★★★★★
“Five days without power after the ice storm. It sat on the porch rail every sunny morning, and every night its own light and our radio kept us going.”
Top StoryNational SecurityPower GridPreparedness
Why Is a Retired Federal Agent Getting His Family Ready for a Long Blackout?
For ten years he warned power companies about the foreign hackers in their systems. This summer he started filling his garage.
By Walt Brennan
My neighbor Curtis spent 26 years as a federal agent.
His last ten years, he sat down with the people who run our power companies...
...and told them which foreign hackers were already inside their systems.
He retired two years ago...
...but twice this summer a car came for him before sunup...
...to take him to the airport...
...and both times he came home from Washington quieter than he left.
Then the President declared a national emergency to protect our power grid...
...and that same week, Curtis started getting his family ready for a long blackout.
So I paid attention.
He sold the bass boat he’d babied for fifteen years.
He moved his mother in from across town.
And boxes with no labels kept arriving...
...carried straight into the garage before his wife Pam could open one.
One night Pam sat at our kitchen table and cried.
“Either he’s sick and won’t tell me,” she said...
“...or he knows something and won’t tell me that either.”
The Morning I Walked Out to the Fence
One Saturday at first light, Curtis was out splitting firewood...
...for a brand-new wood stove.
Curtis has a gas furnace and no chimney.
So I filled two mugs and carried them out to the fence.
“What’s all this, Curtis? You don’t even have a chimney.”
“I will by winter.”
I chuckled. He didn’t.
“Pam was at our house the other night,” I said. “Crying.”
He stared into his mug a while. “I know. She told me.”
“So what are you getting ready for?”
“You know they still bring me in,” he said at last.
“Last fall it was the big national drill...
“...where the power companies practice the whole grid going down to an attack.”
“And I sit in when they get briefed.”
“I signed papers that say I can’t repeat what’s said in that room...
“...but I can tell you the questions changed this summer.”
“For ten years, the power companies asked us one thing...
“...how to find the hackers and get them out.”
“This summer, all anyone asked...
“...was how long a family can last without power.”
“This One Isn’t a Storm”
“You know how a storm goes,” he said.
“Trees come down on the lines, and when it’s bad, crews drive in from five states...
“...and you’re back on in a few days.”
“This one isn’t a storm.”
Then he told me what the head of the FBI told Congress...
...that China’s hackers are...
“...positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities.”
Christopher Wray, then FBI Director, to Congress, 2024
“And that’s the part he could say in public,” Curtis said.
“In plain words, they’re getting inside the power companies so they can switch us off when they’re ready.”
“And they don’t just flip a switch. Last winter hackers hit Poland’s grid, and some of the equipment they got into was wrecked past fixing.”
“Wrecked equipment has to be replaced.”
He pointed at the gray can on the pole by my driveway, the transformer.
“When one of those blows in a storm, the crew swaps it the same night.”
“Now even those can take two years to order.”
“So if they hit the whole country at once...
“...nobody drives in from five states, because every state is dark.”
“This won’t be a few days, Walt. It’ll last however long the fixing takes, and nobody can tell you how long that is.”
What Keeps Him Up at Night
“So what do I do?” I asked.
“Water, food, the gas can. That’s homework,” he said.
“It’s not what keeps me up.”
“Then what does?”
“The dark.”
“After Hurricane Maria, they sent a bunch of us down to Puerto Rico...
“...and parts of that island stayed dark for most of a year.”
“I watched people line up wherever somebody had a generator running...
“...just to charge a phone.”
“Their flashlights were dead, the radio was dead...
“...and whatever batteries they’d saved gave out a few days after the lights.”
“And there was nothing left in those houses that could fill any of it back up.”
“They sat in the dark waiting on help...
“...with no idea if it would come in a week or a year.”
“Now picture that here, in the dead of winter.”
Then he said the part I can’t shake.
“Think about your granddaughter, Walt. She’s five. It’s night, every light in the house is dead, and nobody can tell you when it ends.”
“Then why isn’t anybody saying it out loud?”
“Nobody wants a panic,” he said.
“So they’ll tell you a day or two, same as always.”
“But the fellow who took over my old desk calls me most Sundays...
“...and he doesn’t talk about work anymore.”
“He just asks if my family’s set.”
What He Keeps in His Truck
“And you? What have you done about it?”
He went to his truck and came back with something black, folded shut like a book.
He set it on the fence in the sun and opened it out...
...four solar panels in a row.
“It’s called a TerraCell,” he said, “a battery that fills itself back up from the sun, every day the sun comes up.”
“It holds up to five full phone charges.”
“It’s got its own light built in...
“...and it’ll run a radio off a cable.”
“Rain won’t hurt it, and with no gas, no engine and no noise, it’s safe beside the bed.”
“Last winter’s ice storm kept our house dark five days...
“...and I was stuck in Washington for three of them.”
“Pam set it out on the back steps every sunny morning...
“...and every night its light still lit her kitchen and the radio still played, till the power came back on.”
“Whatever she used at night, the sun put back the next day.”
“So however long the dark lasts, Pam has light, news and power of her own...
“...and she isn’t waiting on anybody.”
“There’s one in Pam’s car and one at each of our kids’ houses.”
“And two ride in my truck.”
Does It Actually Work?
He walked me into his garage, the one with no windows.
He pulled the door down and switched off the light.
It went pitch black...
...until he switched on the little light built into the TerraCell on his bench...
...and the bench lit up around it.
He clicked on the radio cabled to it, and the weather station came in clear.
Then he handed me the one from the fence.
“Keep this one. I’ll drop a few more by for your kids.”
“And leave my name out of it.”
“When it comes, they’ll call me in, and I’ll go. I just don’t want anybody I care about sitting at home in the dark, waiting on somebody to come.”
What Curtis Didn’t Tell Me
For two days I left it in a kitchen drawer...
...and told myself his old job had just made Curtis jumpy.
Then one night I pulled up that FBI warning he’d quoted, and reading it on my own screen was worse than hearing it at the fence...
...and the more I read, the more I found that Curtis hadn’t even mentioned.
One Friday afternoon, the FBI called a little town power company in Massachusetts...
...to tell them Chinese hackers were inside their system.
They’d been in there most of a year, and nobody at the company had noticed.
That’s exactly the kind of break-in Curtis spent ten years warning power companies about.
The U.S. Department of Energy itself has warned...
...that blackouts could become 100 times more common by 2030.
But that wasn’t the part that kept me up.
This year the head of Dragos, a company power companies hire to hunt down hackers, said some of the places those hackers broke into are places “we will never find.”
So Curtis wasn’t jumpy...
...he’d just heard it first, in the rooms where they say it out loud.
The next morning a paper bag of them sat on my porch.
I gave my daughter two, one for the house and one for her car, and my son two.
If Something Has Felt Wrong to You Lately
Maybe you’ve felt it too...
...something the news talks around but never comes out and says.
You’re right to feel it.
The people who’d know are getting their families ready...
...quietly, before the rest of us catch on.
And once the evening news says it out loud, the shelves are already bare.
This is the same TerraCell he gave me.
Since I Posted This
My phone hasn’t stopped.
Men from my church and a cousin out West all want to know where to get one, and whether Curtis is real.
He’s real.
And after her lights flickered twice in one evening, my daughter ordered four more.
What Families Say About TerraCell
★★★★★
“My mother is 91 and lives alone. Now there’s one by her couch, so when the lights go out, she has a light and her radio and isn’t sitting alone in the dark.”
Shirley M.
★★★★★
“Our generator ran dry and every gas station in town was dark. TerraCell kept our phones and radio going until the lights came back.”
Harold P.
Why Batteries Alone Won’t Get Your Family Through
A drawer of batteries is a countdown clock.
Every one you use is one fewer, and when the last one dies, the house goes dark.
TerraCell puts charge back every time the sun comes up.
Its four panels give it 4x faster sun charging than a one-panel solar charger, and the maker calls that Four-Panel Solar Capture™.
Every sunny day puts back what your family used the night before...
...so as long as the sun is in the sky, your family’s light, radio and phones keep coming back, however long the grid stays down.
| TerraCell | One-Panel Solar Charger | Gas Generator | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refills from the sun | |||
| 4x faster sun charging | |||
| Goes in a purse or glove box | |||
| Works when the gas runs out | |||
| Safe beside your bed | |||
| 120-day money-back guarantee |
One for Every Person You’d Worry About
Curtis didn’t stop at one, and neither did I.
A TerraCell in my kitchen does nothing for my daughter’s family across town when their lights go out.
So think about everyone you’d lie awake over if the whole grid went dark: your parents, above all one living on their own, your kids wherever they happen to be, and the car, for the night you’re far from home.
Each of them needs their own...
...so every house you love has light, news and power of its own, and nobody in it sits in the dark waiting on help that may not come.
Maybe Curtis Is Wrong
Maybe he is. Maybe the hackers never throw the switch, and the big one never reaches your street...
...and I hope he’s wrong.
Then your TerraCells ride out the ice storms and hurricanes that still take the power for days, and that suits me fine.
But if he’s right, you’ll want them in the house already, not on order the night the lights go out, because by then the shelves are bare.
Nobody on my street can stop a hacker on the other side of the world or build a transformer overnight...
...but every one of us can decide whether our family sits in the dark when it happens.
The Only Problem: Stock Can Run Short
More than 10,000 families keep one, and when war or storms hit the news, more order at once.
You can only get it here, not in stores and not on Amazon.
If the button below still shows, there are units left.
Each comes with our 120-Day Money-Back Guarantee and a 1-Year Warranty.
You have 120 days to try it, and for any reason at all, every penny comes back to you.
Check Availability - Limited Stock
P.S. Last night my wife finally heard all of it, even the part about our granddaughter.
She went to the drawer where we keep the flashlights...
...looked at the dead batteries rolling around in it...
...and asked me one question: “How many of those did you get us?”
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it work in winter?
Yes. On any day the sun is out, set it outside in direct sun, on a porch rail or a step, and its four panels put charge back with nothing to plug in and nothing to fill. It fills best outside in direct sun, and rain, snow and mud won’t hurt it.
How many phone charges does it hold?
Up to five full phone charges from a full battery, depending on the phone. It has two USB ports and a USB-C port, so three devices charge at once, and fast charging gets a dead phone going again sooner.
Does it have a light?
Yes. TerraCell has a built-in LED light, so the moment the power dies, your family has light in hand with no hunting for a flashlight in the dark. It has three modes: a steady light, a strobe, and an SOS flash to signal for help. And the sun keeps it charged, so it never depends on batteries you forgot to buy.
I already have a generator. Why would I want this too?
A generator is for the fridge and the furnace, and it has to run outside, away from the windows, on gas you have to go and get. TerraCell keeps your family’s light, news and phones going right beside them in the house, with no fuel and no noise, and it folds small enough to go with you.
What if the cell towers are down?
TerraCell keeps your family’s phones charged, so they’re ready the moment service comes back. In the meantime, the radio and the light keep going.
Can it sit out in the rain?
Yes. It’s weather-sealed: rain, snow, mud, even a dunk in a puddle won’t hurt it.
Is it sold on Amazon or in stores?
No. TerraCell is only sold here, not in stores and not on Amazon or eBay.
What’s the guarantee?
You get 120 days to try it with your family. For any reason at all, every penny comes back to you. Every TerraCell also carries a 1-Year Warranty.