Is the Power Grid Going Down for 90 Days? What the Pentagon Plan Really Says

Short answer: no. Nobody has announced a 90-day blackout, and nothing is scheduled to switch off on November 17. The “90 days” is real, but it comes from a Pentagon plan for military bases, not from a warning to the public.

If you saw the posts and felt your stomach drop, you’re not the only one. Searches for “is the power grid going down for 90 days” shot up in late October. Here’s where the number came from, what is actually on the calendar for November 17, and what a long outage would really mean for your car, your water and your gas stove.

Where the “90 days” came from

In September, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced a program called FORTRESS America in a speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico. The idea is simple: a military base shouldn’t go dark just because the civilian grid around it does.

On October 25, Fox News reported the detail that set social media off. According to documents Fox said it reviewed, every major base in the continental US would be expected to keep essential operations running on its own for at least 90 days. That means electricity, water, fuel and communications. The tools are small nuclear reactors, large battery banks and microgrids that can cut a base loose from the local utility.

Two things got lost by the time that story reached Facebook.

First, it’s a target for bases, and it’s years out. The Army’s first microreactors aren’t due until 2028. The War Zone, a site that covers defense closely, noted it wasn’t even clear whether the Pentagon had confirmed the 90-day figure.

Second, a goal is not a forecast. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell gave the reasoning in one line: “We don’t want to rely on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to run our national defense.” Hegseth called the program “a national insurance policy.” You buy insurance because something could happen, not because you know the date.

Still, it’s fair to notice what the plan admits. The people responsible for national defense think a long grid failure, from a cyberattack, sabotage or a natural disaster, is possible enough to spend real money on. That’s a good reason to be ready. It’s not a reason to clear out the canned goods aisle.

What is happening on November 17

One thing: a test. FEMA and the FCC will run a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System at about 2:20 p.m. Eastern. It interrupts radio and TV for roughly a minute, and then it’s over. The date was announced back in September.

The blackout version traces back to a viral clip from The Simpsons that supposedly predicted a “great blackout” on that date. Fact-checkers who watched the episode, which aired in November 2023, found no November 17 in it. The viral video also splices in scenes from a different episode. As of this week, no utility, grid operator or federal agency has announced a planned outage.

So if your TV squawks on Tuesday afternoon, that’s the test. It isn’t the start of anything.

If the grid did go down, what would still work?

These are the questions people are typing into Google right now. The honest answers are less dramatic than the rumors, and a lot more useful.

Will cars still work?

Yes. A power outage does nothing to your car. The catch is fuel. Gas station pumps run on electricity, and most stations don’t have generators. After Hurricane Irma in 2017, roughly 40 percent of Florida’s gas stations were closed, mostly because the power was out. If you drive an EV, you can’t charge at home either.

An EMP is a different animal, and it’s the one case where the car itself is in question. We cover that in our guide to protecting a vehicle from an EMP.

What to do: keep the tank above half. It’s the cheapest prep there is.

Will tap water still run?

For a while, usually. City water depends on electric pumps, and utilities keep backup generators for exactly this. But generators need fuel and upkeep. The EPA’s own guide for water utilities notes that during Superstorm Sandy many generators failed after 24 to 48 hours, and it describes one utility that stores enough fuel for five days. After that, it comes down to fuel deliveries.

If you’re on a private well with an electric pump, your water stops when the power does.

What to do: store one gallon per person per day. Ready.gov says to cover several days at least. Two weeks is a better goal if you have the space.

Will natural gas still flow?

Often, yes. Most of the compressor stations that push gas through the pipelines run on gas themselves. A Carnegie Mellon study found that about 10 percent of the nearly 1,500 stations it looked at are electric. So supply can drop in a wide outage, but it doesn’t simply shut off.

The bigger problem is inside your house. A gas furnace needs electricity for its blower and controls, so no power usually means no heat, even with gas in the line. Many gas stovetops can still be lit with a match.

What to do: have one way to cook and one way to stay warm that doesn’t need a wall outlet. If you run a generator, Ready.gov’s rule is outdoors, at least 20 feet from windows and doors.

Will Starlink work?

The satellites don’t care about the grid. Your dish and router do. They need power, and so do the ground stations that connect Starlink to the rest of the internet. With a battery or a generator you could stay online through a local outage. In a very wide one, nobody can promise that.

What to do: a small battery power station will run the dish, charge your phones and keep a light on. A battery or hand-crank radio covers you if the internet doesn’t come back.

What’s worth doing this week

Skip the 90-day panic and do the boring, proven stuff. The American Red Cross suggests two weeks of supplies at home. That’s a sensible first goal, and most outages end long before then.

• Water: one gallon per person per day.
• Food you already eat that keeps without a fridge. A closed fridge stays cold for about 4 hours and a full freezer for about 48, so eat from those first.
• Light and news: flashlights, a radio and spare batteries.
• A full gas tank and some cash in small bills.
• Medicine: at least a week of anything you can’t skip. If someone at home uses a CPAP or other medical device, ask your doctor or equipment supplier about backup power now, not during an outage.

Not sure how much food and water your household needs? Our free Food Storage Calculator works it out for any length of time, from 3 days to a year. If you want a plan for the first three days, start with the first 72 hours.

The Pentagon is planning for a bad day. That’s its job. Yours is smaller: be the house on the street that’s fine for two weeks. You can get there before the month is out.

Sources

• The War Zone, “90 Days, No Help: Fortress America’s Goal To Make Bases Resilient Bastions In A Crisis”, October 26, 2026 (includes the Fox News report of October 25)
• TV Technology, “FCC Releases More Details on Nationwide EAS Test”
• US Environmental Protection Agency, Power Resilience Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities (2023)
• Carnegie Mellon University, “U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines Vulnerable to Electric Outages” (2023)
• NPR, “With Power Out, Many Florida Gas Stations Remain Closed”, September 12, 2017
• Ready.gov (FEMA), “Power Outages” and “Water”
• American Red Cross, “Survival Kit Supplies”