Cascading Consequences: Electrical Grid Critical Infrastructure Vulnerability

If there were a prolonged nationwide, multi-week or multi-month power failure, neither the federal government nor any state, local, tribal, or territorial government – acting alone or in concert – would be able to execute an effective response. This bleak outlook results from understanding that so many critical infrastructures depend on electricity. As such, effective recovery cannot be expected through top-down assistance alone. Without electric power, the goods and services essential to protect life and property would be at risk by day three or perhaps longer depending on preparedness levels. Consequently, it is vital that citizens, households, communities, businesses, and governments be as informed and prepared as possible.

This article was written by members of the InfraGard Electromagenetic Pulse (EMP) Special Interest Group (SIG), a national SIG whose mission is to inform communities how to mitigate the high-impact threat of long-term power and communications failure (greater than 30 days) which would lead to catastrophic, cascading losses of life-sustaining infrastructures and resources.

Content retrieved on 01 June 2018 (originally printed on 9 May 2018) from https://www.domesticpreparedness.com/resilience/cascading-consequences-electrical-grid-critical-infrastructure-vulnerability/