Electric Grid left unprotected against EMP's & Solar Flares; Would only take the U.S. 2 Billion to fix...-Opinion-
We here in America do not realize how old our infrastructure has gotten. See we were the first in a lot of areas. This was good, it gave us a great advantage over the rest of the world. Problem is it is now a disadvantage. Its been over 50 years since our major electric infrastructure has been put in place. Hurricane Sandy showed a sliver of our vulnerability. When that storm hit New York and New Jersey it nearly wiped out all the coastal areas of both states. But there was another disturbing occurrence. Power was lost throughout the states even where the storm seemingly didn't seem to hit as hard power was lost. This occurred because the electricity is sent above ground, through telephone poles. This leaves them vulnerable to the elements. Meaning when the tree went down so did the power. And when the citizens of these two states lost power it was not recovered in many areas for two even three weeks. This of course happened in the dead of winter, leaving families freezing and even some elderly to lose their lives. Most Americans may not realize that telephone polls as a way of delivering electricity is an ancient practice to the rest of the world, as is the copper wire that is used on them. Nowadays an electric infrastructure is built underground and with fiber optic wire. This though isn't even the most serious problem with our electric grid. Where the true problem lies is in the transformers. They are the most vulnerable piece. when it comes to truly catastrophic events that may happen in the near future. Putting in the most simple of terms, when we use a power strip in our home they have a built in surge protector, so we do not fry our TVs or computers. Americas Huge monolithic transformers that power this country though are not afforded this and are left unprotected against power surges.