The American power grid is incredibly vulnerable to an attack - both physical and cyber. Ted Koppel examines the vulnerability, what the government has done to protect itself, and what individuals are doing to prepare. A haunting picture is painted of how easy it would be to take down power for hundreds of thousands of people and the catastrophic impact of such an attack. The USA is not prepared and they aren't even thinking about preparing. There are some individuals who have prepared but in the grand scheme of things,
This book brought back memories for me of the 2003 power outage in Ontario and the surrounding states. I was at university, having to write an exam at the time. I remember having almost nothing to eat that didn't need to be cooked. And this power outage didn't last all that long. For us, it was only about a day. Now what would happen if this lasted a month. There's no way I would have been prepared enough.
Koppel examines those that might be prepared enough to be able to shelter in place for this kind of outage. And it's not easy to get up to that level of preparedness. These people have farms and greenhouses, or they have the whole community behind them for support. Most of them seem to be rural locations. What about those in urban and suburban areas? The answer seems to be leave the area for a place that has power.
Unfortunately the message seems to be "too bad for you" as there's no plan for this and there doesn't seem to be anyone interested in putting together a plan for the future. Koppel asks about this, but doesn't really get anywhere with the government officials.
This was an interesting subject, though probably could have been a newspaper article rather than a full book. First Line: "Darkness."
Rating:
(3.5/5)
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