How long would it take before society breaks down in a real emergency?

peasant

So...we got a bit of snow for a few days and already there are empty shelves in supermarkets and even reports of fisticuffs over the last loaf of bread / jug of milk?

Let's imagine a real crisis
For sake of argument...the pesky North Koreans instigate a massive cyber attack on the western world. Internet down, electricity grid down, ATMs down, phones only working until the batteries run out.

How long before the first lootings / shootings/ murders?

Hours?

Days?

What's your prediction?

(mine is ...24hours...and if you don't have a gun after that...you will be robbed/killed)

Hector Bellend

bout three fiddy

Hande hoche!

Forty eight hours or thereabouts. Something would fill the void though. For example, greater Leitrim.

enricoh

If my local boozer is closed and no horse racing to bet on less than 6 hours before Armageddon.
If there's decent pints n nags to bet on any problems are more manageable!

biko

For city folk it's a matter of hours. For rural farmers maybe a week or two.

Bracken81

2 days is probably about right..................oh and wheres everyone buying their guns these days?

AllGunsBlazing

Three days without basic amenities and no food on supermarket shelves and you have the basic ingredients for serious civil unrest.

RobbingBandit

However long it takes my joker venom to enter the atmosphere and be distributed by the rain clouds you will all soon do my bidding.

BrokenArrows

It would fall about very quickly if food supplies were interrupted.

Most people only have enough food in the house for a few days. So after that if there is no new supplies coming in then it would very quickly turn violent as people try and survive.

Probably about 24 hours if the tea and coffee supply was cut off.

2011

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Forty eight hours or thereabouts. Something would fill the void though. For example, greater Leitrim.

Leitrim strikes me as a place where they either wouldn't notice and / or wouldn't care

Red_Wake

I'm at breaking point already. The only thing delaying me is that I'm not sure to go looting or raping.

Hande hoche!

2011 wrote: »

Leitrim strikes me as a place where they either wouldn't notice and / or wouldn't care

Tis a strength, of sorts.

Mint Sauce

If I put my phone into the highest power saving mode, GPS, locations, Wifi, etc, all off. Switch to 2G mode, so all it can basically do is make/receive calls and txts, I might get about 3 to 4 days power from it. Weather I live that long, feeling so isolated, is another thing.

mikemac2

Be grand

Minister Dick Roche gave us iodine tablets

The_Valeyard

Three weeks.

Hande hoche!

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Three weeks.

Two weeks on Mars.

cornascriebe

No electricity = no phone networks, no calls nor internet. CB radio and smoke signals the only way to communicate over a distance.

Arghus

The minute the bread runs out.

BrokenArrows

Mint Sauce wrote: »

If I put my phone into the highest power saving mode, GPS, locations, Wifi, etc, all off. Switch to 2G mode, so all it can basically do is make/receive calls and txts, I might get about 3 to 4 days power from it. Weather I live that long, feeling so isolated, is another thing.

I wouldnt receive any calls or texts so i might as well turn the phone off.
Nobody sends me sms's anymore. Its either whatsapp for facebook messenger.

BattleCorp

Bracken81 wrote: »

2 days is probably about right..................oh and wheres everyone buying their guns these days?

Already ahead of ya there sunshine. Got me enough guns and ammo and tins of beans to last a fair while.

I'll be grand.

Samuel T. Cogley

There was a great 'drama-mentry- or what ever they're called on channel 4. 7 days without power due to a cyber attack - things got very ugly very quickly. I especially like the way the 'survivalist guy' was immediately over powered and all his stuff nicked.

SafeSurfer

We are only ever about 9 meals from anarchy. After 3 days of hunger and watching your children getting weaker, even the most mild mannered, law abiding citizen would fight for food to eat or feed his family.

Are Am Eye

The main organs (fnar fnar) of government and administration will power on while they have diesel for their back up generators. They and the army bosses will kill everyone instigate some pre planned operation to hold society together.
An important factor would be the willingness of defense forces and gardai and volunteers to continue as opposed to panicking at some point or prioritising self interest. Leo Varadkar will maintain his training regime in the gym in his command bunker. Smooth transition back to the neolithic.

Are Am Eye

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

There was a great 'drama-mentry- or what ever they're called on channel 4. 7 days without power due to a cyber attack - things got very ugly very quickly. I especially like the way the 'survivalist guy' was immediately over powered and all his stuff nicked.

Do you remember the name of that? Sounds good.

SidekickSimon

peasant wrote: »

So...we got a bit of snow for a few days and already there are empty shelves in supermarkets and even reports of fisticuffs over the last loaf of bread / jug of milk?

Shows the ease at which mass panic can set in among a population.

I imagine if electricity went that would be the major problem. Cant imagine a modern society lasting too long without electricity !

Gravelly

One Second After is a good book on the subject, written by an expert in the field. It describes the societal breakdown after America is hit by an EMP attack.

Hande hoche!

Are Am Eye wrote: »

Do you remember the name of that? Sounds good.

Blackout, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NczTcpSJQCs

DoozerT6

Yeah once electricity, internet, and mobile phone signals go we're fooked. Only a couple of generations ago it might not have mattered so much, but literally everything today, unless you live a totally self-sufficient, agrarian, off-grid lifestyle, depends on technology in some form. People don't have the life skills to cope with such a situation any more. For instance, how many of us can do something as basic as light a fire in the absence of a lighter or matches? I can't.

What would be worrying in Ireland certainly is the fact that basically (in terms of the civilian population) only the criminals are armed. This gives the baddies a huge advantage in the event of a societal breakdown - most Irish people wouldn't even know how to hold a gun properly, let alone use one in self-defence if they were handed it. One would have to wonder would the Gardai be able to contain the situation.

Mongfinder General

Cut the water supply off and it will take about 5 minutes.

sdanseo

As we've found out in the last 48hrs, it all depends on the supply of bread and milk. Keep those shelves topped up and be grand.

Outlaw Pete

Everyone back to traditional gender roles too... doesn't take much :P

Mutant z

Well at least by next week the temperatures will likely have picked up and things will have returned to normal.

Conall Cernach

Red_Wake wrote: »

I'm at breaking point already. The only thing delaying me is that I'm not sure to go looting or raping.

You better stick to looting, it would freeze the mickey off you if you were at the other.

Samuel T. Cogley

Mongfinder General wrote: »

Cut the water supply off and it will take about 5 minutes.

Threaten to reduce the pressure a bit and there were riots :pac:

Bob_Marley

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

There was a great 'drama-mentry- or what ever they're called on channel 4. 7 days without power due to a cyber attack - things got very ugly very quickly. I especially like the way the 'survivalist guy' was immediately over powered and all his stuff nicked.

yep, you only have to watch war of the worlds to see what happens the few working cars that are left.

mvt

2-3 days & a state of emergency would be declared.

Two weeks without electricity would see serious civil unrest.

100 Mornings is a very good Irish film on this topic particularly the role of the Guards towards the end of the film.

Bob_Marley

It's ok, some gombeen minister will issue iodine pills to every house

Outlaw Pete

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Everyone back to traditional gender roles too... doesn't take much :P

Your dream! :pac:

Fr Tod Umptious

Arghus wrote: »

The minute the bread runs out.

Watched something on the RTE archive about the snow in 1982.

They interviewed a lady who said she was ok for bread because she "baked" some yesterday.

That's the difference, no one bakes bread at home anymore, of you have the means to do that then you don't need the shops as soon as others.

evolving_doors

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Watched something on the RTE archive about the snow in 1982.

They interviewed a lady who said she was ok for bread because she "baked" some yesterday.

That's the difference, no one bakes bread at home anymore, of you have the means to do that then you don't need the shops as soon as others.

I do but it's so damn tasty I eat it as soon as it's cooled down.

There's a survivalist forum around here somewhere, but i think they've all probably headed to their bunkers in the hills now.

They have a Morse code version of boards.

Check out who's eating all the food stocks

https://morsecode.scphillips.com/cgi-bin/message.cgi?m=eJxjZBARYYj0Dw1S8PUP8XANAgAV7wNo

goose2005

biko wrote: »

For city folk it's a matter of hours. For rural farmers maybe a week or two.

they get their food at the supermarket like everyone else. What are rural people going to do, eat charlock? Slaughter their own cattle?

Nettle Soup

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Watched something on the RTE archive about the snow in 1982.

They interviewed a lady who said she was ok for bread because she "baked" some yesterday.

That's the difference, no one bakes bread at home anymore, of you have the means to do that then you don't need the shops as soon as others.

You're right. There were people complaining about all the bread being gone yet the shelves were full of flour, bread soda, eggs and buttermilk!

arybvtcw0eolkf

OP has never been in Dublin on Paddy's Day

donegaLroad

we are never more than 3 square meals away from a revolution

Samuel T. Cogley

Nettle Soup wrote: »

You're right. There were people complaining about all the bread being gone yet the shelves were full of flour, bread soda, eggs and buttermilk!

Would that make a bomb or something?

corner of hells

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Would that make a bomb or something?

No , it make a nice tent.

fatknacker

Why don't us Roundeyes store more rice. You can live off rice for longer than bread.

Are Am Eye

fatknacker wrote: »

Why don't us Roundeyes store more rice. You can live off rice for longer than bread.

So we can set bread traps. And when an oriental is snared in the trap we steal his rice.

podgemonster

Electricity is all it takes. Nations are utterly reliant on it in every way. Its the reason this snow break is so jovial, we still have warmth, communications and entertainment. The 3-4 day outages people experienced for Ophelia were parts of the lower voltage distribution network. 1000's People couldn't cook, light via candles, listen to the radio with batteries but ultimately the majority of the country can operate albeit hindered, pockets of places have power and one can get a hot meal.

A full system failure of the network grid would have a devastating effect. Not just on a residential level but nationwide. Your mobile network - gone. Traffic lights and controls - gone. Radio and TV broadcasts gone, water supply weak. ATM's gone. No cash, tough. Combine that with other residential inconveniences of no appliances, uncleanliness. National transport would grind to a halt. Add to that every single big Pharma or Multinational in production here would up and leave overnight with massive job losses.

So after 3 days you're hungry, thirsty, unclean, milks/bread gone off, no cash, can you check on your parents down the country, Nope! Your kids sick, you go to the hospital but its overloaded and running on generators. Maybe you can drive to your parents place in the country, no radio updates, no AA on twitter, you don't realise your driving down the road to impassable traffic jam, you sit there with you kids in the back as your fuel tank reaches zero. How long would it take for the average person to snap. IMO, at stage, in that moment....very little.

Samuel T. Cogley

podgemonster wrote: »

no AA on twitter, you don't realise the your driving down the road to impassable traffic jam, you sit there with you kids in the back as your fuel tank reaches zero. How long would it take for the average person to snap. IMO, at stage, in that moment....very little.

Turn the engine off, perhaps?

monkeysnapper

Were OK , my wife made a lasagne yesterday . we,ll eat well for days as .myself, wife and 3 kids love lasagne.

She really thought ahead , she even used crisps for top coating and used loads of veg in it , so that should keep us all regular.

With that plus freezer full of meet and frozen veg I'd say were good for over a month .

We need to be prepared where we live as its over 1km from town and mainly up hill.