Things I learned from this book and other thoughts: 
 1. We technology-driven, electricity-dependent first-world people are insanely vulnerable, and many of the simple things we take for granted would be impossible should our electric grid go down. 
 2. We are a reactionary people, not proactive, and are not prepared for any of this. In fact, not even the best minds and leaders can agree on what to do and even what the risk is or that there is a risk at all. 
 3. People who live in the country with lots of resources, knowledge, and guns are going to survive the longest. City/suburban dwellers like me, and probably you, are screwed because we don't have a year of supplies and because, you know, it takes planning and fortitude to survive without power for extended periods of time. Our local governments aren't even near that now or in the foreseeable future. 
 4. If the power grid goes down for more than a day or two, lawlessness will follow. When society devolves and our first responders leave their posts because they are concerned for their own welfare, people resort/revert to their selfish, nasty nature pretty quick. 
 5. All the dystopian fiction I have read has not prepared me in any way to live in a world where toilets back up and there is no potable water to be found. The non-fiction version would be short on romance and heavy on illness and rivers of waste. 
 6. I should have converted to LDS when a friend invited me to in 10th grade, in large part because they are the folks most prepared for disaster. Unfortunately, I saw the man behind the curtain. Thanks to my smarty smart-pants ways, in the future I will die of dehydration or dysentery in my waterless, waste-filled apartment. 
 Ted Koppel gets long-winded and repetitive, but I think this is still pretty freaking important and worth reading.