https://youtu.be/YPJPnMKpSws American version! Although not as good as the British version. Opsec MAG and fortifications are key

I found this interesting, but a bit farfetched. I don't think the situation would deteriorate as quickly as is depicted (no appreciation for the rule of threes). It does however underline how exposure to people you come in contact with can cause a negative or positive effect on your ability to survive. Failure to apply good judgment will affect your ability to succeed. People should learn the basic skills. Thanks for the posting.

Wayne, I think it will depend on how wide spread (adjoining cities) and season. I wouldn’t want to be in Toronto, Scarborough, Winnipeg etc in the summer on day two or three. You would have looting. Suburbia and of course rural areas would be fine., but on day four and onwards, suburbia would start to get testy.

During 98 ice storm, a friend of mine owned a guard company and they had to put two men in a car 24/7 to stop people from stealing generators out in the country being used to power up small bell boxes. .
Ice storm of 98 was interesting lesson. Farmers who worked around equipment their entire lives were so stressed they forgot to check engine oil levels and were burning out tractors running PTO ( power takeoff) generators. We had acquaintances who were engineers and teachers and they were drinking water from sump pump pit and thought that was ok. Guess they forgot that septic field was just outside their home and likely leaching into ground water they were drinking. People were having generators pinched, a couple of house fires from stoves and fireplaces catching fire, near deaths from generators running outside but fumes creeping back in from roof soffits.

We had phone after a week and that helped, first week was a bitch because I would be paged and then have to drive to gas station ten minutes away and call operator and get them to make calls.always remember standing in a phone booth freezing and trying to deal with security issues. Cell towers were all down and no internet. For people today to not have a phone would be fun to watch.

Cities would be one hell of a mess on day four, old people stuck in apartments with elevators not working, people needing medicines, canceled surgeries, no pay checks, alcoholics and drug user panicking, hospitals jammed to the gills, looting of businesses. Roads would be a parking lot with stranded cars having run out of gas and accidents due to stressed out people. People having heart attacks and no police or ambulances to come fetch the corpse. There’s a fun thing to contemplate, seeing and smelling a loved one tucked in a room with temps at 34C. Apartment habitants would have some pleasant odours creeping under the doors and fluids dripping on them from above. Imagine the don valley and 401 jammed with cars at ten PM! Where would they go for water and food? If in the winter, how would they stay warm? You could easily have a million people in that situation. Where would all the workers in downtown Toronto go? By the time they realized the blackout isn’t going to be over, they will have drank what water they had.

stuck at the office and unable to pick children up from daycare would cause great stress. Subways would be another fun experience ( reason why one should always have flashlight, knife, meds... in a small EDC pack or purse. women in high heels won’t go far and bare feet will turn bloody real quick.

The absence of any truthful messages from gov would be worsened by the fact people wouldn’t even be able to hear them because cell, phone and internet would be down! That would lead to good people getting into cars and getting into trouble when they were told there is no help.

Nope, a blackout in a a few adjoining cities in canada would not be a pleasant site on day 2. MI5 had an expression, three meals to chaos and I think that would be pretty accurate.

A real danger to safety would exist. I don't believe that 48 hours would cause the problems depicted in the video to occur on mass.

Most households have supplies for a couple of days. Milk, juice and pop in the fridge, apples, bags of chips, bread, cans of soup, etc. Added to this is 40 plus gallons of water in the hot water heater and surface water available in many communities. The majority of people can survive two weeks without any food without serious consequence. As you stated, medications are an issue, but not a major one within a two day period.

You mentioned the Don Valley Pkwy and Toronto. There's the Don River and Lake Ontario. Fresh water shouldn't be a problem, Lakes and rivers are plentiful. No worries. Fire departments could pump tons of water to assist. Lots of Police and emergency services.

I'm not saying that looting wouldn't happen. Many people would act in a manner that danger was perceived rather than realized or would want to take advantage of the situation. Sanitation would be a major issue in the long-run and people would behave less rationally.

I just don't believe the world would fall apart within two days. I've been without power for a 7 day period during Hurricane Juan (wife with 3 children), thousand were without power for up to three weeks. Nothing of the magnitude depicted in the video occurred.

That said, in time, there's no doubt that a major city would be in a world of hurt. In the words of the late John Denver: Thank God I'm a Country Boy!

When you consider all the city and suburban people who are on welfare, assisted living, on unemployment or working poor, you need to understand their day to day food supply reserves. As noted below, throw in alcohol, opioids, crack.... and you have in a city, perhaps 35-45% of the population who due to daily police interventions, availability of drugs, food banks, money lending stores etc a populace who will be strung out within a day to day and a half.
One also needs to be truthful and not overlook all the executive types who are addicted to street and prescribed drugs. These are people who maybe doctors, water filtration engineers, people operating government emergency centres etc.

I was involved in a gov project and when I was interviewing people and seeing what they had or didn’t have, it was flipping mind boggling as to how I’ll prepared they were. No clue as to who or how staff would get in during a large scale emergency, no idea who was going to be able and stay and actually do the job. I said, do you know who has an obligation to be home. If they have to leave, you lose half your staff. I was told they had two weeks fuel for Gen,but upon review, I found they were lucky to have 12 hours.! No food or accommodations for any staff to stay in the building and perform the emergency services they were expected to do! In short, a lot of nice chairs and clocks on the walls but flip all in real world disaster. So that’s a supposedly organized lot who were going to take care of the masses. They couldn’t take care of themselves let alone millions of citizens!!!

No, by day two in a city, you would have some very angry, twitchy folks in a city or burbs. Take stock of all the poverty palaces within a two mile radius of your home, drive around their neighbourhood at 11 pm and see what is going on. Would you get out of the car and go for a walk there? Likely not. In an emergency, they would be looking to score some good and your suburban home is an easy walk.

If one is stuck on an expressway and decides to walk home, are you going to be walking through these neighbourhoods? Expressways, often run through lower end of town so factor that in. How many homeless shelters are there in a city core and are a mere one thousand feet away from multi million dollar homes or condos?

Unless you were in a car or literally bolted from your home in one upon the lights going out, you would not likely be able to drive out of a city to your bug out location. You have maybe 15 minutes to scrape by the inevitable accidents or congested off ramps. Remember all the off ramps will have street light casusing

Wayne, you are once more correct about what you, me and other people on this board would do. And like you, thank god I am a country boy!

However, that is not the case with most people. Half intelligent folks will be fine for a few days or even a week. That is if left alone to do their thing and not bothered by scum.

I can guess all I wish, but only time will tell. I am pretty informed on readiness plans and know enough to say you best have a big Rabits foot in your pocket if your not prepared. People will go from, oh this won’t last long, to well I heard the gov has it under control, to we best find more food, to let’s see what I can take. Imagine having a daughter studying in downtown Toronto and your on the farm. Would you feel she is safe because she has some food in the Aprtment or would you be concerned.? I would be flipping out and that’s with a smart daughter who would look at getting water from a creek and filtering it with her camping supplies, but your average 19 year old! Best of luck. Let’s say her and two other girlfriends trot on down to said creek and bump into a few inner city punks on day three. Not good, not good at all. Even the man of the apartment goes down for water, he probably won’t make it back. Of course twenty men from a neighbourhood could band together and go fetch water but either way, it will not be pretty at all. One week of no power in a city is not something I want to experience.

Hopefully people are developing some really good plans for where they live or can hopefully get to. I just know that People’s plans are often very, very optimistic and usually fall very short on real world activity. And I am talking supposed security professionals, not your average civilian. I shudder at how many times I have heard “ oh but we will get help from...” or that’s not going to happen. During Y2K planning, I had a hotel tell me they would keep the garage doors closed to keep heat in the underground parking so sprinkler pipes wouldn’t freeze. I told the guy, if I am at the door in my truck wanting to get out, you best step aside because I will drive over you to get to my family. I.m a nice guy but don’t get between me and safety of my family. People who have never experienced vilolence and street survival, do not understand how fast things can change. Posts on these boards are great and tons of good info on supplies, work arounds etc. I think it would also be helpful if people took a few nights and drove around looking at the types of people in their area, scout out often unused little side roads that they may be able to use to skirt traffic congestion or a gang, look at your neighbors more and try sizing them up from the perspective of a future threat. You need to spot the family with the two delinquent males and drunk father who you just know will be trouble. How many of them are there around you and who can you count on to help form a little protective unit of your own.

Keep in mind People’s stress levels will make them vulnerable to mistakes and you will need to watch over them so they don’t crack, remain functional and an asset to ones efforts.

so yes, nice, smart and thinking people can easily get through a week with. Ow power ( medical issues aside) but I don’t see to many of that being available in a city on day two of a full out electrical grid collapses affecting Toronto and all the cities surrounding it for 100 clicks. That’s maybe 7miliion people of all manner of nice to outright evil

We my 11;1ost below, some text got nuked.

I was saying that when on expressways, the off ramps would get jammed up due to traffic lights being out. This would not only prevent people from getting off but back up even a flowing expressway. Add accidents, cars running out of gas or breakdowns and one will be screwed within maybe ten to thirty minutes.

Staying off them will likely be best bet. One should know how and not be afraid of jumping a curb to get around traffic and never worry about their paint job!!! Just keep going and don’t worry about hitting things. I won’t say people but if a gang was blocking you, I wouldn’t wouldn’t roll down my windows and ask them to pretty please step aside. It will take nerves to go against all we have been brought up to believe as civilized behaviour but one should keep that in mind when confronted by danger.

In addition to taking shooting classes, I would highly recommend people take a tactical driving course. Really get the chance to side swipe another car and not yell out, “sorry” learn how to drive offensively.

Speaking of driving, do you have good aggressive treads on your car? They will be helpful if cutting across a grassed median on a highway or ramp.

Look at these opportunities when going about normal days drive to and from work. Could your car and you make the curb and know how t9 maintain speed to cut across deep grass or six inches of snow. Do you know how to recognize before you hit it, an obstruction that your vehicle couldn’t handle. Sounds funny, but make sure your windshield fluids are always topped up, you get flying on the windshield, you will need to get it off. How to take a ditch at the right angle so you don’t get hung up. If you have an SUV or car, go out and test what you and it can do. Speed and angle of approach are all very important in emergency driving situations.
Apologies if long winded, I just have a desire to help. Cheers and have a great weekend

Great posts people! You both have many points that are valid and we should head both your advice and practice our skills and prepare like nobodies coming to help! I agree with Wayne that a reg power outage won't cause a mass panic but a very large area like a whole state or a major city like Los Angeles/ would deteriorate much faster. Clarence is right also when he says the poor/criminal element would quickly cause havoc to commercial stores. What worries me is the water. Always the water, then the cold. I gave 14 water machine jugs to my friend so he would be somewhat ready for a 2 week emergency. He has a well that needs to be purified to be sure like mine. You can't count on wells in a power outage and most would have no way to purify the hot bacteria filled hot water tank water. Even if they knew that was a possibility. Anyways they've used them all and even though their having their second kid soon have no way to ensure those kids can drink all they need. I did the same with my mum and she's slowly using hers up although I think she'll keep 3-4 but we'll see. She has diet coke for a month so I guess pop will keep you alive too. I just bought 4 more water mashing bottles for my MAG buddies cache at my house along with the 1ltr pop bottles I'm going to wash out with javex and fill. We have a camping filter and water stored for 3-4 weeks with a stream/ ditch in the back yard. I told my buddy not to come to my house if theirs an emergency. I might offer him to buy/ store water at my house before an emergency because His girlfriend thought it was much. Everyone does till they really need it. Really tough to decide if you prepare for your extended family/ friends or run them off if need be in a situation. How many Ppl could run off their own mum? I can't so I must prep for her to. It adds up fast and what about babies/ children or brothers and sisters. It's wrong but if you can't run them off. You need to be preparing for them long term now!

I gave my friend the link for this post; The choice is his now!

Good points protector about not being able to run off family or close friends.
To help ease the pain and shock of the cost, maybe we look at these people as not just family but force multipliers. Mom may not be able to till a field etc, but she does have eyes to help keep watch and they can prepare food etc.

As to deterioration of things in a large blackout, I for one have little faith in any goverment being of any significant use to people in the rural areas, so it’s up to us. I pity a city or suburban resident or someone stuck in town when it happens. My biggest fear is my wife or daughter caught downtown. If cell works, I could fetch them at a certain point on my ATV or even my sled. But I need comms to rendezvous with them.

I have told them, to drive hard and fast and not worry about car or laws. I think I have drilled it into them enough that they would and they are all good drivers who know their cars. Wife has a suberu and that is an awesome little 4wd, daughter didn’t listen to dad and got a regular car. grrrr. Other daughter is able to hike and get to us. All three have car bags and all keep tanks no lower than half full!

Have a great weekend and if you haven’t already done so, do a little recce of your neighbourhood and look at who is around you, cars or old pickups parked in yard or driveway, house needing repair, junk in yards..... age of males, cloths, police cars seen responding to incidents...

Cheers

Everyone has extra food and 80% have a wood stove. The town is so small everyone is from a homesteading family. I want to get caches set up in case my family needs them to get home

Before I retired from the police department, I worked organized crime, narcotics, tactical, general patrol and traffic in the GTA. I even did a nine month stint as a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang. I'm well aware of the criminal element in a major city, from a police perspective and as a criminal beaten by the police. I've been in jail and have mingled with the dark side of Society. For a time, I lived as one of them.

That said, there's no 'boogie man' waiting to run amok when the lights go out. Yes, there's a criminal element. Surprisingly, they too have sons and daughters whom they care about. A power outage will make their criminal actions easier and the police's job more difficult. During an outage people will act differently and yes, the risks to the general public will increase.

To answer your question Clarence, I wouldn't worry about my daughter (if I had one; I had three sons) during a two-day power outage. Like my sons, she would be skilled enough to kick the crap out of most 200 pound men and survive for weeks in the forest with only a knife. 🙂

When a power outage took out NY City for 24 hours a few years back, there was looting, traffic was a disaster, but statistically it wasn't much to speak of. People got murdered, robbed and beaten. Just another day in Gotham. MVA's were up, but at the same time there were incredible feats of self-sacrifice. There were positives and there were negatives. People helped each other.

A power outage doesn't necessarily mean Armageddon or a Zombie apocalypse. It could just mean a few days without power. My money is on people helping one another for the first two-days. Although many don't trust government. I do trust those in our emergency services and our military to make a valiant effort to look after those in need. It will take over two days to overwhelm them. In the first two-days, you're largely dealing with inconvenience; this in-itself isn't life threatening.

All one needs to do, to get a hint of what would happen, is listen to the news after a brief event, or breakdown of even a small system in a medium-size or larger city. Boil water order/water treatment breaks down, a ton of people have no water stored and bottled water is sold out. Bridge closure. Winter storm. Power outage. Utilities/crews working to get things up again, but all you hear is whining about "what is the government doing about this?", yet nobody seems to feel sheepish that they had not even 2 days worth of food or water at home, nor any tools to dig themselves out or keep warm. In one group of friends (not close friends), I was surprised to discover that I am the only person who is not on psych meds. Those people would not do well in a crisis, esp if they ran out of their prescription.

Wonderful posts everyone.
My husband is disabled, so I do need a little help sometimes to get things done around here. That being said, we are extremely fortunate to have great neighbours and friends. One young gal we know, lives about an hour away from us. We get along really well as we have the same values and beliefs. We have discussed societal breakdown with her, and have come to the conclusion that if all Hell breaks loose, grab her daughter, load the car with all the food she has and get here as fast as she can. Her gentleman friend already lives a short 10 minute walk from us. (These folks built my new pantry and helped me fill and organize it), so they know 1st hand what we have, and do not talk to others about it. They will be bringing a bunch of their peps to keep here, as we have a secure place for their stuff. It's a good spot to keep foods that can't freeze. With them here, and our other neighbours, mostly being preppers, we have a good chance of surviving a blackout breakdown. With having a spring on the property, and a river, out our front door, and a water purifier on sight (with extra filters on order), and all the dried dood that I have put up, we'll be ok. The young man that I mentioned is really into pressure canning of anything edibal. His canners are huge. He has two, and I have one that he calls tiny. Mine does 7 quarts, his do 10 at once. He has the single propane burners for each. I have 3 freezers full of meat and stuff, so we would can up everything we could. He buys his canning bottles by the pallet.
We are truley blessed, living where we do.
Thanks for letting me babble on.
KK