Lights Out

Ask the Red Cross or FEMA what to do during a major power outage and they will tell you to be sure to have extra batteries and three days' worth of extra food and water on hand, along with a few other necessities. But what if the blackout arrived without warning and lasted not days but weeks or months? There would be no running water; no sewage; no electric heat, refrigeration, or light. Food and medical supplies would dwindle. Banks would not function. Gas stations without generators would no longer be able to pump fuel. The devices we rely on would go dark. Firefighters and police officers might no longer be reachable, or might choose to stay with their own families. Mass evacuation would become chaos.
The fact is, one well-placed attack on the electrical grid could lastingly cripple much of our infrastructure. Several nation states hostile to the United States could do it, and the ranks of criminal and terrorist organizations approaching the capability are growing. Ted Koppel convincingly argues that it is not a question of if such an attack occurs, but when.
National leaders across government, industry, and the military know this--as they candidly admit in these pages. The Department of Homeland Security has no plan for the aftermath of an attack on the power grid. Individuals are largely left to their own devices, leading to an explosion of the "prepper" movement. Koppel visits one wealthy prepper who has built a retreat equipped with a specially excavated three-acre lake stocked with fish. But how will ordinary civilians survive? The Mormon church has elaborate plans for long-term disaster survival, but it doesn't have the resources for everyone. Lights Out exposes the breadth and urgency of the problem and suggests ways to prepare for the inevitable catastrophe.