Would Niagara Falls make a good sustainable location?

[smokestack]

another problem that i would beware of is the noise...with the roar of the falls how would you hear all the zombies coming untill they are on you.

[Ten Eight]

Second, up to half of the water going over the falls can be diverted for power generation. This way, Niagara Falls is electrically self-sufficient; the power grid won't go down in the case of a zombie apocalypse. Oh, and the power source is renewable.

If the NPCC regional grid is like most of the others in North America, then many of the generation plants in the NPCC will be tied together thru the transmission line "grid". That way, if one generation plant has a catastrophic failure, the other plants on the "grid" can put their reserve capacity on-line to, hopefully, keep there from being rolling black-outs or a system-wide cascade failure.

So, you're gonna need a whole lot of transmission linemen and system engineers to go out and operate the "grid" open points and interconnects to isolate the Niagara Falls plant to the immediate area.....And most likely to restart the plant, since it will have probably tripped every downline breaker and recloser within 500 miles when the other plants went "off line" and the remaining ones got over-loaded.

Then you'll need a bunch of distribution linemen and engineers to go out and "re-start" all the individual substations and circuits to get the 120/240 to your house.

Then you'll have to start thinking about all the personnel, equipment, and replacement parts & materials you'd need to maintain it all.

Just sayin'.

It looks like Florida and Texax have their own "regional grid". Why is this?

[RickOShea]

It looks like Florida and Texax have their own "regional grid". Why is this?

It just sorta, kinda happened that way.

Over the decades, you had all sorts of local and regional power management entities pop-up. You have PMAs (power marketing associations), ISOs (independent system operators), RTOs (regional transmission organizations, etc, etc.....

IIRC, back in the early '90s the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and the NERC (North-American Electric Reliability Corporation) just broke everything up into distinct regional grids based on the existing relationships between all the PMAs, ISOs, RTOs and the G&Ts (generation and transmission companies).

[Katica]

I grew up in Niagara and my family is from around there.

My family has comfortably gone through several "disasters" in the area (ice storms, severe weather, the blizzard of '77, extended power outages) and were relatively unaffected because my whole family consists of prepper types complete with generators, stored food, wood stoves & wood, gas heating, bbqs, snowshoes, ATVs with snowplow attachments, you name it. Last time I was there for an ice storm, most of the town didn't have power for a week but we had warmth and food and tv and all the important things. If it wasn't for how dark and quiet the town was, you'd have never known from looking inside our home that we were in the midst of a "disaster".

If you're prepared for the shit that will hit you (and in the Niagara region, it will primarily be severe storms and ice hazards), it's not a bad place to live. And the soil and climate are ideal for growing all sorts of things that might not do as well in more northern climates of Canada. There are many vineyards in Niagara, for example.

This being said, it's not the place to "bug out to" unless you have some property here. If you have a cabin in crystal beach, sure, come on down! But if you don't own property out that way, I don't think it's "better" than bugging to any other place in which you don't own property. (And keep in mind that there are many gun owners out there - hell, even my mom has her gun license - so any ideas of squatting or looting would not end well.)

But if you're willing to relocate and want to set up a homestead somewhere, Niagara is kind of nice. It's very spread out with very little public transportation, though, so you definitely need a vehicle if you move there (probably not an issue for you, but anyone who can't drive due to health reasons or whatever needs to be aware of what a shitty area it is to get around in.) I also found the night life and the economy there to be lacking, so if you like going to shows you might be SOL, and if you work in a specific trade you better make sure there's a market for it there because it's a dreary place to be unemployed in.

[mantis]

a good sustainable location should be somewhere near a good for drink water source , a place where you can find food easily ( hunt ) and a place where you can rest your body in peace , do the math

More importantly than all that - it must be a place that you own or have legal claim to. It must be a place that you can stock and prep in advance. It must be a place that you can secure and legally exclude others from. It must be a place that three dozen other people are not also planning on bugging out to.

[LyraJean]

Second, up to half of the water going over the falls can be diverted for power generation. This way, Niagara Falls is electrically self-sufficient; the power grid won't go down in the case of a zombie apocalypse. Oh, and the power source is renewable.

If the NPCC regional grid is like most of the others in North America, then many of the generation plants in the NPCC will be tied together thru the transmission line "grid". That way, if one generation plant has a catastrophic failure, the other plants on the "grid" can put their reserve capacity on-line to, hopefully, keep there from being rolling black-outs or a system-wide cascade failure.

So, you're gonna need a whole lot of transmission linemen and system engineers to go out and operate the "grid" open points and interconnects to isolate the Niagara Falls plant to the immediate area.....And most likely to restart the plant, since it will have probably tripped every downline breaker and recloser within 500 miles when the other plants went "off line" and the remaining ones got over-loaded.

Then you'll need a bunch of distribution linemen and engineers to go out and "re-start" all the individual substations and circuits to get the 120/240 to your house.

Then you'll have to start thinking about all the personnel, equipment, and replacement parts & materials you'd need to maintain it all.

Just sayin'.

It looks like Florida and Texax have their own "regional grid". Why is this?

Because we're awesome!

[LyraJean]

Seriously now, why not just prep for where you are? That would make more sense realistically than deciding to move somewhere just because you think it will be a good location for when SHTF. How far are you from Niagara Falls? Do you know anyone in the area? Like others have said do you own any property? If you do, do you visit it regularly so that year round residents know that it is your property in case if during SHTF someone else sees your property and decides to set up camp there before you get there.

Not to mention during SHTF, you can't expect to just mosey on into a place and expect people to just take care of you. Why learn to farm when there's already farmers in the area? Really? You just expect them to share with you their hard work. You haven't even mentioned what you would do in exchange. Are you a fortifications expert? Do you know how to run a hydroelectric plant? What skills do you bring to the table? Even the Postman performed a play so he could get a meal. You can't just expect to waltz in somewhere and have them take care of you.

Right now, I am prepping for where I live. Which is mostly being gray man and drawing attention to me and my family as it is not a good neighborhood. We are planning to move but until we do it's hard to prep for an area we don't know where it is or what the people are like.

How is what you are proposing self-sufficient living?

[Tater Raider]

Alternatively, look at different areas for what they offer and the drawbacks for disasters and plan a job-hunt accordingly.

For me, everytime I move out of Iowa I end up moving back, so that decided that for me. YMMV.

[RickOShea]

It looks like Florida and Texax have their own "regional grid". Why is this?

Because we're awesome!

I wouldn't go that far. IIRC, California and the part of Florida under the FRCC grid were the two areas in the worst shape, as far as keeping up with growth and load demand.

Matter of fact, PowerSouth and the Southern Company assured us a few years ago that they have taken the measures necessary to keep a cascade failure in the FRCC from affecting the SERC grid.

[LyraJean]

It looks like Florida and Texax have their own "regional grid". Why is this?

Because we're awesome!

I wouldn't go that far. IIRC, California and the part of Florida under the FRCC grid were the two areas in the worst shape, as far as keeping up with growth and load demand.

Matter of fact, PowerSouth and the Southern Company assured us a few years ago that they have taken the measures necessary to keep a cascade failure in the FRCC from affecting the SERC grid.

That is what the smiley is for. Hubby and I are actually trying to get out of Florida.

[Tater Raider]

That is what the smiley is for. Hubby and I are actually trying to get out of Florida.

I suggest heading north to start with, possibly west once you've gone a ways...

[LyraJean]

That is what the smiley is for. Hubby and I are actually trying to get out of Florida.

I suggest heading north to start with, possibly west once you've gone a ways...

We are looking at Boise, ID.