I saw this movie about a town in total power blackout, pepole started to plunder and kill. Nothing worked.

is it a realistic scenerio, has it happend will it happen? And for how long could a power shutdown go on?

would one need a gun or rifle in a situation like that to survive or is it more dangerous to have a gun, i mean is it more a risk then a lifesaver to have a gun?

I have lived along the atlantic coast and in tornado alley, and the longest I have ever been without power was about 3 days. I saw that movie a while ago and I dont think it could ever be that bad, unless there was another stresser, like riots or some sort of an epidemic, or whatever, you get my drift. Anyway, a fire arm of some sort would be good for a situation like that, but I dont see this being an issue, most power companies dont like having their grids down for too long!

Garrett

Well, it may not be the most likley thing to happen, but it could. Was it not 3 years ago we were threatened to be without power for up to 6 months? Has it been 3 years since we were threatened with planes falling from the sky, riots worldwide, looting, and every other secret wish of some of the more 'hard core' survivalists? Forget not Y2K!

A gun would certainly be useful for that kind of situation. Criminals are lazy, they go the path of least resistance, otherwise, they would have a job!

But, a rifle? No. The bullet would go to far in a city. This is shotgun territory, my friend. You don't even have to blazon it, just kinda keep it in sight.

What did you mean by 'nothing worked'?

The longest I have been without power is a day, which wouldn't have been bad at all, if we didn't cows to milk.

Now, we have a generator.

In '98 I moved into my current house in suburban southern NH. It was Thanksgiving weekend and there was a blizzard that weekend. We were without power in our new house for two weeks. Yes, blackouts happen and sometimes they last a bit. The seem to last shorter periods of time in more urban situations. I think that has something to do with urban areas haveing more dense infrastructure and repair facilities. Anyhow, our new house was designed for wood / electric heat so we simply kept the wood stove stoked and melted a bunch of snow (our water is an electrically operated well). About the end of the first week our elder daughter, who was 4 at the time, asked if we could go home now. There was no social unrest to accompany our blackout. On the contrary the neighbors pitched in together and we had some fun with chainsaws clearing downed trees on each others property together. A great way to get to know your neighbors - and great neighbors to have.

OTOH our blackout covered large area and small population - reverse the ratios and do that to an area that is more dependant upon the grid of public infrastructure and you may find people in greater need. All of my neighbors had the ability to take care of themselves for the entire blackout. No-one showed up at the shelters. Our town opened the highschool and staffed it for a shelter but everyone stayed home.

I can imagine if the nearby urban area had to be evacuated due to some sort of terrorist or hazmat situation that accompanied a breakdown of infrastructure then certainly our resources would have been overtaxed as a community and in that situation there verywell may be looting and rioting and other nasty social breakdown. Reports of such are commonplace in large earthquakes and hurricane situations which hit urban areas. Read up on hurricane andrew for an example.

I prepare for infrastructure breakdown and social breakdown. I have a woodstove and a bunch of stored water and canned goods etc for infrastructure breakdown. I have EMT training and current experience, Ham radio eqpt and experience, firearms and training for social breakdown.

Were you possibly referring to "The Trigger Effect"? This is worth
renting, simply for the psychological aspects.

I have been in a modest "Blackout" that encompassed
about 40 square blocks in a downtown area. Just about
this time of year, too.
Fortunately for us, we had water. But there wasno AC;
no lights and no refrigeration. The McDonald's franchise
a few blocks away cleared out it's supply of Egg McMuffins
within an hour.
Police for security were nearly unavailable. There was an actual bidding war presided over by the Police Guild for latecomer businesses.
People's reactions were fascinating. For the first 24-36 hrs,
they treated the event like a party-everyone pitching in to
help. But then, composures started to fray and tempers became real short. I remember an incident over a razor and
another over spilled ice cubes.
The Red Cross provided "survival rations" consisting of
stale coffee and those very same egg mcmuffins I mentioned.
Fortunately for us, the police department flooded the area
with "Blue" so really violent incidents were almost non-existent.
But, I DID surprise two solid citizens busily removing money from a parking lot cashbox. It gets DARK in the city when
the lights go out. Coincidentally, I was dressed in dark blue and the would-be crooks apparently thought I was a cop.

My advice? Keep a good solid D-Cell Maglite or one of those
lights that use the big 6 volt batteries;PLENTY of extra batteries-we couldnt even watch ourselves on TV; maybe a suspicious dog with a good sense of smell and get to know your neighbors.
We had people congregating at all hours at the entrance to
the hotel where I worked. Most comforting when it's DARK out. I'm talking so dark that you can't see across the street.

Shotguns are intimidating but a good semi-auto pistol and a
reliable flashlight (not to mention a loyal mouthful of sharp teeth) might help you as much or more.

If you choose to keep a weapon, learn to use it well and practice,practice practice. WAY too many folks think they can treat guns like insurance policies or protective amulets rather than as using tools.

Last time it happened in NYC everyone was partying on the streets, helping each other out. Plus 9 month later you had unspoken "baby boom".

In a situation like that you will have to have something that triggered the plunder and riots. Power goes out, so what? Not a big deal, it will come back. Obviously there are always going to be bad elements that will try to take advantage of the situation. But I think they would be more concerned with electronics stores, atms and warehouses than with private residences. If something like that happened I would stay home and made my presence known. I would take out my BBQ set it up on my lawn and cook up all the meat that will get spoiled anyway.

Matt

We were without power for over a week after Hurricane Andrew. There was some looting, and there were stories of people patrolling their land with firearms. I have several firearms for different uses in these categories:
Concealable handguns
Larger self defense handguns
.22 rifle for small game
9mm carbine rifle for up to 50 yards defense
Hunting rifles
12 gauge shotgun

The 9mm carbine is my in-betweener which is more accurate than a handgun and less likely than a rifle to kill an innocent person a mile away. I consider the 9mm carbine to be a good urban defensive firearm for light patrol duty but close around the house and especially at night I would just grab the shotgun.

Best regards, Keys

I read what someone said about Hurricaine Andrew and knew someone that was there. The power was out for weeks and there was limited security due to houses being torn open. A shotgun was a valuable tool!
I think that for a pure power blackout, without a torn apart home would not require a firearm (not a bad idea to have one) as much as it would require a way to provide some light, hygeine and a method to prepare and store food.
A good campstove with fuel a large ice chest and some non-perishable foods would be critical to have around. Water could be a problem too, depending on how widespread the blackout is. The pumps may be out. In that case a supply of bottled water or a water filter would be desireable. I have been in a large New England snowstorm that had power out for days and my main problems were keeping warm, eating and having fresh water. One plus to a snowstorm, there is plenty of water for the melting! Just have a stove, fuel and containiers available.
Hope some of these points are useful to some of you folks!

The New York blackout of 1965(?) (I was in the affected area) was mostly a novelty, and people were largely civil about it. The repeat in 1977 turned nasty in several spots, with looting and violence breaking out.

Then there was the great "Montreal" blackout- January 5-February 8, 1998
Duration: Up to 33 days in some areas.
Geographic area: Four provinces in eastern Canada; four states in the northeastern US.
People affected: 5.2 million.
Cost: Combined insurance losses in Canada and US exceeded $1.2
billion.
Cause: Ice storms took out more than 1,000 major transmission towers and 35,000 wooden utility poles.
Effects: The storms were directly responsible for 45 deaths; 100,000 Canadians were forced to take refuge in shelters.

During that period, people who started emergency generators routinely had them stolen within hours.

My parents went through the Connecticut "Ice Storm" in .. 1977? Power was out for a week in their area with sub-freezing temperatures. At first, no one could get out, because the streets were covered with glare ice. Later, most people left the area- it was not that far to hotels and motels with power. My parents and my little brother stuck it out- some of the houses that had been deserted had been robbed when the owners returned.

They closed down the whole house except for one room with a fireplace. My father drained the entire water system to keep the pipes from freezing and bursting- it turned out that the owners of one nearby house were away on vacation, and they had over 100 pipe breaks and huge flooding damage when they returned. Other houses were crushed by trees, toppled by the weight of the encasing ice.

My parent's house had it's own artesian well for water supply, with an electric pump, of course, but they were lucky... there was enough natural pressure to fill buckets in the basement, so they had water for cooking, drinking, limited washing, and, most importantly, for flushing toilets.

They (my mother) cooked all of their food for a week in the fireplace, using a decorative popcorn popper. My father had a great deal of wood laid in, but it hadn't been split yet- he said it took 8 hours of splitting wood with wedges and sledgehammer to keep the inefficient, mostly-for-show fireplace going for 24 hours. They banked the fire as best they could for the night, and slept together in a sleep-sofa under piles of comforters for warmth.

I would have guessed that my parents were among the least likely people on Earth to do this sort of thing- I doubt that my mother has spent a night outdoors in her life.

Anyway, bottom line, yes, blackouts can be very serious. It all depends on how widespread it is, and how long it goes on.... and the weather. Because of my limited experience with them and my parent's much more extensive experience, I'm pretty well prepared for blackouts these days- which means, of course, that I've never really needed the preparations.

My father later bought a generator, and an efficient wood stove, and some other items that would have been very handy... but in the end, they moved further South. They had other reasons for that, but I doubt that the experience was ever entirely out of their minds during the decision process.

It must have been filmed in San Jose, California. I was there during the "Rolling Blackouts" ...my advice... buy a hammock.