BLACKOUT : tonight at 9pm Channel 4

[guineapiglet]

What would happen if the lights went out!?!

Looking forward to watching this, it has had good reviews. Good night on TV tonight with Under the Dome afterwardsmakes up for all the rubbish on Saturday night Anyone else giving it a go?

I've read that somewhere too, Bowlers.

Yes, in the seventies the television went off but you still had the battery radio. Candles could be fun and we had gas CH and a gas cooker. So I barely noticed it.
I thought it was fun.

Out here in the Styx we regularly have power cuts and everything needs electricity--the heater controls, the cooker, the hob. I have heated baked beans and soup and boiled water for tea in the open fire place before and it is not fun after the first day or so. Even the children don't want to eat masses of defrosting ice cream in the winter.

I suppose we could eat the teenagers' Duke of Edinburgh camping food supplies. Some of them are in special packets with a little internal device that you snap or something and it heats the food (eg, spaghetti with meatballs, macaroni cheese) for you inside the packet. Not cheap, but a few of those could make a big difference to morale. Come to think of it, the children should be perfectly equipped to deal with this kind of situation. I'll just retire to bed and let them do it all, I think.

My fear would be that there would be a lot more house fires and carbon monoxide poisonings because of all the people who would be using candles carelessly and lighting bbqs and camping stoves inside.

Abra1d - the really annoying thing (as well as the electric controls for gas powered heating and cookers) is that our solar panels won't work if they're not connected to the grid!

We live in a village which has loads of power cuts, I've managed to cook Easter lunch for twelve on a gas BBQ.

Did anyone mention the surge in births nine months later?!

I did not see it,

But last year my Dad and a million of his neighbours lived trough a ten day blackout of all power except the old phones and water to the lower floors of apartment blocks. In most areas the gas stayed on for part of the day.

The only lights were car headlights.
The only way in and out of homes was down ten flight unlit stairwells.
The only fresh food was a two mile walk through cold dark street

Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy ...

That is really annoying, Turnip!

CSB it sounds unpleasant but doable. I remember reading about those who were elderly disabled being stuck in tower blocks. I remember reading about the unfair early snow too!

I know that it was very different but thank goodness it wasn't another Katrina situation.

Do people remember the flooding hit Tewkesbury and a quarter of a million people nearly lost both power and water when the substation almost became inundated?

Coolstorybro
Generators and BBQ s are great for people in the 'burbs

For those who live in the Lower East side, they have no storage, no outdoor space, little scope for resilience
and remember that in my Dad's street the water was 15 feet deep during the two high tides : they were still dragging wrecked cars out of the garages when we were there at Christmas.

Abra, are you really in the Styx???? Isn't that generally a bit damp anyway??

Talkin, I know! You're preaching to the converted here! I saw first hand what happened in Lower Manhattan and Staten Island. I was more talking about the general no power thing and how it wouldn't turn the UK into a nation of looting, burgling, hysterical nutters in 5 minutes flat, as depicted in the show. In my experience, it brought people together, even if after the event people went back to exactly how we had all been before.

Not quite back.
My 79 year old Dad now has flashlights and matches where he can find them.
Lots of people keep solar powered fairy lights easy to hand
His complex are looking at renewable energy systems (shock horror)
BUT
The good things : groups going round hanging bags of groceries on the apartment doors of the elderly - will stand the city in good stead for this season's storms.

Putting my fingers in my ears...LA LA LA LA LA!!! No storms allowed this year!!!

Abra, are you really in the Styx

Sometimes VERY damp in winter--floods. But we won't die of thirst.

It's a quiet start to the storm season isn't it? Long may that last.

Coolstory
If you are not in an evacuation zone, you should be OK.
Where we stayed at Christmas (near my Dad) we could see the 14th street substation that exploded ....
The storm surges WILL come, the impact of global warming is ensuring that
BUT the Tristate area (in fact the whole Seaboard) is much better prepared than it was a year ago : resilience planning has come a long way in a year

and linking back to the programme :

what saved even the poorest parts of NYC and NJ was that those who had made a point of sharing
Jon Bon Jovi setting up a 50 cellphone charging station on his driveway was a tiny but tangible proof of what happens in the real world, not TV drama

Do you not think that a flat or council house would actually be less of a target than a nice country house? As a general rule, the poor don't take from the poor and there is usually a greater sense of community in a sink estate than any country village

Who is talking about nice country houses? I live in a farm labourer's cottage and we are not rich, and nor are our neighbours, but I feel safe here because we know everyone.

Also it would be harder for looters to get from the inner cities to the 'nice' country houses? No petrol. Dark at night. Why would you go to all that effort if the old lady on the floor below you has got tinned goods?

I quite "enjoyed" it but it was a bit predictable. I did say to my DH that I would have gagged the kids

It reminded me of that mocumentary The Day Britain Stopped

I agree Tiger.
I was surprised at how un-clued up people were portrayed to be.
And at how the lights came back on,and it was assumed everything was immediately ok - which I very much doubt it would be for quite some time.

I do think society will break down very quickly, however. In an event such as a nationwide power outtage you really would have no idea how long it would last.
People would be desperate to make sure they have supplies before they run out.

We only need quarter inch of snow round here and the shelves are bare....

Very predictable. Got bored half way through so switched over.

Unfortunately it doesn't matter if most people are decent and sharing, caring types. That's the case in society generally. All you need is a violent minority with no conscience and they can bring chaos because they are thugs and naice people won't go to those lengths until they're desperate. I found it depressingly plausible, at least for those living in big cities.

If you like this kind of thing I can recommend 2 books by Alex Scarrow - 'Last Light' and 'After Light'. Because the power doesn't come back on... :o

Funnyrunner
Please read what I was saying about New York.
Law and order did NOT break down.
Communities that had never pulled together before (NYC never had the War) did so in the most amazing way.
I used a Facebook page to find a complete stranger in my Dad's building to check he was OK.
Hoodies with head torches used them to help people across the road, not to mug them.

The power was off fully for a week and intermittently for six weeks.

The aftermath - rotting food, damaged buildings, loss of earnings etc etc took many, many months to sort.

Watched it now, it was good as a worst case scenario type of thing, obviously I hope if it actually happened it would go a lot better.

For the record, I have no provisions whatsoever.... lies

Tyring to weigh up now whether I would stay put or walk (same town) to my mums. She has a bigger house so more at risk of burgulars, but semi detached so less fire risk than my mid terrace. I'm right on the edge of the town, can hear cows lol, whereas she is not far from the centre, both with their own advantages and disadvantages... Think me and DH might have to write a plan

Talkin I'm glad for the sake of New York. Would be nice to believe it would be the same here. Let's hope we never find out :o

Beyond you think the way I think :o I'm petrified because when we changed our heating system we lost our cold tank. Even at the time I was thinking about the OFR and the water tank seemed necessary... So I may have instant hot water but come the apocalypse I'll have to 'walk to the river' - DH's answer for everything, even though it would be a 2 mile walk past the zombies and water is very heavy to carry by hand