FEMA Finds Only 32% of Americans Confident in Internet Outage Preparedness

1 articles · Updated · The News International · Jul 25

Only 32% of Americans said they were confident their disaster preparations would help in a major outage, even though FEMA’s 2024 National Household Survey found 83% had taken at least three preparedness steps.
FEMA’s warning centers on longer internet disruptions caused by cyberattacks, grid failures or infrastructure breakdowns, with experts citing the US power grid’s age and patchwork design as a blackout risk.
Robert Siciliano and Sean Gold said households should build layered backups—food, water, batteries, power sources, cellular hotspots and, for wider outages, satellite internet options such as Starlink, Hughesnet or Viasat.
Chris Reynolds said internet-dependent banking could fail during an outage, leaving ATMs and card machines unusable, while Jeremy Gocke urged families to set meeting points, check-in times and backup communications like radios or satellite messengers.