"What would happen in an apocalyptic blackout?" Topic

"There was nothing the doctors could do. In almost total darkness, broken only by the beam of a couple of torches and the glow from their mobile phones, the hospital staff watched helplessly as their patient died in front of them. The elderly woman was suffering a blood clot in her lungs – a common, but life-threatening problem that can be treated with the right drugs and equipment…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Sales in electrical generators would increase.

are the generators petrol driven (from petrol bowsers driven by electric pumps)?

People don't go to work or school, and the economy slows.

Pretty soon, everything breaks down.

Watch the state of California this weekend, for another example of what will occur. Last blackout was just a few days ago.

Civil unrest will not be pretty.

Depends on where you are. In the heavily power invested US/Europe. It'd get nasty very quick.

In places like Kazakhstan where I'm currently working, they'd just it Tuesday.

Of course, a lot of our small stuff is now fed from solar cells, so I can see some cannibalization of equipment taking place. :)

Civil unrest quickly leading to riots and looting quickly followed by mass movement of people as food stocks run out in the big cities……the elderly and infirm would quickly start to die off as essential services failed and triage by resource management kicks in.
Grim prospects for the West.

I finally get to catch up on my sleep.

I will do a crackerjack business selling used US Football Shoulder Pad to "Warriors of the wasteland types"

During last week's black out Home Depot was selling generators straight from the truck. As in, there was a giant truck full of generators in the parking lot and they handled the transactions right there. I fear for injuries and fires from people who don't know how to use a generator.

The real question is public confidence that the power will come back on.

I'm in a neat spot of the Bay Area with a very low risk of losing power, but the people north, south and east of us are likely to lose power periodically. Everyone is seriously annoyed, annoyed enough that they think they are furious. But no looting, no civil unrest, everyone knows the power will be back. I suspect the porch pirates and other criminals will take advantage of the lack of security and communications, but beyond that it's just a big fat inconvenience.

If people don't think the power is coming back, then you get big trouble.

Whackmole9 – Put me down for one, please. I just want to cover the left shoulder, no wait, the right shoulder, no wait, which one would look cooler?

If people don't think the power is coming back, then you get big trouble.

That's sort of the premise of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, one of the great Twilight Zone episodes.

Everyone is seriously annoyed, annoyed enough that they think they are furious.

Governor Newsom described PG&E's actions as "unacceptable". I, myself, am contemplating writing a strongly-worded letter to the editor, even though no one here actually reads newspapers. Everyone just looks at their newsfeeds on their phones.

Quite interesting….

Amicalement
Armand

Or a better question, What would happen if vampires and werewolves were real ????

I'd eat everything in my fridge & freezer first. The dried & canned food will get hidden. Will have to build a fire pit outside & start collecting wood. For bartering, I still have some old cig rolling stuff… ;-)

Drink all of the beer that has to be drunk cold first. The other beer will be OK warm, or German style, as it is known.

Likewise any champagne, sparkling wine, rose, chablis, chardonnay, or other chilled wines have to consumed right away.

Your porters, stouts, merlots, and cabernet sauvignons are going to be good for bartering.

If you can't finish all of your cold beer and wine, invite the neighbors over to help.

Save your hard liquor for drinking alone and brooding. If you're lucky, you'll be doing a lot of that after the apocalypse.

I like this man's idea:

youtu.be/4AHCIYyRXmE

Backup generators are fine for awhile but the require fuel, either gasoline or diesel. Then they are done and so are you. Some cell towers are solar powered (and may have service during he day) but many are run off the local grid and have fuel generator backup. So then communications go out.
Water will go out as well as their pumps will stop.
So we may find out sooner rather than later out here in Califonia.

Well we've got plenty of installed sustainable generating capacity and control infrastructure hereabouts to sort ourselves out assuming we can fudge local distribution control….

A lot of our political representatives won't like that as they'd probably prefer us to sit in the dark blaming Westminster for our woes until the zombies eat our brains or the 'warriors of the wasteland' get their mail order of shoulder pads from Wackmole so they can go plundering!

Governor Newsom described PG&E's actions as "unacceptable". I, myself, am contemplating writing a strongly-worded letter to the editor, even though no one here actually reads newspapers. Everyone just looks at their newsfeeds on their phones.

Considering that PG&E is prohibited by Cali law from cutting the trees next to the power lines down, AND is prohibited by idiots from building new powerplants to allow the lines to not be red-hot from all the power drawn because the same idiots refusing to allow new powerplants insist on having their houses at 70degF when it's 100degF outside; I really don't know what PG&E could do to fix the problem.

AND is prohibited by idiots from building new powerplants

That sounds familiar. Well at least until the UK government panicked and started to think about building new generating capacity.

Considering that PG&E is prohibited by Cali law from cutting the trees next to the power lines

Okay, that's a whole new level of stupid I'm unfamiliar with..

Ha-Ha!….

Amicalement
Armand

If the power goes out permanently then pretty much everyone dies.

Instead of clearing brush and improving their transmission lines PG&E spent billions on solar energy programs and 7,500 electric vehicle charging stations.

It's the Demokratik People's Republik of Kalifornia, I'd bet that those solar energy programs and electric vehicle charging stations were all at the demand of lawmakers.

And clearing brush/trees around the power lines falls under the logging rules.

that PG&E is prohibited by Cali law from cutting the trees next to the power lines down, AND is prohibited by idiots from building new powerplants to allow the lines to not be red-hot from all the power drawn because the same idiots refusing to allow new powerplants insist on having their houses at 70degF when it's 100degF outside; I really don't know what PG&E could do to fix the problem.

Governor Newsom wants his state to just be like Venezuela.

Oh and he getting really close.

It's the Demokratik People's Republik of Kalifornia, I'd bet that those solar energy programs and electric vehicle charging stations were all at the demand of lawmakers.

I would comment on this but this is not the Blue Fez.

Electric car charging points I get – it is the 21stC allegedly. Solar panels, well it is California I suppose, though I have reservations about the ecological footprint of a lot of renewables. But not renewing the distribution – that's just vanilla stupid? As for not maintaining safe vegetation free areas along transmission lines, that seriously does not compute, in the UK the law pretty basically says you have to do that for safety and security of supply.

Anyway if Cali does go all post-Apoc we can have proper arguments about 'accuracy' like real historical wargamers!