Blackout

Blackout is a channel 4 docu-drama that depicts what it could be like if the UK's national electric grid were to be cyber attacked. The show was very beneficial to my project due to its 'what if' nature and how the country copes with such a shut down of everyday commodities, here are my notes from the programme.

The power grid was attacked directly causing a power surge which made the transformers blow which in turn cut the power across the whole country. here are some of the events that followed which could very well be what the plan of action could be in the event of a nation wide attack. 

The initial broadcast at the start of the events are as follows:

"Go in, stay in, tune in." this is to a battery powered radio or a hand cranked one. but against the governments wishes a lot of people took to the road, acquiring petrol and taking to the roads to reach loved ones or to travel to different areas.

During the first day everywhere is grid locked, no traffic lights are working which causes more accidents and the major motorways are completely blocked, the only cars that seem to be moving are police cars/vans, ambulances and fire engines.

There is a procedure in place in the event of a blackout for the distribution of petrol as the petrol station will have to rely on back up generators which only 5% of stations have. This procedure is called the NEPF - National Emergency Plan for Fuel. this prioritises the distribution of petrol to the emergency services.

People were syphoning petrol from other cars everywhere due to the strict rationing of petrol caused by NEPF.

Due to no traffic support, cameras or lights, there was more and more accidents on the roads. causing even more distress and chaos.

Emergency lighting for lifts and the like usually last between 1 and 3 hours. 

The super markets quickly ran out of canned food and fresh water, all the fresh foods and frozen goods were spoilt due to the back up generators of most supermarkets lasting only 24 hours.

Cash machines will have been out of order instantaneously. this would mean that no one could get cash out for the entirety of the blackout, meaning that they would have to survive with the cash or means they had before the blackout.

The hospitals around the UK have two back up generators in case of such an emergency, but then if that fails then they operate each individual life supporting machine through battery power, with spare batteries.

As the chaos gets more intense and the need for medical supplies, food and water increases the government tried to implement care facilities in the form of communal water station where people would queue up to stock up on water. this has various possible complications such as a higher risk of contamination that would effect everyone that had taken from the tanks.

The electronic tag surveillance would shut down after running out of fuel for its back up generator after 24 hours.

The amount of bin bags and rubbish on the streets would increase dramatically as people need to dispose of bodily fluids and such of the like.

  

The number of house fires increased drastically due to people using candles as a means of lighting, the estimated number of new hospital arrivals increased by 500%

As the looting got out of hand the government tried to send a little more relief by supporting local emergency relief centres, this was a nice thought but the centres quickly lost all the stock and they became redundant.

Even though the premise is different to my story there are various aspects that really informed me and had me thinking in more detail as to how society would react to a nationwide chaotic event, for example, I need to show signs of what happened after the bombs started falling and so I've taken some inspiration from Blackout such as the water stations, petrol plan, the bin bags being everywhere and the amount of cars on the road. this made me consider the assets that I will have to model in Maya to make this convincing. Signs put down by the military, emergency relief centres and the amount of rubbish and cars on the streets. I think this has been very beneficial as it has made me consider more factual information to make sure my animation is going to be factually sound and that it won't be a trivial light hearted approach to such terrible events.