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Forget Climate Change: EMP Attack On Power Grid Could Kill 9-In-10
Investor's Business Daily ^ | May 12, 2014 | IBD EDITORIALS

Posted on 05/12/2014 9:26:01 AM PDT by raptor22

Vulnerability: Expert testimony before Congress on Thursday warned that an electromagnetic pulse attack on our power grid and electronic infrastructure could leave most Americans dead and the U.S. in another century.

That dire warning came from Peter Vincent Pry, a member of the Congressional EMP Commission and executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security.

He testified in front of the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event could wipe out 90% of America's population.

Most people's eyes might glaze over upon mention of the committee name, the title of the hearing — "Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP): Threat to Critical Infrastructure" — and the general subject of EMP. But it is a real threat and not the stuff of science fiction.

Some attention has been paid to the potential cataclysmic effects of a natural phenomenon such as a massive solar storm, an event that has occurred in America's horse-and-buggy era when it did not matter.

Today an electromagnetic pulse event would be devastating. It wouldn't need a solar storm, just a solitary nuke detonated in the atmosphere above the American heartland. We would envy the horse-and-buggy era.

"Natural EMP from a geomagnetic superstorm, like the 1859 Carrington Event or 1921 Railroad Storm, and nuclear EMP attack from terrorists or rogue states, as practiced by North Korea during the nuclear crisis of 2013, are both existential threats that could kill 9-of-10 Americans through starvation, disease and societal collapse," the Washington Free Beacon quoted Pry as saying.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government; US: District of Columbia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: electricgrid; emp; northkorea; nuclearjihad; nuclearterror; nuclearterrorb; peterpry; petervincentpry; powergrid; pry
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To: shotgun

Roving mobs have to walk there. Not easy to do when your first priority is not getting sick because of a bad water supply.


61 posted on 05/12/2014 11:09:15 AM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius (www.wilsonharpbooks.com - Eclipse, the sequel to Bright Horizons is out! Get it now!)
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To: maine-iac7

And how will the government goons and surrounding populations get there? The very close locals will probably be taken in by the Amish as they likely have a relationship with them.


62 posted on 05/12/2014 11:10:45 AM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius (www.wilsonharpbooks.com - Eclipse, the sequel to Bright Horizons is out! Get it now!)
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To: DCBryan1

>Pantex Plant equivalent in Russia

Los Arzamas?


63 posted on 05/12/2014 11:11:28 AM PDT by RitchieAprile
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To: thackney

It’s called the Compton Effect.


64 posted on 05/12/2014 11:16:06 AM PDT by bolobaby
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius

Granted but somebody some day would show up with unfriendly intentions...


65 posted on 05/12/2014 11:19:11 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: Pearls Before Swine

“....China still had roughly 450 million people surviving—not richly, I agree—on approximately the same land mass as the US, without much electrification.”

.
But the Chinese were mentally and physically much stronger than the pampered, overweight, self-indulging American. Don’t forget that they were accustomed to suffering and depravation during WWII.

They could survive under conditions that would kill most Americans.


66 posted on 05/12/2014 11:21:56 AM PDT by 353FMG
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To: thackney

Another question is how this nation will react to an EMP considering that it has hidden nuclear subs with ICBMs.

Will it retaliate or just write angry letters?


67 posted on 05/12/2014 11:26:11 AM PDT by 353FMG
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To: shotgun

That may well be the case, but ask yourself this question:

If I were in a world where fresh water, plentiful food, and medical care were a luxury, how would I behave when I came upon a community where all three were available?

Would I just try to take what I wanted and hope that there were no non-Amish in the place who would have no problem shooting me? Or would I try to find a way to have them take me in?


68 posted on 05/12/2014 11:27:33 AM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius (www.wilsonharpbooks.com - Eclipse, the sequel to Bright Horizons is out! Get it now!)
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To: bolobaby

I understand the name as well as the effect from E1, E2 & E3 signals resulting from the EMP.

Measurable effect is different from disruption. Disruption is different from destruction of equipment.

This guy claims nationwide destruction from a single EMP. He has no understanding or is intentionally fear-mongering.


69 posted on 05/12/2014 11:28:53 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

The key is that was a substation and there was no cascading failure. There has to be thousands of those in this country. The nuclear devices now deployed are not massive enough to take down the grid. That ignores the large weapon the Soviet Union developed and tested between 50 and 58 megatons. I doubt we’ll see something like that from the renegade nuclear powers.

A Carrington Event is something else again. That is unpredictable AFAIK. Whether that was the greatest since the Earth started supporting life is also unknown.

There is a study which explores the potential effects. Generally the southern portions of the US would not be affected as severely as the northernmost portions. I’d worry more about another Carrington Event. Any renegade attack would do more damage using a dirty weapon rather than go for a 4th of July show and tell.


70 posted on 05/12/2014 11:37:28 AM PDT by meatloaf (Impeach Obama. That's my New Year's resolution.)
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius

Your trying to apply logic based upon your life experience where neighbors help neighbors as I would too. But the entitlement mentality of the people may think and behave otherwise...


71 posted on 05/12/2014 11:38:38 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: thackney

He is probably part of the process of setting the sheeple up to believe an enemy foreign when a domestic false flag op is done to ‘adjust the population of this pesky we the people Republic.’


72 posted on 05/12/2014 11:42:02 AM PDT by MHGinTN
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To: shotgun

Yes, there will be some who act as barbarians, who revert to a feral existence. But how long with those live? How many of those will move away from the cities and toward the farms? Those that move toward the farms, how many will find an Amish community?

Most of those with entitlement mentality will die off quickly because they don’t know how to survive without someone helping them. That’s the point of the entitlement mentality.


73 posted on 05/12/2014 11:42:43 AM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius (www.wilsonharpbooks.com - Eclipse, the sequel to Bright Horizons is out! Get it now!)
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To: raptor22

Forget EMP. Its even more likely that it will be hacked or there will be an attack on a bunch of sub stations and put it down. Its going down. Just a matter of what moment in time.

Or regions may go down. Think what would have happened if the Vegas SWAT etc had raided the Bundy ranch and killed a bunch of people. How long do you think it would have been til the Vegas strip went dark?

There is some guy in CT thas has said if they try to confiscate weapons he has 50 guys and they are going to put the grid down there.

Once it happens one time every copy cat in the country will be attempting it.


74 posted on 05/12/2014 11:49:53 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: meatloaf
meatloaf:" The key is that was a substation and there was no cascading failure. There has to be thousands of those in this country."

Correct - there was no cascading failure .
But as I recall , it was close to it but PG&E continued to support and hold up the grid at that time .
I believe that this sub-station also powers industries in the Silicon Valley . Since the attack occurred at 1 AM, and involved approximately 120 rounds fired at the sub-station,
involved entering 2 manholes to cut security fiber optic cables
leads me to believe that this was no accident , nor a drunken prank .

75 posted on 05/12/2014 11:55:32 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt (Political Correctness is Tyranny .. with manners ! Charlton Heston)
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To: raptor22

Interesting: May 1921 geomagnetic storm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1921_geomagnetic_storm

I’d never heard of this before.


76 posted on 05/12/2014 11:56:47 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: Pearls Before Swine

growing up i never had running or elec.i joined the navy at 17 they had plenty of it.


77 posted on 05/12/2014 12:03:53 PM PDT by old gringo
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt
there was no cascading failure . But as I recall , it was close to it but PG&E

I would like to see a discussion stating that. Substations trip off line sometimes. It is not an event that would trigger a cascading tripping of the entire system.

78 posted on 05/12/2014 12:07:15 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

The other thing to consider is there is no national grid. It’s made up of regional grids that can survive on their own although electrical use might have to be restricted.

The PG&E attack is interesting from a couple of angles. Trying to repeat that in the future might be interesting for the participants. If that was a practice run they exposed themselves.


79 posted on 05/12/2014 12:09:57 PM PDT by meatloaf (Impeach Obama. That's my New Year's resolution.)
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To: Pearls Before Swine

growing up i never had running water or elec.i joined the navy at 17 they had plenty of it.


80 posted on 05/12/2014 12:10:31 PM PDT by old gringo
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