Most of the world does not have clean water the way we think of clean water. You can survive on less than perfect water, which is what would start happening.
Yes, an EMP would fry a ton of stuff, but there would be recovery within days. Spare equipment that was not online at the time, portable generators, older vehicles, etc. would almost immediately start the recovery of a major disaster.
A lot of people would die, but 90%? Hyperbolic hysteria.
Those people who have CASH and are close enough to a store to buy food, meds, etc., will be very few and far between.
Credit and debit cards will be useless.
And even if I own a vintage car, how can I pump gas to fill the tank?
And on and on. Pray that (God Forbid) if this event happens, you and your family are within walking distance of each other or else there will be no way of getting home again or even communicate "location".
A bicycle is fine, till someone shoots you to get it.
Can you say "anarchy"?
Where is the gas going to come from to power up those generators and vehicles?
Our power grid would be down,and it would be no temporary thing. My cousin who works with Homeland Security says that the security of our power grid is one of their top concerns.
Also, read http://thesurvivalmom.com/2009/12/18/just-in-time-shipping-and-your-familys-survival/
Our trucking system would be completely down without fuel, and in less than a week hospitals would run out of medical supplies, oxygen and drugs. Anyone receiving regular medical care would immediately be at risk.
Water treatment plants would run out of chlorine and the other chemicals used to treat water. Without clean water, there will be an increase in waterborne diseases but no medicines available for treatment.
It would be a mess with a huge casualty rate and life would never be the same again.
Many portable generators have digital circuitry now and would be useless if a high enough field were applied. But I agree, much hysteria exists on the issue.
In 1941 I was a lad on a dirt farm on a dirt road in North Louisiana. There was a massive Army maneuver in the area that fall, and literally thousands of troops passed our place. We had an open well right by the road, mostly to supply water to the livestock. I saw many soldiers, both officers and enlisted, stop and fill their canteens from our well. I'm sure even back then they were told not to do it, but I guess they were thirsty. Of course we did have another well that we used for household purposes, but it was the same shallow well water. Most of us survived.