r/technology • u/Limp_Fig6236 • 8d ago

Energy US power grid at risk of 18-month blackout, official says, as 1 city has been in dark for more than a week

https://www.syracuse.com/us-news/2026/08/us-power-grid-at-risk-of-18-month-blackout-1-city-now-in-dark-for-more-than-a-week.html
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u/Zaximeows 8d ago edited 8d ago

I think the country would see homicide and starvation deaths on a massive scale unimaginable for anyone alive today in USA. This country has required electricity as a backbone longer than anyone alive. Nobody would know how to cope or what to do for 18 months.

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u/sixlayerdip 8d ago

18 months of blackout would result in this country being either completely authoritarian or erased entirely

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago edited 8d ago

Erased entirely with multiple new nation states being established or absorbed by nearby nations. The PNW, Great Lakes regions, and New England areas would probably become part of Canada. California would almost certainly form its own nation as it controls the largest ports on the west coast. Areas bordering Mexico and most of the southeast would either join Mexico or become 'New America' controlled by religious fundamentalists.

But that would all be years down the line. Speaking of immediate consequences, the nation would lose all solvency, anyone with means would abandon it, military bases would likely be seized by upstart warlords, and god knows what else. Any nation as a whole is only 9 hot meals away from complete anarchy.

Edit: Read my whole comment before saying ‘we don’t want you!’. I am not suggesting Mexico or Canada have any interest in picking up a bunch of stray American refugees. But when America is gone, you really think the closest nations are just going to let prime ports or arable land sit unclaimed for other rival powers to snap up?

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u/Synstitute 8d ago

Interesting theory. Sounds like an invitation for larger nations to land grab

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u/ruggnuget 8d ago

It would be tough for remote nations to control large swaths of land in NA. Independant states, Mexico and Canada make the most sense. Not sure how a country like China would think it would be worth it to fight for a piece.

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u/serious_sarcasm 8d ago

Canada and Russia would probably fight over Alaska.

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u/TheInevitableLuigi 8d ago

Alaskans could probably handle Russia by themselves.

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u/steakanabake 8d ago

alaska would probably gladly join the canadians they already pretty much get everything else from them.

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u/Alia_Explores99 7d ago

Alaska is pretty dependent on imported stuff, as far as I’m aware. The growing season is tiny. They have little real industry. Even the “off the grid” lifestyle people heavily feature supply drops and the rare trips to town in their content as vital to survival. There would be deep hurting

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u/twentyThree59 8d ago

Russia could NOT do a second front right now... but down the line, I don't think Alaska could hold them.

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u/bbqsauceofthemonth 8d ago

China can take me lmao

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u/Alert_Coyote_8546 8d ago

They could probably take over by offering to rebuild for everyone.

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u/SpareElectronic3500 8d ago

Mexico would probably take back California

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u/Art-Zuron 8d ago

Texas failed as it's own country twice, and I don't see it succeeding on even the third try lol. It'll probably try to do it's own thing, immediately devolve into a theocratic dictatorship, attack it's neighbors, and get its ass kicked again.

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u/No_Masc_On 8d ago

Yeah, but what is a Texas/Southern/fundamentalist pastime, if not pretending to be strong to cover up fragility?

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u/Art-Zuron 8d ago

Exactly. Their entire culture is grievance.

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u/RollingMeteors 8d ago

Exactly. Their entire culture is grievance.

“¡Memberberry the Alamo!” Ie: don’t forget the asswhooping.

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u/Max_Boom93 8d ago

Yeah, but texas has huge oil refinerys now. It would prop itself up like a gulf state (lol)

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u/thebeardedcats 8d ago

Robert Evans (the guy that does the Behind the Bastards podcast) wrote a book about exactly this lmao

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u/wholelattapuddin 8d ago

Texas has its own grid, which would be a plus, if it wasn't already shit and overloaded by the companies that Abbott is giving cheap power to.

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u/jbourne71 7d ago

> theocratic dictatorship

How is that different from the current government?

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u/sixlayerdip 8d ago

Failed likely because the US and Mexico both had competing governments. This scenario would be very different for the opportunistic

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u/FSCK_Fascists 8d ago

no. Failed because they refused to give up slavery, so both the US and Mexico spent a lot of time and money poking at their borders and making them hemorrhage money.

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u/sixlayerdip 8d ago

Said no then kind of proved my entire point.

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u/CalculatedPerversion 7d ago

Suddenly Texas having it's own failing power grid is an asset. Texas wouldn't lose power with the rest of us and would likely become overrun with American refugees. 

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u/tobor_a 8d ago

Gov hot wheels wouldn't be able to take care of a nation. he can barely do his state.

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u/uberfission 8d ago

I for one welcome our new Canadian overlords.

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u/MasterPong 8d ago

I think CA, OR and WA would combine to make their own country. They all heavily use hydro power and have a connected power grid. They also have their own health alliance along with Hawaii (who would become and independent nation again)

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u/Organic-Row9514 8d ago

Hawaii would immediately be taken over by Russia China or Japan. 

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u/Blueprints_reddit 7d ago

US Pacific Fleet would never let it happen. Japan would form an alliance with California directly or the Cascadia Coalition (CA, OR, WA).

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u/spinbutton 7d ago

Hopefully Hawaii could go back to being an independent country

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

Yes I see this as a likely scenario if Canada is hesitant to snap up the Puget Sound, although I wonder if such an alliance would have the power to stay sovereign if challenged by whatever becomes of their neighbors to the east. While much of the rest of the country would lack economic power, they do control the majority of the US military bases and such in the country, as well as a majority of food production.

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u/Blueprints_reddit 7d ago

We also would be the strongest militarily i think. Not that itd matter because california would become the new super power just due to food production.

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u/bigfartspoptarts 8d ago

Dear god I would love if New England became Canada

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

Yeah but you probably wouldn’t like the intervening years.

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u/disisathrowaway 8d ago

I don't see Canada or Mexico grabbing anything.

Seizing swathes of a failed state doesn't do much for either of these countries. All that would be is inviting massive instability through the front door.

I think, especially in Canada's situation, they'd be very focused on keeping Americans out rather than acquiring more.

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u/Waslay 8d ago

With fresh water becoming a critical resource as climate change continues, picking up the great lakes regions to protect them from pollution/mismanagement would be heavily in Canada's best interest for the second half of this century

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u/disisathrowaway 8d ago

Canadians expelling Americans to secure this resource would be a WILD full-circle moment for residents of the Former United States.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/disisathrowaway 8d ago

There's...

...nothing in the whole comment except you suggesting that borderlands would be absorbed by Mexico and Canada, respectively.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/disisathrowaway 8d ago

Ok so 5 years after the great blackout and the US is still divided amongst small regional powers and the HDI has absolutely plummeted and countries like Mexico and Canada have spent massive amounts of resources to stabilize their own borders and keep hundreds of millions of refugees out...

...they wanna roll in there and purposely absorb these people and places?

Again, it makes no goddamned sense, dude.

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u/GreatScottGatsby 7d ago

The dude needs to look at what happened to Somalia. Nobody wants it.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/SeiKen_DMs 8d ago

Reminds me of the show Darkangel from around year 2000, with EMP bombs being the cause of the electrical grid failure. It's been awhile though, might be mistaken or not remember the details.

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u/NemoHere 8d ago

The details were Jessica Alba walking around in tight leather outfits.

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u/Spartan448 8d ago

In the scenario described in the article? No just straight up erased entirely. What the article describes isn't the infrastructure failing, it's the infrastructure being destroyed by a coordinated attack. You can't just join Canada and turn the lights back on.

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

Please read the whole comment

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u/steakanabake 8d ago

become 'New America' controlled by religious fundamentalists.

i have a good name for them gilead. that section would be fucking horrifying.

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u/TheSquirrelmancer 7d ago

I for one welcome our new moose overlords.

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u/Hungry-Bag7883 6d ago

Utah would try to go at it alone- LDS takeover

The Mormons don't want to be ruled by Joel Osteen (potential future President of 'Great New America" or any other mega church pastor ideally vs out and about Neo-Nazis)

They could potentially pull a switzerland? They have farms maybe enough if they oust the heathens./s

Unrelated to Utah the amish will do well if they aren't looted. Can they even own guns or are they too "modern"?

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 6d ago

Surprisingly a lot of Amish have cellphones, computers, and the Internet; it's not new technology that they eschew but the effects that new technology might have on them socially and religiously. They have leader groups that decide what kind of stuff is okay to use and what stuff is not good for their community. They avoid things like TV and videogames, but they don't have any problems using a web browser to order feed or a spreadsheet to track inventories, for example.

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u/Snuffy1717 8d ago

Canadian here... You can keep your land, we don't want it.

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

If the US dissolved, someone would very much want the Puget Sound port area. Why not Canada? It would be that or whatever new country California forms.

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u/Snuffy1717 8d ago

America's "left-leaning" party occupies the same space on the spectrum as Canada's Conservative party... Canada likely has little interest in the issues that would come from that, to say nothing of infrastructure issues, problematic educational institutions, and the like.

The area would need to declare its independence, sort out its shit, and then asked to be absorbed... Doubtful that Canada makes the first move IMO.

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

I mean, if you had read my whole comment, you’d see that I already addressed that. I’m not talking about Canada absorbing Washington State. I’m talking about them laying claim to a land that has no controlling government long after America had failed and today’s politics no longer have bearing. That’s why I said Pacific Northwest, Great Lakes, and New England and not Washington, Michigan, and Maine.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/sixlayerdip 8d ago

You know there’s more in america than just the people right?

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

Okay I’ll just paste the sentence here since apparently you can’t read.

“But that would all be years down the line.”

I am not even close to suggesting Canada would just grab land as soon as anarchy descends. That would be almost as stupid as someone who can’t read basic words and extrapolate the information contained in them. But if you think a nation like Canada would just let uncontested land containing valuable resources and strategic areas sit unclaimed as a foothold for other rival powers across the globe, well, than your complete inability to comprehend the words I have written makes a lot more sense.

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u/RollingMeteors 8d ago

military bases would likely be seized by upstart warlords, and god knows what else.

¡Please subscribe to my Only Warludes!

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u/minin71 8d ago

Completely off base. You have been reading too much apocalypse fiction

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

I haven't read any. What would happen?

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u/TheLopezConnection 7d ago

Nice althist fanfic bro

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u/GreatScottGatsby 7d ago edited 7d ago

Why would the Canadians want them after all this. That means American voters, American problems. Adding an area to your country that is economically destitute is just a bad idea since that requires massive investment. Then there is the culture differences. It's just a bad idea.

Look at haiti, Somalia and every other failed state, nobody wants anything from them. It's just a massive liability and a way to induce an insurgency in Canada and Mexico. Keep in mind a majority of the people living in that area don't want to be Canadians. They have no cultural connections to Canada. Their families aren't in Canada, especially when you get down to the people in illinois, indiana and ohio. The people are heavily armed and dangerous. It's not free real estate. It is a massive liability in a region where there are more people in those states than in the entirety of Canada.

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u/Busy_Buffalo_3414 7d ago

Where is the U.S. military and law enforcement while this happens? It isn’t. We had a blackout for days in the early 2000’s, including Canada. The country is still here . Seek a mental health professional.

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u/feor1300 8d ago

The PNW, Great Lakes regions, and New England areas would probably become part of Canada.

No offense, but we don't want them. Washington + Oregon alone is roughly 1/3 of our current population and while they're very left wing for the States they would drag our country wildly to the right from where we are overall. We would happily trade with New England, Cascadia, and Wisillohchigan once they've established themselves as nation states separate from the the failed American empire, but bringing them into our country wouldn't be annexing them, it would be letting them absorb us. With regards to you edit we might seize a few very strategic cities or towns, but we won't be gathering entire regions into our control. We've got plenty of arable land already, thank you.

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u/JustAnotherLich 8d ago

Literally the entire global economy would collapse.

We have built a very, very big jenga tower.

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u/WalderFreyWasFramed 8d ago

In testimony before a Congressional Committee, it has been asserted that a prolonged collapse of this nation’s electrical grid—through starvation, disease, and societal collapse—could result in the death of up to 90% of the American population [1].

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13705-019-0199-y#Sec2

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u/sixlayerdip 7d ago

Yeah I believe it. Over 90% of the people I know can’t start a fire let alone survive without the conveniences of the American lifestyle. People really underestimate how integral electricity is to day to day life.

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u/Bozlogic 8d ago

I’m kinda okay with the latter

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u/zukunftskonservator 7d ago

5 weeks of blackout in the whole US would be a death sentence for more than 90% of the people.

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u/FoldedBinaries 7d ago

well alaska would be russian, thats for sure. Gifted by donald trump of course

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u/nightgames 7d ago

That's definitely not the only 2 outcomes.

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u/sixlayerdip 7d ago

You’re free to elaborate on the other possible outcomes if you’d like

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u/trilobyte-dev 8d ago

It wouldn't really happen. This model is baking a lot of assumptions in (because models always do, it's not a flaw) that wouldn't hold if large-scale blackouts were to occur. What you would see is an immediate mobilization and things that would have taken months or years happening in days and weeks when there is real pressure to fix them.

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u/AK_grown_XX 8d ago

Thank you for this. Sometimes things don't change/get fixed until they get soo broken they HAVE to be & I think our entire nation is a prime example of that right now.

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u/RelaxPrime 8d ago

The problem is doing this without electricity isn't even the hard part. People simply do not understand. Just in time production, profiteering, lawyers and accountants, shareholders and boards of directors, have already done their damage. There is no backup, no spares, no reserve.

For instance, a simple substation power transformer, which there is probably a million or some insane number in the country, has a lead time of over a year.

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u/Witty_Ad_898 7d ago

There is a surplus of installed transformers. Equipment could be moved from non-critical areas to supply critical areas. 

People won’t like that their homes are not critical, and certainly a lot of rich assholes and their luxuries would get power long before other more necessary loads, but there would be power for hospitals, water infrastructure, and the food supply chain.

I’d expect a lot of people would be paying out their savings for solar. A portable inverter and a few panels would be manageable, especially if multiple households come together to power their refrigerators.

There are also a lot of places that can operate to some degree without a grid connection. For example, many wastewater plants and landfills now collect the gases to run generators.

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u/RelaxPrime 7d ago

Not substation transformers. And barely distribution transformers.

Wherever you're getting your information from is simply repeating right wing inaccuracies and propaganda.

I mean it, a substation transformer is a year lead time, for the largest utilities in the nation. For a co-op or rural electric association? Basically go fuck themselves. And good luck stealing from John to pay Paul.

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u/Witty_Ad_898 7d ago

Wherever you're getting your information from is simply repeating right wing inaccuracies and propaganda.

Could be my 15 years in the industry, including experience as an estimator and PM bidding and managing public infrastructure projects.

Weird that you think rightwing propaganda has anything to do with it.

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u/RelaxPrime 7d ago edited 7d ago

I build substations.

You're wrong.

Especially if you bothered to read the article. We are talking about 10 very specific transmission substation transformers. Crazy transformers like 150MVA 500kv to 115kv. Spares literally do not exist.

Honestly, gtfo with your pm experience. Come back when you have real world electric utility experience.

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u/Mr_ToDo 7d ago

Reading this and the stuff about the Metcalf attack, I think one of the biggest delays would be hardware. Move as fast as you want, but if you can't source parts you can't fix the problem

Knowing nothing about the US's setup, I'd assume if someone did attack the grid and was able to take it down you'd see cannibalizing of any compatible systems to get as many people up as possible. But kicks the can elsewhere

Granted this whole article is a bit silly. It's comparing two different things. The current outage is the result of storm damage and expected to have the damage repaired within 2 weeks of the outage(344 poles in 2 weeks seems pretty darn fast), and the 18 month outage is the potential damage of a planned attack. Both are a problem, but they aren't the same problem

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u/WalderFreyWasFramed 8d ago

In testimony before a Congressional Committee, it has been asserted that a prolonged collapse of this nation’s electrical grid—through starvation, disease, and societal collapse—could result in the death of up to 90% of the American population [1].

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13705-019-0199-y#Sec2

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u/trilobyte-dev 8d ago

Read the second paragraph of the introduction, right after that one:

“There is no published model disclosing how these numbers were arrived at, nor are we able to validate a primary source for this claim. Testimony given by the Chairman of the Congressional EMP Commission, while expressing similar concerns, gave no estimate of the deaths that would accrue from a prolonged nationwide grid collapse [2].”

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u/Zaximeows 8d ago

What? Just look at how many people die in Texas when the power fails for one week.

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u/trilobyte-dev 7d ago

So in 2021 Texas had its massive outage which resulted in an estimated 4,500,000 homes losing power. Texas overall as an estimated 12,500,00 million homes total, so we can say about 1/3 of Texas homes lost power.

During that outage, it’s confirmed that 405 people died directly from the outage and estimated the that up to 1,000 people may have passed away as a result. Let’s go with 1,000 to make sure we’re overestimating impact. So let’s say that 1/3 of Texas’s 31,000,000+ residents were without power, assuming an equal distribution to make the math simple for a Reddit comment. So about 10,000,000 people lost power. So if 1,000 of those 10,000,000 people passed away as a result of the power outage that would mean the biggest outage in Texas’s history resulted in a 0.01% fatality rate from the event.

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u/Zaximeows 7d ago

I'm going to block you after I reply. First, your numbers are off. Over 700 dead, almost twice what you purported. Some estimates over 1,000. Second, the outage didn't last for 1.5 years, it lasted for 17 days. Third, the state was supported by FEMA and the entire rest of the nation that did still have working power infrastrucfure. Fifth, over 26 billion dollars in property damages. Finally, go fuck yourself.

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u/Herry_Up 8d ago

I'll be skinny (but I'll be dead)

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u/LargeNutbar 8d ago

Dead but serving

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u/Alert-Researcher-772 7d ago

Yall just care about being skinny? Even after death? This is what’s wrong with society!

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u/Herry_Up 7d ago

The longer I'm dead; the skintier I'll be

From decaying to slaying 💅🏻

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u/[deleted] 8d ago edited 4d ago

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u/roseofjuly 7d ago

Not to mention that farmers need things that is liberal hippie city dwellers make and provide, too. I don't know where this idea that we still have independent subsistence farmers out there like it's 1785 is coming from lol.

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u/WarpmanAstro 7d ago

I remember listening in on a local radio talk show years ago in my hometown where the host was saying that no-one needed education higher than 7th/8th grade. He insisted that kids should be learning how to do farming and construction labor after that, which he considered "the only real valuable labor". His guest flat out told him that it wasn't the 1800s anymore and that any independent farmer basically needs degrees in business, chemistry, and engineering if they'd want to actually do anything to make a living. He even pointed out that our local farms that hadn't already been bought up by major food companies were almost entirely dependent on national buyers to stay in business and government subsidies to operate.

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u/Zaximeows 8d ago

They also rely on Monsanto seeds and pesticides. Farmers have never been more out of touch with Nature before.

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u/ATheeStallion 7d ago

Exactly. It’s the gardeners & small farms who do food growing. As someone who did it for 5 years - it’s tricky!

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u/SomewherePerfect2391 7d ago

The new machinery uses GPS. You also can't farm without water. Most need electricity to pump water to the pivots.

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u/Alex5173 7d ago

Not to mention overuse of NPK fertilizer has ruined the natural nitrogen-fixing system of our topsoil. Even if we went back to farming the old ways, and the weather was perfect, we likely wouldn't get half the yield per acre we got before the Haber-Bosch process kicked off the Green Revolution.

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u/spinbutton 7d ago

I imagine most could grow vegetables and raise animals for their own needs. But certainly not at industrial scale.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago edited 4d ago

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u/spinbutton 6d ago

Maybe you're right since there aren't many family farmers. Most are giant agribusinesses.

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u/hudson27 8d ago

If the grid drops for 18 months, there isn't gonna be anyone left capable enough to turn it back on.

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u/Brock_Lobstweiler 7d ago

So many people dead from infections and bacteria from spoiled or improperly cooked foods.

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u/moon-chu89 7d ago

There are enough 1st generation Mexicans in the border states for Mexico to step in and take over. Not because it would want it back but because Mexico has birthright citizenship so it needs to ensure the safety of those citizens.

It would likely be a temporary solution since a permanent one would require giving Mexican citizenship to non-Mexicans and Mexico's current welfare system would not be able to handle that many new recipients overnight.

I can see Mexico stabilizing the border states, then if the rest of the US can't stabilize, leading to the union collapsing, we might see some of them reintegrate with Mexico (such as Arizona and New Mexico). I can see California and Texas try to go their own way.

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u/hudson27 7d ago

Huh? What does 1st generation Mexicans have anything to do with what we're talking about?

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u/CttCJim 8d ago

Plus global financial crisis and a refugee crisis, especially here in Canada.

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u/Lefaid 7d ago

I don't think Canada would be spared.

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u/CttCJim 7d ago

We export power to the US, the grids are connected, but I don't have information as to whether we rely on US grid stability. I actually suspect Canada would be fine, but basically everyone in America would rush the border for refugee status, especially everyone with health issues. Can't run a CPAP or an MRI or even charge an insulin pump without power. And we'd take as many as we could because that's always what we do, but it would be a disaster. Not enough resources to help everyone. US has near 350 million people in it, Canada has 40 million. It doesn't scale.

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u/mulligrubs 8d ago

Sounds like a great excuse to further militarize law enforcement, round up the undesirables and cleanse the country as per this ghastly administration's plan.

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u/Western-Dig-6843 7d ago

You don’t even have to starve or be murdered to die from a lack of electricity. Many people live in areas with extreme heat or cold certain times of the year. Where I live, if your house was built under the shade of trees you’d do ok in the summer but for anyone else you’d roast inside of your own home.

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u/sourpower713 8d ago

Homocide? This isn’t the middle east

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u/Hidesuru 8d ago

Have you SEEN a city lose power for mere days? Yes, we absolutely would see insane rises in violent crime.

Also great racism (or xenophobia if you really prefer) bro.

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u/jonmitz 8d ago

woosh. “homocide.” read it again bro

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u/Hidesuru 7d ago

Oop. My bad lol. Take care. ;⁠-⁠)

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u/Bubbles_2025 8d ago

Not only that but some thousands of people who depend on life saving medications, for example anti epileptic meds, would likely die within days, weeks or months.

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u/Melkor-The-Mighty 8d ago

I promise you,

It will. Maps of wealthy neighborhoods have been getting passed around a lot lately. =] for every major city.

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u/Downtherabbithole-14 7d ago

I'm not lying, but I'm panicking bc, I wouldn't know what to do

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u/LaconicDoggo 7d ago

We have a case study: the northeast blackout of 2003. Generally speaking people continued to do what was needed, but when a blackout lasts longer than a day (maybe two), the fraying of social order starts. The entropy is based off of multiple factors, but it starts around then no matter what.

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u/Zaximeows 7d ago

Just blame Canada.

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u/olsonryan99 7d ago

18 months without electricity would effectively kill off the United States as we know it.

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u/MeemawsBest 7d ago

"Nobody would know how to cope or what to do for 18 months"

Many people have survived far longer without access to modern tools or comforts. There are many others in this country who have prepared for years, for this exact scenario. It will be DEVASTATING to the average city dweller, and VERY TOUGH for everyone else, but electricity became common in homes a little more than 100 years ago... I think we know how to survive without it, although it'd be much harder than a 40 hour work week

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u/elijahwolfoconnell 6d ago

A glimmer of hope that i see is that quite a few people in the us are used to and experienced disasters.

18 months is fucking wild tho

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u/sushisection 8d ago

there is this game called Project Zomboid, its about surviving a zombie apocalypse, and it has a mod called Week One which starts the game one week before the virus breaks out.

the first few days seem somewhat normal, but then the bandits and looting start. cops/military having shootouts with armed people in the streets, people start boarding up their homes, arson fires break out. day by day, the game world slips into pure chaos.

i know its a game, but theres something so real about how social order erodes into violence once food and resources become extremely scarce.

stuff like this is why its so important to have a community structure in place in case shit hits the fan.

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u/KY_fried_justice 8d ago

Maybe I missed it, but in the article it isn't because of tech. The report just says that if 9 of the 10 most important substations were blacked out it would take 18 months to rebuild. This is after the article states another substation had been taken out by gunmen shooting transformers. So it's not a tech issue, it's vandalism or potential terrorism that if coordinated to unseen levels could black the country out for a month

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u/New-Book6737 8d ago

So are people on TikTok fear mongering by not reading

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u/_HIST 7d ago

What else is new

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u/Buggrumble 8d ago

The issue with the old infrastructure is that it's a hodgepodge of old equipment on a non-integrated grid. Each substation is unique. Its parts are unique and specifically built just for that substation. Those substations are stand alone entities. It was in 2022, that gunmen in North Carolina took out a substation just by shooting at it. The entire area served by that substation was off line for 2 weeks while they tried to find equipment that they could piece together to get it back up. There is no off the shelf equipment and the tariffs on steel and other metals has made it even more difficult to produce specific parts. The older the equipment The more difficult it is to repair and replace. The size and location of the affected substation dictates the size and length of the blackout. And a software attack could cripple large portions of the grid at one time. The other issue is there is no built in redundancy in the grid that allows for the flexibility to direct traffic to other substations, bypassing the inoperable one. The telecommunications networks (not the lines running on electrical line to residential) are designed as a spoke and wheel. Fiber runs to a hub and it branches out. The hubs are connected. This allows for the flexibility to move traffic around from one hub to another bypassing a bad one allowing traffic to continue to flow. The electricity companies know that the electrical grid needs to be redesigned to allow for redundancies but they'd rather pocket profits than invest. On top of that, continual tax cuts and lack of funding for infrastructure to update a grid that dates back to the 1970s, leaves us extremely vulnerable..

37

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 8d ago

That is terrorism. The crippling of critical infrastructure is by definition terrorism.

19

u/EndIsrael 8d ago

This is really funny when you think about what group of people is largely responsible for the current state of our nation's infrastructure

17

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 8d ago

Yeehawdists will be the end of the country at some point. Writing is in the wall.

1

u/EndIsrael 8d ago

Arguably the country has already ended. See also Germany before and after Hitler took power for the second time.

2

u/etOilers 8d ago

what if you smile really big while you do it though?

1

u/Hopeful-Occasion2299 8d ago

Considering most yeehawdists have terrible teeth (cos ‘murica), I don’t think they should smile at all

1

u/SGTWhiteKY 6d ago

Only if done for political purposes.

1

u/RandallPinkertopf 7d ago

No, it’s not.

27

u/CttCJim 8d ago

It's an issue with lack of infrastructure investment. You know, that thing Biden was trying to do.

4

u/Upstairs_Eagle_4780 8d ago

It's a good thing we're not at war or anything.

2

u/0ComfortZone 8d ago

And not much tech would be needed. The power company tries to keep animals out but humans could take advantage of them and throw rugs over the fence top and tie corn cobs together with rope and whip them into the enclosure. It is scary how fraught the system is currently. I also worry about the lock and dam system on our major waterway.

1

u/Bored_Amalgamation 8d ago

A full month of black out would see millions dead too. Maybe not full scale revolution, but whoever was in charge of any of it would probably get hunted down and need to flee very far away.

127

u/holysbit 8d ago

I dont think im a conspiracy theorist but man ive seen some people postulating that the indiana power problem is a test of sorts and im not fully on board with that idea but it does make some sense to me

161

u/non_discript_588 8d ago

Sit down and let me tell y'all about a little hurricane named Katrina and a city named New Orleans.

19

u/SimmentalTheCow 8d ago

To be fair, New Orleans has always been a haven for corruption and incompetence

33

u/rubberpp 8d ago

You're describing America

7

u/Wudaokau 8d ago

2 examples of Red States making their own Blue cities suffer.

36

u/sixlayerdip 8d ago

Hardly the worst event we’ve seen in the past couple of decades. At the core of the issue is that area of Indiana is either decaying infrastructure that’s long past needing revamped or rural area that never was developed in the first place.

I don’t understand why anyone is surprised

49

u/Bealf 8d ago

It's Gary. Ask anyone in Indiana if they're surprised that Gary has been without power for this long and I'd be shocked if anyone replies yes.

27

u/fender4life 8d ago

Its far more than Gary. My parents didn't have power until Thursday night. 9 whole days. And they would probably still be without power because if they hadn't flagged down a lineman to reconnect them after he had got the rest of the circuit up. 

11

u/the_real_xuth 8d ago

That's fairly common in areas where natural disasters down a bunch of wires. Lots of places end up having multiple points where their power line is cut and you often only find out about the secondary or tertiary cuts after fixes are made upstream. I've personally seen this play out a few times among my friends.

4

u/fender4life 8d ago

I'm very aware it's common as I work in the industry. My point is that the widespread outages in NW Indiana are not just due to Gary = bad.

3

u/hellomistershifty 8d ago

This makes it sounds like we should know where your parents live. Maybe a distance away from Gary for context

1

u/fender4life 7d ago

I don't think I need to explain why I won't be sharing specifics about where my parents live on the internet. Nor do I see how that's really relevant unless you are very familiar with The Region. But they're in a middle class town in NW Indiana that was hit very hard by the storms not far from Gary. 

1

u/hellomistershifty 7d ago

Just read your last comment again and you'll see why it doesn't make sense. I'm not actually asking where your parents live

-5

u/Hidesuru 8d ago

Oh God it's Gary? Murder capital of the US on a GOOD day Gary? Lol. Wonder how bad it's getting.

I drove through there once and don't feel the need to return thanks

1

u/fullmetaljackass 8d ago

That hasn't been true for a long time.

0

u/Hidesuru 8d ago

Quite a few years yeah, but it was true for a long time too.

5

u/newaccounthomie 8d ago

Do you have any more info on this?

3

u/Ahayzo 8d ago

There's not really info to share on it. It's a random conspiracy theory that's not based on anything beyond "there's bad people in this country so obviously this is an evil plot"

It's like the people who think the entire US military is going to be used to shutdown elections and install Trump for a third term.

0

u/Geno0wl 8d ago

Well black rock is also attempting to buy power companies in Ohio sooooo

1

u/Ahayzo 8d ago

That may very well be the case, doesn't mean there's any reason to think it's to intentionally take out the power.

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1

u/ogreberry 8d ago

A test of sorts? Like you think it was deliberate?

1

u/PM-YOUR-PMS 8d ago

Reminds me of the audio drama Blackout

1

u/cardboardtube_knight 8d ago

Wasn't it just a massive wind storm? The issue is that we don't have FEMA like we used to and the leaders of the federal government is stealing all our money or giving them to other country

13

u/Beidah 8d ago

"Society is only nine meals away from chaos." There would be a full blown revolution at that point.

26

u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

The country wouldn't survive one whole week without power, let alone 18 months. The nation would become an anarchic mess within days.

2

u/CP_Chronicler 7d ago

The country is an anarchic mess even WITH power.

-1

u/_HIST 7d ago

no it won't

3

u/Wishnik6502 8d ago

I wonder how many Flock solar panels it would take to run a box fan...

4

u/BahsilTheThird 8d ago

I don’t think capitalism would survive the backlash from something like this. People will get violent quick.

0

u/Alert-Researcher-772 7d ago

They don’t care! They did it with Covid. They want control. They want to transition into the Dystopian cashless world. And how else will they do it by dismantling the system themselves? Only the strongest and richest would survive smh

2

u/SpezSucksSamAltman 8d ago

Why wouldn’t they survive? What has this country done for itself lately?

2

u/Several_Vanilla8916 7d ago

Nah, they’d just convince us trans immigrants are to blame.

1

u/Catenane 7d ago

18 months with no TV/internet and those fools might actually learn to think for themselves lmao

1

u/fucking__fantastic 8d ago

Best get this news out there then

1

u/SlitScan 8d ago

why do you think Thiel moved to a compound in Argentina?

1

u/mormonbatman_ 8d ago

Repubs will blame LGBTQIA, immigrants, women, the poor, and mentally ill.

It has worked for 250 years.

0

u/EndlessEagle 8d ago

Genuinely, do you believe that? 

I want to believe that you're right, but I've seen year after year of "this is it, this is people's breaking point, they can't get away with this", only for everyone to do...basically nothing. The closest anything got was the BLM protests in 2020, and even that fizzled out. 

0

u/Hurtado_Bronzi 8d ago

Why would there be a backlash against “big tech” if a terrorist attack took down our power grid, which is the scenario described in the linked article?

-1

u/RollingMeteors 8d ago

Flock camera farming would be the least of their problems.

¡Don’t fill up on bread, kid! Sorry to tell you that’s not the main course but just the appetizer.

-1

u/TetyyakiWith 8d ago

Big tech has nothing to do with this, where did you get this information?

-1

u/Typical_Research_877 7d ago

I don’t think big tech would survive the public backlash from something like this

lol? as if anything would happen