“Everything came to a halt.” Those were the words of Juan Borges from Buenos Aires. He told the BBC, “Elevators, water pumps, everything. We were left adrift.”
Borges was referring to the effect of a massive, two-country-wide power outage that knocked out electricity to 48 million people in Argentina and Uruguay.
The worst part about the outage? No one knows yet what caused it. Cyber-attack? Maybe. Infrastructure issues? Possibly. No one knows.
Perhaps most terrifying for Argentinians was the lack of backup power generation for the country’s water distribution systems. BBC reports:
One of Argentina’s biggest water companies, Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos, warned those without power to conserve water, as the distribution of drinking water had been affected by the outage.
Social media reports of the power outage were widespread – from the capital Buenos Aires in the north, to Mendoza in the west and Comodoro Rivadavia in the south, among many other cities. Residents posted pictures of dark towns and cities and long lines of cars queuing at petrol stations.
My series on water preparation will help you understand the necessary steps in protecting yourself from water supply disruptions.
Anyone looking to prepare themselves for a long-term loss of power should also be well equipped with communications systems, and a top of the line survival kit.