There’s a report I read a month or so ago that a “pulse” nuke device in the right location could take out 80% of the electricity in the 48 contiguous states.
That would result in EIGHTY PERCENT of the population dying off.
80%!!! Just from turning off the damn lights?
At the risk of hijacking a thread ...
The disruption is not the lack of electric lights, it’s:
1) no food deliveries and loss of municipal water and fuel to cook with (3 days worth on the shelves in stores [looted in 1 day] + 3 days worth, maybe at home, less spoilage cuz the fridge is out + 3 days to get really hungry and thirsty = 9 days til the middle ages)
2) no financial system transactions. Arms/ammo, food and safety/sex become the currencies
3) no communications = no information, no 911, cops go home to protect their familes
4. no transportation cuz’ no fuel fills the stations, and barbarians hijack anything that moves on fuel.
5. social order as we know it disappears replaced by brutal barbarism, starting in starving urban areas; spreads to those in suburbia who foolishly thought they could survive in place [ just took longer to die]
6. Our interstates become corridors of death that make the road out of Kuwait look like Six Flags
7, butt rash sends millions over the edge as toilet paper and fem hygiene supplies are gone ... and their anti-depressants run out.
in other words, our just-in-time civilization degrades into the lord of the flies in about 9 days (google search 9 days) and then degenerates deepr into the 14th century from there.
80% population loss is conservative.
Check out the book “One Second After” by William Forstchen. He paints a vivid picture of a post-EMP America. It’s a horrific picture.