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EMP – It Can Happen

July 20, 2010, Submitted by: Ken

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emp-over-cleveland


Does this sound like and excerpt from a novel?

The $h!t has hit the fan. A well financed terrorist group has hit the mother load. They have successfully launched a modified Scud short range ballistic missile hidden inside a specially designed freight container that was purposely placed on top of the stack aboard a container ship. It had left a foreign port and was now just off the east coast of the US, heading towards the Port Newark container terminal in New Jersey.

In a matter of minutes, the missile reached it’s detonation target 400 miles away, and 50 miles above the city of Cleveland, Ohio where a small nuclear warhead exploded. The resulting electro-magnetic-pulse, or EMP, instantaneously fried nearly all electronic devices within line-of-sight, about 700 miles, reaching well into Canada to Boston down the east coast to Jacksonville, and around over to Kansas City and Minneapolis. The nearly 1,400 mile diameter EMP blast zone covers the majority of the US population density as they are instantly sent into darkness as the electric power grid fails. A cascading effect coupled out beyond the blast radius, blows out the large custom made ultra high-voltage transformers all along the electric power grid network – sending all three of the major power grids of the entire US into blackout.

Still sounds like fiction? Think again. This is a real vulnerability, and one that would be absolutely devastating to our way of life, and one where our very survival would be threatened.

In such a scenario, where would you be safe? Who will be the most likely to survive and get through the disaster?

There would be so much damage to the electronic infrastructure, it could literally take many years to replace just the essentials such as the specially built custom power grid ultra high-voltage transformers which currently have a production lead time of two to three years. We would essentially be thrown back into the stone age. Most everyone would be on their own, with mostly no help from their disabled government. Nearly every vehicle within the initial zone will not start. Nearly all computers are fried. Financial information lost. Transportation systems are down. Water and sewage treatment systems are down. It is truly a nightmare scenario where hundreds of thousands, if not millions will surely lose their lives from the ensuing chaos and starvation.

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Those who are living away from cities and population centers will have a better chance, especially those that have already stock-piled extra food (and water if there is none nearby). People that are already practicing some sort of partial self-sufficient life style will have an easier time adapting to a life without public and private infrastructure which brought the necessities of life to the masses.

Just stop and think about it for awhile. Just assume for a minute that such a disaster is plausible and pretend that it actually happened. Once you run out of food, how long will it be before you become very hungry, irritable, and then desperate?  The grocery stores will be looted nearly immediately. After a few days or a week I wouldn’t expect there to be much of anything available. Then what? Your internal instinct to survive will have kicked in, and you will begin to consider doing things that you otherwise wouldn’t, so that you can survive. Desperate times lead to desperate measures, including chaos and violence.

You will not be alone in this desperation. There will be millions of others. This will become extremely dangerous after a short period of time and further emphasizes that the best place to be under such a scenario will be far away from the dangers of desperate people. The further away you are from cities, the dangers will reduce exponentially, but will not reduce completely.

We hope that you take the time to think through this type of terrorist disaster, and others, while you think outside the box. The more you think about things outside the normal mainstream feeds, the more likely you are to take some sort of action that will hopefully lead to a better prepared life, or at least a state of mind where you will not be shocked or panicked should such a terrible disaster occur.

As they say, better safe than sorry.

Update, 29-Oct-2010, apparently a shipping container missile launcher now exists.



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