Turn the power off and the world goes batshit crazy

[jwfuhrman]

Had a massive storm roll thru Northeast Indiana Friday afternoon. Sustained winds 82mph with gusts up to 95. This storm last for just over 45mins, and knocked out power to 450,000 people in the entire area(including across the state line in NW Ohio).

Fort Wayne, Indiana is the largest city in the NE Indiana area with over 200,000 population, largely minority.

From what a friend says, Friday afternoon was fine, until roughly 9pm when word got out it would be Wednesday at the earliest until power was restored..... seems the food stampers don't much like that news and started tearing thru anything and everything they could. People getting beat up and stabbed over a bag of ice or 2 liter of pop.

Combined that with the high homicide rate it has seen so far this year(over 10 already)..... no traffic lights, only parts of the town with power(some shopping centers and movie theaters never lost power), the heart of the city where most of the "trash" is was set back 100 years.

Take away the power, take away the food stamps and welfare, and you have crazies running around....

[SeriousStudent]

This surprises who?

[ccosby]

This surprises who?

Yea really. I mean how many bad storms have most people lived through? We have had bad storms in Va with the central area having a bunch of lines down. I stayed out of the city as much as possible but people were freaking out around here.

I simply fired up the generator and used my grill for a few days.

[Beat Trash]

This is another example of why one should have some preps on hand.

A very bad time to have to run to the grocery store.

I'd much rather just put on my barbecue gun, fire up the grill and relax.

[jwfuhrman]

doesnt surprise me any, but I think those that live in the cities, that usually have abso-****ing-lutely no clue as to how fragile society is, are just starting to figure it out.

I find it humorous is all. I've avoided Fort Wayne since Friday. I live in the middle of no where, between Fort Wayne and Decatur, IN(which is where I'm closer too), and even Decatur(town of 10,000) had some crazies, but it wasn't bad, the majority of the population here just deals with it.

[Stangman]

We got hit with that same storm & power is out everywhere.

The wife & I went to get something to eat the next afternoon & it was quite the eye opening experience for the wife. I was like "THIS is exactly the reason why I keep supplies on hand. Just imagine, this is not even 24 hours since this has happened, can you imagine if this was for any sustained period of time? It would get REALLY ugly, sooner rather than later"

I think it finally sank in with her, and she's much more on board with everything. Not that she was against it, she was on board with it before this, but it really opened her eyes to what can happen.

[PA PATRIOT]

It does not matter what social class one belongs to if you cut off the luxury's of life such as electric, water and the easy resupply of food at the corner market then the coddled will panic in short order.

Just make sure if you run a generator that it is secured with a large diameter cable or cut resistant chain and your anchor point is solid as the last time the power went down in my area generator theft was rampant.

[Ready.Fire.Aim]

Three days without food (9 meals) or water due to no electricity is the assumed tipping point to beginning social breakdown.

My state, Texas, has deregulated electricity and as a result there are very low power margins and generating stations are foregoing maintenance due to losing money in the market. Rolling Blackouts are predicted for this summer by the state authorities.

Grocery Stores only have the inventory on their shelves and gas stations have about one half day supply if all try to fill up at once. The nearest town of any size to me is 17,000. Once in a nearby town a popular gas station owner shut down his pumps , I cant remember why. Rumors flew rampant and by sundown every gas station in the town of 17k had their tanks drained, all from fear purchasing. Happened about ten years ago.

It is worth being ready for a 14 to 30 day event. That is a high probability scenario.

[hatidua]

It does not matter what social class one belongs to if you cut off the luxury's of life such as electric, water and the easy resupply of food at the corner market then the coddled will panic in short order.

....some social classes/subcultures make the descent into chaos faster than others. Observe just about any natural disaster and a pattern emerges in which certain groups resort to looting, vandalism, and become general menaces to society well before other groups, in the same town/city.

[Caduceus]

....some social classes/subcultures make the descent into chaos faster than others. Observe just about any natural disaster and a pattern emerges in which certain groups resort to looting, vandalism, and become general menaces to society well before other groups, in the same town/city.

I wonder, though, if that's along race lines, or financial lines? I would assume financial lines, but stereotypes tend to override that distinction.