Lights Out by Ted Koppel

Lights Out by Ted Koppel

I live on the Texas Gulf Coast where hurricanes are a fact of life. I live far enough inland that rising water is not a problem but rain, wind, and tornadoes are. And after the hurricane there may be a period of several days before power is restored. After Hurricane Ike, we were without power for 3 long, hot, miserable, dark days and nights but others in the area were without power for up to 2 weeks. Lights Out by Ted Koppel is about a power outage resulting from a cyberattack on one or more of our 3 national power grids. Such an attack could result in a power outage lasting not days but weeks or months.

We have a general plan of what to do and how to prepare for hurricanes and their aftermath and one would think that there would be plans somewhere within FEMA or Homeland Security for what to do if there is an actual attack on one or more of the grids. But there is not. No, really there is not. There is not even agreement that such a cyberattack is probable or even possible. Something that could literally bring us to our knees physically and economically is not being planned for.

A couple of chapters are devoted to how well the Mormons are prepared for an emergency. And while I find it admirable, it is hardly comforting to me, a non-Mormon. In all honesty, by halfway into this book, I was looking into websites for food and water storage and wondering if I should buy oil lamps and oil or stock up on lanterns and batteries. And what about water--a gallon per person per day. Guns and ammo anyone?

I wish the book had a more reassuring conclusion but in an interview, Mr. Koppel admitted that he had bought a 3 month food supply for his family, children, and grandchildren and advised them about water storage. Seems rather reasonable to me after finishing this book.

3 months seems like a long time for a hurricane or tornado-induced blackout.

I have 2 water filters I bought when I was moving to Honduras. One make not terribly bad water drinkable, taking out bacteria and such, and one takes everything out. I think they were around $100 (ballpark) each. I recommend that folks get at least one of these. If you have access to some kind of water, they can help make it drinkable. Then, I moved to a desert...

The book is about a cyberattack on one or more of our electric grids.

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Originally Posted by Florence

The book is about a cyberattack on one or more of our electric grids.

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Oops! Somehow I missed that when I skimmed it. Next time: No skimming for me. haha

3 months makes sense then, I'd say.


The idea is a frightening one though.

I have a hard time convincing my liberal, progressive, sci-tech worshiping friends to really consider disaster preparedness. All but one thinks it is a silly right-wing pastime.

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

I have a hard time convincing my liberal, progressive, sci-tech worshiping friends to really consider disaster preparedness. All but one thinks it is a silly right-wing pastime.

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Because only right wingers need food, water, heat, shelter, and medical aid? :-) Must be a nice place.

Hereabouts, most of the "preppers" are lefties. Then again, most of the county is leftie. Heck, a fair portion of the non-"preppers" are preppers - we're in the midst of a 3-day power outage at the moment, and people are mostly happily going about their lives.

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Originally Posted by bae

Because only right wingers need food, water, heat, shelter, and medical aid? :-) Must be a nice place.

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It is not so much a physical place, but more a state of mind. haha


I know it doesn't make sense. But the folks I hang out with are anti-prepping and anti-gun. No exceptions to these views.

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

I know it doesn't make sense. But the folks I hang out with are anti-prepping and anti-gun. No exceptions to these views.

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Well, when The Big Thing happens, they are going to be real fun to hang out with...

I am aware of this. But not much I can do.

UA - You may be surprised at what your "liberal, progressive, sci-tech worshiping friends" can do with sudden limited resources and no limits on that creativity.
Not sure that any of us would call ourselves preppers but when we have an entire city worth of needs tucked away in our closets, garages, and storage units amongst our fun fur costumes, utili-kilts, and art cars.

Most people see Burning Man as just a rave in the desert but the ingenuity and cooperation needed to make it happen in those conditions are mind-blowing!
Burners Without Borders is a group started in the wake of hurricane Katrina to help those in need after disasters and they are now worldwide.

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

I am aware of this. But not much I can do.

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Well, if they are friends, perhaps you can educate them and gently encourage them to at minimum have the FEMA-recommended preparations at hand.

I personally try to only hang out with people who won't be forced to try to eat me when the next power outage happens, so you could try selecting a different crowd to hang out with I suppose :-)

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Originally Posted by Dhiana

UA - You may be surprised at what your "liberal, progressive, sci-tech worshiping friends" can do with sudden limited resources and no limits on that creativity.
Not sure that any of us would call ourselves preppers but when we have an entire city worth of needs tucked away in our closets, garages, and storage units amongst our fun fur costumes, utili-kilts, and art cars.

Most people see Burning Man as just a rave in the desert but the ingenuity and cooperation needed to make it happen in those conditions are mind-blowing!
Burners Without Borders is a group started in the wake of hurricane Katrina to help those in need after disasters and they are now worldwide.

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I know I might be surprised. :)

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Originally Posted by bae

Well, if they are friends, perhaps you can educate them and gently encourage them to at minimum have the FEMA-recommended preparations at hand.

I personally try to only hang out with people who won't be forced to try to eat me when the next power outage happens, so you could try selecting a different crowd to hang out with I suppose :-)

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I actually think that the more they learn about climate change (a topic they are all interested) the more they will come around to the idea of having some basic preparations made for disasters. I am by no means a hardcore prepper, but I cover some of the likelier bases.

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

I actually think that the more they learn about climate change (a topic they are all interested) the more they will come around to the idea of having some basic preparations made for disasters. I am by no means a hardcore prepper, but I cover some of the likelier bases.

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If that sort of long-term threat will motivate them, heck, go for it.

But dude, you live in Ohio, you could have The Mother Of All Winter Storms any time, or tornadoes, or ... Threats that exist *today* and that will be much more comfortable with the minimum FEMA-advised preparations. Then your friends won't be a burden on the first responders and emergency workers when something mundane hits, and they can devote their time to the truly hosed.

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Originally Posted by bae

But dude, you live in Ohio, you could have The Mother Of All Winter Storms any time, or tornadoes, or ... Threats that exist *today* and that will be much more comfortable with the minimum FEMA-advised preparations. Then your friends won't be a burden on the first responders and emergency workers when something mundane hits, and they can devote their time to the truly hosed.

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I know. That is my rationale too, in many ways. One "superstorm" coming through Ohio might change their minds.

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Originally Posted by bae

Well, if they are friends, perhaps you can educate them and gently encourage them to at minimum have the FEMA-recommended preparations at hand.

I personally try to only hang out with people who won't be forced to try to eat me when the next power outage happens, so you could try selecting a different crowd to hang out with I suppose :-)

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LOL!

Our dependence on electronics/electricity is sort of like an upside-down pyramid. It's just so tenuous. So much is dependent on the bottom of that pyramid.....

At any point in time, I probably have enough food for a couple months. Unfortunately, too much of it is in the freezer. We do have a smallish generator, but the fuel wouldn't last that long......and who knows if we'd be able to get fuel.

I keep thinking about this "Bison" pump I saw online. Supposed, if you're on a well, you hook it up to an outside faucet and pump water from there.....even when there's no electricity for the pump in the well. Anyone in the country have one of those?
So my problem would be more with clean water. DH has a couple filters he used to take on boy scout trips. We do have a stream about 50' from the house, but dang.......I don't think we'd live long even after filtering that.

I haven't read the book, but when it came out I looked up some of the information. I did read the rather apocalyptic popular fiction book, One Second After, which is about EMPs (electromagnetic pulse) from the atmospheric detonation of a nuke over the U.S. which disables the grid as well as the majority of electric devices and systems except those going back to the tube and analog days. I don't think either is totally out of the range of possibilities, but not something I'm loosing sleep over.

I talked with a Mormon friend about his food stores and he indeed has a stash to last his family for about 6 months. The Mormons own food packing facilities to process emergency food stores that they get at a discount or low price. I suspect they taste better than the cardboard tasting things I've sampled from other emergency food suppliers, other than MREs which are actually pretty good. I asked, in his Christian charity, if he would share his emergency food with the unprepared such as myself. He smiled and said, "No".

So Florence, did you enjoy the book or did it just scare you?
So much of this book, sounds like what James Burke covered in episode 1, of his 1978 series, Connections.

I enjoyed it but I am stocking up also.

I did a review with reading notes of the book. My one quibble was that he only lightly touched on distributed energy, things like solar panels on rooftops. When we lived in Colorado, we had those on our house. Now, just on our old motorhome. I have Mormon ancestors and even though my grandparents left that church, the tendency to stock up has come down through the generations.

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Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler

3 months seems like a long time for a hurricane or tornado-induced blackout.

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We lost power for just over 6 weeks in an ice storm when I was a kid. We lived on a ranch and were pretty much self-sufficient so it was little more than inconvenient for us. All of us kids actually thought it was fun and I think my dad even liked it a little bit. Mom not so much since she didn't have power in their house until she was in high school (in the mid-1950s) and she had no desire to go backwards. Anyway, if we had been in a city instead of out on the great plains it would have been an entirely different story.

I haven't read Koppel's book yet, but did listen to a Commonwealth Club podcast where he was the guest speaker talking about it. I have to say that I didn't hear him say anything that didn't make sense or that I didn't agree with. Pretty scary stuff when you start talking about the worst cases.

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Originally Posted by Gregg

We lost power for just over 6 weeks in an ice storm when I was a kid.

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I didn't win points with my classmates during the Blackout of 1965, when I was in 8th grade. All the kids used it as an excuse to not do our homework assignment (which Sister Theresa Claire bought), but not only did I do mine (by candlelight), I then wrote a poem and presented it to the class about what it's like to do your homework with no power. Yeah, I was not voted the most popular kid in class that year.

Just saw this on the internet news

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/18/politi...security-hack/

Might not have given it a thought before reading Koppel's book.