Posted on 10/12/2017 3:57:51 PM PDT by bitt
Congress was warned Thursday that North Korea is capable of attacking the U.S. today with a nuclear EMP bomb that could indefinitely shut down the electric power grid and kill 90 percent of "all Americans" within a year.
At a House hearing, experts said that North Korea could easily employ the "doomsday scenario" to turn parts of the U.S. to ashes.
In calling on the Pentagon and President Trump to move quickly to protect the grid, the experts testified that an explosion of a high-altitude nuclear bomb delivered by a missile or satellite "could be to shut down the U.S. electric power grid for an indefinite period, leading to the death within a year of up to 90 percent of all Americans."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Absorption, scattering. ...gonna hit on it eventually. It really doesn’t matter. EMP doesn’t go on forever.
Every large city in America is the source of death and disease if the grid is down for a year. The starving and diseased will not remain in the cities, they will ‘migrate’ to take over what they can forage in the burbs. Where is 90% of the US population? In and around cities, major cities. ... 90% may be a low estimate, IMHO.
Absolutely. Death gets us all eventually. It’s just a question of timing and circumstances. Christ offers eternal life.
Unfortunately this sort of doom porn has become quite the rage. Reflective of the shift to irreligious values. Also a complete lack of critical thinking skills. No one asks the hard questions like why do we care, why is this important now as opposed to 40 years ago, what are the alternatives, and who benefits?
stated: “I can’t believe this silly shit finds it way to Congressional testimony, much less Free Republic.” Yep we should CENSOR stuff like this. he he
THE MISSILE would never make it to America. Sheesh..And why would they EMP when they have Nuclear capabilities?
“Some experts say that spare transformers and parts could be purchased and put near critical infrastructure for as little as $6 billion.”
Gamma rays is burst of high-energy microwave radiation. It penetrates electronic devices whether they are on or off and fries internal electrical components. Stuff has to buried several feet under ground to protect it.
LOTS of Freepers confuse this with the charged particles of a coronal mass ejection (CME). A CME will not take down a power grid. Might burn your house down (power strips catching fire) but the grid will remain on.
It only needs to reach the ground.
in the early 1800s what you imagine might have been true, but not with millions competing for the same rabbits and squirrels. Dream on. Reality sucks.
Did you ever read that stuff I sent you? If you had you’d understand the threat and not be puzzled by such a possibility. Read and learn
“If you had you’d understand the threat and not be puzzled by such a possibility. Read and learn”
You’re an idiot. Learn from you? There is nothing to learn from you.
Bbetween the two of us, I am the only one who has studied exoatmospherics at a doctorate level (projects discovered the third Van Allen radiation belt, as just one example) and worked in nuclear hardened buildings, shelters, and with electronic systems including missile warning systems, nuclear detection systems, and command and control systems.
Little surprise for you: I come from the NSA, NRO, NORAD, Space Command, Systems Command, Communications Command, Space and Missile Defense Command and hold more degrees, certifications, and security clearances in such matters as EMP than you have had birthdays.
So, shut up, little kid. You and your drama queen act of trying to get attention screaming about EMP is nothing but childish nonsense.
“Little surprise for you: I come from the NSA, NRO, NORAD, Space Command, Systems Command, Communications Command, Space and Missile Defense Command and hold more degrees, certifications, and security clearances in such matters as EMP than you have had birthdays.
So, shut up, little kid. You and your drama queen act of trying to get attention screaming about EMP is nothing but childish nonsense.”
Surprise, you are clueless. If you truly had the pedigree you claim, you’d not be posting it on here. You are a poseur, and not even a believable one.
Read, listen, Learn. I gave you the keys. You are too stupid to use them to enlighten yourself. Instead, you claim accolades, credentials, and degrees, all of which mean nothing, even if you are telling the truth, which is clearly doubtful because you are wrong on this subject by a mile.
So, junior, you wanna try again? Read the paper I posted in previous threads. Then hang your head in shame.
We’re done here.
“Never argue with an idiot, they take you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
Dear lizma,
The only reason that I could fathom for such an action is the utility companies are ‘strapped’, due to all those old power lines that would have been replaced “when they were scheduled” to be replaced, all ended being needed replacement due to the storms and fires.
We have all seen that utility companies just love to run out there and start re-wiring neighborhoods, right?
“Ignorance is bliss”
It’s especially amusing when some one of your educational and work pedigree (snicker) won’t even read the authoritative source peer reviewed paper on the subject of HEMP written by THE foremost researcher in the field.
You are not only willfully ignorant, but you are uncommonly stubborn about staying that way.
Read the paper, dumbass, and learn!
There’s people that while they don’t specifically need certain medication to survive, it makes life a whole lot easier for them. I’ve never had a grand mal, thank god, but I take anti-seizure medication for primary generalized epilepsy. If I just stop taking it, then I’m at good risk of having a ‘real’ seizure.
There’s other people that do dialysis. How are they going to get the fluid? Those people would only have a few weeks, and they would be suffering through them.
Agreed. I have an epileptic in my family, and that would be rough, especially the transition away from medication. As for dialysis, kidney failure would be fatal without power.
I think a person should read every thing Travis has ever written to start on the path of well-roundedness.
I consider his works to be training manuals.
” In calling on the Pentagon and President Trump to move quickly to protect the grid, . . . . . . .
___________________________________________________________
I am really reluctant to get into this but feel I must.
The threat of EMP is way overblown. Yes there is certainly a real threat and the US, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Russia and soon N.Korea have developed weapons to maximize the effect of an EMP blast.
The military can do nothing to reduce the effect of such a blast but the power companies have already started doing things to help.
I fear that most don’t know much about what an EMP is so I would like to discuss it a little and perhaps make some not quite so afraid.
EMP stands for ElectroMagnetic Pulse. An electromagnetic pulse is exactly what is generated by a lightening strike. During thunderstorms if you have your AM radio on you can hear those pulses if they are within several miles of you. If those pulses or lightening strikes that cause the pulses are more than a few tens of miles a way you are unlikely to hear them on the radio. A nuclear blast caused EMP would be hundreds of times stronger than the lightening strikes but would likely be many times farther away also, distance in this case is your friend.
EMP’s cause a couple of problems. First, the wires that cross the country in our power grid will act like a transformer and electricity from the pulse will be induced into to those wires. Unfortunately the wires can greatly enhance the distance problem, in other words an EMP 50 miles away might not bother us except that it might induce a high voltage into our electrical grid and then transfer that voltage to our homes and businesses. Before the spike in voltage gets to our homes and businesses however it will have to go through a transformer at the utility company. These transformer are big and heavy and for the most part not made in this country any more, China makes them cheaper so the US transformer shops for the most part are out of business. All that being said, our electric utilities since learning about the potential of an EMP have installed “drains” on most of the grid transformers and soon will likely have them on all of them. The drain is a device that carries current above a predesignated voltage directly to ground without going through the transformer. When it does not go through the transformer it does not get to us. In the process of saving the transformer it saves us too.
Now the drain is a solution for long line problems but if there are many of these blasts then areas more directly under the blast will have local lines downstream of the big transformers that will carry the over voltage spike to local transformers. Most of them may not have over voltage protection, though they will have over current protection. The over current may save the transformer but not the equipment in our homes and businesses. Electronic equipment will be especially vulnerable, the effect will be like having a lightening strike just outside your window.
There are still things that can be done to minimize the effects of such a strike. We will likely have warnings that missiles are headed our way. Smart people will disconnect from the grid and unplug anything they can.
Your car won’t likely be affected unless it is VERY close to the blast, if that is the case I don’t think I would be worrying about the EMP but the blast itself.
For many people, much of their electronics will be ruined. Motors will not generally be affected but most of our refrigerators and heating systems these days have electronics that could be affected. A person who wanted to prepare for this might build a simple Faraday cage in their basement or garage to store stuff in until after the threat. Most refrigerators and freezers have a metal skin that should protect the electronics in them but there is no guarantee. It would be very wise to have a generator that will keep your refrigerator/freezer working and run the fan on your furnace or have another source of heat. It won’t do any good to have a generator though if you don’t have a lot of fuel. Most people could get by running a generator a few hours a day.
In the worst case, many systems in a large area could be affected. If the water company can’t pump water we all have a problem. The water company however usually has generators that will run the pumps.
Gasoline stations, at least some of them, could be affected so that they couldn’t run their pumps until a generator is brought in.
It could get pretty sticky before we were back to normal. Eating, drinking and staying warm could be a big problem for many people and the Government can’t really help a huge number of people.
If we lose water a lot of people will die within a couple of weeks after they exhaust all the liquids in canned goods they can get their hands on. Many more will fall ill due to drinking dirty water.
I have to somewhat discount the EMP scare because an EMP would have virtually no effect on the military and the US would respond in a much greater way. North Korea and Iran may not care about this but everyone else does if they are in their right mind.
I don’t call myself a prepper, BUT I have food, water and energy to last a long time. I won’t depend on the government but I will be unlikely to share with neighbors until I can assure my family will be fed. With 9 kids and 24 grand children it is an important consideration.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.