EMP: The Greatest Threat to America, and What We Can Do about It

Yes, very true. It puts us in a Mad Max scenario in a couple of days, even more so than a nuclear war. In a nuclear war, the major cities would be destroyed, thus a large part of the population will perish as well. However, this will leave a lot less people left to fight over the resources.

In an emp scenario, there will be 300 million people instantly needing food or water, with about 3 days on average of food stored. People will pick all the resources dry in a week. Death estimates from a nuclear war are as high as 50% within 6 months. Death estimates from an emp are as high as 90% within 6 months. Scary stuff.
There are a lot of EMP threats out there. Iran has made it a staple of their defense doctrine since it was published by their revolutionary council in 1998. After the cold war Russia let it be know that it's first strike would have been high level EMP's, followed by a full nuclear strike. The Russians are currently exploring small-scale EMP applications, and have even developed EMP grenades. But the biggest threat may come from China, which make no secret that EMP weapons are a staple of their defense plan, and they have numberous naval and intercontinental systems to deliver them.

So silly, emp is only likely to be used on any adversary that is fraught with division, inflexibility, factional infighting and lack of preparedness and self sufficiency paradigm fixated on convenience consumption and soft living and excessive reliance on technology.
SO,I think we are safe

Old vacuum tube technology is immune to EMP, as is a Faraday Cage...be wise...

Actually, my thoughts are that an EMP attack would induce division, inflexibility, factional infighting DUE to a lack of preparedness.

SO, everyone meet at your place!!!???
Bring beers

Working on the Faraday cage problem now.......not really a problem just trying to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak, Brief.

No, it would induce mass casualties with 90% mortality over 12 mo time, and then whoever gets here first can kill off the rest.

DUE TO LACK OF PREPAREDNESS......geesh

See any preparedness? For the nation, I mean?
The threat has been known for decades, war planners are not unaware of the likely uses and users, the secnarios have been run and yet everything we have that we rely upon is unprotected and nobody talaks about anything remotely similar to preparation.
Sure, it's only an accident, and oaversight, yet, solyndra gets money, wall street gets money, the lawyers take money the gummint argues about bollox and the nations producers gets bupkis.
If you need to build your own faraday cage, it's already over, you may as well not bother, you wont live long enought to benefit from whatever you put inside. The real question for the 'me' generation is not what you do for yourself but what does your leadership and community do.
A mans generocity and wisdom are not maxaimally tested by what he does for himself, it's really about what he can do, or not do, for others of his kind to provide survivability and prosperity.

Bring something! No freeloaders at Fort Brief!

Hey Brief,I'll bring a heathy appetite and a sense of sarcasm.

See you when the shit hits the fan!

brief has food lets go

LOL, hope you can build a fire and haul out the trash then ;)

EMP threat

[link to www.c-spanvideo.org]

Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and others talked about the threat of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to the U.S. infrastructure. An EMP, produced by detonating human-made devices or by powerful solar storms, can disrupt and destroy electrical systems, including the U.S. power grid. Panelists warned of an aftermath similar to "Hurricane Katrina" of an EMP event, predicting that as many as two-thirds of Americans could die from starvation.



Good book to get some ideas of what it will be like if/when an EMP goes off over Kansas

[link to www.onesecondafter.com]

an emp over the states is a deathknell for civilization in the continent.
Mad max will be the disney version.
Really what's to be done? Not much, it's for those too young to know the lazy good times.
You have no idea how different it will be and no idea of the length of time it will take to fix(ie never).
The point is to invade afterwards and strip the valuables with no resistance

I would like to see more serious discussion on this topic as I think it is very important.........

Thank you for bumping this thread. I to think this is an important subject. How do you prepare for a complete lack of electronic and subsequent breakdown in society?

There are ways for the average person to protect "some" electronics but our infrastructure is SOFT....look at the below video....
[link to www.youtube.com]

and this.......... [link to www.youtube.com]

I have seen that video before. It is creepy.
I believe that the EMP is the scariest form of doom.

EMP threat...hmmm, I'm reminded of the (nuclear) Cold War of the later 20th century. Is this to be our 21st century version of a Cold War?

Also, one would be remiss to think that the US doesn't also have such technology and are any less or more apt to use it than any other country with such tech.

Most people will die within a few weeks-- not due to starvation, but due to the nuclear hell unleashed when nuclear power plants melt down due to lack of power for cooling... I don't think nuclear power plants have backup systems for EMP...

I believe you are absolutely correct, look at FUKISHIMA!

I see the EMP threat as an "IED" tactic as far as the economical and the stealthy opportunity it affords......just my view

I see the EMP threat as an "IED" tactic as far as the economical and the stealthy opportunity it affords......just my view

Hence, why having Iranian ships off our coasts, barely in International waters, is very unsettling. For folks who are still clueless to prepping, now might be a good idea to get moving -- very fast!

Last Edited by LJS on 09/30/2011 09:53 AM

I went to an estate sale and got a fat roll of window screen for 8 bucks. this can be draped over electronics and as long as it is insolated, groundless and gapless, provides good EMP protection. I pin it together with 3" pieces of wire and use the same bare wire to plug the f-cage into the grounds on at last two regular outlets. Easy. I got a small generator still in the box protected for pennies and about 1/2 hour's work.

Hmmmm ... sounds like most of our countrymen.

Please lets keep this thread visible to the site as it is very important and I think it needs further discussion. I'm not doomy about it but concerned.