https://www.futurescience.com/emp/EMP-myths.html
http://www.futurescience.com/emp/
Who has heard of the book, One Second After, a John Matherson series by William R. Forstchen? Good book right? Well, it is a great fiction piece (and I recommend it for entertainment), but if you are looking to it for your facts and planning for an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) or a Geomagnetic Disturbance (GMD), trash it. There is so much misleading or outright incorrect information in it, the book only be can only be read as the novel it’s intended to be.
Do not get spun up over things that can’t or won’t happen regarding an EMP or GMD event. Get the right information. For example, most believe that a major GMD like the Carrington Event would not only take down power grids, but also destroy electronics rendering things like vehicles useless. This statement is what I consider a mix of mis and dis information. The first portion is possible “IF” nothing was done and “IF” we had no response time. However, the reality is we see solar activity days in advance and the Department of Energy has the authority to literally disconnect the grid in advance to prevent widespread damage. This means rather than planning to see the power grid totally destroyed by a GMD, it would be more realistic to plan for a few days without power. That’s a huge difference between fiction and reality when it comes to planning. When it comes to electronic devices, the news gets better. A GMD really doesn’t damage or destroy them and most experts agree your cars would be fine. The possible exception is if you have an electric car that is connected to the grid (specifically where long east-west transmission lines are used) you could theoretically fry the car. Even then, simply unplugging the device should be sufficient to protect it.
As for the EMP situation, this is where we get into small electronics possibly being fried and cars shutting down. However, this is contingent upon a large number of factors that get into some serious physics and strategic considerations. For one thing, a large scale EMP device would get the same strategic (nuclear) response from the United States a nuclear strike on the United States would elicit. If a state is going launch an EMP attack, the state might as well just use a nuclear weapon to get both the EMP and the devastation. This is why many experts rightly point out that we would have bigger problems to deal with than a grid or devices going down. In fact, the most likely scenario where there is a large scale EMP is from a nuclear strike so the question is more about if there is anything left to power than whether the grid or your cell phone works.
Rather than going on and on for pages citing what has already been spelled out by legitimate specialists in the field, I want to refer you to the Future Science site for EMP/GMD information linked to at the beginning of this article. Here you will find a large amount of high quality information that is accurate and worthy of using for planning purposes. If you are serious about preparedness you are serious about getting your “facts” correct. Doing less is not only stupid, but will be expensive, a waste of time, and at worst, disastrous.
By Guiles Hendrick
December 18, 2020
