Operation Dark Sky And Disaster Preparedness

Air Date:
Heard On The Morning Show
In this Nov. 1, 2012 file photo, much of lower Manhattan remains dark, as viewed from the darkened Manhattan side of the pedestrian walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Americans are paying more to maintain the nation’s electrical grid than a decade ago, but they appear to be getting little for their money from utility services that are no more reliable and in some cases seem to be getting worse. An Associated Press analysis of utility spending and reliability nationwide found that electric customers are spending 43 percent more than they did in 2002 to build and maintain local electric infrastructure. Since then, power outages have remained infrequent; but when the lights do go out, it now takes longer to get them back on. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

If you’re like most people, you don’t think twice about flipping on the lights when you come home from work — it just happens. But what if it didn’t? What if nobody’s lights, refrigerators, electric stoves, heating, or running water (if you have an electric pump) stopped working for weeks or even months on end? This week, Wisconsin emergency responders are tackling that question head-on with a three-day electrical grid outage simulation called Operation Dark Sky. This hour, we talk about disaster preparedness in Wisconsin and across the world.

Episode Credits

  • Kate Archer Kent Host
  • Colleen Leahy Producer
  • Meg Jones Guest
  • Brian Gerber Guest