The Conservative Cave
Interests => Living Off of the Grid & Survivalism => Topic started by: BlueStateSaint on November 30, 2015, 09:14:01 AM
-
I got this via the Prepper Website . . . and they picked it off of WND.
A sobering taste of grid down
Exclusive: Patrice Lewis recounts natural disaster that wiped out electricity
Published: 3 days ago
On Tuesday Nov. 17, a massive hurricane-force windstorm slammed the Inland Northwest, notably northeast Washington and the Idaho panhandle. Hundreds of trees came down. Thousands of branches littered streets and intersections. Roofs flew off or were smashed by falling trees. Three people died. Power poles – not just lines, but poles – snapped like matchwood. Electricity across the two largest cities in the area – Spokane and Coeur d’Alene – as well as most of the outlying region, was down for anywhere from a few hours to 10 days.
To compound the misery, temperatures dropped into the high teens at night and low 30s during the day. With so many people utterly dependent on electricity for heating, cooking, lighting, medical care, sanitation and every other facet of comfortable life, results ranged from wretched to tragic.
Without electricity, gas stations could not pump gas. With many streets and intersections blocked (as well as a fuel shortage), food deliveries largely ceased. Grocery stores, unable to keep food chilled or frozen, lost inventory in the tens of thousands of dollars. Most stores were closed.
Additionally, in our case, all outside contact ceased. Cell-phone towers were damaged by the wind, so we were without house phone, cell phone, Internet, email or any other form of modern communication. Distant friends and relatives had no idea how we were faring. My uncle passed away during this blackout, and I was unaware of this loss until power was restored.
I’ve always maintained that baseline preparedness encompasses seven core areas: food, water, heat (or shelter), lighting, medical, sanitation and protection. There are variables not included in this list (communication, etc.), but these are the basics for survival. For those of us whose lifestyle is geared around preparedness, this was a test of our emergency systems. It was the first major opportunity to see whether or not we could practice what we preached.
The rest is at http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/a-sobering-taste-of-grid-down/#BsVVDm9tXWIse2Uc.99
The last few paragraphs are the gist . . .