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I did not have access to the internet recently. For about a month, I had to do without the web at my house. I became aware very shortly of how much I rely on this technology. Since I use the internet for ALL of my news, both locally, nationally, and internationally, as well as most, if not all of my banking, contact with family and friends via email, etc..I also ran into issues where I went to the computer for help only to remember I did not have internet access. For instance, my water heater went out during this time. Well, the first thing I do anymore when something goes amiss, I Google for help..Whether it is a forum to see how others fix things, or even price comparisons of items, I realized that although I only spend about an hour a day or so on the net, I am totally reliant on it. Heck, I'm even going to college taking courses online!.. I had to take a step back and figure out "new" ways to gather information about the world around me. Printed newspapers, public libraries, etc..I wondered how many others are like me in this effect? What would happen if we had a long-term power outage due to some unforseen disaster? What if we had a major breakdown of the Internet (like the example in Egypt just recently) that effect the billions of dollars tied up in e-commerce such as banking, etc? I am interested if anyone on this forum had a plan for themselves if something like this should happen. I'm not paranoid at this point but It has made me rethink some things.

Seeing that I work in a hospital I usually don't put a lot of worry into emergency situations. I don't live close enough to a coast to worry about hurricane/flooding. No earthquake zone. I don't live next to a trailer park so I'm also not on the flight path for tornadoes.

I figure if there is power/internet/phone I'll get some at work. Sine I have skills people need in a crunch then whoever is in charge is going to want to keep me on their good side. Since I'm armed I expect them to keep me by reward, not force.

You're not alone. It is always better to be prepared for emergencies however small the likely-hood of such a thing happening.
I have had the experience of living through an ice storm many years ago that left a city of 35K without power, cable, telephone or running water for two weeks and surrounding rural areas for months in Mississippi (yeah go figure, ice in MS). Imagine people fist fighting for Coleman lamps, bottled water, fuel, and generators before the truck was even unloaded! I'm sure the same level of disaster today would yield much worse results.
We usually take electricity, water, cable, dsl, ect.. for granted but outages happen sometimes without warning.
What you're describing is just a small part of what could happen and it does make you think differently about things.
There are several good websites for survival and emergency preparedness that would benefit everyone.
http://www.survivalist.info/
http://www.bwolf.com/
http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/index.html
These are a few of my favorites but there are many more good informational websites for emergency preparedness.
I'm sure there are probably more forum posts for this kind of topic but that's my 2 cents.
thanks,

Aside from the obvious need to prepare for anything: keeping extra water, food, first aid supplies, etc. on-hand I have always kept a fairly well stocked library. A lot of my library has come from many trips to half-priced book stores and such. How-To books are my favorite.
If the internet suddenly becomes unavailable for an extended period of time and I need to know how to do or fix something around the house or on the vehicles, I have done as much as I can to cover all those subjects in the library. Pulling up and storing your cars service manual; keeping a handy book on plumbing, electrical and even mild carpentry skill might save the day in a pinch.
Of course all work and no play and such, be sure to stock your library with some fun reading also. A world almanac and other books of facts are handy also.

Our internet server at work crashed last week (been going in and out for about 3 weeks). Abouit 60% of my work is done through the net. Wound up having to use my laptop and personel internet. Finally this morning we are running.

Two good books you should read about this sort of stuff:

Back To Basics: Deals with how to topics on performing a lot of basic skills done long ago by our forefathers.

Lights Out: This one is just entertaining. It gets a bit cheesy is some parts but really made me think about what would happen should we find ourselves without power for a long time.

RPBrown wrote:Our internet server at work crashed last week (been going in and out for about 3 weeks). Abouit 60% of my work is done through the net. Wound up having to use my laptop and personel internet. Finally this morning we are running.

You shoulda called the Monkey...

In case of an emergency which books are the tastiest,and which ones are the hardest to digest