Post by kriss on Feb 23, 2021 13:01:56 GMT -5
Lessons From Texas: US Infrastructure More Vulnerable Than We Ever Imagined
America's infrastructure is aging and crumbling. Our power grids were never intended to support so many people, our water systems are a complete joke, and it has become utterly apparent that we would be completely lost if a major long-term national emergency ever struck.
Texas has immense wealth and vast energy resources, but now it is being called a "failed state". If it can't even handle a few days of cold weather, what is the rest of America going to look like when things really start to get chaotic in this country?
At this point, it has become clear that the power grid in Texas is in far worse shape than anyone ever imagined.
When extremely cold weather hit the state, demand for energy surged dramatically. At the same time, about half of the wind turbines that Texas relies upon froze, and the rest of the system simply could not handle the massive increase in demand.
Millions of Texans were without power for days, and hundreds of thousands are still without power as I write this article.
And now we are learning that Texas was literally just moments away from "a catastrophic failure" that could have resulted in blackouts "for months"...
Texas' power grid was "seconds and minutes" away from a catastrophic failure that could have left Texans in the dark for months, officials with the entity that operates the grid said Thursday.
As millions of customers throughout the state begin to have power restored after days of massive blackouts, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which operates the power grid that covers most of the state, said Texas was dangerously close to a worst-case scenario: uncontrolled blackouts across the state.
I can't even imagine how nightmarish things would have eventually gotten in Texas if there had actually been blackouts for months.
According to one expert, the state really was right on the verge of a "worst case scenario"...
The worst case scenario: Demand for power outstrips the supply of power generation available on the grid, causing equipment to catch fire, substations to blow and power lines to go down.
If the grid had gone totally offline, the physical damage to power infrastructure from overwhelming the grid could have taken months to repair, said Bernadette Johnson, senior vice president of power and renewables at Enverus, an oil and gas software and information company headquartered in Austin.
For years, I have been telling my readers that they have got to have a back up plan for power, because during a major emergency the grid can fail.
And when it fails, it can literally cost some people their lives Most Americans don't realize that much of the rest of the world actually has much better power infrastructure than we do. Just check out these numbers...
In Japan, the average home sees only 4 minutes of power outages per year. In the American Midwest, the figure is 92 minutes per year. In the Northeast, it's 214 minutes; all those figures cover only regular outages and not those caused by extreme weather or fires.
As our population has grown and our infrastructure has aged, performance has just gotten worse and worse. In fact, things ran much more smoothly all the way back in the mid-1980s...
America is literally crumbling all around us, and it getting worse with each passing year.
Our water systems are another example.
In Texas, the cold weather literally caused thousands of pipes to burst. The damage caused by all of these ruined pipes is going to be in the billions of dollars.
Right now, we are being told that a total of 797 water systems in the state are currently reporting problems with "frozen or broken pipes"... Overall, approximately 7 million residents of the state live in areas that have been ordered to boil water, and it could take months for service to fully return to normal.
Without water, none of us can survive for long, and it is absolutely imperative that you have a back up plan in case your local system goes down.
Of course if your local water system completely fails, there won't even be a public spigot available for you to get water.
Shortages of food and other essential supplies are also being reported in Texas.
For Philip Shelley and his young wife, the situation became quite desperate fairly rapidly...
Philip Shelley, a resident of Fort Worth, told CNN that he, his wife Amber and 11-month-old daughter, Ava, were struggling to stay warm and fed. Amber is pregnant and due April 4.
"(Ava) is down to half a can of formula," Shelley said. "Stores are out if not extremely low on food. Most of our food in the refrigerator is spoiled. Freezer food is close to thawed but we have no way to heat it up."
So what would they have done if the blackouts had lasted for months?
All over the state, extremely long lines have been forming at local supermarkets. In some cases, people have started waiting way before the stores actually open...
This is happening in communities across Texas, and you can see videos of one of these "bread lines" all over youtube.
Of course those that had gotten prepared in advance did not have to wait in such long lines because they already had food.
Sadly, even though Joe Giovannoli had gotten to the supermarket so early, he later received really bad news...
A few minutes before the store opened its doors, a manager stepped outside and warned those waiting in line that supplies inside were low: No produce, no baked goods, not much canned food.
"We haven't had a delivery in four days," he said.
Remember, this is just a temporary crisis in Texas that is only going to last for a few days.
So what would happen if a severe long-term national emergency disrupted food, water and power systems for months on end?
All it took to cause a short-term "collapse scenario" in the state of Texas was some cold weather.
Eventually, much worse things will happen to our nation, and it has become clear that we are not ready.
Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission.
www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4574
America's infrastructure is aging and crumbling. Our power grids were never intended to support so many people, our water systems are a complete joke, and it has become utterly apparent that we would be completely lost if a major long-term national emergency ever struck.
Texas has immense wealth and vast energy resources, but now it is being called a "failed state". If it can't even handle a few days of cold weather, what is the rest of America going to look like when things really start to get chaotic in this country?
At this point, it has become clear that the power grid in Texas is in far worse shape than anyone ever imagined.
When extremely cold weather hit the state, demand for energy surged dramatically. At the same time, about half of the wind turbines that Texas relies upon froze, and the rest of the system simply could not handle the massive increase in demand.
Millions of Texans were without power for days, and hundreds of thousands are still without power as I write this article.
And now we are learning that Texas was literally just moments away from "a catastrophic failure" that could have resulted in blackouts "for months"...
Texas' power grid was "seconds and minutes" away from a catastrophic failure that could have left Texans in the dark for months, officials with the entity that operates the grid said Thursday.
As millions of customers throughout the state begin to have power restored after days of massive blackouts, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which operates the power grid that covers most of the state, said Texas was dangerously close to a worst-case scenario: uncontrolled blackouts across the state.
I can't even imagine how nightmarish things would have eventually gotten in Texas if there had actually been blackouts for months.
According to one expert, the state really was right on the verge of a "worst case scenario"...
The worst case scenario: Demand for power outstrips the supply of power generation available on the grid, causing equipment to catch fire, substations to blow and power lines to go down.
If the grid had gone totally offline, the physical damage to power infrastructure from overwhelming the grid could have taken months to repair, said Bernadette Johnson, senior vice president of power and renewables at Enverus, an oil and gas software and information company headquartered in Austin.
For years, I have been telling my readers that they have got to have a back up plan for power, because during a major emergency the grid can fail.
And when it fails, it can literally cost some people their lives Most Americans don't realize that much of the rest of the world actually has much better power infrastructure than we do. Just check out these numbers...
In Japan, the average home sees only 4 minutes of power outages per year. In the American Midwest, the figure is 92 minutes per year. In the Northeast, it's 214 minutes; all those figures cover only regular outages and not those caused by extreme weather or fires.
As our population has grown and our infrastructure has aged, performance has just gotten worse and worse. In fact, things ran much more smoothly all the way back in the mid-1980s...
America is literally crumbling all around us, and it getting worse with each passing year.
Our water systems are another example.
In Texas, the cold weather literally caused thousands of pipes to burst. The damage caused by all of these ruined pipes is going to be in the billions of dollars.
Right now, we are being told that a total of 797 water systems in the state are currently reporting problems with "frozen or broken pipes"... Overall, approximately 7 million residents of the state live in areas that have been ordered to boil water, and it could take months for service to fully return to normal.
Without water, none of us can survive for long, and it is absolutely imperative that you have a back up plan in case your local system goes down.
Of course if your local water system completely fails, there won't even be a public spigot available for you to get water.
Shortages of food and other essential supplies are also being reported in Texas.
For Philip Shelley and his young wife, the situation became quite desperate fairly rapidly...
Philip Shelley, a resident of Fort Worth, told CNN that he, his wife Amber and 11-month-old daughter, Ava, were struggling to stay warm and fed. Amber is pregnant and due April 4.
"(Ava) is down to half a can of formula," Shelley said. "Stores are out if not extremely low on food. Most of our food in the refrigerator is spoiled. Freezer food is close to thawed but we have no way to heat it up."
So what would they have done if the blackouts had lasted for months?
All over the state, extremely long lines have been forming at local supermarkets. In some cases, people have started waiting way before the stores actually open...
This is happening in communities across Texas, and you can see videos of one of these "bread lines" all over youtube.
Of course those that had gotten prepared in advance did not have to wait in such long lines because they already had food.
Sadly, even though Joe Giovannoli had gotten to the supermarket so early, he later received really bad news...
A few minutes before the store opened its doors, a manager stepped outside and warned those waiting in line that supplies inside were low: No produce, no baked goods, not much canned food.
"We haven't had a delivery in four days," he said.
Remember, this is just a temporary crisis in Texas that is only going to last for a few days.
So what would happen if a severe long-term national emergency disrupted food, water and power systems for months on end?
All it took to cause a short-term "collapse scenario" in the state of Texas was some cold weather.
Eventually, much worse things will happen to our nation, and it has become clear that we are not ready.
Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission.
www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4574
