here in the Philippines we know that typhoons, floods and earthquakes can mess up the infrastructure: The city water supply, the electrical system, our internet and cable TV. But also it can affect our bank accounts that rely on electronic communications.
Our internet was cut off for six weeks after a large earthquake south of Taiwan took out a major cable (but luckily we still had TV and radio).
Typhoons knock out the electrical system (indeed, one big one a couple years ago knocked out electricity, cable tv, internet, and the water supply for ten days.) Luckily back then cellphones worked, and all of our neighbors came to us for both water from our deep well and to charge up their cellphones. Within a day, local entrepeneurs had "cellphone charge for fifty cents/25 pesos." The roads to Manila opened after a day but it took three days to get to the farm. Most people don't keep food here, but buy it daily so this could be a problem, but hey we always have rice to eat (we store some of our gourmet organic brown rice here).
Covid caused a different problem: The internet was okay, as was the TV, electricity etc. But the mail service to the USA was essentially out for six months (a pension check took four months to arrive and was so damaged I couldn't cash it, and I had to wait two months to send it back to the USA to get a new one).Luckily electronic banking worked and I arranged wire transfer.
And with the covid, every truck had to be checked and there were huge slowdowns to get supplies: Luckily as testing became more common, you could just get a paper from the local barangay/neighborhood office that let you go through with only a temperature check.
some luxury items went out of stock, but essentially you could get routine things, including medicines: and if it wasn't in one store, they'd refer you to another. That has improved as the quarantine in our area has been partially lifte.
the local internet is slow because kids now get paper modules to do their school work and watch classes on line. The mayor arranged cheap public wifi for the poorer neighborhoods, but that means slow internet and internet going on and off as they upgrade the lines. It got so bad that Joy paid for the new Huawei internet connection (they are busy putting in 5G in our area) so she could do her business meetings etc. on line.
Well, this is all routine for those of us living in rural areas: And indeed, things like periodic brownouts have improved greatly since I moved here.,
Usually in the USA one does not worry about such things: indeed, one doesn't even think things can go wrong so easily, even when Covid shuts down the economy.
What brought this up was that I was reading all the conspiracy theories on the bombing in Nashville (probably an older white guy who descended into paranoia with age). Lots of conspiracy theories out there about the internet center being the target. Early reports were that it knocked out the 911 system for locals,
but I ran across this local report saying that the local Walgreens is only taking cash for medicine, because they can't do credit card billing.
uh oh: This could cause problems with those who need expensive medicine (e.g. the elderly) and might not have that much cash around... and if the internet is out, that means you might have trouble with insurance paying for your medicine.
And if Walgreens is out, what about the local grocery store, where many use credit cards to shop.
hmm...
My husband always relied on cash, not credit cards, and he would carry hundreds of dollars with him (but he also had a gun in the car and in the bedstand: partly because he also carried morphine for house calls),
Even here, he would keep a couple hundred dollars in pesos in our safe, something I am now starting to do now that I supply money for the family's food and help.
why not Atm; well, the ATMs often get empty on weekends, and they shut down when the electricity is off. And of course they require the internet to get information on your account...
well, if anything good comes from the bombing, it will be that it is a "headups" to Americans about the fragility of civilization.
There already are worries about hackers destroying the electrical, water supply, internet, etc etc.
Right now, the US and China are at the start of World War III, and it won't be fought with nuclear weapons but with hacking and sabotage of the infrastructure.
so maybe the preppers aren't as crazy as they seem.
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