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(bowshock.nl)
579 points todsacerdoti | 2 comments | 16 Jun 25 07:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.411s | source
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lljk_kennedy ◴[16 Jun 25 08:38 UTC] No.44287646[source]▶
> One of my nightmares is waking up one morning and discovering that the power is out, the internet is down, my cell phone doesn’t work

I dunno.... as I get older, this sounds more and more idyllic

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ndr ◴[16 Jun 25 08:40 UTC] No.44287653[source]▶
I see the sarcasm but you're likely not simulating this hard enough. This is what happened in most of Spain and Portugal during the recent power outage and it wasn't pretty.
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camillomiller ◴[16 Jun 25 08:45 UTC] No.44287686[source]▶
It also wasn't so incredibly nasty, though. There were disruptions and some arrests, but the large majority of people were in the streets socializing, dancing, doing impromptu things they wouldn't be doing on a work day.
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dewey ◴[16 Jun 25 08:49 UTC] No.44287705[source]▶
That's because they kinda expected everything to be back to normal in a few hours. If there would be some more catastrophic distributed outage there would probably be less dancing.
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AlecSchueler ◴[16 Jun 25 11:14 UTC] No.44288481[source]▶
But wait either it was "pretty" or it wasn't. We've gone from "it wasn't pretty" to "Ok, it was pretty, but only because they expected a resolution."
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closewith ◴[16 Jun 25 12:08 UTC] No.44288793[source]▶
Pretty for young and unencumbered, less so for the COPD patient with an oxygen concentrator, or the parent of an infant running out of sterile bottles, etc.
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1. camillomiller ◴[17 Jun 25 08:10 UTC] No.44296777[source]▶
You mean everyone who didn't have an issue because modern hospitals have backup generators that can run for days, or even indefinitely if diesel-based?
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2. closewith ◴[17 Jun 25 10:00 UTC] No.44297391[source]▶
The diesel supply in all countries is dependent on the grid, so days is the absolute maximum. The reality is often much less. During the recent power outage in Portugal, the Alfredo da Costa maternity hospital had only one hour's diesel and had to be resupplied by ministerial chauffeurs delivering Jerry cans of fuel.

Still, all the ancillary services that go into a hospital like water, sewage, medical gasses, cold chains, etc are all dependent on the grid, as are the people who make them work. If a large-scale outage happens, most hospitals will start losing patients within 24-48 hours and will close as functioning hospitals well within a week.