The book

When Systems Fail

Emergency Preparedness for AmericanEuropean Households
Volume 1: The First 30 Days

by David Fesco and Marcus Hardt · Systems Fail Lab

Cover of When Systems Fail, Volume 1: The First 30 Days, by David Fesco and Marcus Hardt

The power is out. The taps are dry. Your phone has no signal. What do you actually do in the next hour, the next day, the next month?

Most preparedness books are written for wilderness survivalists or bunker builders. This one is written for households: ordinary families in apartmentsflats and houses who want a calm, tested plan for when infrastructure fails.

amazon.comUnited States
21 Sep 2026
amazon.co.ukUnited Kingdom and Europe
28 Sep 2026
amazon.deGerman edition
5 Oct 2026
amazon.comUnited States
21 Sep 2026

Paperback and Kindle. Buy links appear on this page on the day each edition goes live. Nothing is on sale here, and this site takes no payments.

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What the book is

Volume 1 is a practical household manual for the first 30 days of a real crisis: a blackout, a flood, a supply shock, a CBRN event, a pandemic or armed conflict. It covers the moment of impact, the month that follows, and what changes when the crisis is of a specific kind.

It is built on documented events rather than speculation: the siege of Sarajevo, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017, Texas during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, and Ukrainian cities under strikes on infrastructure since 2022. The Iberian blackout of 28 April 2025 is the baseline case the book is written around: no enemy, no warning, twenty three hours, no card payments and no trains. Every chapter ends with a summary and a working checklist. No gear worship and no doom.

What is inside

Part I

Impact: the first 72 hours

The Psychology of Day Zero: your mind is the primary enemy
Hard Inventory: resources here and now
The Core Decision: stay or go
Caught Outside: crisis while abroad or in transit

Part II

StabilizationStabilisation: days 4 to 30

Base Operations: managing a home without infrastructure
Movement and the Outside World
Psychological Hygiene and Group Organization
Holding the Line: psychological resilience
Medicine Without a Doctor: emergency level

Part III

Scenario protocols

Civil Unrest, Mass Violence, and Internal Threats
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Threats
Pandemic and Biological Threats
Natural Disasters

Who it is for

Households that want a written plan instead of a stack of intentions.
Parents responsible for children or elderly relatives.
People who live in a city apartmentcity flat and have been told to store water, without ever being told how much or where.
Anyone who has read the official four page leaflet and wanted the next four hundred.

What makes it different

Written for a household, not for a wilderness or a bunker.
Every dose, threshold and number carries a source, and the medical chapters follow published resuscitation and pharmacy guidance rather than folklore.
Structured for decisions under stress: open the chapter you need, act, close it.
US units, US utilities, US emergency numbers.Metric throughout, European hazards, European utilities, European emergency numbers. The two editions are separate books, not one book with a converted appendix.

Volume 2

Volume 2, Sustained Crisis, covers months 2 through 12, when stockpiles run out and short term reactions stop working: producing water and food, energy and heat off the grid, chronic care without a pharmacy, barter, household security, and the month six wall. It is in preparation and has no date yet. Subscribers hear first.

About the authors

David Fesco and Marcus Hardt are analysts of civilian system failure. Their work looks at how ordinary households adapt when the systems they depend on stop working, drawing on the Russia Ukraine war, the siege of Sarajevo, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, and the long European migration shock. Both come from financial risk and decision making backgrounds. The same frameworks that govern how institutions act under uncertainty turn out to govern how households act when sirens go off and the shelves empty. The difference is that institutions train for it and households do not.

More about the authors, and what they are not →

Reviewers, librarians and media. A watermarked review PDF is available before launch, in English or German. Write to hello@systemsfaillab.com and say which edition you want. We send PDF only, and we do not ask for a positive review or a guaranteed publication date.

While you wait, these are free

The First 72 Hours (PDF)

The short version of Part I. No email required.

The First 72 Hours (PDF)

The short version of Part I. No email required.

Readiness Score

27 questions, six domains, about six minutes.

Kit list builder

A kit list for your home, your household and your climate.

Intel Hub

Sourced guides on water, power, heat, comms and evacuation.

The authors are not medical doctors, lawyers, or licensed healthcare professionals. All activities described in this book may be dangerous or illegal in some jurisdictions. The book provides general educational information and does not replace medical, legal or other professional advice. See the full disclaimer.

Questions? Email hello@systemsfaillab.com

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