I have a personal connection as well, my father helped engineer some of the EMP hardening for milspec electronics on a number of systems, and I currently have family working for the DOE in Hannford.
No one in my family is going to pooh-pooh the EMP threat, particularly the non-nuclear one:
Schematics all over:
You just proved the axiom "A picture is worth a thousand words." Looking closely at that picture and imagining what would most likely happen afterwards is chilling.