With our advanced technology, we have made ourselves vulnerable to attacks on our country’s infrastructure. Other countries and hackers have threatened us with cyberattacks for the last couple of decades, and we have been making enemies with powerful countries. We have entities in our country who want to cause trouble. We have already experienced cyberattacks in parts of our country.

Losing electricity, utilities, cell service, and internet will cause chaos if the outages last long enough. Some people will lose their minds if it lasts more than twelve hours. While these outages will certainly cause inconveniences and frustrations, you can be prepared to ride out the storm, so to speak. You can take steps now and be ready for this likely scenario.

There is one problem with preparing for outages and cyberattacks. You have no idea how long they will last. The experts guess that it could last weeks or months, if not years. If you have lived through a natural disaster, you know it could be weeks or months before the power is restored. We are looking at a similar scenario, but on steroids. The US does not have the equipment or the parts on hand to restore power quickly in this situation. Good or bad, major cities will likely be the first ones to have electricity and other utilities restored.

The best advice I have ever been given is to do the best you can now to be prepared for later. In this situation, it definitely applies. Do what you can within your means and your skills now to give yourself and your family a fighting chance when the time comes to deal with the crisis.

1. Water, water, water. This is crucial to your survival. The usual “One gallon a day per person” is better than none, but you will likely need three gallons a day per person due to sanitation and cooking. If you have pets and livestock, you will also need water for them. I talk more about water storage and needs in this article.
   
   
2. Food. Food is also essential to your survival. I suggest a Three-Prong Approach to food storage to cover all your areas. You will want easy-to-eat and prepare foods. Ideally, you will want to prepare foods that do not consume your resources like gas and wood. Depending on how long the outages last, you must conserve your usage of those precious resources.
   
   
3. Speaking of resources, keep plenty of fuel on hand. I don’t mean just gas, although that is also needed. Your fuel sources should be diverse and reflect what equipment you have on hand to cook, heat, and power. Charcoal, propane, wood, gas, and diesel will cover most equipment. But you will need significant quantities of those fuels, depending on what you have and how long the outages will last. If you use a charcoal grill, propane grill, camp stove, Sterno stoves, generator, outdoor equipment (chainsaws, ATVs, etc.), and vehicles, you will need a great deal of fuel. Once you get the fuel, always keep it full.
   
   
4. Since you are working on food storage and fuel, what will you cook with? Again, just like fuel, you will want multiple sources for cooking. Charcoal grills, propane grills, camp stoves, Sterno stoves, rocket stoves, wood cookstoves, and gas cookstoves will all be very helpful in this area. You could use a generator and power your electric stove, but you need to be cognizant of how much power it draws. You could use more gas than you want to run the stove.
   
   
5. If you have animals, stock up on pet food and livestock feed. They did not ask for this to happen and they need to be tended to throughout this outage. You might be afraid of rodents getting into the feed, but there are ways to prevent that. I use steel trash cans to store pet food and chicken feed outside. Heavy-duty totes also work well in this case. Putting up extra feed bins would help store more feed if you have large livestock.
   
   
6. Set up a communication network. If and when this happens, how will you contact your people? Do you know your neighbors and have a plan to keep in touch with them? Most people do not address this before a disaster, much less an outage. You need to consider how you and your people will stay in touch. Two-way radios and satellite phones are a good way to keep in touch. You can go a step further and invest in HAM radio equipment and get your license. You can also invest in CB radios and put an antenna up so you can keep in touch. However, you need to get your family and neighbors on board so they can also invest in this equipment. Cell service may not exist or be spotty at best. You need to have a reliable way to communicate with others.
   
   
7. Have a plan. Write out what you plan to do if there is a power outage. Make multiple plans just in case the first one doesn’t work. You should make these plans as detailed as possible, but be aware that flexibility must be involved. Be practical, but at the same time, let yourself consider every possibility, no matter how wild it may be. Then put these plans on paper or print them out and keep them in a binder somewhere safe, but accessible.
   
   
8. Lights make living through an outage better. Invest in different types of lighting, such as flashlights, solar lights, oil lamps, kerosene lamps, lanterns, candles, and more. Light is comforting and makes life less difficult when you can see. Just remember to also purchase batteries, lamp oil, wicks, and lighters to continue using the lighting sources.
   
   
9. If you can, invest in solar. Solar energy can be expensive for a whole house, but you can purchase solar chargers, lights, and small solar arrays to keep items powered. Solar will not drain your resources and can be used if you have sunny days. If you need to, get the batteries to store power from the solar panel so you can keep using them longer.
   
   
10. Put together a reference library. You may not have access to the Internet, where most of the information is found today. Having information on hand is very helpful when you are trying to remember to do things.
    
    
11. Keep your vehicles full of gas. I cannot emphasize this enough! When your gas tanks get down to half full, make a point of stopping to fill them. The last thing you want to worry about is filling your gas tank during an emergency or crisis.
    
    
12. Test run on your generator. If you have a generator (and I recommend that you do), you need to run regular tests on your generator. Fire it up and let it run for 15-20 minutes monthly. You don’t want to find out it doesn’t work or has an issue when you need it the most. In addition to the outdoor generator, I would suggest getting a smaller portable one to power your devices and small appliances. You can charge it from your outdoor generator if an outage happens.
    
    
13. What do you have for security? You do need to think about this. Some people shy away from this subject, but you need a plan, especially if your house has electric outdoor lights, cameras, and locks. While it has been proven that usually people help each other in hard times, you still have bad people out there who want what you have. You know the saying, “Desperate times create desperate people”. Check out this post where I talk more about home security in times of crisis.
    
    
14. Have games, books, puzzles, and more on hand. This will not be a fun time to live through, but you can have some fun, which will help relieve stress and boredom in the house. I would also have items on hand to keep the hands and minds busy, like needlework, wood carving, knitting, crocheting, etc. If you have little kids on hand, keep things they can do too. They will probably have toys to play with, but if they don’t, you must invest in non-electric toys like building blocks, Legos, coloring books, books, and games.
    
    
15. Keep cash on hand. ATMs and debit/credit cards no longer work when an outage happens—that’s common sense. However, cash will work for a while to get the things you might need. In addition to cash, I would invest in gold and silver to procure the goods and services that you need in the future.
    
    
16. How will you heat your home or shelter? Many houses today use electricity for heating and cooling.
    With an extended outage, this is not possible. You can install a whole-house generator to keep the house running, but that is a significant investment. The propane or diesel needed to run the whole-house generator may not last, depending on how long the outage lasts. You must decide what is best for you, but woodstoves and fireplaces are easier to keep supplied with wood. Whatever you plan, you will also need a significant amount of fuel or wood to last through an extended outage.
    
    
17. Is your home safe to stay in during an extended outage? Although it can be scary to think about, you may need to evacuate to somewhere safer to ride out this outage. You can plan for this now and be prepared to bug out when the time comes.
    
    
18. Do you know where the gas shut-off and main breaker are for your home? If you have electric locks, do you know how to override them? If you live in an apartment building with electric key codes and locks, do you know how to bypass them? All of these are safety concerns and you must know how to deal with them before an outage happens. Otherwise, a bad situation can worsen quickly when you can’t leave your apartment or building. You may have an explosion if the gas is not shut off.
    
    
19. Fire safety equipment is a must. You need fire extinguishers, fire blankets, and available water for fires. You will be using flammable items that could catch fire. Accidents do happen. In times like these, fire departments may not be able to reach you and you could lose your home.
    
    
20. Relating to number one, do you have a way to procure water? Water storage is very important and I can not emphasize that enough. You can add a hand-pump to your well for water. You can set up a rain catchment system on your gutters. How close is the closest water source? Keeping topographical maps on hand will help you identify the nearest water sources. If you have a cistern, make sure you have a way to use it.
    

This list may seem like a lot. There are many things to consider when planning for a cyberattack or an attack on our infrastructure. However, tackle one thing at a time. Some of these things are expensive to implement and need to be budgeted for, but there are many free things you could do to prepare yourself.

Do what you can, where you are.

Thanks for reading,
Erica

This article contains links from Amazon.

Sharing is caring!