Disruption does not equal destruction. The link you provided states that damage would likely NOT BE as bad as previously predicted. Do you have a link that shows that all electronics within "X" number of miles, percentages of electronics by radius? If I'm wrong, I'll be happy to admit it, but all I've seen on these links so far is "degraded" without specificity.
I agree that some electronic devices could survive. Maybe not the entire US would be ‘zapped’. But an EMP over NY and or LA could shut down the country for an extended period.
Replacement of the affected electronics would be time consuming and expensive.
As an aside, I remember a N. Korean pilot flying a Foxbat to Japan.
The press was guffawing at the ‘crude’ electronics in the plane.
It had tube type electronics.
Well, it turns out that vacuum tubes are much less susceptible to EMP than transistors.
From this source
http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm
A high-altitude nuclear detonation produces an immediate flux of gamma rays from the nuclear reactions within the device. These photons in turn produce high energy free electrons by Compton scattering at altitudes between (roughly) 20 and 40 km. These electrons are then trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field, giving rise to an oscillating electric current. This current is asymmetric in general and gives rise to a rapidly rising radiated electromagnetic field called an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Because the electrons are trapped essentially simultaneously, a very large electromagnetic source radiates coherently.
The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A large device detonated at 400–500 km over Kansas would affect all of CONUS. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.........
From this testimony, Dr. George Ullrich, the Deputy Director at the Defense Special Weapons Agency in the Department of Defense.
Fascinating read BTW.
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1997_h/h970716u.htm
....A high altitude burst, detonated at heights ranging from 50 to several hundreds of kilometers above the earth’s surface, is also capable of generating a wide variety of effects and disturbed environments, the most far-reaching being EMP. Depending primarily on the burst height and to a lesser extent on yield, a high altitude burst can bathe a continental size region in EMP. Such a detonation causes particular concern because of the sensitivity of modern electronics to strong electromagnetic fields. A knowledgeable adversary could attempt to exploit such a perceived weakness, thereby severely degrading the U.S. technological advantage, and he could do so in a way that would not likely provoke an immediate nuclear retaliation......
A less well known effect of high altitude bursts, but also one with potentially devastating consequences, is the artificial “pumping” of the Van Allen belt with large numbers of electrons. The bomb-induced electrons will remain trapped in these belts for periods exceeding one year. All unhardened satellites traversing these belts in low earth orbit could demise in a matter of days to weeks following even one high altitude burst.....