good thinking grim, maybe a couple of external hard drives in a sheilded box.

take a look at these storys

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1882/514/NL/Earths_Death_Star_And_The_End_Of_America.html

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1882/339/NL/

I have put backups of many how to vids and documents and put them in a metal garbage can with a spare ECU for my car. You can get spare ECU's ( your cars brain) from a scrapper for dirt cheap in most cases. Here is a vid of a guy doing it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQZY1FtI3c

One thing that sucks is that when it does happen we wont even know who did it, the sun, the government, foreign countries etc.
Well be instantly in the dark so to speak.
Curious have you read the book one sec. after ? If so how was it...One thing we have to remember is once the power goes down communication is lost, stores will then lock their doors, gas stations aswell,banks and atms will
no longer function.....this is why we prep..I dont wanna be the guy holding my debit card outside of walmart in a angry mob of pyjama wearing wal-martians fighting over the last can of spam.

932835 - I have read One Second After (twice). It is worth a read. It shows group dynamics at their best and worst.

It would seem the quickest trigger event for the collapse of civilness in North America would be the loss of the electrical power grid. And currently, the grid, is not protected as well as it should or could be.

The book also exposes the need for communities to work together to survive. And, to no surprise, the book shows the "governments" lack of ability to provide assistance during a big event.

I will probably read the book again.

Cheers.

It was actually reading One Second After that brought me here and got myself and wife into looking at the world of prepping. I had read the book and then she decided to and thought it was a good "story". Then I happened to be in Vancouver Downtown during Game 7 of the finals last year........and seeing how so many members of "society" acted made me start thinking that perhaps the Author was not so far off in how he protrayed how various groups/people acted in his book. Both good and bad of course.
Your comment... "I dont wanna be the guy holding my debit card outside of walmart in a angry mob of pyjama wearing wal-martians fighting over the last can of spam." ...was exactly what went thru my head.

I agree with the sketchiness of gold/silver - it is better than banks but if the people are starving, who is going to trade their short supply of food for a 'worthless' shiny item. All my money is going into tangible things. Another fear if the electricity goes down as well as the major problem of nuclear disasters in East Canada and the US is nearly all water wells have submersible electric motors. We may be in for more than we bargained for if the sun acts up - as it is expected to do...soon.

If you dont have a manual water pump, then your not preppared. Buy one or learn how to make one, its not that hard. For deep wells, learn about multi chamber draw and or screw pumps.

There are 5 companies in North America that make high voltage transformers, It take 1 year from start to finish, to produce one. Between 50-70 transformers a year can be made once all the production lines started up again. In North America alone, there are 3000 major high voltage distribution transformers. 10000 in the world. We are due for a large CME.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIr6nfwpctA

This site will tell you the effects on a solar panel... not good news. NOAA Space Weather Scale for Solar Radiation Storms

CME vs. Transformers

I have been thinking ( a dangerous thing at any time) about Transformers, the companies that make them and the industries that supply them.
If (God forbid) a major CME (coronal mass ejection) were to hit the earth and 80% of the large step-down transformer’s (found at power stations) and small (on your street post) were to melt down, the Specialist have claimed that it would take 2-10 years before the lights would come back on. No ELECTRICITY.

Reality Check.
OK it takes a full year, for a large transformer to be built, WHEN and if they have the parts that they require to build them. Most companies are on the JIT or Just In Time delivery system. Most industries are 100’s of mile’s away from the company that they supply. Most of them require trucks to deliver these parts. Older trucks might still work but they still need fuel, no power, no fuel. And all of the companies require ELECTRICITY to manufacture these parts.

Now we talk about PEOPLE, since the majority of the cars today are micro technologied, a big CME would wipe them out. The Los Angeles area could boast that they have the longest/largest parking lot in the world, especially if all cars died during rush hour. But back to the point, how far do you have to drive to get to work, how long would it take you to get to work by bicycle, and when you get there, would it be open.
How long can most people last without the food stores, gas-pumps, and the pharmacies’. How Many people that you know have a usable adult bike.
How many people have enough cash on hand to buy food/gas/medicines.
The only people that I know of that has a lot of cash at any time, are drug pushers, politicians, the extreme upper class and pimps and some preppers.

And last but not least, how many skilled people would be left after 2 month after a melt down. After the sanitary and water systems fail, how many SKILLED people would be left that were not affected by all diseases and maladies that would follow. All of the diseases that had been suppressed would once again appear and be rampant, Starvation, Cholera, Lyme Disease, West Nile, Malaria, TB, Typhoid, Smallpox, Plague (Bubonic, Pneumonic, Septicemic) any type of Flu and STD’s.

So would we be seeing FEMA work camps, to ensure that the right people survive to rebuild the industry? Would you be invited to live in one of the underground bases that the American Government developed, DUMB, or Deep Underground Military Bases, each able to contain 10 - 100 thousand people each.

The celestial scientist have claimed that we are due for a CME soon, maybe 12-21-12? Who knows when or how strong it will be. Will you be one of the survivors or an occupant of a mass grave.
One more thing, if it happens, how long would it be before the US of A would change to United States of North America.

Ranger,

In response to your last point the US of NA. Unless they have stockpiled tons of equipment and vehicles, it would be unfeasible to seize the Great White North. Unless, they are only after water(which we have a lot of) and fields to farm. If there is a massive die off, there would be few here to oppose them in a military manner. Also, the survivors would disperse to remote areas for the initial stages, so an invader would not be able to round up "slaves" from the cities to work the land. Now, without machines, an invader would be hard pressed to steal our forests or our minerals. Yes, for a short time they, the invaders, may be able to claim that they own our country, but for how long and to whom would they make the claim if there was a world-wide die off??? If we went from 7 Billion Earthlings to say 100 million, it would take generations before there is a population density high enough to worry about countries, and who owns which piece of ground. We will be back to kingdoms and clan warfare.

Of course, here in the Great White North (the term used by them hosers the MacKenzie Brothers) those that do survive will most likely be the pioneer types that are not likely to give up their country without a good fight, that could last for decades.

I agree with your other points, any massive power outage will bring the first world countries on par with the rest of the world. Eating hand to mouth, scrapping by on pure survival instinct. And if you do not have the skills or instinct, you will die.

I like when you get a thinking and a writing, it starts the ball a rolling!

Mountainman.

I've been looking for "one second after" here but to no avail (yet)....I'll keep looking because it seems like everyone who has read it, liked it!

I think in the type of situation you mention the good old USA will be so worried about trying to keep themselves intact versus looking to expand our way. I agree with Mountain as well about what type of reception any "occupying" force would face from many of the "good old Western Canadian boys and girls".

As to Rangers post about "waking up and smelling the coffee" if a major EMP event takes place, I think we are right and truely screwed. Our socitey and culture particulary in the "West" is so intertwined with Electroincs that I do not think many here could survive without it. If we can not turn on our tap and get water, or flip a switch and get lights or heat, or place a drive thru order to get fast food, how many of our friends and neighbors would truly and uterally be lost and hopeless. My simple question I ask people is "if something happened to the water treatment plant and you could not get drinking water for a few days do you have enough to get by?" Almost every time I get a truthful answer of No and a comment about running to Walmart and grabbing a couple cases of water. I of course point out that the other 1,000,000+ people that live in Calgary will be doing the exact same thing. Often they laugh and agree....but I do not know of anyone who has done more than that to date. I think for a limited amount of time you would see some people trying to work to recitfy the electrical grid issues, but I do not think it would be long before those same people give up. The reality is it would just take to much time and effort and I think we will be worried about much more basic things...food, shelter and protecting our loved ones.

take a look at these storys
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1882/514/NL/Earths_Death_Star_And_The_End_Of_America.html

Slightly disturbing that i should be reading this today... (yes of course i realize it's hypothetical...)

From the British journal, New Scientist: "It is midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

"A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation’s infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event—a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun..."

One thing's becoming increasingly clear as i peruse this site: I'm screwed.

Just the opposite Deleau. Although there might be come relieve in living our lives in bliss and ignorance many people have inquiring minds. I know you do that is one reason you are here. If I were to quit this site I would have to give up Sci Fi. In fact I would have to give all TV, Internet and the radio. However I am safe because leopards don't change their spots. I am who I am and like you I have now integrated this forum into my lifestyle. On the bright side if something terrible does happen we will have the comfort of knowing what likely caused it, unlike the majority of the population.