Ever hear of the Carrington Event? Can you do without power for months or longer?

In September of 1859 a solar storm caused some telegraph stations to catch fire and the aurora borealis was seen in Cuba and Hawaii. Telegraph operators had to disconnect their batteries and there was so much electricity in the atmosphere that with no power source, they were still able to send messages from Boston to Portland.

It is estimated that, if such a surge hit us now, it would cost as much as 20 Hurricane Katrinas and knock power systems offline for many months.

Something to think about. Teo might be the only one of us that is prepared for such a catastrophic event.

http://www.history.com/news/a-perfect-solar-superstorm-the-1859-carrington-event

Ice cores contain thin nitrate-rich layers that can be analyzed to reconstruct a history of past events before reliable observations; the data from Greenland ice cores was gathered by Kenneth G. McCracken[9] and others. These show evidence that events of this magnitude—as measured by high-energy proton radiation, not geomagnetic effect—occur approximately once per 500 years, with events at least one-fifth as large occurring several times per century.[10] Less severe storms have occurred in 1921 and 1960, when widespread radio disruption was reported.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859#Similar_events

I havnt heard of that event before. But Ive certainly read a lot about the possibility of our power grid going down.

I think I could live for a while without power, months. forever if I was in the wild away from people.

Beings that im in a metro area, things start to get a little hairy.

The first thing I would do and Ive thought about this is grab my supplies, pack my van and id be in north east fl asap with the rest of my large family. Together we would be fine. I have a great deal of know how and they have a great deal of brute. We actually talk about this as a family when we are together.

We talk about this so much in my house that we all have a meet up place located in central fl picked out incase of SHTF and we get seperated.....

its a neat subject. It makes you wonder because everything depends on satelite transmission now for something.

I figure that, in addition to losing communication and GPS satellites, electrical power systems will be devastated. Some power lines will be burnt, many computers will be fried, and transformers on poles outside of houses and substations will be fried. It'll take months for power companies to get the infrastructure back up.

Gas stations will be out of service because they can't power up the pumps, grocery stores will be emptied or looted, and people will be riding bicycles everywhere. For a while, emergency generators will provide fuel to police and buses because they have their own fuel tanks.

I definitely could. My father was a three tour Navy pilot who spent our childhood doing things like suddenly throwing us in a cold pool in November with clothes and yell at us to GET OUT....or might drive along in places like snowstorms in Colorado and paint survival scenarios in which each of us kids would have to come up with a plan to which he would listen, critique and judge us DEAD or ALIVE. It was a fun game that honed our thinking skills.

With enough nohow, survival gear and years of living and working in all sorts of extreme terrains, I know I could do it. I got a kinda-sorta taste of it when we lost power for a couple of weeks after Opal....but I am one who would also head for my parent's place who live on arable land next to a river and a water table just below the surface that has supplied them with well water for almost forty years.

We have a meet up place too, and everyone in the family has camping/survival gear, extensive first aid kits (good enough to do surgery and supply long term antibiotics), fast-growing high-yield seeds, water purification kits. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

I dont want to go Teo but I believe these weapons are already built and ready to use. Back in the 60s when a Russian MIG defected to Hokkaido Japan, they found it had a Tube radio system. The guess was that they either were working on a electromagnetic warfare system or it was to counter the effects of a nuclear blast.

would this be the same as a EMP?

*Tree*~ wrote:

would this be the same as a EMP?

What's the name of that show that has an EMP theme, Chrissy? I want to record it off the cable.

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Like Hallmark's video, I have read that one strong nuke that was tuned for an EMP, blasting high above the USA could put the USA back a hundred years instantly. I guess it is possible.

I found it... Revolution... coming on NBC this Fall http://www.nbc.com/revolution/ (PREMIERES SEPT 17 MONDAY 10/9c)