You may have already read or seen a variety of articles about what would happen if the grid went down or how 90% of people would die. You may also think that many of those articles are far-fetched and designed to instill fear in readers rather than seriously discuss the issue.
If that’s the case for you, then you may think the same about this article based on the title alone. But the purpose of this article is not to scare you or to spread so-called ‘doom and gloom,’ but rather to educate you on what very well could happen if the grid really went down and stayed down.
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If and when the grid goes down, it’s not going to be like a normal power outage. Not even close. A true grid-down situation would last much longer, perhaps weeks or months, and during that time, a lot of things are going to happen that you never would have imagined.
Here are ten scary things that would happen if the grid went down. Hopefully, this will remind you of how fragile our society actually is and inspire you to start preparing if you haven’t already.
1. No More Supply Trucks
When the supply trucks stop, no stores and restaurants are going to get resupplied. It’s not that it matters much anyway, because those stores are going to be looted and then abandoned afterward anyway.
This will guarantee that within a few short hours of the grid going down, life will already change dramatically because you will no longer be able to resupply yourself with the things that you need. Suddenly, you’ll be wondering why you hadn’t stocked up like you knew you should have been doing all along.
If you haven’t already, consider reading our beginner’s guide to emergency food storage.
2. All The Stores Would Close
As was just mentioned, without the resupply trucks, stores and restaurants are most certainly going to be shut down. The only real question is, when will looting occur?
In some places, you can fully expect looting and rioting to occur within just a few hours of the grid going down, and perhaps even sooner than that. People are going to freak out, and everyone will recognize that it may be their last chance to get resupplied.
Once some people start looting, many more will join in just for the heck of it, and that’s not an exaggeration. Mobs and looters and raiding parties will form quickly and the general breakdown of society around you will be rapid. One moment things will be as they always were, and in the next everything will be a war zone.
If this happens, you’ll need to avoid the riots and get home fast.
3. Schools Would Be Shut Down
Schools will be shut down, even though you can also guarantee they will hold onto any students in session during the early stages of the grid down situation. It’s incredibly unlikely that school administrators and educators will simply release children into the chaos, making it the responsibility of the parents to show up and retrieve their kids in schools.
4. Commerce Would Cease
This is one that you’re going to want to think about. A grid down situation is seriously going to lead to a complete and utter breakdown of commerce as we know it. Banks will no longer be open, ATM’s won’t work, and debit and credit cards will no longer be of any use.
Will you still be able to use cash? Possibly. At the very least, you’ll be able to use it in the early hours of the disaster before things get really bad. You can head on down to your local store and buy as much stuff as you can get if you know things are about to head south.
Beyond that though, it’s difficult seeing cash being of much use for anything. The reason is simple: it has no value other than what people attach to it, and it’s not something we can use to stay alive. In the event of hyperinflation, where the individual dollar will lose value rapidly, it will be of literally no use at all other than as an alternative to Kleenex or toilet paper.
The only type of real commerce that will be going on after then will be bartering, or where people exchange certain goods that we need to survive for other goods. For example, you may be able to trade a box of ammo for several rolls of toilet paper (both of those things are going to be in very high demand following a major disaster).
5. Gasoline Would Be Gone
This is a big one. Gasoline is going to become one of the most precious commodities once people are unable to get any more of it at gas stations.
Everything from cars to motorcycles to ATVs to generators all run on gasoline. We’ve all seen post-apocalyptic movies and TV shows where literally thousands of cars are lying uselessly abandoned by the side of the road. Well, that really won’t be all too far from reality.
In short, once the gasoline supply runs out, we’ll lose everything that runs on gasoline. The only gasoline we’ll have left is what you have stored and what you will be able to barter from other people (and you can guarantee that it’s going to command a very high price).
6. Cell Service Would Stop
Your phone may still work after a grid down, but it’s honestly not going to do you much good if you aren’t able to use it to access cell service or the internet.
It’s one reason why investing in other communication devices will be so important, such as a HAM radio or a CB radio.
Once the Internet and cell service goes down, communication, as we know it in general, is going to get very different (and not at all easier).
7. Post Offices Would Close
You can say goodbye to ordering products from Amazon or sending or receiving mail from people when the grid goes down. This will greatly impact the way that we communicate with people long distance as well.
8. Air Conditioning Won’t Work
Is a lack of air conditioning life-threatening by any means? It depends. In the middle of summer, it very well could be if you don’t take steps to keep yourself cool without AC. At the very least it will be very uncomfortable. And it’s not just air conditioning you won’t have anymore…
9. Heaters Wouldn’t Work
Just as the summer months are going to get really uncomfortable due to the lack of air conditioning, so will the freezing cold winter months due to the lack of heat.
In fact, the lack of heat is going to be a far worse problem than the lack of air conditioning and really could be life-threatening if it ever gets particularly cold outside.
This is why you’re going to want to stock up on as much firewood, propane bottles for heaters, and candles as you can. The firewood will be good if you have a firewood stove inside your home, but even if you lack the stove, you can still use it for getting a small and controllable fire outside.
Meanwhile, propane-run heaters will also be good to stock up on and cost less than five dollars each on average, and you can even use candles for warmth and light as well. Finally, be sure to invest in plenty of warm blankets and sleeping bags to go with it.
Here are some other ways to stay warm without a heater.
10. No More Running Water
This is another big one. You won’t be able to run the dishwasher or the washing machine anymore, nor would you be able to take a shower, run the bath, water your plants, or even fill up a sink.
This is why when you stockpile water, you need to stockpile both drinking and cleaning/personal hygiene water. The recommended amount will be at least one gallon of water per person per day. One half of that gallon will be for drinking, and the other half will be for cleaning and personal hygiene.
Water filters and purification tablets will also be immensely important because when you do manage to procure more water for drinking purposes from other sources, it may not be safe to drink. Drinking unsafe water can oftentimes be more unsafe than not drinking any water at all, which will make a water filter device even more important and critical to own.
Here’s a guide to collecting rainwater and some ways to purify water.
Zombies? Really? I know things are going to be bad but zombies?
I don’t think he means literal zombies, just desperate people who want to steal your things.
Something else I was told previously- I know someone who worked as a nuclear mechanic in the Navy for awhile. He said that if the grid goes down, all the nuclear power plants will meltdown because even if they are taken off line, they continue to decay and they have to be continuously cooled. If no water can be pumped in, no coolant. So we would have hundreds of Fukishimas. I wonder if this is true and if it is, why does no one ever mention this when we talk about losing the grid?
That is very interesting and a scary thought. With that many meltdowns, half the country could get radiation poisoning.
in a true long term grid down situation a lot of people are going to be dead fast, if they cant find clean drinking water within a couple of days they will be dead by day 3 or 4.
Well these are some bad things, but it gets worse in a grid down scenario. I enjoyed the article.
Those were the nice things that will happen when the grid goes down. There are not so nice things that happen at the same time. First, government and all services such as fire, police, utilities, ambulance service, etc. will cease to function as employees scramble to secure and feed their families and we will be without the rule of law for some period of time…months? years?
People in their homes, in hospitals, in retirement homes, etc. who are on life support systems, dialysis machines, etc. will all die…quickly.
People needing life sustaining medications begin to die as they run out of meds.
Beggars are everywhere. Can you say no to the mother with three starving children at your door knowing they’re going to die and probably violently?
Bodies begin to pile up because there is nobody to bury them.
The pumps that move sewage from your home to the treatment plant stop…sewage quickly backs up into people’s homes because people don’t know not to use the toilets, sinks, etc. Think disease and more deaths.
Zombies, many with guns, begin to appear about two weeks in as food and water supplies are exhausted and children begin to die of starvation/dehydration. Desperate parents do desperate things.
Have you figured out what to do with all those dead bodies yet? More disease and more deaths. Rats, mice, fleas, etc. will proliferate.
Dogs will form packs, will consume the bodies and will eventually begin to hunt. The streets will become very dangerous and getting water, food, etc. will be a challenge.
You need to prepare food for your family. How are you going to do that safely? Can you build a fire and cook food without attracting the Zombies? Do you have any wood? Once you burn the furniture, where will you get more? If you’re still in the city, your odds of survival are slim.
I know that’s not a very pretty picture but you must think about those things and how you would survive in such a world. There is safety in numbers and community will provide your best chance of survival but don’t wait for a grid down situation to try to develop those relationships.
Good luck. . .
Lots of great points. I’ll need to come back and update the article with your suggestions.
What you wrote is true. We just experienced Hurricane Michael and I can tell you that we did experience all these things…at least for a while. Deliveries ceased….yes, we have thousands of tons and tons of tree debris. Immediately after the storm 90 percent of the roads and all the major highways were totally blocked. It was NOT the government that cleared them. It was us; neighbors helping neighbors, at least for the first part.
There was nothing open. For the first week after the storm: No stores. No place to buy food or water or ice. There was no electricity. There was no water but more importantly there was no lift…to get the sewer water out. Some sewers backed up into low lying homes. And remember, many people evacuated beforehand so numbers in the area were down. No phones. Land lines died due to lines being down and buildings housing equipment being smashed to smitherines. No cell service as towers, major towers, fell to the ground. I had 2 ham type radios…nobody was broadcasting. There were zero emergency services for 3+ days. Nobody could leave due to roads being blocked. We had fuel for cars if we filled up before the storm hit( which I did) but there was no place to go. There was no 911. If you got hurt you were on your own or as in our case, we had nice first aid kit. Schools were closed for a month…so kids on free lunch had problems. On day 3 we heard coast guard helicoptors lifting out some old sick people. All AT MS were down. It took banks and credit unions weeks to get up and running. In aftermath when some restraunt facilities opened it was all cash only as internet took 90 days to recover. Some folks still don’t have internet and it is January. Both area hospitals sustained severe damage. One has closed. The other is only recently taking patients 3 months after. Immediately after the storm as I said before there was no 911. No way to get law enforcement help, fire help, medical help. I wore my gun…openly. never used it but when strangers came walking by my heavily damaged home they kept walking.
Drug stores got looted. I didn’t see any other stores looted but there could have been. Honestly though, most big warehouse like buildings fell in and we’re demolished. Peoples homes got looted if there was nobody looking out. But…neighbors looked out for each other. Military veterans are AWESOME btw.
The first 3 days post storm food was not an issue. Everyone was grilling the contents of freezers and sharing with neighbors…being in shock I don’t recall ever wanting to eat but we were doing more physical labor than most of us have done in years and we made each other fuel their bodies. There was no AC. Florida was hot and steamy after the storm and you couldn’t get a shower. There are lots of swimming pools here but most had trees and tree parts and mud in them…but there was ample water for flushing.
Generators…people with them kept their food longer than those without…but fuel became an issue.
Traffic lights. As roads were cleared there were no traffic lights. In florida that means treat intersections like 4 way stop. Most did, some didnt. It only takes 1 idiot. However for the most part people were civil, kind, helpful. Exceptions…people with addictions. Day 3 was pretty ugly. But that is when security teams from dhs started showing up. Storm hit Wednesday and it was Friday before we heard the first siren. Lots of FEMA vehicles with sirens. Not sure what exactly they did…certainly nothing for me, but the blasted their sirens. I would add buying a plastic sign for vehicle saying something like “relief” and getting blue emergency lights. Normally they are illegal. They should be illegal. But there was no law enforcement and anyone who had blue lights could get through traffic unquestioned.
How will that effect the use of a gas log in the fire place?
In a true “grid down” situation, I’d think the legalities of water harvesting would be a minor concern. Who is going to be able to get to you to enforce any laws, let alone become aware of any so-called violation?
Still, it is wise to prepare a way to clandestinely collect it before it becomes a vital necessity. (Perhaps down spouts that disappear into a wall, as if going to a drain field?) if you are REALLY serious, you might try to research the federal law that used to be called ‘Western Water Rights” – now codified out of existence as far as i was able to determine. However, many years ago i took a copy to the Salt Lake City, UT water resources department and was told that Salt Lake City did not recognize the authority of the Federal law! I.E. they refused to comply! However, as a side note i was told that the cost of litigating against a small volume collector was impractical and that they generally took no action. THEN, many years later, a car sales company advertised that they used rain water collection to wash their cars. The city stood up and took note, and filed a law suit – the auto sales company filed a counter suit and a compromise was reached where (if memory serves) the dealer agreed to (as they already were) return the used water back to the ground. Face Saved – but the legal action set a precedent. Sorry, not sure, but I think it was Menlove motors vs Salt Lake (city? County?) Circa 1980? (Where I live NOW, no problem – two streams and water rights, and a remote back country location to boot.)
Thanks! I’m a bit new to this stuff – how will we know the grid is down versus a normal power outage? Like, how will people know to start rioting within hours?
I forgot….hospitals and doctor’s offices would also be shut down. If you are on any sort of medical device to keep you alive that requires electricity, death would soon follow. This would include home oxygen generators unless you can hook it up to solar or wind power. And I don’t know if any hospitals in my area that have solar or wind generators dedicated just for them.
If the grid totally goes down across the country, and you have a Generac style generator, don’t count on it working. Too many things requiring electricity (and computers) along the pipeline to keep it flowing. It is why I get a kick out of Generac’s commercial! They will ONLY work if the power at the “routing stations” along the pipeline is on! Don’t know if any of them along the line are solar powered so they will keep working. And if you have it hooked up to propane….it will be on until the tank runs dry in a total grid down situation.
Here is an article on how the natural gas gets to your home, and the generator.
https://www.aga.org/natural-gas/delivery/how-does-the-natural-gas-delivery-system-work-/
Best survival website on the web. I have been prepping for several years and find this website ALWAYS has new info available. Kudos!
I appreciate the great advice and food for thought daily. There are many things I hadn’t even taken into consideration before reading some of your articles. Thank you for all of the awesome info!