Leave the World Behind

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Have any of you ever been caught in a natural catastrophe? Have you ever experienced firsthand what it is like to endure a Category 5 or 6 hurricane? What about a tornado? Ever experienced in your life firsthand an EF5 twister? Have you been through a volcanic eruption? What about an out-of-control wild fire or a disastrous flash flood? Here’s one that is becoming more common, What about a total power outage for 3-10 days?

From February 10 to February 20, 2021, Texas suffered its most catastrophic major power-grid failure during an arctic blast from Winter Storm Uri. I went through Uri while living in Dallas, TX, at the time and it was bad, real bad. I had no way of saving all my electronic device batteries unless I went out to my car, started it, and hooked up the power adaptors to the devices. Doing this for a long, silent, semi-alone 10-days was quite difficult. It was the first time for me to go through a long blackout alone. Cell phone networks were still operating, thank goodness, but that lasted only as long as my batteries lasted and I’d go out to my car, fire it up, and recharge my phone. I needed to stay in touch with my Mom and sister 5.25 hours away down in Kerrville near San Antonio, TX. But I was also thinking when my cell battery was exhausted and I didn’t have a power source/outlet, then what? What if you use up all of your gasoline in the car during a much, much longer power outage and it will no longer start? Load up as much as possible with gas in small gas tanks then store them somewhere safe?

Eventually my brain methodically kept going, thinking through the possible (probable?) causes and effects of my situation, other’s situation, and then I thought of a more dark, sinister situation I learned during Hurricane Rita in 2005, an already Category 5 hurricane predicted to hit somewhere between Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana. In 2005 metro Houston’s population was around 5.3-million people. Houston is the largest metropolitan area in Texas. Everyone in Houston, particularly in the south of Houston all the way to Galveston, Texas City, Dickinson, Kemah, Alvin, Pearland, Pasadena, Sugarland, and La Porte, all southern suburbs and towns near the Gulf of Mexico coast were urged by authorities to evacuate north or northwest as soon as possible. What did I learn and witness on the news? It was a seriously disturbing wakeup call to me.

The woman I was dating for over three years lived down in Friendswood, TX, another suburb of south Houston. She lived there with her two other younger brothers and their wives and children. The older brother and my girlfriend evacuated Friendswood two days early than the youngest brother, his wife, and three children who was trying to evacuate the day before of Rita’s expected landfall as she neared Houston, TX. Over the phone my girlfriend listened to her youngest brother and wife describe what they were seeing and experiencing live trying to get out of north Houston on two-lane Interstate Hwy. I-45N near Spring, TX, up to Conroe, TX, 40-miles north of downtown Houston.

Travel time/distance from Friendswood to Conroe, TX, thru downtown Houston, TX, in normal conditions and traffic – Google Maps

What they began seeing, moving sometimes only 10mph at the most or completely stopped, around them on I-45N was horrifying, bordering on total anarchy by hundreds of thousands of motorists. Cars, trucks, 18-wheelers (lorries in the UK) and motorcycles whizzing by up through the center of the highway in between vehicles or on the embankment passing all the other stopped vehicles with no regard for safety. Those with kids in the vehicles were beginning to urinate or defecate either in the median or off the embankment of I-45N. Adults would too. The brother and his wife also mentioned to my girlfriend how many people were absolutely disrespectful, angry, afraid, crazy and ready to do whatever it took to care for themselves and their immediate loved ones regardless of the higher risks to others. And in Texas the vast majority of Texans own weapons they carry or keep in their vehicle. My girlfriend told me she had never heard her brother and sister-in-law so scared shitless.

As I was remembering all those dark memories and thoughts in 2005, I couldn’t help but realize what might happen during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 if the power-grid was not returned to service in a reasonable amount of time. The entire state of Texas had no power for around 9-14 days depending on utility work crews available. I realized how much of our lives, our society is now utterly dependent on two facts of life: 1) electronic devices/machines, computers, cell phones, internet/WiFi, electrical electronics in our vehicles, ATM’s, satellite navigation and GPS, and 2) the power, the electricity to power all of it and/or the fuel, energy to run everything electronic. To say I wasn’t paranoid of others and their erratic mindsets was a lie.

I was very aware of human nature then and today when it is put into circumstances of life or death, or serious harm, and little to no control over it or the ability to stop it. Many people do not cope well. They do not start using their survival instinct or their brain, they panic, they freak the hell out and lose all rationale, safety, and typically all altruism and ingenuity. Lifeguards at pools or on beaches, or the U.S. Coast Guard seamen and women all know that those they try to sometimes rescue can try to pull them under, fight them in order to breathe and save their own life at your expense. That is human nature under extreme stress and panic.

∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼

I watched a film today with the wife. It was on Netflix and it was about this exact same predicament I’ve described above happening to two families. The 2023 film is called Leave the World Behind and still streaming on Netflix. It stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, Myha’la, and Kevin Bacon. And if any of you have not seen it I highly recommend it. Why? Because number one Barack and Michelle Obama are executive producers through their Higher Ground Productions banner and notoriety. Number two, it disturbingly shows just how dependent our current U.S. culture and society are not just addicted to electronics in every way of our daily lives, but worse still how much 21st-century military defense, arms, and equipment like modern drones rely almost entirely on computer electronics. This doesn’t mention the fact that our private or government businesses and agencies and commerce rely heavily on satellite navigation systems, communications, and GPS in transportation and shipping sectors around the world via thousands upon thousands of Medium Earth Orbits to Low Earth Orbits. And by the way, if you haven’t heard, highly advanced computer AI corporations have already produced, released, and operate systems that monitor, build, or hack into other sophisticated AI systems.

Watch Leave the World Behind available on Netflix and get a harsh reality check about the high-tech world and nation we live in and under. Then if you can return here and share your thoughts about the film and just how closely it accurately reflects our present American lifestyles of hyper-dependence on energy, power, electricity, and computer system networks. Are we in control of our lives and our future? Is our current president and administration really intelligently capable of protecting Americans or themselves given the still ongoing 6-month War with Iran?

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2025 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

40 thoughts on “Leave the World Behind”

  1. Saw the film a couple of years ago.

    Loved the scene on the beach with the ship.

    When disasters such as you describe are a reality it must be terrifying.

    We have had years of electricity Outages but it has been revealed much of this was down to corruption.

    This miserable state of affairs has stabilized, thank the gods, but our much neglected infrastructure is now causing some serious issues. Roads, water etc.

    Our weather is nothing like what you lot experience up north so we are fortunate in this regard, but being ‘powerless’ is a very uncomfortable situation, which is why solar is the way to go. I would dearly live to be completely off-grid but that much solar and the batteries etc is a bit rich for me at the moment. Medium to long term we will aim for.

    As for food.. another tough one but one I have made a start with growing a fair amount.

    Also a good idea to learn how to can and pickle.

    No electricity needed. Well, not to preserve the harvest.

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    • “As for food.. another tough one but one I have made a start with growing a fair amount.

      Also a good idea to learn how to can and pickle.”

      Have to agree with you Ark. I think everyone should learn some advanced basics of gardening food and storage for shelf life. I’ve done decently myself with my herb garden, but that’s about it. Grateful we have a 7-cubic foot deep freeze to store food. It has come in quite handy during these harsh economic times here in the U.S., nearly a life-saver in some cases. 😬 But then… I must remember that it too runs on electricity and once again we are heavily dependent on the power grid. 😟

      If we had more property around us, I would definitely start a small veggie garden—fruit would probably be far too difficult in this arid, windy, drought/flood-ridden region of the Texas Hill Country. I’d need to learn from the former Native American tribes what foods grow best here in this harsh climate. Sadly, there are not many around at all; scarce if I am honest. We haven’t had any rain now since around mid-July. My 55-gal rain-catcher is now only a third full and we aren’t finished with August (hottest month of year) and I suspect September won’t be kind either. 😕

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  2. I have often recommended that if Americans truly want to stop Trump, billionaires and the trillionaire, and other such oligarchs, all they have to do is turn off the power grid, turn off the electricity. My thoughts were these:

    One, the “ruling class” cannot survive a total power outage. Their lifestyle would disappear, and they would not have the grit to stay alive on their own. They depend so much on employing others to do their “dirty work” for them, they would starve of hunger, disease or other disaster-related events, such as roving bands of flesh-eaters, violent offenders, etc. Regular people might panic for a short while, but they would realize quite quickly that they would have to survive by their own wits, and regular people would know or learn how to do that.

    Two, all those “wealthy assholes” have very little real money, not that money would be worth much in a world without electricity. Their wealth only exists in computers that tell them how rich they are–without computers that run on electricity, all that money would disappear, and everyone would be on the same level. Those wealthy bums would not be survivors, but regular people would.

    You, PT, are talking only natural disasters, which in reality could happen anywhere, but not everywhere at once. Turning off the power grid could shut down the whole country all at once. It would be a purposeful move, and yes common lives would be lost, but it would not take too very long before the people join together again and reproduce a new nation, or nations, where all the oligarchs would be extinguished, and the ‘poor would inherit the world.’ Fiction, definitely, but it is not so far away from reality as some might think!

    Peace to all.

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    • “Turning off the power grid could shut down the whole country all at once.”

      Or loosing the power grid as we did in 2021 for 9-14 days, but it lasting around 30-45 days would jerk the population, and the wealthy oligarchs, into a completely different mindset, not all of them good, of course. 🙄 I’ve often called my nation the “Disunited States of America” and one man and one political party started this severe polarization in 2016 and 100-fold since 2025. 🤬

      But your “fiction” you speak of rawgod would be an enormously painful one for most Americans, especially if it lasted more than 3-months. This I’m certain of.

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  3. Yes, our modern technological civilization is incredibly fragile. Most people take it for granted, unfortunately, and are totally unprepared for disasters (natural and otherwise) which cause it to fail. It is disconcerting to live with this sword of Damocles hanging over our heads.

    I once experienced an EF-1 tornado near Augusta, Georgia. It scared the crap out of me but that’s all. On October 17th 1989, I was aboard a commercial airline flight to Memphis, Tennessee on a business trip when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area. The airline crew did not inform us. When we checked into our hotel, the clerk said, “you left there just in time!” We had no idea what she was talking about. When I turned on the television in my room, I saw the huge fire in the S.F. Marina District, the collapse of the Nimitz freeway in Oakland, and the partial collapse of the S.F.-Oakland Bay Bridge. I was in shock. For three days I couldn’t reach anyone back home because the telephone lines were down. When I finally did, I was relieved that everyone was alright. They had gone through hell for about a week, though. When I returned to my apartment in the Oakland hills, the place was a mess but no permanent damage.

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    • Robert, see… you have a good idea and recollection of just how fragile American society is and how easily we forget and take it for granted. And what many/most of the wealthiest top 1–10% fail to comprehend in their ivory towers is that their opulent lavish lifestyles are directly and indirectly reliant on the level of consumption and spending of the masses. They don’t fully realize that they are monumentally outnumbered by those masses they look down upon. And they cannot indefinitely nor protect their families and wealth, material wealth especially, from wave after wave after wave of the peasantry. Civil revolt is more brutal upon the few elites than it is for the many lower classes; they are more adapt at survival.

      Sheesh, talk about anarchy day in and day out, eh? 😳

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    • Very wise Steve. Well done. 👍

      Last spring I was preparing for the financial hit from Mom’s eventual passing anticipating that it might happen after Xmas or perhaps in early 2027. Over two years I had significantly repaired my credit score, I took out two fairly low-interest credit cards—Prime Chase Visa & Credit One Bank—both with reasonable credit limits, again anticipating Mom’s death expenses followed by my move out of Texas then along with the wife Sandy somewhere eastward, Chattanooga, TN, or Charlotte, NC, a distant chance to around Madison, WI, all of which wouldn’t be cheap. And then my schizoid-affective bipolar sister had a fucking manic meltdown.

      When she has those she typically relapses on illicit drug binging, alcohol abuse, acting out abrasively and behaviorally, including violence, and treating family, friends, and coworkers horribly, even stealing things from anyone she can. It gets real bad. And on October 28, 2025, an Adult Protective Service caseworker knocked on our door. My sister, during her relapse and angry bad manic episodes, had called APS on me for a second time. 😡 She described the reason to the female caseworker as a “safety measure” for our Mom, that Mom was not receiving proper care from me and Sandy. I was beyond pissed! In my anger I didn’t pay close enough attention to the APS caseworker’s questions to me. She asked me/us several questions over a 20-min only interview and just the first visit by her. I botched one answer, How much fluids does your Mom get per day? I answered how much she had received that morning: “8 ounces.” I didn’t even realize I misunderstood her question because things were moving quickly by her.

      Long story short, the following morning Texas APS took Mom away, against her will and wishes spelled out in her DNR and on my cell phone video: She explicitly wanted to die at home with me, Sandy, friends, and family, NOT at a fucking nursing home-rehab alone with strangers. I was also the Durable Power of Attorney in all aspects of her Estate and Executor of her Will. None of that mattered. Texas APS took her away. Two days later Mom died around 3:00am. As a result, everything, decisions, all death expenses and legal fees, funeral arrangements, calling, immediate and short-term plans were all forced into action those next 2-3 days. Financially I was not yet prepared. As a consequence of my sister’s meltdown and Mom’s sudden death, it all completely maxed out my two credit cards ($12,000 total) and savings account. My sister has yet to share one nickel for Mom’s sudden death and any burden of expenses. Nothing.

      All that to say, that after the nation’s useless, asinine attack on Iran back in February 2026, followed by this insane inflation, affordability, much higher interest rates now, and the tripling or quadrupling of grocery prices likely to continue for another 2-3 years… we are not catching up or maintaining an already tighter budget or paying off debts. It is infuriating Steve. 🤬 And we certainly cannot dream of affording a solar panel, 2-3 months of emergency supplies and nowhere to store it because I am also stuck with ALL of my Mom’s furniture, belongings, heirlooms, and keepsakes, which also includes a completely crammed pack shipping container of her 3,240 sq ft Ranchita home and furnishings that remains in Lometa, TX, some 120-miles away from Kerrville at her former partner’s massive ranch. And the inheritors of his huge ranch have just informed me of when I was planning to remove the container & Mom’s (and sister’s) belongings.

      Effin hell, can’t seem to win right now and it isn’t going to get any better with the moron in the White House. Anyway, thanks for lending your ear/eyes to my frustration and whining. 😒

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  5. Yes, I have experienced a tornado. In the mid 90s on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I was working on a newly built home in an already established subdivision in affluent Cobb Co. (suburban Terminus/Thrasherville/Marthasville) when a tornado roared over the house, cutting the subdivision in half. It plowed a miles long path across several counties. It toppled several homes (not the one I was in, but 3 across the street, and pushed a home into the small lake 200 yards away).

    Unfortunately, I had to cross that west-to-east line of destruction to get home that day, and it took hours.

    And yes to the days of power outage. In 1973 an ice storm crippled the city, and we were without electricity from Sunday night until Thursday. Mom cooked stews, spaghetti, chili on a two burner Coleman camp-stove and we gathered around a fireplace in the den for warmth.

    I dunno if I’ll watch this film, but it sounds a lot like a post apocalyptic urban fantasy book series by my favorite wife/husband duo who publish under her name — Ilona Andrews. The technology crash wasn’t caused by a cyber attack, but rather a naturally occurring and millennia old struggle between tech and magic. A “strong flare” of magic signaled another change was coming and disrupted the entire world.

    I’d like to think humans are adaptable enough to survive an apocalypse, but I dunno. My mom just missed being born into the great generation (she was in the silent generation), but she lived thru the great depression.

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    • Kamchak, I think some humans are adaptable enough, especially if they have dear family members depending on their help like their own young children. However, as you know there are parts of the population who are very self-consumed and care little about any others, even their own family members in some cases. Those are the ones we’d all have to be hyper careful and vigilant around. They can’t be trusted.

      “My mom just missed being born into the great generation (she was in the silent generation), but she lived thru the great depression.”

      Yes, my Mom & Dad survived the great depression as young kids as well, then the widespread rationing of goods & materials during WW2. Both grew up in rural Texas families that knew how to be self-subsistent and utilize their ingenious survival skills. It’s a great trait to possess, I tell ya. Wish a lot more Americans today were like that. 🙄

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  6. That is very scary stuff prof, many people have no tolerance when things get tough as you pointed out so well. When we had a storm in Queensland we lost power for about a week or two depending on the area and some people were becoming very agitated in the first days likely because they had nothing prepared for such an event and a bit of hardship was too overwhelming for them.

    I have a generator a caravan with solar panels, and power stations in my 4×4 but unfortunately on one blackout I was away in NZ and unable to save my frozen foods.

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    • sklyjd, it is great and wise that you have your caravan with solar panels, etc. Those will be invaluable in a circumstance like the one in the film. However, also be prepared for those nearby that do not have such equipment/supplies and were not prepared. They (likely?) could try to steal from you whatever they can get their hands on. And of course weapons would be a HUGE concern! 😬 As much as I despise weapons (home arsenals), it’s an entirely different concept of protection during a severe crisis like this one.

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  7. I’m from Buffalo. I’ve lived through at least 5 or 6 blizzards in my lifetime. In case you didn’t know, a blizzard is a hurricane with snow. The last one was the Christmas Blizzard of 2022, where I was snowed into my house for 5 days. I literally could not open my doors because the snow drifts were too high & too packed for me to push the door through them. One of my neighbors dug me out. Luckily, I never lost power ~ my mother, who was still alive at the time, & my brother, who lived near her, & many others in the area, lost power for over a week.

    People from Buffalo complain about the snow but at least your property isn’t irrevocably damaged like it would be in a hurricane. Some people have had their roofs cave in because of the weight of so much snow but usually in a blizzard situation, the snow is blowing & it doesn’t settle on rooftops ~ it ends up on the ground. You just don’t want to get caught out in one. People die from falling in snowbanks & not being able to get up out of them ~ you can suffocate in snow. Or they get their car stuck & they die waiting for help, usually of carbon monoxide poisoning. More than 2 dozen people died that Christmas.

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    • SAQ, wow… goodness. You indeed have a realistic idea of what’s required in extreme weather events, storms, crises, etc. Well done. I’d think that people who live daily in conditions like up in rural Alaska and up in your parts of the country are better experienced than us down here in South, Southwest, Midwest, etc. As much as I loathe living in a tiny red-neck rural town in central Texas, or anywhere like that, it does have its (few?) ‘life perks’ to put it mildly. 😏 You live a form or a degree of survival in some/many ways, huh?

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        • Oh, I can imagine SAQ! I’ve seen many photos of autumns up your way, in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Michigan. In June 2021 Mom, myself, and sister took a 10-day, 9-nights vacation to Mackinac Island, MI, to stay in the Grand Hotel & Harbor View Inn. It was the Lilac Festival then and though it wasn’t autumn, it was nonetheless spectacular colors and temps. 😊

          The wife and I would love to make it up there to the northeast before I/we can’t travel anymore and absorb all the colors and cool-breeze days! I know we’d love it and have a blast.

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  9. Chilling account of something that actually happened. We live in our world of Computer Convenience quite unable to cope with what folks back in pre-WWII would be ordinary life.
    Looking at the film reminded me of ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and the irony of lots of White American Folk refuges herding across the border into Mexico (very neat weather line) and their president saying they all are welcome. Of course that was 2004.
    Fast forward 20 years….

    Take care you guys
    Roger

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    • Great points Roger, particularly your ‘Mexico 2004’ and “fast forward 20 years…”

      I have several native and naturalized American friends who have either moved out of the U.S. (because of you know who with a bad toupee & his political party) or have tried to move out to other much more suitable countries, but the country they chose or preferred wasn’t welcoming Americans. I am not kidding. Our ex-patriots have spiked since 2017, but especially so since 2024. Is it a surprise? Certainly not.

      If conditions here don’t change significantly after our fake prez is out—assuming that really does happen in 2028—then there will be an even bigger Exodus of Americans because he and his MAGA sycophants will have trashed or overhauled the U.S. Constitution for him to serve longer than FDR did in the 20th-century. Is that possible? Yes, if true Americans don’t get out and vote this Oct/Nov 2026 to take back both chambers of Congress.

      Let’s pray that does not happen. 🤞🙏

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      • It is very sad and salutary PT that all Americans are being labelled as pariahs.
        We must hope that the Opposition both without and within the party (it’s there but has to keep its head down) can work in a mature, determined way together and also mobilise the non-voting sections. Then by traditional democratic means throw this crew out, and to be biblical about it ‘into the darkness where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth’.
        Of course if they try to fool around with the Constitution aside from an increase in rather nasty demonstrations, there might be something quite ironic; ie a liberal / democrat based States Rights Secession movement….who would have thought it?.
        Take care guys.
        Roger

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