What happens when the power goes out?

Simple.

Mass panic, chaos and intolerable conditions.

The most recent breakdown of a Carnival Cruise liner gives us a prime example of what it looks like when it hits the fan. And for the 3000 passengers on that boat, that’s exactly what happened.

It hit the fan, the walls, hallways and everything else.

“He said that the conditions have gotten so bad that they’re asking them to use the restroom in bags, and they were eating onion sandwiches,” McKerreghan said.

The call was the last she has heard from them.

Much of the ship’s electrical power went down in the fire, causing widespread malfunctions, including taking out sanitary systems.

Passengers have reported sewage sloshing around in hallways, flooded rooms and trouble getting enough to eat.

“It’s disgusting. It’s the worst thing ever,” passenger Ann Barlow said.

“From what I understand, they’re walking around in a lot of urine and fecal matter, and the sewers are backing up,” McKerreghan said. Her doctor gave her antibiotics to give her daughter as soon as she gets on land.

Via Click Orlando

…

The sanitation situation was gross and “the stench was awful,” according to a 50-year-old from Dallas woman who spent her birthday on the ship.

“A lot of people were crying and freaking out.”

Via Jezebel

…

Ttrapped aboard a “floating petri dish” without power, air conditioning, or fresh water…

Via NY Daily News

…

Soon after, she said some passengers panicked.

‘People were hoarding food — boxes and boxes of cereal, grabbing cake with both hands,’ she said.

Toilets stopped working and the 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew had to urinate in sinks, she said, and eventually red plastic bags. She saw sewage dripping down walls. Sometimes people slipped on it, she said. Soon, the ship began to smell.

Via KRCU

…

And people have stopped being polite. 

“It’s like a bunch of savages on there,” said Brent Nutt, whose wife, Bethany, is onboard. “If you get on the blogs, they’re saying that people are fighting over food and stuff.”

…

Some quotes from passengers:

“All I can do is cry.”

“My mother is a diabetic, and they would not even come to the room because she cannot walk the stairs to help her with insulin. She hasn’t had insulin in three days.”

“Just imagine the filth… People were doing crazy things and going to the bathroom in sinks and showers.”

“Cesspool.”

“It was horrible. Horrible.”

“It was inhuman.”

“It’s degrading. Demoralizing, and then they want to insult us by giving us $500”

This Carnival cruise was just a closed microcosm of what conditions will look like should it happen on a regional or national scale. Lucky for them help arrived, and passengers have disembarked and many are now headed home.

But, consider what it would be like should the power go out in your city – for an extended period of time – and there is no ‘going home’.

Though unlikely, it can and has happened. In fact, in recent history we have examples of conditions deteriorating so severely that thousands of people have died as a result.

Hurricane Katrina is one well known incident where tens of thousands of people were left without power, food or even clean water. They were packed into a makeshift FEMA shelter and promised help, which didn’t arrive for nearly a week. Those who didn’t make it to the FEMA Dome were left to fend for themselves in contaminated flood waters and without a law enforcement presence.

After the Haitian earthquake, large groups of people were left with no basic essentials, which resulted in the rapid spread of disease – not just for a few days, but weeks and months. When Hurricane Sandy struck the northeast and took down the power grid and transportation infrastructure, people were rummaging through the trash to find anything of sustenance. Within 72 hours they were begging their government for a bottle of clean water.

It took days before help arrived, and even that wasn’t enough.

Powerful earthquakes, once in a lifetime weather events, nuclear power station meltdowns, Tsunamis, region-wide power outages and rogue attacks – all are unlikely events.

All have happened in the last fifteen years.

Plan on the schumer hitting the fan, because one of these days it just might, and probably will.

The first things to go will be food, clean water, sanitation and human decency.

Do you want to be the one fighting for a piece of stale cake and walking in your own sewage?

As disgusting and horrific an image as that is, this is what awaits the non prepared.