Power Outage Preparedness

We live in a technology-dependent society. Everywhere you turn, you see someone plugged into an electronic gizmo of some sort whether it’s a cell phone, MP3 player, tablet or all three rolled into one. What would happen if all that technology failed? How lost would we be as a society without electricity to run, re-charge and feed our gadget habit? We might just find out the answer to that question in a couple of months.

If you haven’t heard by now, the sun is supposed to wreck havoc with our lives at the end of this year with a long and severe solar storm. Although solar storms are cyclical and reoccur every so many years, the one predicted for the end of this year and continuing into next year is supposed to be the strongest we’ve seen in about one hundred and fifty years or so. Solar flares reaching beyond the sun’s gravity will emit particles that could shut down power grids all around the world. Evidently, the last solar storm of this magnitude disabled the entire telegraph network in the 1800s, causing more than a few of the telegraph machine to catch on fire.

Are we looking at a future that resembles the past or is this just another empty Y2K scare? I don’t know. What I do know is that we have a serious increase of people in the country who have a deep desire to learn ways to live more sustainable lifestyles, off the grid as much as possible, and that my own family has felt that same tug for quite a few years now. It makes me feel a little like Joseph. What I wouldn’t give to see the ultimate disaster survival plan he handed Pharaoh!

I teach a Living in Colonial Times class to second through fourth graders at a homeschool co-op. The kids are really starting to grasp how different life was without electricity, running water, and Wal-mart. Although we’ve made some big changes over the last couple of years to lessen our electric usage, teaching this class has me looking at things a little closer. What if I had to wash clothes by hand? Do I even know how?

When a hurricane took out our power for five days a couple of years ago, we survived just fine because we could just drive to another neighborhood that had power and do laundry at a Laundromat. Friends of ours across town let us come over for hot showers. Walking around an air conditioned mall a mile away provided relief from the midday heat. What if the next town over was without power, too? Now what?

For the record, I did not write this post to cause panic, only to get you to ponder a few things. How ready are you if something serious happens? I have to think that this nationwide Push for Preparedness has to mean something. I firmly believe that God will provide, but I also believe that sometimes what He provides is the conviction and motivation to be prepared, just as He did at the time of Joseph and Pharaoh.

Thanks for stopping by! I know I left a lot of open-ended unanswered questions in today’s post. But are you prepared for a global disaster? How about just a local one? No power, no water, no Wal-mart. All I know is that I might not be the most prepared person in the world, but I’m not running out of toilet paper!

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Betty

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