Attack on Power Plants

Okay. So call me a pessimist. But after the attacks of 9/11 I went out and purchased a gasoline-powered generator. Why? Well my thinking was that if terrorists can take out the World Trade Centre with 2 planes, they could take out a nuclear or non-nuclear - - power generating station, on the power grid that will affect where I live. And if they do that in winter how am I going to survive a Canadian winter without heat.

We are a society dependent on electric power --- and becoming more so every year. Heck, very soon, even our cars will have to be plugged in to be recharged.

Our homes run on electricity. Our business are dependent on electricity. And just about everything runs on computers that run on electricity. Imagine what an EXTENDED blackout would do to you and your family. To your food supply. To your income, if you couldn’t go to work, and if the banking system was down so you couldn’t even get money out of your bank account. Even gas pumps work on electricity, so filling up your car to get to work or to get out of the blacked out area ---- well you see what I mean.

So am I worrying needlessly? Is there a real danger of terrorists flying some planes into power generating stations? Probably not. BUT...our electric power generating stations and our power grid are controlled by computers. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that cyber hackers have infiltrated our power generating systems and may have planted software viruses that they may use to bring down our power grid. According to reports the U.S. Defence Department has spent more than $100 million in just the past 6 months to repair infiltrations by third party hackers.

So am worrying for nothing. I sure hope so. I have never had to take the generator I bought, out of the box. But I have all the supplies ready to start it if necessary.

So if our power grid is attacked please forget I told you all this and PLEASE don’t show up at my house.