10 years after blackout the grid still isn’t safe.

I saw this and I thought it merited comment:

The U.S. electrical grid is better managed and more flexible a decade after its largest blackout but remains vulnerable to increasingly extreme weather, cybersecurity threats, and stress caused by shifts in where and how power is produced.

Many worry the grid isn’t fully prepared for the new and emerging challenges, even though an analysis conducted for The Associated Press shows maintenance spending has steadily increased since North America’s largest blackout.

“This job of reliability is kind of impossible, in the sense that there’s just so many things that could happen that it’s hard to be sure that you’re covering all the bases,” said William Booth, a senior electricity adviser with the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

via 10 years after blackout, U.S. grid faces new threats | The Detroit News.

Which is precisely why I have links to websites like Survival Reality.  For years Survivalists, and preppers were dismissed as wackadoodles. Nowadays, with the electrical grid being suspect to terrorist attacks, cyber attacks, natural disasters, and weather being brought on either because of weather cycles or man-made climate change; the wackadoodles are not seen as so crazy anymore.

The article goes to say that the grid is much more safe now. But, I just do not buy it. If it is so safe, then why is it every time a major storm blows through somewhere, the power goes out? It is because the grid itself is just as unsafe as it was before.

I realize that not everyone can afford to live “off the grid,” as it is quite expensive to do so. However, some simple planning in advance can prevent troubles down the road. Something as simple as a battery-powered flashlight and a decent cooler and even bottled water, can be quite helpful during a power outage. It is simply a matter of common sense, something that seems to be in short supply today.