In a first, U.S. blames Russia for cyber attacks on energy grid

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions-energygrid/in-a-first-u-s-blames-russia-for-cyber-attacks-on-energy-grid-idUSKCN1GR2G3

>>plans

Ride it out.

Batteries, propane, candles, food all stockpiled. Water can be stockpiled on short notice.

You know, if Russia is just doing one quarter of what we're blaming on them those fuckers have been BUSY.

>grid

Look at Puerto Rico as a model.  I figure a cyber attack on the grid would be at least partially contained, so there'd be help from the areas that still had power.  Even so, PR has been in a loooong nightmare.

The wildcard is physical damage to infrastructure.  If it's just a software shutdown I think it can be sorted out in a few weeks. But if it damages essential hardware of the national grid it could take awhile because my understanding is that some components are custom built and not even made in the US anymore. 

>some components are custom built and not even made in the US anymore. 
And take months to build new.

From what I've read, the primary transformers would take about a year to replace.

While cyber attacks are now a realistic concern (remember Stuxnet and the centrifuges in Irag?), I still think they're going to be more regional than nationwide.
http://www.businessinsider.com/zero-days-stuxnet-cyber-weapon-2016-7

A Carrington Event, however....

QuoteMost massive solar flares do NOT send us "back to the stone age," as the doomsayers warn. We've weathered some powerful solar flares in 2010-2011, and we'll weather many more with little or no disruption. Just how likely is it that we might get hit with a dangerous CME as big as the 1859 flare, and how seriously should we take warnings and precautions?

As one scientist puts it, "Extreme events like the 1859 Carrington Event are 1-in-100-year probabilities, about the same probability as a storm of the level of Katrina hitting New Orleans – and New Orleans did not build their defenses to withstand the extreme-but-unlikely magnitude."

https://owlcation.com/stem/massive-solar-flare-1859

From a national security perspective, decentralized household level wind/solar seems smart.
/added: as long as it isn't all hooked up to WIFI.

Britain 'four meals away from anarchy' if cyber attack takes out power grid...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/britain-apos-four-meals-away-060000661.html

>Britain 'four meals away from anarchy'

Sounds about right for the US, too.  (Durham, NC would be 2 meals away.)

QuoteBack then, a crime rampage broke out as people filled the pitch-black streets, looting and setting stores ablaze.
All across Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, more than 1,000 fires were set -- 60 of them major. Nearly 2,000 properties were vandalized, two people died and 436 police officers were injured, a government study says.
"For the looters, vandals and arsonists, it was Christmas in July, a fiesta, a carnival, a holiday,"

New York power outage turned into a crime rampage on the same day 42 years ago - CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/14/us/new-york-city-power-outage-42-years-trnd/index.html