It's Christmas Day!

[Jonas]

It’s Christmas Day, and the whole extended family has gathered at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for fun, fellowship, Grandpa’s famous (or notorious) rum punch, and that huge Christmas dinner that Grandma cooks every year! Grandma and Grandpa live in a small house in a medium sized town, about 100km from your home, so you, your spouse, and your three children left your home about 9AM to get there on time. Your brother and two sisters are there with their spouses and children too, so the house is a bit cramped, but it’s all great fun, especially for the kids.

About 4PM, the adults are sitting around the living room chatting, and the younger children are playing with their new toys while the teenagers are busy playing cards when the electricity goes out. A quick look outside the front window shows that the whole town is dark. In fact, so is the neighboring town some 10km away. There are a few headlights moving on the highway, and candles and flashlights are slowly appearing in the houses of a few neighbors, but in general, everything is dark.

You and the family members all check your cell phones - no signals!

Your brother gets the idea to go out to the car and check the radio to hear if this electrical failure is being reported, but when he turns on the radio, all he and you can hear, up and down the dial, AM and FM, is static. No commercial station is broadcasting as far as you both can tell.

Grandma and Grandpa aren’t preppers, but probably have enough food in the house to feed the whole group for a day or two. Your siblings (all three families’ worth) are not only not preppers, but have kidded you loudly and repeatedly for feeling the need to stock extra food, so when they leave, they’ll probably be headed home to empty pantries and closed grocery shops.

So what is your course of action?

Do you load the family up and head for home? It’s dark, and since you do have to drive through a really bad area to reach the highway, there might be some less-than-savory characters out there looking to do a little late “Christmas shopping” with an impromptu roadblock and carjacking in the dark.

What about your less-than bright brother-in-law who confesses that he still has to buy gasoline to have enough to get home? With no electricity, the gas stations are all non-functional. Do you just leave, knowing that Grandma and Grandpa will be stuck with this guy, your sister, and their four teenage sons who eat like horses?

How about elderly Aunt Tilly, who lives in the retirement home down by the river? Are you going to let her go back to no electricity, and probably no heat or food as well?

Do you hunker in at Grandma and Grandpa’s until morning, crowded though it will be?

And if the electricity isn’t back on for “Boxing Day” (didn’t think a Texan knew that, did you), then what?

I’m really looking forward to seeing the replies for this little holiday scenario…

[Midnitemo]

finish my meal say my goodbyes and head of home!

---

If this develops into something more than an outage they know where i am!

[Tigs]

erm! everyone comes to us and being off grid they would stay put! my numpty brother in law (the scrounger that he is, who normally fills his car here anyway) would fill up here .

[Highlander]

We would start for home, the kids know where we are and know to come to us if they feel the need, but up to now they show no interest, and I would guess that they would not see the danger even in you scenario, so they wouldn't leave,... I also couldn't see the wife's mother leaving also, [ the only elderly person ],... so it would just be us to head home the best way we could,.... maybe followed at a later stage by others

[bigpaul]

pack the car up ready, get a good nights sleep then leave at 5AM when hopefully even the local lowlife's are tucked up with who ever they picked up last night, hit the back roads 100K is 60 Miles so should be back home in a couple of hours, we know all the back roads, stay off the main roads and definitely no motorways.

[Midnitemo]

i'd definately leave for home sooner rather than later...it takes a while for the bad element to hit the streets and start whooping it up.....just got to bear in my mind street signals wont be working and other drivers rushing about or dawdling(defensive driving very much the order of the day)

[Skean Dhude]

I would of course have previously thought of these relatives and would implement the plans I would have put in place for my parents, aunt and siblings. Sending them all off to implement those plans.

I would them make tracks for home before everyone got out on the road.

[Mortblanc]

Question????

Why are the automobiles still running when everything else is down?

If the cars will run then generators will run so the radio and TV networks should be broadcasting on generator power or from their mobile units.

In my area petrol stations are required to have generators so the BIL will get home with no problem.

This sounds very much like the grid failure back in 2003 when 1/4 the U.S. and most of the civilized parts of Canada went grid down.


Not a first time experience and not the end of the world. I have lived through several week long grid down experiences, hust as my in-laws and parents.


Therefore one would treat this just as they would any of the hundreds of other times the power has gone down. Or you could toss a coin to see if you go home or stay and do whatever the coin tells you.

You are creating a disaster scenario when none exists. So far all you have is a power outage, not an end of the world scenario.

What I would do? Here in the states? Inventory the hardware and head home.

One less family to pack into the small house overnight and I am not sleeping on the floor. Getting out is doing them a favor.

Believe me, they are not yet viewing you as their salvation and cherishing your presence. That is only in your head. They are probably thinking you are over reacting just a couple of hours into the event.

[Nix]

Very difficult scenario here.

Everyone's relationship with their relatives is different so answers will differ accordingly.

Some relatives I'm totally not bothered about, others I wouldn't want to leave on their own. IMHO there shouldn't be too much danger regarding marauding gangs in the first 24 hours.

First things first, find out as much as you possibly can about what's going on. Secondly, consider your journey home/BOL. If there is dense population in those 60 miles, you might want to leave sooner than later due to traffic chaos. If you think the journey home is quiet and safe enough but there's still total silence for longer than 2 hours then you go to DEFCON 2. In those two hours, get to know where you stand with regards to immediate food, water, shelter and protection. Once you have that, everything should flow from there.

Obviously, if it was only a 24/48 hour hic-up, then I'd probably stay to make sure everyone was ok until the power was back on. If there was a prolonged and continued communication and power outage then I would want to get back to mine asap with those that I care for. Taking along some food, water and weapons goes without saying.

For me, the first real problem starts when others you're really not bothered about want to come back with you, not sure how I would handle that...

[MaryN]

Explain concerns to the rest of the family, then pack up car and head for home. They can follow... or not. A convoy might be a safer way to travel. If others are coming with us, take as much of the available foood, etc. etc with us in case things are more serious.