The North Texas "once in a century" ice storm from a few years back took out much of the electrical grid for longer than a week. At least where I live, which is spitting distance of Dallas City Hall, not all that remote, we had no Internet for about two days, gas was gone for about a week, electricity was totally out for the first two days, then came back for about two hours a day for the next two weeks due to the rolling blackouts. At no point did we have no water, but we had no hot water. Also, the city never plowed the street where I live, so we had no city services like trash pickup, and no deliveries, from any service at all, for two weeks.
That certainly hurt, but civilization didn't just go down the drain instantly. Most people have enough food and water to survive a couple weeks. You might be uncomfortable, not showering, but it takes a while to get to the point of shooting your neighbors. Unless a formal announcement comes out saying the government has dissolved and laws no longer apply, you better be damn sure services aren't coming back, because it's not like you just get amnesty for murder and theft because you had no running water for a few weeks.
Well I'm glad things were calm. I doubt we'd see a breakdown of civil order all that fast, but if we had a solar event or an EMP event that pretty much took out global communications and transportation, that's going to be one unholy mess for months.
The Amish in Pennsylvania and thereabouts, with their horse-drawn buggies and 18th Century lifestyles, might actually do okay, but from what I've read, they do use electricity for lighting, pumps, clotheswashers etc. So even they would have to adjust.
That certainly hurt, but civilization didn't just go down the drain instantly. Most people have enough food and water to survive a couple weeks. You might be uncomfortable, not showering, but it takes a while to get to the point of shooting your neighbors. Unless a formal announcement comes out saying the government has dissolved and laws no longer apply, you better be damn sure services aren't coming back, because it's not like you just get amnesty for murder and theft because you had no running water for a few weeks.