When the Power Stops

Hi there,

Sunday my daughter called while I was out “Mom, have you lost power?” I hadn’t. It turned out to be nothing, but we lost power on a sunny day, and she was worried it was “the big one.”

Then this morning a friend who lives nowhere near D.C. texted: “Should I be concerned?” A lot of you are asking the same thing, so here’s my two cents.

🛡 WHAT IS FORTRESS?
On Sept. 30, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced FORTRESS America. The goal: every major U.S. military base makes its own power, independent of the civilian grid. Right now bases run almost entirely on the same grid you and I use. It also covers defending bases from cyberattacks and drones, and stockpiling fuel, munitions and medical supplies.

📜 THE EXECUTIVE ORDER- A NATIONAL EMERGENCY
On Aug. 26, the President declared a national emergency over the power grid, letting the Department of Energy block foreign-made grid equipment that could have hidden “backdoors.” I wrote about it in my newsletter, How Power Moves, and no major network made a big deal of it. As someone who reads a lot of federal policy, I think it deserved far more coverage.

Together, the message is clear: Washington is treating the grid as a national security target.

That doesn’t mean the lights go out tomorrow. It means the people paid to plan for the worst are planning. You can too.

✅ PREP TIPS

1. Meds + vitamins: a 30–90 day supply
2. Water: about a gallon per person, per day
3. Rice + beans: together, all the essential amino acids
4. Shelf-stable extras: NuttZo, potato chips, beef bone broth protein
5. Coffee: ground beans for cold brew, no power needed
6. A small camp stove + propane (outdoors only!)
Bonus: a fire escape ladder for multi-story homes. My family lost our house to a fire when I was six. You learn fast what matters.

Not medical advice. Talk to your doctor about your meds.

🙏 No fear. Just simple prep.

🔗 The full Amazon prep list is HERE. Many of these are selling out fast and I’ve had to already update (paid link).

This is a FREE FILLABLE Checklist to print and save.

You can watch my quick video I posted on Instagram on this yesterday here.

Power, in the geopolitical sense, increasingly moves through power in the literal sense: the electricity that runs water plants, payment systems, phone networks and military bases.

Over the past two years, governments on both sides of the Atlantic have begun saying so openly.

In the United States, security agencies report that state-backed hackers from China have spent years inside American utilities, and in 2026 they warned that Iran has stepped up efforts against Americans and US infrastructure. In August 2026 the President declared a national emergency over the security of the power grid. In September the Pentagon launched FORTRESS, which aims to let military bases run for 90 days without the civilian grid. In October Britain told every household to Be Ready, joining the European Union, France and Germany in asking citizens to keep supplies and cash at home.

This article reviews that public record, explains what each measure is, and then turns to the practical question: what an ordinary household should have on hand if the lights, the card readers and the cell towers go down together.

Why this isn’t paranoia: what China is doing

US intelligence and security agencies say Chinese state-backed hackers have been placing themselves inside American utilities so they could switch things off during a conflict. These are not anonymous internet rumors. They come from the FBI, the NSA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Here is what they have said, as specifically as the public record allows.

1. Hackers hiding inside US utilities for years

The main group is called Volt Typhoon. In February 2024, CISA, the FBI and the NSA issued a joint advisory (AA24-038A) with three key findings:

• The group got into networks in the energy, water, communications and transportation sectors.

• In some victims’ networks it kept access for at least five years without being kicked out.

• The agencies said with high confidence that the goal was not spying. It was pre-positioning: getting a foothold now so the hackers could move into the systems that physically run equipment and disrupt them later. In some cases they had already reached those control systems.

US intelligence has linked Volt Typhoon to China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (Washington Times).

2. A real US electric utility, breached for 300+ days

This isn’t only theory. The Littleton Electric Light and Water Department, a small public utility in Massachusetts, was breached starting around February 2023. The intrusion wasn’t discovered until November 2023, more than 300 days later (ITPro). Customer data was not affected.

The security firm Dragos, which helped respond, says the same group scouted multiple US electric companies. At one midsize utility it stole operational data, control-system (SCADA) information and maps of grid equipment. Dragos says that kind of data is useful for planning a future attack meant to take power down (Dark Reading).

3. The FBI director’s warning

In January 2024, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told a House committee that Chinese hackers were positioning themselves on US infrastructure to cause real-world harm if China decided to strike. He named electric grids, water treatment plants, oil and gas pipelines and transportation (NBC News).

4. China admitted it in private

The Wall Street Journal reported that at a secret meeting in Geneva in December 2024, Chinese officials indirectly acknowledged a role in the attacks. US officials took it as a warning linked to American support for Taiwan (SecurityWeek). Publicly, Beijing denies it.

5. Hidden radios found in Chinese-made solar equipment

In May 2025, Reuters reported that US officials found undocumented communication devices, including cellular radios, inside some Chinese-made solar inverters and batteries. These parts were not listed in the products’ documentation. Experts said such devices could be used to get around firewalls and remotely switch off or change settings on inverters, which could destabilize the grid. A Chinese government spokesperson denied any plan to disrupt grids (Facilities Dive).

This matters for home preppers too. If you buy a power station, inverter or battery, it’s worth choosing one you can run fully offline, without an app or cloud connection.

6. Why the timing matters: Taiwan

The stated purpose of all this, according to US officials, is to slow down an American military response if China moves against Taiwan. If US cities lose power, water and phone service, Washington’s attention stays at home. In May 2026, CISA launched a program called CI Fortify to help utilities keep running during a conflict, including running without the internet or phone networks (Washington Times). The same report notes that military and intelligence leaders have warned China could move on Taiwan as early as 2027.

The honest bottom line

To be clear, no grid in the US has been taken down by Chinese hackers, and Dragos says it hasn’t seen this group actually sabotage equipment. A long outage is still most likely to come from an ice storm, hurricane or equipment failure. But the government is now telling utilities to prepare to operate through a deliberate attack. If they’re preparing for that, a household can too, and the same supplies cover a storm just as well.

Iran: a second, nearer-term threat

China’s activity is about prepositioning for a possible future conflict. Iran’s is more immediate, and US officials say it has intensified in 2026.

• Infrastructure. In April 2026, the FBI, NSA, CISA and the Department of Energy issued a joint advisory warning that Iran-backed hackers were targeting US critical infrastructure, including water systems and power plants. The agencies said these attacks had already caused operational disruption and financial loss (Fortune).

• Companies and individuals. In March 2026, an Iran-linked group calling itself Handala attacked the medical technology company Stryker, halting work for its 56,000 employees for about three weeks. The same group claimed a breach of FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email (Fortune). Analysts describe the strategy as going after easy targets to cause disruption and fear among the public, rather than to gain a military edge.

• Physical plots. In October 2026, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned in a memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Iran had ramped up efforts to target Americans, including lethal plotting against US citizens that had reached advanced stages in the Middle East and other countries (Taipei Times).

The relevance for households is that Iran’s cyber operations aim at the systems ordinary people rely on, such as water, power and the companies they work for, rather than only at government targets.

What is FORTRESS?

FORTRESS is a Pentagon program meant to keep US military bases running if the civilian power grid and supply chains fail. The name stands for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply, and Survivability. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced it in his September 30, 2026 “State of the Force” address (Fortune).

According to internal planning documents reported by Fox News Digital on October 25, the Pentagon is developing a requirement that every major base in the continental US be able to sustain essential operations on its own for at least 90 days. That covers power, water, fuel and communications. Bases are expected to:

• Generate their own power, using microgrids that can disconnect from civilian networks, large battery storage and portable nuclear reactors.

• Hold reserves of fuel, munitions, spare parts, electronics and medical supplies.

• Keep at least two supply sources for each critical item, so losing one factory doesn’t stop operations.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell summarized the reasoning: “Power is combat now.” The Pentagon has not named a target country, but reporting ties the program to the Volt Typhoon findings described above. No cost or timeline has been released; a senior defense official said about 500 bases are still being assessed and the full goal could take decades (Fortune).

Why this matters to civilians: the US military is planning for its bases to go 90 days without help from the grid. Those bases sit in the same towns and draw from the same grid as the families around them, who have no such plan.

The August national emergency order on the grid

On August 26, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14421, declaring a national emergency to secure the US bulk-power system, the high-voltage network that moves electricity across regions.

The order’s concern is foreign-made equipment in the grid. It cites risks such as hidden digital backdoors, malicious remote access and supply-chain weaknesses, made worse by rising electricity demand from AI and data centers. Under the order, the Secretary of Energy can:

• Block the purchase, import or installation of foreign-made grid equipment linked to a foreign adversary when it poses an unacceptable national-security risk.

• Require utilities to isolate, monitor or remove such equipment that is already installed.

• Set up lists of pre-approved equipment and vendors.

It covers transmission lines of 69 kilovolts and above and the generation that keeps the system stable, but not local distribution lines. The Department of Energy has 120 days to publish rules putting it into effect (Department of Energy).

The order does not name a country. But read alongside the 2025 reports of undocumented radios in Chinese-made inverters, its purpose is clear: the federal government now treats the equipment inside the grid, and not only hackers outside it, as a national-security problem. A government does not declare a national emergency over a risk it considers remote.

Be Prepared: Britain and Europe tell households to get ready

While Washington focuses on the grid and military bases, European governments have gone directly to their citizens. The message is the same in each country: keep supplies for about three days, and keep cash.

Britain: the Be Ready campaign

On October 22, 2026, the UK government launched Be Ready, the first stage of a three-year national preparedness campaign. It asks every household to be able to get through about three days without essential services, and names severe weather and cyberattacks among the threats (Fortune; ITV News). The official checklist includes (ITV News):

• Bottled water, about 3 liters per person per day, plus extra for cooking and washing

• Three days of food that needs no cooking or refrigeration

• A torch with spare batteries, blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothes

• A wind-up or battery radio and a charged power bank

• A first-aid kit and essential medicines

• Cash, copies of ID and documents, and phone numbers written down on paper

• Supplies for babies and pets

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting framed it as everyday national resilience, and separately warned that Britain’s adversaries could be able to attack by 2030: “To prevent the worst, we have to prepare for it.” The government’s preparedness resources are at prepare.campaign.gov.uk.

The European Union: 72 hours

On March 26, 2025, the European Commission published its Preparedness Union Strategy. It asks member states to make sure citizens can be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours if cut off from essential supplies, citing cyberattacks, sabotage and military threats as well as natural disasters. The commissioner for crisis management, Hadja Lahbib, said Europe must “think bigger because the threats are bigger too” (Euronews).

France: a survival guide for every household

On November 20, 2025, the French government published Tous Responsables (“Everyone Responsible”), a national guide to getting through a crisis. It recommends a home kit with about six liters of water per person, food that needs no cooking, a battery radio, warm clothing, medicines and a stock of cash, because card payments won’t work without power or internet and ATMs may be down. The guide says the first three days of a crisis are the hardest, and lists cyberattacks and armed conflict among the scenarios (The Local France).

Germany: cash for a blackout

Germany’s federal disaster agency recommends that households keep cash at home for emergencies. Reuters reported that German authorities, including the Bundesbank, prepared plans for emergency cash deliveries in case of a blackout, and considered limits on withdrawals during one (Zawya/Reuters).

Why every one of them says cash

Modern money is digital. Card terminals, ATMs, banking apps and payment networks all depend on electricity and telecommunications. A grid failure or a cyberattack on payment systems would freeze digital money even though bank balances still exist. Cash is the one form of payment that works when nothing is plugged in. That so many governments now say this out loud indicates they consider a digital disruption plausible.

Beyond the Amazon list: what you can’t order online

Some of the most important preparations don’t come in a box.

Start with the government baseline: three days

Britain’s Be Ready campaign and the EU’s strategy both set the same minimum: enough food, water and shelter for every person in your home for three days, without help from anyone. In practice that means:

• Water: at least 3 liters (about 3 quarts) per person per day for drinking, plus more for cooking and washing

• Food: three days of meals that need no cooking and no fridge, ideally things your family already eats

• Shelter and warmth: a way to keep everyone warm at home if the heat goes off, with blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothes

$200–500 in one-dollar bills

Every government above says to keep cash. Keep it in small bills, mostly ones. In an outage, stores that do open will be running on cash with no way to make change. You won’t want to hand over a $100, or even a $20, for a $6 purchase and walk away with nothing back. Store the bills somewhere safe, dry and out of sight, such as a fire-resistant pouch, and don’t count it as part of your regular spending money.

A printed list of key numbers

Your contacts live in your phone, and your phone will die. Britain’s checklist specifically includes phone numbers written on paper. Print a list and keep a copy in your emergency kit and one in your car. Add a list of everyone’s medications and doses, and photocopies of IDs and key documents, as the British and French guides both recommend.

Safety rules that matter more than any gear

Carbon monoxide poisoning kills people after nearly every major outage. It has no smell and no color.

• Never run a generator, grill, charcoal or camp stove indoors, in a garage or near an open window.

• Keep a generator at least 20 feet from the house, with the exhaust pointing away.

• Use only a propane heater rated for indoor use, keep a window cracked, and never sleep with it running unattended.

• Put a battery carbon monoxide detector on every sleeping floor and test it monthly.

• Never plug a generator into a wall outlet. It can send power back down the line and kill a utility worker. Use extension cords or a transfer switch installed by an electrician.

• Store fuel outside the house in approved cans.

Shop the list

I’ve gathered the supplies I recommend for a 30-day outage, covering power, light, heat, water, food, sanitation and medical, in one place so you don’t have to hunt for them: Shop my 30-day outage list on Amazon.

If this was useful, share it with someone you’d want to be ready too.

Until next week,

Anne

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