It is difficult to overstate how completely the loss of the grid would disrupt life as we know it. In that first hushed moment after the lights went out, we wouldn’t even know that this outage was different from any other. Maybe we would lose power for a few hours. Maybe the ice cream would melt. The mood, at first, might be almost jubilant, as it was after the 2003 blackout in the Eastern Interconnection. At some point, though, the authorities would have to tell the public: The power won’t be restored for a very long time.
During the first phase of a long-term blackout, we’d return, briefly, to the early 20th century, when isolated facilities ran on “private power.” Critical infrastructure like sewage plants, water treatment plants and hospitals could keep running as long as they had diesel or natural gas. Those with emergency radios could listen for updates from one of 73 Primary Entry Point stations, which are outfitted with 60 days of generator fuel. (In New York, that station is WABC, 770 on the AM dial.) But without electricity, even these backups would begin to fail as diesel ran out and the natural-gas pumps shut down.
NYT – “What if America Went Completely Dark”
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