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Yesterday's 18-hour blackout across most of Spain, Portugal, and parts of France - which follows a nearly 48-hour grid down event in Puerto Rico two weeks ago - is a reminder how easily our world can be turned upside down by an infrastructure failure, natural disaster, or malicious attack.
Six months ago 3.2 million Floridians were without power - many for days - following our second hurricane (first Helene, then Milton) in just two weeks. Helene spread similar damage and disruption well into Georgia and the Carolina's in late September.
Every four years the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) releases a report card on America’s infrastructure, and their most recent report (2025) warns that our cumulative GPA for infrastructure sits at only a C, and one of our most vulnerable infrastructures is the electrical grid (D+).
In December of 2018, in NIAC: Surviving A Catastrophic Power Outage, we looked at a NIAC (National Infrastructure Advisory Council) 94-page report that examined the United State's current ability to respond to and recover from a widespread catastrophic power outage.
What is a catastrophic power outage?• Events beyond modern experience that exhaust or exceed mutual aid capabilities
• Likely to be no-notice or limited-notice events that could be complicated by a cyber-physical attack
• Long duration, lasting several weeks to months due to physical infrastructure damage
• Affects a broad geographic area, covering multiple states or regions and affecting tens of millions of people
• Causes severe cascading impacts that force critical sectors—drinking water and wastewater systems, communications, transportation, healthcare, and financial services—to operate in a degraded state
(Excerpt From Dec 2018 NIAC Report)
Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012
July 23, 2014: If an asteroid big enough to knock modern civilization back to the 18th century appeared out of deep space and buzzed the Earth-Moon system, the near-miss would be instant worldwide headline news.
Two years ago, Earth experienced a close shave just as perilous, but most newspapers didn't mention it. The "impactor" was an extreme solar storm, the most powerful in as much as 150+ years.
"If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado.
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A ScienceCast video recounts the near-miss of a solar superstorm in July 2012.
Play it
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Regardless of how it happens (natural or deliberate), or the scale (local, regional, national), our fragile power grid is the Achilles heel of our nation, and our economy.
Living in hurricane country, I've been through these prolonged blackouts more times than I care to mention, and over the have built - and shared on this blog - some of my preparedness solutions.My primary goal is to have power for lights, radio, phone charging, and fans. Trying to run appliances, HVAC, or other high-draw devices is simply beyond my budget (but if you have enough money . . . . it can be done ).
For those on a budget, there are two easy ways to go. 1) Prebuilt off-the-shelf USB powered devices (radios, lights, fans, etc.) along with one (or more) solar panels or 2) a do-it-yourself 12 volt system with a larger solar panel.
Although pre-built power stations (e.g. Jackery, EcoFlow, Bluetti, etc.) are an option, they can be pricey, and if one breaks, you don't have many options beyond sending it back for repair. If you built it, and have a few spare parts, you should be able to repair it yourself.
After my last hurricane I endeavored to improve my 12-volt battery bank (see Post-Milton Improvements To My Power Preps)
The plastic carrying case was $12 at Harbor Freight, the 50 amp/hr battery was $109 on Amazon, and the rest of the build (solar charge controller, cables, lighted output panel, inverter) added about $60.
All in, including taxes, this can be assembled in a couple of hours for less than $200. I built a second, lighter weight and smaller version using a 20 amp/hr LiFePo4 battery (240 watt/hours) for less than $140. Something to keep on the bedside table.
And as always, the advantage during any emergency goes to those who prepare in advance.While these projects won't make life `normal' during a prolonged grid-down situation, a little bit of power beats no power at all.
