You have a sudden power outage affecting your entire city/town, how prepared are you, and how long will you "survive" not having electricity?

I will eat my neighbors raw if I have to.

Our generator will kick in within 30 seconds automatically, and has enough fuel to run the entire house for about 2 weeks.

My fiancée will be dead within two days

I'm living in an apartment on the 8th floor. Heating is geothermal heating (from a big geothermal plant owned by the city I live in). So no heating in winter. My second worry would be the food spoiling in the freezer. I'd probably move everything down into the car to drive to my family's place (that's a bit of work, 8th floor, no elevator) and then notice that my car is trapped inside the garage below our apartment block due to the electric garage doors not opening. I'd probably get some help from other people in the house opening them by hand (might involve dismounting of the electronics box).

In other words, in case of a longer city-wide outage I'm screwed.

In case it's a shorter one and my electric window blinds in the bedroom are still closed, I wouldn't worry and find someone to screw.

I think I'd be able to macgyver enough to get by for some weeks

The only prepper thing I have is an alcohol camping stove.

I have ~250Ah worth of charged lead-acid batteries in the garage. The only way to charge them would be my car.

I have a 50 liter compressor fridge/freezer that runs off 12V. It draws maybe 4Ah, so perishables would do fine.

Heating is en electric heat pump, so that's a no go. I have an inverter ready to hook up to the circulation pump to keep pipes from freezing. The Mrs has an obscene stash of tea candles, so I guess I'd pop some of those under some radiator pipes to heat that circulating water.

The water tower in town would dry out in a day or two. We've got a well with our neighbours for watering, but it's drinkable. I'd have to borrow the inverter for the pump to fill up jugs.

Did two weeks after Helene. Generators, UPSs, and self-hosted services kept us entertained and the security cams powered up. There was some rationing for three or four days until the gas stations got power but we were ready. By the second day we were running the air conditioner at night to sleep and didn't miss any football games on tv.

Probably pretty long. There’s plenty of wood and propane, dry food, and salt to preserve things.

Tons of food in the fridge that would do fine outside with current temps. House is gas heated. I'd say we'd be good until we ran out of food. Probably a month or two including stuff from the pantry. Stove top and oven is also gas.

Very little electricity though, but you dont need that to survive. I'll play with my tools if I get bored. Would suck without much light

Solar power on the roof, powerwall battery backup, and 3100 gallons of rainwater. All electric appliances here. We could go weeks without power.

I have a wood burning stove with peltier device powered fans to distribute the heat.

It gets hot enough to boil water so I can cook on it.

And I have about 4 days worth of continuous fire firewood.

So assuming that I couldn't just hop in the car and drive somewhere else I guess I would be okay for about 4 days.

As Hurricane Helene recently reminded me, pretty much nobody is prepared. Even the people/my family members who like to think they're prepared. Nope. Didn't really help.

I'm literally dead in about a week. All of my heating, cooking, and refrigeration are electric, and I have no backup supply or the means to safely add a backup. So I'd have no food, very little water, and I'd freeze to death.

I’ll be ok for a bit. My chest freezer will be good for several days, and my family room has a gas heater that doesn’t need electrical. Also gas stove top doesn’t need electrical, and I have a propane grill so cooking is set. For entertainment, I have books on kindle that should be good a couple weeks

Fridge, car, phone good for a day or so until batteries are used up - do we still have cell service? I’d try digging out my camping gear but hopefully didn’t leave fuel with that.

We have excellent power reliability here. I don’t think it’s gone more than 2 hours in the last 20 years

I have a fireplace, a spring, and laying hens. I'd be fine, just incredibly bored.

The longest power outage I've ever done was 2 weeks. The town kept the water and sewer going, we kept warm with a kerosene heater. My current house has a natural gas heater. I don't keep like gallons of water stored up but I have a camp stove and a gas grill, I can cook if I need to, and we have three vehicles fueled and ready.

I'm prepared for basically any natural disaster that leaves the state government in power. If it's so bad that the governor isn't around to give a press conference than I'm either also already dead or I'm going to be the guy that flies an F/A-18 into the alien's superlaser.

Used to love losing power during ice storms as a kid. Sure, I couldn't play Bassin's Black Bass on SNES, but my dad would stoke the fireplace and light up the extremely dangerous kerosine heater that smelled fucking awesome. Then we would chill with my mom on the couch and read Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

That kerosine heater never did blow the family up..

Been there, done that. I am currently in the home I inherited from my grandfather, and so I have a lot of old-fashioned things like a gas stove and a non-electric refrigerator. Only communication would be any issue.

About a month. We have a supply of water and since it’s winter stuff will stay frozen because I can put it outside in the shed. Plenty of wood to cook over. But after a month I’m screwed on that end. I do have a natural gas tank for a grill but the grill doesn’t work. So if I can find a grill to use that will extend my time.

The only problem: toilet. Not sure if water can keep going if there is no power at the water plant and water treatment plant. Maybe they run by solar.

Heating the house. There is a way to use the wood to heat the house. But it won’t be pretty. I don’t need to heat the whole house. Just a part of it.

Long enough to where if power hasn't come back by then, it's not coming back at all. And at that point, power isn't going to be the biggest problem.

Water heater holds ~40 gallons and that's easily drainable. Worse comes to worst, there's a creek at the back of my property.

We live in a large straw bale house in the country. We have a generator (and a dozen large gas cans which we rotate by filling our van then refilling the gas cans) which runs all the lighting circuits, the fridge and freeer, our propane in-floor radiant heat, water well, and our propane tanlkess DHW. We also have a wood stove in the center of the house that we can use to heat the house very effectively and more than a winter's worth of good, dry hardwood in an enclosed wood shed. We have ample supplies of food and other necessities.

Durign major weather events we leave our front door unlocked and our friends and neighbors know that they can come, bringing bedding and just find an open couch or floor space.

We'll be fine for a good long while

I've got 5000w worth of generators, two wood stoves, water heater and stove are gas, and we have about three months worth of food in feezers/pantry (we stocked up right before covid lockdowns and have kept up with it since). We would probably be good for a while, but we have a lot of family in the area that would shorten that by a bunch.

I live in a pretty dense urban center (São Paulo), so I just guess the emergency departments on the city are going to take care of us while the energy come back. I have the privilege to live in one of the nicest neighborhoods here, so our infrastructures is well maintained.

My family probably wouldn't make it past 3 weeks. We are dependent on rechargeable electronic insulin pumps. Pumps last 3-5 days. Can be recharged on a laptop, maybe 2-3 times. Can recharge in the car a few times. Our real problem is no food.

Probably indefinitely, as long as there was food and a source of unfrozen water that can be purified. I've gone camping in temperatures down past -20f for days on end. The cold sucks, but will not kill you as long as you're dressed for it, have a sleep system/shelter to keep you warm, and have enough food to fuel your body. Fuel/fire is downright luxurious in the cold, but not strictly necessary unless you have inadequate insulation from the cold and your body can't keep up with the heat loss.

It is less than a day until my home becomes unusable. I need the heating every day because it is winter. The heating runs on gas, but it also needs electricity.

This cannot kill me because the car is still working and the next town is only 10 minutes away.

Power outages around here are very rare, and usually shorter than 6 hours.

Why is no one talking about water?

I got a generator and some fuel, some rice and beans. Should last a couple if weeks. I feel like it us unrealistic to plan for longer. If there is a society wide collapse, it really doesn’t matter how much gas you have in your generator.

You'd hear me shout, "again?! Damn it".

I got a bunch of antique lamps and a wood fired stove. I also got a generator for the fridge and freezer. So I'll be fine until the cannibals come knocking. If the town runs out of gas I'll just cook everything and invite everyone.

Got an old wood stove that's not really in use, but could be used for heat and cooking. Not entirely sure if could get dry wood quickly, but it probably get it to burn. I've done many a campfire with freshly collected wood.

I'm also vegan, so most of my protein sources are legumes, which are either canned or dried, ie shelf stable. I buy those as well as rice and other shelf stable things in bulk because there's only the tiniest little shop nearby and i try to stock up whenever I get to borrow a car. What I currently have would probably last me a month of normal eating, so i guess like two if i ration.

If I can shop for things, I could go on indefinitely. Thinking about it, it sounds kind of nice to literally not be able to work on my thesis and get to read and draw a bunch.

I have a small 2kw military surplus generator that's big enough to power my fridge, oil fired heating system and my computers. If I need to power a microwave or toaster oven, I can unplug the fridge or turn off the heating for a few minutes without an issues. The generator only uses about 3 gallons a day and with the heating oil tank, I have enough fuel for around 100 days. For those that don't know, diesel fuel and home heating oil are the same thing. Heating oil and offroad diesel have a dye added to indicate that it has no onroad tax applied.

A bunch of macho men gave me shit for only getting a 2kw generator when they had 10 to 15kw generators, but I know what I need and will enjoy not having to wait in line for fuel at the gas stations when there's a wide area blackout.

No problem, happens all the time here. We have had "loadshedding" and random outages for years, so we are well prepared. All the lights in the house is solar, and I have two solar charged power banks (2kw units) for the computers and fridge (if required, the fridge can last two days or so without power, but this is only a problem on overcast days, which is not too often here (South Africa, near Hammanskraal)) recently we have been without water for days at a time, but for that I have 5000 liters of water and solar pressure pump, gas geyser in one of the bathrooms.

our heat is electric. building was built in the 70's during the energy crisis. wed be fucked. it needs massive renevation but if I could ever get the economic ducks in a row and do that I would like to have a batter system.

Former communist country, business as usual even though it's been a while since.

Not connected to the grid. For my personal electricity use I'd be fine indefinitely with solar.

Not long. Maybe a few days to maybe a little after a week. We have plenty of canned goods, but who knows how long they'd last (from being eaten, not going bad). My family has a couple propane tanks, so that's the only reason we'd last a little while. Also, I'd be screwed because I go to routine appointments every once in a while to make sure my blood ain't too thin or thick because I'm on blood thinners. So fuck me, I guess.

I could go up to six weeks without power or if there was some event that caused significant social unrest, provided I'm not murdered. I made it a habit during the first Trump admin to have an emergency food and water supply, largely because he really isn't a terribly competent leader, and then when COVID hit and people bought out everything everywhere, it just reinforced the importance of having supplies on-hand.

I have a 15kw three fuel generator. can run; liquid petroleum, liquid propane, or natural gas. I have mine setup for NG (endless) but have three 20 pound tanks of LP dedicated as backups in case NG goes down. should give me at least 48 hours of full power. if I cut all but the essentials it could stretch for a week and some change. longer if I don't run 24/7.

if that should breakdown I have a 6kw liquid petroleum generator that can power heaters and cycle through essentials. Gas station is within walking distance so I could run it indefinitely if need be. If they don't I can siphon from a spare car and probably run it for a couple days.

I would love to have a 50kwh lifepo4 system though. would greatly reduced the strain on my genny and would be even better with a small solar setup as well.

checks camping and hunting gear in closet

Yeah I'm good.

Got a gas stove, gas water heating and hybrid car. Could probably survive indefinitely assuming I can still shop, if I can't then I would die even with electricity. Hell, i would be forced to finally revive my reading habits and work on my book backlog, maybe it would be a little good.

Storm Darragh took our power out for a week or so, and towards the end we had to top our batteries up with a genny, as the solar wasn’t quite cutting it with the lack of sun and bad weather. Not too bad though, there’s about 10 of us using the power, though we live a fairly low-impact life

Depends if we can shop. We've got a couple weeks of canned food longer in rice and pasta and a gas hob so cooking isn't a problem. Could work through the fridge and freezer in a week before it all went off. Got plenty of books, boardgames and camping gear so we'd be able to keep warm and entertained. I need to get some more solar options ideally some big panels for the roof. Our heating is gas but I suspect that it wouldn't work without electricity. Luckily our living room has a gas fire.

Gas heaters work during an outage, but they use electric fans to distribute the heat.

We have solar panels, so we'd be good during the day, not so much at night.

We have 2 cars so could load up everyone human, dog, and cat and go somewhere else, so I guess theoretically a lifetime.

Longest blackout I've experienced was 2 weeks and my WHOLE house was electric, well pump included. It was getting sketchy by the end, so I guess at least a couple of weeks here, longer if there is safe water.

It's not really possible in a tiny apartment building where we have virtually no control over utilities (besides paying for them). I have a bunch of candles and some canned food but that's it. Maybe 2-3 days

I recently moved, so not as well as at my old house which had solar and a whole house battery. We had several times where we lost grid power for a few days and it was annoying but basically fine. I had to turn off most electronics but we could keep the fridge and other important things going. The oven was gas so and I had a propane grill so cooking was sorted.

Now I’m in a five plex where everything except the water heater is electric and I don’t have my grill. I do have a small camp stove and a few fuel canisters. Mostly importantly I have a big camping battery and solar setup to run our CPAPs and keep the phones charged, plus a weeks worth of camp foods in our emergency bin. So, we’d be ok enough for a week.

EDIT: Water isn't big of an issue as you might think. In most places, municipal water will continue to work for several days from gravity alone, and often has its own backup power systems or is on a different supply from the city. At the old house we also had a backup 55 gallons in a long term storage drum with treatment tablets and a calendar reminder to swap it out on schedule. I never ended up using the water in an emergency but it's cheap insurance.

In theory pretty good. I have solar that does about 80% of my daily use. Battery backup islanded to the solar for the fridge and freezer and the electronics in the gas water heater. Plus a few outlets in each room. I've got a gas range and induction burner so I can cook two ways.

Pretty much comes down to water and food. I've got about 4 days of water and maybe a month of food. If the water keeps flowing I can boil it as needed.

my 800 gallon propane tank is more than half full. Since I switched everything but the generator to natural gas last year I can probably go several months if I can get food.

Solar + home battery, might need to ration it occasionally, but I'd be pretty OK.

A week or two, probably.

I have two wood stoves built for heating when the house was new in the 19020s. I don't use them, but I happen to have a lot of scrap wood in my basement, so I can in a pinch. One of the chimneys are used for network cable runs, so they'll be destroyed in the process though.

In addition to the usual dry goods and stuff I have loads of leftovers from the Christmas dinner. Only needs reheating, which I can do on one of the stoves or this camping gas grill I have.

And if I need power for something critical, I have a 200Ah battery in my garage and an inverter I can hook up. The battery used to be part of the emergency power system of a ship, but it was removed due to drifting too far out of spec with its mate (24V system). So now I use it as an emergency start battery for my car.

If one likes to think about this kind of questions then !zombiesurvival@sopuli.xyz might be a place you enjoy as well.

It stays above freezing during the day here.

So, considering the house is dead, I'd probably pile into my car, grab a second car battery and tie it in parallel to my current one and just get some heated blankets and run them and the car when it gets too bad at night, then let the voltage rise back up while the car is running on occasion.

It's not ideal, but I'm poor and I wouldn't freeze. As for cooking, etc, I can get inventive with a propane tank.

Sucks. 2 charged laptops, one almost charged 10 Ah power bank, although it's old. My phone shows 58%, which under normal use with internet can be 2 days, far longer if left offline in standby of course, not... (checks, with a hard swallow) 8 hours of screen time. I also have a hand-crank radio + power bank, but I am not sure how much that can generate.

OK-ish, not ideal. Depends how long it'll take.