Posted on 02/23/2012 8:49:06 AM PST by chessplayer
Most Americans do not know this, but a single EMP attack could potentially wipe out most of the electronics in the United States and instantly send this nation back to the 1800s. If a nuclear bomb was exploded high enough in the atmosphere over the middle part of the country, the electromagnetic pulse would fry electronic devices from coast to coast. The damage would be millions of times worse than 9/11. Just imagine a world where nobody has power, most cars will not start, the Internet has been fried, the financial system is offline indefinitely, nobody can make any phone calls and virtually all commerce across the entire country is brought to a complete stop. A nation that does not know how to live without technology would be almost entirely stripped of it at that point. Yes, this could really happen. An EMP attack is America's "Achilles heel", and everyone around the world knows it. It is only a matter of time before someone uses an EMP weapon against us, and at this point we are pretty much completely unprepared.
(Excerpt) Read more at endoftheamericandream.com ...
“I would venture NO. “
They have. It simply didn’t end the world as we know it. EMP has been blown out of proportion by the survivalist drama queens. EMP simply is a rather weak force generated by all nuclear bombs, and while it can affect some long wire devices, it simply will not destroy all things electronic or electrical. The most I would prepare for in the event of an EMP burst is perhaps the electricity going out for a few days if it actually managed to do any damage to my electrical distribution system. The problem is only two countries have the ability to launch a nuke over the US; the US and the old Soviet Union States. Not much to worry about. If the Soviet nuke us they are going for broke with lots of nukes hitting all over the place and EMP is the least of our worries.
14 miles isn’t at all irrelevant. For straight up travel it’s a huge distance, and for the coverage area it’s a dramatic reduction.
Not assuming anything. A nuke big enough to put forth an EMP that would remain strong enough to do damage to electronic systems would weigh thousands of pounds. And again we’re talking about moving something straight up, adding a zero to the weight of your payloads multiplies the effort necessary by more than 1 zero. Straight up is the hardest direction to travel, all distances and weights are magnified.
If they’re going to launch nukes at the east coast the point will be the nuke itself not the EMP. That’s always been the problem with the EMP fear, for the size of the nuke necessary and for the effort to get it there you can do more damage easier with the actual explosion part. That’s why EMPs were never part of our strategic plan, or the USSR’s, because we all figured out if you’re gonna nuke somebody NUKE em.
Great piece, Cuban Leaf. I intend to pass this around while noting that it has a copyright. Thanks.
“Exactly right. I bet I am one of a handful of Freepers that have actually worked on, around, and in nuclear weapons with the DOE NNSA/OST. EMP is real, however its effect is exaggerated. “
It depends what you mean by “exaggerated”. If you are saying that the “Hollywood” version of everything that uses an electron dies, I agree.
What isn’t clear is what specifically it would affect, and to what extent.
What is likely is that it will be statistical impact. You take 10 identical devices, some number will be unaffected, some will need a reboot, and some will be bricked.
This is a gross abbreviation What the military basically says is that you need to reduce the Nuclear EMP by a factor of 10,000 to be assured that your electronics will not fail, or be permanently degraded.
What does the average person need to be sure their electronics won’t be adversely impacted by EMP? There is and will never be effective guidance on that.
The power grid is another story. The nature of an EMP can have a profound impact on transformers and other power grid elements. The trend towards higher transmission voltages, in some respects makes, the vulnerability worse.
What happened in Hawaii that is often written about is probably not relevant today - as we have a different grid today than we did then.
So the answer is, in my opinion, yes it is exaggerated by Hollywood, but no its not necessarily well understood - and it could have a significant societal impact, but not “back to the stone age” stuff.
Except Obama is downsizing our nuke force by 80 percent
So it only takes out the electronics in the eastern half of the US. wow big improvement
I’m not worried about the USSR or even China, they aren’t going to do it. Iran, Pakistan or another country with a limited supply of nukes may see this as a way of striking the US.
People like Iran want Armageddon.
While we are on the subject of GOOD FICTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....
....might as well mention On the Beach since we all need to prepare for mass suicide...>GIT UR Cyanide now!...
...and how about Lucifer's Hammer...All of you preppers need to sell any property lower than 7,000 feet below sea level, and
....finally, Earth Abides. Be sure to store rattlesnakes in your bug out bag so you can become immune to human-destroying virus's!
....just sayin'
Actually, the death and mayhem will be more extensive than you apparently imagine. Think of the planes int he air which will drop wherever they happen to be at the time of the EMP, the massive trucks which will crash to a halt among the litter of autos suddenly stopped in a chaotic mass accidents, the fires which will erupt, with no fire fighters rolling to the rescue, no water being pumped into the immediately drained water towers, the gas lines drained from eruptions and fires all over the pipeline system ... the continent would be lucky to just get tossed into the 1800s ... the chaos and mayhem will be on the order of stone age meets special forces. And it won’t take long for the surviving feral ones to become very well armed and roaming nearly unopposed through every neighborhood within their walking distance and then driving distance when they get vehicles operating. Yeah, teotwawki will be much more catastrophic than you can imagine. Trust me, I’m a writer.
“In my estimation in many areas the resulting panic and unrest will cause as much or more damage than the actual attack. “
Exactly
I agree, Jim Burkes books are very good too.
My son met Burke at ASU 10-12-years ago.
What protects chips from absorbing the charge? What is that little thingy that your computer is plugged into? How does it work? Why do they recommend that you connect your electronics (including your TV) to those little thingies with the extra outlets in it?
Just Google "Carrington Event" and "Farady Cage" for starters.
No offense, but MMGW can produce a lot of studies too.
I don't doubt the effect would be damaging if not devastating to certain areas. I picture a few cities of New Orleans style disasters (without structural damage and death).
Remember, they didn't even use grounding in the 1940's. Circuit breakers and fuses were primitive compared to today. They didn't even completely understand the correlation between conductor size, voltage, amperage and phases to properly ground systems and breakers. It's why there are so many fewer electrical fires today than say 50 years ago.
Again, I accept the reality that large localized power outage and device destruction is likely. But I don't think Denver and Ohio would be plunged into the 1800's if a EMP detonated 250 miles above Kansas. I have read about the experiments that have been done. While a small island can be affected with 1940's technology from 400 miles away, I remain skeptical that the entire nation would be plunged into the 1800's for 5 to 10 years.
Ping to the ‘snap!’ List! (in case some of you are not on Kartographer’s prepper list).
Hell the border is so porous al-Qaeda could just drive one across the border in a Tijuana Taxi!
ROFLMAO!
While everyone is doing this^^^^^^^^^^
I'll be doing this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ at the Drunken Clam.
Thanks for the hugh chuckle. Seriesly!
yup use the Rodney king beating as an example
To “only” take out the electronics on the eastern half they still need to increase the size of their payload that they’re getting to that altitude by about 20 fold. Quite a few serious jumps in their technology.
If they want armageddon the best bang for the buck is ground nukes. Cheaper, easier to transport (heck you can ship them in here if you can forge documents), much more destructive. The more limited your supply of nukes the more reason there is to NOT waste any on a silly assed high altitude EMP. Putting one in a truck next to the bull on Wall Street will kill more people with less effort lower traceability and lower failure rate.
“But I don’t think Denver and Ohio would be plunged into the 1800’s if a EMP detonated 250 miles above Kansas. “
Not by the EMP, by the resulting breakdown in society.
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