On Tuesday (19APR22) morning, I was sitting in front of my computer reading the news and drinking a cup of coffee, when at 0811, power outages hit my area (a note on the time later).

The NOAA had us on a Winter Storm Warning, and we got about 6 inches of snow last night. The heavy wet kind. So, a power outage? Meh, no big deal. I can see a few downed trees out the window. Not uncommon for our area. I wrote an article about preparing for a power outage in the past detailing just how common these are where I live.

Then a thought crossed my mind that made me chuckle:

What if this was a cyber-attack on the grid?

West/US relations with Russia have not exactly been stellar of late. The Russian ambassador, in a recent interview with Politico, says he cannot get a meeting with the Biden admin, and there has been increasing rhetoric about possible cyber-attack on the US grid as of late. A few minutes later, the power came back on. After powering up my box, logging in, and starting to write about the snow, the power outage, and my cyber-attack thoughts, at 0829, the power went out again.  

Now, I am just laughing. 

I went downstairs to get some firewood for the woodstove. Even though I have a headlamp on, out of habit, I still flipped the switch for the basement lights. We have an electric wood splitter, so I looked around and found the backup: an ax. I split two logs into kindling – enough to keep the fire going for a bit. Of course, just as I get back upstairs, the power comes back on.  

(If this hits your area, will you have enough food? Check out our free QUICKSTART Guide to what to eat when the power goes out.)