the power grid goes down all of that is gone. most people will be unable to survive without the modern resources and most will not want to. life post SHTF will be down to basics and the most basic requirement will be putting food on the table, if someone cant do that then they wont be around for long. we will have to live in a more traditional manner, one my ancestors would have known but few modern people have ever experienced. we have a member on another forum who thinks prepping and survival is amusing, is he in for a shock post SHTF!
|
|
|
Post by brownbear on Aug 17, 2020 1:39:05 GMT -6
@ Texdanm: you make a good point - but the change to electricity being the root of our civilisation has only happened over a few decades. In the UK, even in the 1970s a lot of rural properties were off grid. Now it is reduced to a few small enclaves in more remote areas and on higher ground.
@ Lonewolf: It would seem so. I watch a family group in a cafe, who were clearly on holiday, only the other day. 5 of them all browsing their phones whilst waiting for theer food, no conversation, nothing, how dull that must be.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2020 1:49:48 GMT -6
I know in the 60s very few rural properties had mains electric, and some really rurally isolated places werent connected until the 1980s because of the cost. mobile phones are the damnation of civilisation, nobody knows how to converse anymore they just text sometimes to the person sitting next to them! and if the signal ever goes down even for a short while you should see them panic. mobile phones are an addiction as great as any drug addiction.
|
|
|
Post by brownbear on Aug 17, 2020 1:52:44 GMT -6
I find it most irritating when having a conversation and th apron you are talking to picks up their phone to react to a message signal/tone. I often ask them if they would prefer to talk to the phone or me. Most times people are quite apologetic, but more importantly say they don't realise that they do it.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2020 1:58:05 GMT -6
I only use a mobile phone as an emergency item, it stays in my pocket for a month at a time only getting taken out to see if it needs recharging. I'm trying to sort out a new one at the moment as my 10-15 year old one is slowly dying.
|
|
|
Post by brownbear on Aug 17, 2020 2:09:22 GMT -6
I use one os my everyday phone (no landline) but an older non-internet model. I like to choose when I a connected to the web and then give it my full attention.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2020 2:37:05 GMT -6
we have a landline but I dont use it-dont make phone calls. for the internet I use an old laptop.
|
|
|
Post by brownbear on Aug 17, 2020 3:13:46 GMT -6
Same as that for the 'net. We didn't get a land line put in here when we moved in and have just got used to mobile use only now.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2020 4:35:28 GMT -6
I hope the mobile reception in your area has improved, people there had to go to Helston to get any signal.
|
|
|
Post by brownbear on Aug 17, 2020 6:33:42 GMT -6
Funnily enough, it has. It was absolutely awful, but about a year ago a new mast was put on and, most of the time, all is now fine.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2020 6:37:14 GMT -6
good, when wife was on holiday there, several years ago, people were standing on the top of wooden seats with their phones in the air trying to get a phone signal, she was told that to get a good signal people had to go right up onto the main road, I assume they meant the A30.
|
|
|
Post by kelabar on Aug 17, 2020 6:47:38 GMT -6
In country Australia I have often driven to the top of the nearest rise, climbed up on the vehicle, held my cellphone up as high as I could and waited for 30 seconds. All this just to receive text messages! Often there is no signal at all.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2020 6:52:06 GMT -6
signal here isnt good either even though there is a mast on the hill but its not often I have to use the phone at home.
|
|