Grid Drill Pairs Ice Storm With Cyberattack, Tests Home Backup Gear

Utilities just ran a tabletop drill pairing an ice storm with a cyberattack on their restoration data, and the lesson applies to your home setup too.

Snapshot

Askaprepper.com reports on MAX 2026, an exercise in Huntsville, Alabama where public power utilities, the FBI, CISA, the Army, National Guard, and local emergency managers rehearsed an ice storm knocking out power across Alabama and Tennessee while hackers corrupted the outage data crews rely on. Sixty-four attendees from 26 organizations worked through how mutual aid, outside cyber help, and military-facility coordination would hold up if the data itself couldn't be trusted.

Key points

• Bad data slows everything: the article explains that if crews can't trust outage maps or restoration data, they have to verify repairs by hand, stretching outage times for everyone.
• Not theoretical: the piece notes the UK and EU blamed Russia's FSB for a December 2025 cyberattack that attempted to deploy wiper malware against Poland's grid, which British officials said could have left half a million people without power.
• Heat first, then information: the article recommends an indoor-rated heater like the Mr. Heater Buddy used per instructions, plus cold-rated sleeping bags, and a hand-crank NOAA weather radio since official updates may not be reliable.
• Stock for weeks, not hours: it cites FEMA guidance to plan for outages lasting days or weeks, with two weeks of water and food, cash in small bills, and a portable power station with solar backup.

Quick take

The drill's value, per askaprepper.com, is that it's a signal from the people who run the grid: they're planning for storm and cyberattack together, so households should treat data-independent tools and longer-duration backup power as standard kit, not extras.

Read the full story: askaprepper.com