Anthony Ricigliano: What "Grid Down" is Teaching Us - Again

After a series of sudden and violent storms which were followed by soaring temperatures, the Governors Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio declared a state of emergency due to storm damage and a power outage that has affected millions of people. The outage, or "Grid Down" situation has left people without air conditioning on days when temperatures went well over 100 degrees, without refrigeration, and scrambling to find food and water.

Grid Down has happened before and will happen again and each time the same lessons are taught. Here are a few things we can learn this time - again:

* As people and industry demand more from our aging power grids, they become more fragile. Demand continues to increase, placing a burden on grids that they were not built to bear. Electric companies in California and other states are already warning residents and businesses of rolling blackouts if temperatures spike this summer.
* A Grid Down situation can turn into a major emergency for people with specific circumstances if electricity can't be restored quickly. Anyone vulnerable to high temperatures or relying on electricity to power medical devices is at serious risk without electricity. Having a small generator to power up appliances and devices in Grid Down situations could be the difference between life and death.
* People who are unprepared for outages make dealing with an emergency more difficult. The most recent Grid Down had people calling 911 even though they didn't need help. This prevented people in emergency situations from accessing the help they needed.
* Cell phones require electricity. Without electricity, recharging a phone becomes a lot more difficult. Transmission towers need electricity too so if they're not powered up, cell phones in the area will all read "no service".
* In a crisis, emergency services will be overwhelmed. In almost every municipality emergency services are geared toward handling day-to-day demands, which means that most people will be left to their own devices in a large-scale emergency for at least in the early stages of the crisis.

We hear this so often from an early age that it has almost become background noise but crisis preparedness is important and becoming more so. If we can't rely on the electrical grid, emergency services, cell phones, etc., we can only rely on ourselves.