Preppers... Not so Silly Now?

The "Prepper" or "Bugout" community in the USA have had a bit of a reputation of being nerdy, redneck or just plain weird, but times they are a changin'.

The Chaos in California has highlighted a few issues regarding civilisation and what happens when large areas of a country are without power.

The power outages in California were supposed to ( not that successfully) prevent forest fires caused by lack of maintenance of the power grid in the hilly areas of the state.

The problem being that the trees haven't been cut away from power lines and in windy conditions they touch the power lines causing shorts and sparking, initiating fires. To stop this huge areas of California were switched off. I mean huge...as many as 3 million people were without power.

Only one death was reported as being caused by the power outage, but it's a lesson that needs to be learned, as we move away from the solid foundation of fossil-fuelled power to the uncertainty of renewable power generation backed up by gas-powered generators fuelled by foreign (Russian) gas.

Because I can easily foresee a scenario where we have a very cold high pressure system over the UK so there is no wind power. So we turn on the gas generators and then for whatever reason Russia starts to hike up the cost of gas as demand in Europe rises... to a degree that the energy companies can't or won't pay, so the gas taps get shut off.

It's not immediately obvious what sort of issues when a thousand square miles or more are without power.

No electricity means no working boiler (even gas boilers need electricity to work).

No electricity means no fuel pumped at petrol stations.

So no fuel for your car and no fuel for buses or other diesel powered transport.

No electricity means no trains.

No electricity means no communications, especially cell phones. But also the emergency services would soon be without communications as the backup systems at the communications towers begin to run out of fuel.

No electricity in the longer term means no healthcare. Certainly GP surgeries will cease to function immediately as they don't have emergency power supplies. Those parts of the NHS that do can only run them for a finite amount of time, not days on end.

No streetlamps and no power for alarm systems means more crime. So start sharpening that pointy stick as it's the only weapon you are allowed in the UK. Well, you can always say it's a stake for the garden, not a weapon because you're not allowed them any more.

One thing that does come to mind is: could you drive 50 miles to get fuel for your car? Do you have enough fuel tanks able to hold enough reserves to run a generator for days? Do you even own a generator?

Can you drive that same 50 miles to get food? Because without power, there are no fridges and there's no point delivering fresh, frozen or chilled products.

Do you have a number of days of reserve food stored so you can cope without shopping? Does that food have a long shelf life? If it doesn't has it been renewed recently?

These are questions we have to start asking as the power outage in California is a good indication on what the future could be like if large swathes of the country lose power. It makes interesting reading as there are a few surprises.

Luckily I own a generator for use on my boat and a second one in parts for spares, where there is no mains power. The ideal would be running the generator to a backup battery and then to an invertor for mains power to the central heating boiler and possibly the fridge. The only thing I don't possess in that circuit is the invertor. Something that will be addressed in future.

For communications, I have access to a couple of old CB radios (don't scoff!) that can at least transmit over a decent distance. I also have my old radio ham gear if I want to transmit over a wider range or in a more official capacity. I can power them off a car battery. If you have any of these, do get familiar with them again.

If the worst comes to the worst, I have a sailing boat and can leave the UK behind for sunnier shores. Being a small boat that would be a bit extreme, but it could be done if absolutely necessary. If I need anything bigger (say, to take the whole family) then that could cause a problem. But I do have the skills if necessary to pilot a boat to elsewhere.

It seems to me now,  the risk of the same scenario as California happening in another first world country has increased. The issue is only going to get more widespread as our so-called leaders make decisions which are not in the strategic interest of our countries and instead pander to small environmental interest groups and big corporations. At the end of the day it's Government's job to work with people and reduce costs for the country. But there comes a time when strategic interest and planning overrides environmental virtue signalling.

However, given that state of leadership in Western countries, it would be wise to start to prepare. At least keep a few tins of food in the cupboard to last you 2 - 7 days, to allow for the government and the electricity companies to sort the issue out if they can.

But certainly have a plan for a longer term outage just in case.