[quirkot]

My point is that a blackout won't last 2 weeks unless you've got major structural damage to the electrical system. We had a dang near worst case scenario (of no damage) and it was only 2 days

Also, I present Hurricane Maria hitting Puerto Rico as hard evidence that when the power is out for 2 weeks the society doesn't descend into violence

[EnlightenedBro]

Well, when you are able to pull in labor, food and other supplies from the unaffected areas, it's a much different scenario.

In the event where the entire US goes into the blackout for 2 weeks, things will be different. Sure, maybe not an apocalyptic anarchy on the streets, but there will be unrest. Because most people don't have extensive food and water reserves at the place of their residence.

The larger point I was trying to make is that things will be getting exponentially worse as time goes on, and the point of no return will be hit eventually, if we are not able to address the issue quickly.

[quirkot]

The entire US physically cannot have one big blackout. There are 3 separate interconnects: East, West, and Texas. There are DC ties which connect them, but even if the tie was left open it's not enough to cascade the blackout.

To your larger point: sure if power was out over large swaths of the US for weeks on end, things would be difficult. But the power outage wouldn't be the problem, the problem would be whoever is causing the power to keep going back out (or the radioactive fallout from a nuclear war in the EMP scenario)

[wrycoder]

It would take months to replace some of the larger transformers, if they were destroyed by EMP or coordinated sabotage. And, there aren’t many spares available - lead time is very long.