Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Power outage in the Northeast. Hmmm.
Simple cascade failure?
Or something more nefarious?

Better play it safe and assume its not a coincidence… double-check my blackout gear when I get home.

SO what happens in a blackout? Well, obviously lights, elevators and air conditioning stops working. But, also these little necessities:
ATM cash machines will not work – so have cash to make purchases
Cash registers – some stores wont do any business unless their registers are working
Water pumps – tall buildings might have problems
Gas pumps – cant suck the gas out of the underground tanks without electricity
TV/radio stations – some will be on, some will be off
Most ISP’s – so even if youre on your laptop, you may not have access. (one of the few nice things about AOL..you can try access numbers further and further from your affected areas)
Zillions of little things you dont normally think about……

My sibling should be okay. I sent him some gear pre-Y2k and he has some preps of his own. In an urban environ like his, priority is on light, security and communications. I expect I’ll hear from him later.

Just an overloaded power grid…maybe. Or, that’ll be the ‘official’ story, anyway. Probably alot of very tense cops in NYC right now.

But *youre* ready, right? Youve got your flashlight, spare batteries, radio, and gear, right? Right?