They do happen in Europe too. I actually expect something like at most one blackout per year.
I remember few years back an insane thunderstorm caused an "equipment failure" in the electrical infrastructure, and it manifested as a blackout. The blackout was somehow local and my mobile phone worked OK (though I could not charge it).
Generally any blackouts have been short, from tens of seconds to half an hour or so. No spectacular blue lights with aliens swarming in from the resulting dimensional rift.
It did raise thoughts of how highly vulnerable a modern society is to loss of electricity.
I mean, what if the lights went out and did not come back? (The Long Dark reference is intentional)
Were an EMP or something take place and fry electrical devices for good from a large ares, things would go bad and fast. The system impact would be massive.
There would be: no computers, no cars, no cell phones, no TV, no fridges or freezers. No digital clocks. No electrical heating. No lights. No deliveries to shops. No subway, no trains. No card payments. And so on. Eventually people would be out and rioting and stealing to feed their starving kids once a week or so had passed and any cupboard storages of canned beans and the like had been exhausted.
I remember few years back an insane thunderstorm caused an "equipment failure" in the electrical infrastructure, and it manifested as a blackout. The blackout was somehow local and my mobile phone worked OK (though I could not charge it).
Generally any blackouts have been short, from tens of seconds to half an hour or so. No spectacular blue lights with aliens swarming in from the resulting dimensional rift.
It did raise thoughts of how highly vulnerable a modern society is to loss of electricity.
I mean, what if the lights went out and did not come back? (The Long Dark reference is intentional)
Were an EMP or something take place and fry electrical devices for good from a large ares, things would go bad and fast. The system impact would be massive.
There would be: no computers, no cars, no cell phones, no TV, no fridges or freezers. No digital clocks. No electrical heating. No lights. No deliveries to shops. No subway, no trains. No card payments. And so on. Eventually people would be out and rioting and stealing to feed their starving kids once a week or so had passed and any cupboard storages of canned beans and the like had been exhausted.