A couple weeks before this posting, I read this extremely grim article from the New York Times (I know, surprising, right?) about a study concerning blackouts during heatwaves and their effect on death and illness. The conclusion of this study is fairly easy to see: a blackout during a heatwave
I think we need more decentralized energy grids and people should put more solar panels on their rooftops. Solar panels don't solve all our energy problems, but they definitely help during heat waves.
Unfortunately they're being vilified in a lot of places. They being solar panels and the people who put them on their own properties. Matt Farrell just did a video about it: https://youtu.be/dPfpa2KqYk0
Also used the blankets on the south-facing windows last summer and they did help.
If someone else wants to try it out, make sure to attach em on the outside, not the inside of your windows. Attaching them on the inside might cause the glass to shatter from the heat.
We generally have 2-3 blackouts in the winter here so I bought a generator to keep the house from freezing during the 6-24 hrs without power. When the power starts going out due to high demand in the summer I plan on running the fridge and freezer for 10min an hour and hoping that I don't have to keep it up for more than a day.
I always have a few day's worth of pre-cooked and vacuum bagged meals in the freezer so I guess I can always leave one of those out in the sun for lunch.