Blackout Congress

Today was the congress for which I (had to) read the book, see previous blip. Seems to be a topic of public interest, as even our national radio had a short report about it this morning. 

Marc Elsberg, the author of the thriller, explained how he came to the idea to write this book and how he learned about the blackout consequences for society, if electricity is down for a longer period. It is not just pure fiction - a list of real major power outages can be found on wikipedia (e.g. Italy in 2003, Turkey in March 2015, etc.). Representatives from different organisations explained how they prepare for such an event and their emergency plans, e.g. from an electricity provider, hospital, water supply and police. Very interesting also the speech from the Chief of an Austrian fire brigade, which helped during the power outage in Slovenia.

What did I take from the congress:
- It's good to have some planning for such cases, even if the events will occur differently and not everything can be planned and controlled
- Think about some personal emergency supplies at home, at least for a few days (sounds odd in our modern world, but when such an event happens it's too late to stock up)