During the past two decades, such blackouts have increased 124 percent — up from 41 blackouts between 1991 and 1995, to 92 between 2001 and 2005, according to research at the University of Minnesota. In the most recently analyzed data available, utilities reported 36 such outages in 2006 alone.

It offers a good reminder that citizens should be prepared for such events. One particular tip I would suggest is to make sure that you have requisite backup power for your mobile phone as communications in a crisis is paramount.

The need for — and importance — of backup power for mobiles in an emergency was brought home to me a couple years ago when I responded to a building collapse in Manhattan with my CERT team. The accident displaced a number of apartment residents who came to the Red Cross evacuation center with two questions: when can we get into our homes? and second, how can we could get our cellphones charged?

Eventually, power chargers for the various mobile phone makes owned by residents were found. But it was a bit of an epiphany for me. I believe that the cellphone or PDA is the most important emergency tool you need to have and learn how to use. In fact, I recommended, on the suggestion of Mitchell Moss, that everyone have an extra cellphone battery.

I had worked with the Wireless Foundation and technology expert David Stephenson to add mobile phones as a recommended tool on emergency management sites. The Ready.Gov Get A Kit section now also recommends a battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both; flashlight and era batteries; and cell phone with chargers, inverter or solar charger. Another option is to have an extra ‘low-end, energy-efficient’ phone.

Rebecca Marquis, the Ready Program’s Deputy Director told me she was at jazz concert in New Orleans where everyone was given a free Energizer® Energi To Go® Portable Power for Cell Phones. I think that is the type of business involvement in advance emergency preparedness which needs to be expanded.

Also, the American Red Cross has a broader checklist of how to prepare for power outage beyond just communications.

“The high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces. The damage level could be sufficient to be catastrophic to the Nation, and our current vulnerability invites attack.

Briefly, a single nuclear weapon exploded at high altitude above the United States will interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetic field to produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) radiating down to the Earth and additionally create electrical currents in the Earth. EMP effects are both direct and indirect. The former are due to electromagnetic “shocking” of electronics and stressing of electrical systems, and the latter arise from the damage that “shocked”-upset, damaged, and destroyed-electronics controls then inflict on the systems in which they are embedded. The indirect effects can be even more severe than the direct effects.”

At a U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing earlier this Summer, “Securing The Modern Electric Grid From Physical And Cyber Attacks,” Chair Yvette Clarke (D-NY) noted in her opening statement: “Though we may no longer fear a nuclear attack from Soviet Russia, rogue adversaries (including North Korea and Iran) possess and test high altitude missiles that could potentially cause a catastrophic pulse across the grid.”

The EMP threat has also received more attention as a result of a best-selling novel about an electrical shutdown by William Forstchen, One Second After. Forstchen has a web site with information on EMP preparedness here.

There is some debate over the seriousness of the threat and how significant the nation’s response should be to it. Michael Crowley wrote a skeptical article on the subject for The New Republic earlier this summer:

“‘EMP is real,’” agrees Joe Cirincione, a nuclear weapons expert who now runs a pro-disarmament think tank, the Ploughshares Fund. But, as Cirincione notes, few analysts take the threat very seriously. The odds that Iran or North Korea would prefer a technologically untested Rube Goldberg scheme to merely nuking us seem slim. And any terrorist group able to execute such a plan was probably capable enough to get us one way or another anyhow.”

Beginning on Tuesday, there is a conference examining the EMP issue, “Protecting America from Permanent Continental Shutdown from Electromagnetic Pulse, in Niagara Falls, New York sponsored by EmpactAmerica.

In retrospect, we realize that any weaknesses in the nation’s electrical grid present the same and in some cases more potential concerns than even a terror attack. And, as we mark this anniversary, I hope it underscores the need to prepare for range of emergencies that we all may have to deal with, each with their own challenges. Addressing them in advance are all part of a broader view of building a more prepared and resilient nation.

On the subject of the electrical grid, the Reform Institute has just released a report “Smart Grid” arguing for the implementation of a next generation electrical grid to avoid the type of an event that occurred five years ago today. It is not a subject I know enough about to offer a comment on. But I’m linking to it in part in thanks to the Reform Institute’s spokesperson Chris Dreibelbis who reminded me about the anniversary.