The Great Collapse by Jeff Horton Discussion and Q&A (Spoilers)

[Steven]

Hey people, I am so sorry for taking so long at getting September's read up and getting this discussion thread up. Wow, I am so behind. Anyway this is a great book and I'd like to welcome Jeff Horton to our club and I hope he enjoys his visit with us :o)

[Steven]

Just wanted to say I am about done with this title and I am really enjoying it so far. It definitely makes the reader think about things and wonder what they would do if something like this ever happened and what side of the views you might be on, scientific or religous.

[Steven]

I guess my first question is what would be the first thing you might do if all the power grids in the country were knocked out like this for real? At what point do you think we would know that it wasn't coming back online?

[Jeff]

I would offer what happened in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina a s small-scale example of what might happen during a massive power outage. The power was out, there was no running water, and food was becoming a problem. The situation slipped into a state of chaos and pandemonium ensued.

Undoubtedly a powerful solar storm could also disable the power grid as well. Here are a few interesting links:

Regarding EMPs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qIvs8...
http://www.empcommission.org/docs/A24...

Regarding Solar flares:
http://www.space.com/13517-giant-suns...

http://www.solarstorms.org/SRefStorms...

[Steven]

Very cool and interesting stuff at these sites. Thank you for setting these links up. That is a pretty good comparison of how things might go down with something like this. There sure is a lot of odd things happening in the world now that make this book and others that have to do with the fall of civilization very real and scary.
Another question would be, when it comes to government, do you think ours would last very long after this type of thing happening?

[Jeff]

Hi Steven!

I really don't see how it would be possible for any government to function after an event like this for a very long time, with the exception of a small tribe or village where villagers can communicate with word of mouth and depend only on their feet for transportation.

With such a profound and instantaneous loss of electricity, government officials around the world would have no means of communications. No telephones, radio, television, telegraph, nothing short of smoke signals or word-of-mouth. If something comparable had occurred a hundred and fifty years or so ago, say all trains suddenly stopped working, everyone depended on horses for transportation so everyone had one, so the damage would not have been so catastrophic. It was my assessment, after conducting my research, that given the apocalyptic scenario I painted in my novel,that governments today would very quickly and completely unravel.

[Steven]

I would expect the same but I wonder with the size of our military how easily chaos would break out. I would think they could still communicate but it would of coarse take longer cause they would have to rely on message carried by horseback or even bicycle messengers maybe.

[Jeff]

You might be right about that. I suspect that order would be maintained for a short while in the military, as it is in the novel, but eventually it too would break down. There would be no way for large scale coordination to take place. Sure, in certain parts of the country horses would be available, but by and large no one has access to them anymore.

I may be wrong, of course, but my premise is that before a new order arises, the old one would have to unravel. Eventually, groups would be able to coordinate efforts on a very localized basis. Perhaps, over a much longer period of time, efforts could be coordinated, much like the stage coaches and Pony Express of the wild west, and eventually a new order would develop. Keep in mind however that even these took time, and order to develop. Our civilization would be in chaos after such an event. There would be mass panic, fierce competition over resources, etc.