[alkonaut]

The useful definition of society is “society” here is “society as we know it”.

So, how long until there is widespread civil unrest and loss of life.

I’d say about a week, maybe less, depending on the location and scope of the outage. Clean water will quickly be a problem.

[socialismisok]

People should be keeping a week off water handy if they live somewhere this is possible. It's not hard to, it's relatively inexpensive, and it's pretty much fire and forget.

If you live in somewhere threatened by climate or earthquakes or volcanos, store some food, water, and basic medical supplies!