EMP Commission warns ‘blackout’ of electricity, food, water to last ‘year or longer,’ (TR)

Washington Examiner ^ | May 9, 2018 | Paul Bedard

[Perseverando]

In this May 21, 1956, file photo, the stem of a hydrogen bomb, the first such nuclear device dropped from a U.S. aircraft, moves upward through a heavy cloud and comes through the top of the cloud, after the bomb was detonated over Namu Island in the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country may conduct a "historic" hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean. Many experts think North Korea wouldn't do something so risky, but it's hard to rule out given North Korea's steadily expanding nuclear and missile tests. AP

Parts of the United States would be starved of electricity, water, food, internet service and transportation for a year or longer by the smallest electromagnetic pulse attack on the electric grid, according to a newly declassified report from a federal commission.

The so-called EMP Commission report said that the threat is real, jeopardizes “modern civilization,” and would set back living conditions to those last seen in the 1800s.

And as a result of the chaos, millions would likely die, according to the report titled “Assessing the Threat from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP),” from the recently re-established Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack.

“A long-term outage owing to EMP could disable most critical supply chains, leaving the U.S. population living in conditions similar to centuries past, prior to the advent of electric power,” said the July 2017 report provided Secrets.

“In the 1800s, the U.S. population was less than 60 million, and those people had many skills and assets necessary for survival without today’s infrastructure. An extended blackout today could result in the death of a large fraction of the American people through the effects of societal collapse, disease, and starvation. While national planning and preparation for such events could help mitigate the damage, few such actions are currently underway or even being contemplated,” added the executive summary.

Three reports on the issue have been declassified by the Pentagon and seven more are awaiting clearance.

The warnings in the report somewhat echo those made a similar commission a decade ago. But this time the feared attacks aren’t just from a solar event but a potential atmospheric nuclear blast or cyber hit launched by North Korea, China or Russia.

What’s more, the report warns that despite President Trump’s focus on the issue and demand for action, federal agencies are fighting over the issue and the Defense Department, which is factoring in EMP protection into its plans, isn’t sharing critical information to help civilian agencies and private firms make similar protections.

Also declassified was a report from Peter Vincent Pry, who served on a prior EMP Commission and is executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, spelling out the human toll of an EMP attack on the electric grid. He also advises the current commission.

In “Life Without Electricity,” he said the results would be:

Social Order: Looting requires dusk to dawn curfew. People become refugees as they flee powerless homes. Work force becomes differently employed at scavenging for basics, including water, food, and shelter.

Communications: No TV, radio, or phone service.

Transportation: Gas pumps inoperable. Failure of signal lights and street lights impedes traffic, stops traffic after dark. No mass transit metro service. Airlines stopped.

Water and Food: No running water. Stoves and refrigerators inoperable. People melt snow, boil water, and cook over open fires. Local food supplies exhausted. Most stores close due to blackout.

Energy: Oil and natural gas flows stop.

Emergency Medical: Hospitals operate in dark. Patients on dialysis and other life support threatened. Medications administered and babies born by flashlight.

Death and Injury: Casualties from exposure, carbon dioxide poisoning and house fires increase.

“President Trump’s withdrawal from the bogus Iran nuclear deal, and his determination to denuclearize North Korea, are all the more important because even a single nuclear weapon possessed by these rogue states would pose an existential threat to North America by EMP attack,” Pry told Secrets.

He also praised Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s focus on the issue in his role as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Reform Committee, but slammed “Obama-holdovers and Deep State bureaucrats” for ignoring the report.

The report warned that the type of conditions spelled out by Pry could last a long time due to the difficulties fixing the electric grid, which many have testified would be fairly cheap to harden against an attack.

“The United States -- and modern civilization more generally -- faces a present and continuing existential threat from naturally occurring and man-made electromagnetic pulse assault and related attacks on military and critical national infrastructures. A nationwide blackout of the electric power grid and grid-dependent critical infrastructures -- communications, transportation, sanitation, food and water supply -- could plausibly last a year or longer. Many of the systems designed to provide renewable, stand-alone power in case of an emergency, such as generators, uninterruptible power supplies, and renewable energy grid components, are also vulnerable to EMP attack,” said the 27-page report.

It called for a new wave of cooperation among government agencies to set protection standards, an EMP czar, and called for testing current systems against a simulated EMP attack.

“With the development of small nuclear arsenals and long-range missiles by new, radical U.S. adversaries, the threat of a nuclear EMP attack against the U.S. becomes one of the few ways that such a country could inflict devastating damage to the United States,” concluded the report. It added, “It is critical, therefore, that the U.S. national leadership address the EMP threat as a critical and existential issue, and give a high priority to assuring the leadership is engaged and the necessary steps are taken to protect the country from EMP.”

[palmer]

Thanks for the info. I assume the unclassified E1 number is within the capability of a crude weapon like N. Korea might have if they launch it high enough?

[RFEngineer]

“Yet, here you are blathering on how EMP is so real and will kill us all. You with your Internet nerd EMP and the global warming nuts are all alike.”

Sorry Skippy, you’re wrong again. Now put on your dunce cap, sit in the corner and shut up and let the adults deal with problems you are not equipped to understand because you are too stubborn to read the definitive source material you’ve been given.

[RFEngineer]

Read this, you big dummy, then we can talk.

http://ece-research.unm.edu/summa/notes/TheoreticalPDFs/TN368.pdf

I won’t go into who the author is. But if you are really too stupid to click on this link and read and (try) to understand that there is really no support for your incorrect view then all reason,science, and logic is beyond your grasp.

Then I be delighted to chat with you on the subject as a newly educated and informed person. Plus I can stop laughing at you which just hurts my sides.

[Hawthorn]

>> Do you have any first-hand experience with EMP effects? <<

Nope.

Moreover, I have never traveled to the Moon.

But still, I can assure you that the Moon is not made of Green Cheese.

[CodeToad]

Blah, blah, blah.

You, you global warming idiots, you Flat-Earth morons, and all the other Internet conspiracy nerds are not going to get us to read your retarded explanations.

You twist yourselves into pretzels trying to come to your childish conclusions.

[RFEngineer]

So.....you still can’t click the link and dispell your ignorance?

You just complain. The link is definitive mathematical proof of EMP, it correlates within a percent or two with actual nuclear test data.

You are embarrassing yourself. Stop posting while stupid. Read, educate yourself.

[RFEngineer]

Lol....and who exactly is “us”? So far it looks it’s just you.

Anyone with curious skepticism has probably clicked the link and been enlightened.

Except for you.

It’s one thing to be just wrong.

It’s an entirely new quantum of stupid to be wrong on purpose because you refuse to read a paper that proves you are wrong.

[Hugh the Scot]

You can always tell when a thread is about to be overrun by green-cheese deniers.

[Hugh the Scot]

Although heckling you is a satisfying pastime, it’s not my primary occupation here. I actually do have some first-hand experience with the topic, and I’ll share some basic preps. First, pour a 6” thick slab of borated concrete for your foundation. If you don’t know about borated concrete, ask.

Then build a 12’ by 18’ metal building atop your new slab... Metal roof and all.
Equip your new EMP garage with the following.
Four air tight jerry-cans of stabilized gasoline, 4 quarts of diesel fuel in individual jars, two dry (unactivated) automotive batteries with the required sulphuric acid in a separate container, your portable generator set, one hot-dip galvanized 30 gallon garbage can with a lid, and one 60’s to early 70’s VW beetle.

Cut the fenders off the beetle (baja buggy style) and mount 4 Goodyear wrangler LT tires (235/75R 15) on the rims.
Pack the galvanized garbage can with a two-way radio of some sort and an electric can opener and put the lid on. Don’t forget to pack an antenna.

Put all of this in the garage and close the door. Now you’re as EMP proof as you’ll ever need to be.

When the next Carrington event occurs, open the garage, fuel your genset and plug in your can opener. Open a can of beans and enjoy. After your nutritious meal, fuel your buggy, (1 jerry-can of fuel plus one quart of diesel),activate (fill) and install one of your automotive batteries. If it requires a top-off charge, use the battery charger you thoughtfully packed in your garbage can with lid...

Drive your fully functional baja buggy (off roading as necessary) until you see a farmhouse with an old tractor parked near the barn.

Stop and ask that man what to do.

You’re now an EMP survivor.

You’re welcome.

[Hawthorn]

>> posting while stupid <<

If PWS were a statutory felony, who even dares to guess what percentage of FReepers would be in the clink?

[Hawthorn]

>> I actually do have some first-hand experience with the topic <<

Well, back in 1966-67, my job occasionally involved studying the effects of nuclear weapons, and EMP was a well-known phenomenon to us even in those long ago days of yore.

But I guess I wouldn’t claim “first-hand experience” unless I had been somewhere like Johnson Island during the test explosion in 1962 that some people think made the street lights flicker in Hawaii.

[GailA]

Same here, where as we use it to spread info, they are addicted. On a daily average I might use my phone once to make a call, ROBOS’s don’t count they get hung up on.

Instead of my boys visiting, I get a TXT, which is OK to say we are on the way. But 15 min visits are not OK. I turn 70 in 3 months, they best take the few good years I have left and make the most of them. I know how bad I miss my mom and dad and it’s been close to 2 decades.

[Hugh the Scot]

As I said, I have some first-hand experience with the subject at hand.

[MichaelCorleone]

I don’t think you’re supposed to ask that question - it would be racist.

Now if this happened under a white Republican President, then...