A suitable timeline for a Zombie Apocalypse

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by starslayer

Similarly unless someone is going out of there way to actually break things I would expect the cellphone system, telephone system, street lighting/traffic lighting, and many internet backbones to happily work away for years after all human intervention stops (though it may be spotty due to power constraints).

Most phone systems will go down in the panic. Is it automated enough to come back up on its own? I don't know. It probably is automated enough that no phones will be operating after a few months, for failure to pay bills. Same with Internet. Didn't receive your bill? Try calling customer service.

Power will pretty much be off in the US. Coal plants shut down within a day of the silos not being refilled. Nuclear within a week of nobody pushing "maintenance finished" buttons. Natural gas could work longer, but is limited to not only the gas production, but whatever power plants power each pump and valve on the pipe. And once power plants start going down, they drag the whole system down due to load imbalances. Hydro, solar and wind might continue operating for some time, but they are about 8% of the US power production, and there won't be much of a grid left to power.