Lights Out

November 5, 2015

Last night Jeff and I were invited to a Q & A and Meet & Greet with Ted Koppel up in Park City. Mr Koppel came to The Ready Store a few months ago and interviewed Jeff and Paul for a few hours to learn about the preparedness industry, it’s product offerings and fulfillment capabilities during a disaster for a book he was writing called “Lights Out!” He spends three chapters on his visit to Utah where he understood the hub of the preparedness industry was and to visit the Mormons because he understood they promoted personal preparedness among their members. (Jeff is quoted on page 123-24)! His book came out last week and is already on the New York Times Bestseller’s List. He is doing a sort of book tour to promote it and made a stop in Utah. It was a small gathering, probably about 25 couples, at a beautiful home at the top of the Canyons Ski Resort in Park City right next to one of the chair lifts. It was a crazy drive four miles UP to the top of the mountain. It was only lightly snowing so the road wasn’t too bad but we were still a little nervous because there were some icy patches.

The Church PR department had set up the meeting. I recognized a few local prominent people. I was a little nervous about going. I’m not good at small talk in settings like that and I’m often one of the youngest people at an event like this (I was).  I was worried I would trip in my high heels or have something in my teeth while I was talking with someone or have toilet paper trailing behind me when I left the bathroom!

We gathered in the basement and Ted (I should probably say "Mr. Koppel") started out telling us a few stories from his journalist background and even singing a comical song he had written after meeting with President Nixon on the Great Wall of China. Then he summarized his book and the potential threat and the lack of preparation or plan if a group were to launch a cyber attack against our power grid. He has interviewed top officials and the smartest people and experts in the field. They have told them that it is basically imminent that it will happen. His call to action was basically that the government would be unable to take care of people because of the size and scope of the potential disaster so it is up to individuals and families to prepare themselves. It was really interesting. Then he opened it up for questions for a half hour or so. Afterwards we were able to meet Ted Koppel and he signed a copy of his book for us and we got our picture with him. He was very genuine and gracious and warm. He was well spoken and extremely intelligent. I loved just listening to his voice as he spoke.

It ended up being a memorable evening and thankfully none of my fears of embarrassing myself were realized!