We have a vacation place in the San Bernardno Mountains, nothing large, 1,006 sq. ft. I spend a fair amount of time on the local board up there and this morning they are experiencing a blackout. It seems that a transformer in the Lucerene Valley (western area of the Mojave) blew up early this morning. Estimates run from 2 hours to 48 hours to get back on line. The people posting are currently using cell phones, but the cell towers are mostly battery backup and will go dead around noon, though there is one tower near the center of Big Bear that has a generator. The ski areas are open on generator power.

Many of the people are starting to get concerned as temps are in the 20's and those who have central forced air heating are pretty screwed. Fireplaces working overtime! Glad our little place has gas wall heaters that do not require electricity to operate.

So, what do you all think would happen if 45% of the continental USA had the grid go down without knowing when it will be back?