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#232648 - 09/24/11 04:56 AM My Motivation
ablesolutions Offline
Stranger

Registered: 08/31/11
Posts: 13
Loc: New Jersey
“Super-EMP” weapons, according to Russian and Chinese open source writings, can destroy even the best protected U.S. military and civilian electronic systems.
North Korea’s last round of tests, conducted in May 2009, appear to have included a “super-EMP” weapon, capable of emitting enough gamma rays to disable the electric power grid across most of the lower 48 states.
Most of us have become completely and totally dependent on electricity and technology. Without it, most of us would be in huge trouble.
What would you and your neighbors do if the power went out and it did not ever come back on?
What would you do if an EMP attack happened in the middle of the winter and you suddenly were not able to heat your home any longer?
What would you do if all the electronics in your car got fried and you simply could not drive anywhere?
What would you do if all the supermarkets in your area shut down because food could not be transported across the country anymore?
What would you do if you were suddenly unable to call your family and friends for help?
What would you do if you were suddenly unable to get the medicine that you needed?
What would you do if your debit cards and credit cards simply did not work any longer and you could not get any of your money out of the bank?
What would you do if all of these things happened all at once?
A single EMP attack would be the worst disaster that the United States has ever seen by far.
An electromagnetic pulse could potentially fry the vast majority of all the microchips in the United States. In an instant, nearly all of our electronic devices would be rendered useless.
All of those big bank accounts may never be able to be recovered after an EMP attack. Your money might be instantly fried out of existence.
You would truly be on your own.
We all saw what happened after Hurricane Katrina. The government response was a nightmare. An EMP attack would be millions of times worse and the federal government probably would not even be able to get you and your family any assistance.
Life after an EMP attack, no power, no food, no transportation, no banking, and no internet. This is the worst case I can imagine. As unpleasant as it is, I find it useful to keep me motivated.
_________________________
self sufficient

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#232684 - 09/24/11 08:36 PM Re: My Motivation [Re: ablesolutions]
chaosmagnet Offline
Sheriff
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 12/03/09
Posts: 3819
Loc: USA
Preparing to survive failures of utilities, financial services and communications is smart. We've seen that happen often enough recently that examples would be superfluous.

My reading leads me to think that while a high-altitude EMP would knock out a lot of equipment, vehicles might be more likely to survive than was previously thought. A lot of gear that is stored in metal boxes might very well survive, and small electronics that aren't connected to AC power may have a decent chance of surviving as well.

While a lot of computers would be destroyed by an EMP, some commercial datacenters are hardened to prevent wireless traffic from going in or out, which would likely have a significant impact on the survivability of the datacenter.

Anything relying on large antennas or long-wire non-fiber systems would likely fare the worst.

I don't have wide-scale EMP on the list of threats I prepare against. The main reason is the sheer unlikelihood. A high-altitude EMP is a state-level threat, one that few states are capable of attempting. Any state that tried it would face unimaginably horrible retaliation.

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#232686 - 09/24/11 09:36 PM Re: My Motivation [Re: ablesolutions]
Am_Fear_Liath_Mor Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/03/07
Posts: 3078

Quote:
Most of us have become completely and totally dependent on electricity and technology.


Electricity has only been around about a century and the Internet as we all know it about 10 years.

Talking to someone brought up in the African bush in Zimbabwe without electricity for their first 20 years he found it quite amusing the dependency we have in the west for electricity and technology and freely admitted that folks in the west could not possibly cope without the energy intensive push button instant gratification consumerist society.

But human beings are known for their ability to adapt and survive.

I suspect that many North Koreans don't even have proper shoes much like many did before the introduction of electricity during the beginning of the 20th Century. North Korea is just a very poor country that can barely feed itself.

BTW it doesn't even need a man made EMP incident. Nature is fully capable of inflicting a similar result as an EMP but with much wider scale impact.

What is quite worrying though is the dismantling of the robust fall back technologies such as the post office and local banking branches and other services which were so useful before the introduction of the Internet and the information surveillance society.

Many houses in my City were built pre 1970s (typically from the 1890s) and still have fireplaces and chimneys which could be re-opened and used with a little effort. A cast iron wood/coal burning stove could be very useful though.

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#232692 - 09/24/11 11:40 PM Re: My Motivation [Re: ablesolutions]
unimogbert Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 08/10/06
Posts: 882
Loc: Colorado
EMP is my highest-liklihood catastrophic scenario.
I'm not fully prepared for it, nor maybe even 20% but it's what I keep in mind while being prepared to walk 40 miles home from work....

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#232698 - 09/25/11 02:17 AM Re: My Motivation [Re: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor]
Richlacal Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 02/11/10
Posts: 778
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
Am ferly mor,Did electronic technology Not bring your chum to technology exploited Scotland from Rhodesia,er, Zimbabwe? or did he travel by rowboat,bicycle or afoot? I've been to South Africa,including Rhodesia,& as I recall,Many if not all I encountered would give their 1st born to the wind to have such basics as their very own TV,Microwave oven,Refridgerator/Freezer or just a Bakki to haul the family/mopane fuel around in!We are ALL human,if EMP deploys,We will still remain as humans,& for those that would launch such an attack?They will Glow Brightly for a Millenium! cool

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#232708 - 09/25/11 07:20 AM Re: My Motivation [Re: ablesolutions]
LED Offline
Veteran

Registered: 09/01/05
Posts: 1474
Earthquakes and everyday life. Much more scary than non-existent super weapons from one of the poorest, most heavily monitored countries in the world. Seriously though, our outdated, crumbling infrastructure is a far far greater danger than anything North Korea could muster.

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#232712 - 09/25/11 01:08 PM Re: My Motivation [Re: LED]
hikermor Offline
Geezer in Chief
Geezer

Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
If the grid goes down, it would be time to adjust; humans are pretty good at that. I love my internet and I would miss interactions on this forum, but I would fill my days hauling water and chopping wood, which would keep me in shape.

What is the backup plan for ETS forums? Do we go to smoke signals? carrier pigeons? Would the new moderators run from town to town carrying a post in a forked stick? If that were to be the case, we probably should appoint a lot more. I anxiously await word from the Planning Committee.....
_________________________
Geezer in Chief

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#232730 - 09/25/11 09:19 PM Re: My Motivation [Re: ablesolutions]
JBMat Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 03/03/09
Posts: 745
Loc: NC
Have to be one big mother of an EMP to affect the entire US. And a lot of military stuff is hardened, or stored in hardened areas.

Ok, so no electricity. Call it camping. Bullets will still work, so I am not grabbing a sword and armor a la' SM Sterling.

Would be a problem for food depending on when it hit. Frankly, late summer early fall after the harvest is in would be best, let it rot in silos.

Am I gonna lie away tonight worrying about this? Nope. Falls under the "if it happens, we are SOL" category.

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#232773 - 09/26/11 05:33 PM Re: My Motivation [Re: hikermor]
Susan Offline
Geezer

Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
Quote:
What is the backup plan for ETS forums? Do we go to smoke signals? carrier pigeons?


The bottom line: we do without. That line is also a dividing line between NEED and WANT. Many people can't tell the difference.

And if you need how-to info, you'd better not have it all exclusively on disk.

Sue

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#232776 - 09/26/11 05:42 PM Re: My Motivation [Re: Susan]
Pete Offline
Veteran

Registered: 02/20/09
Posts: 1372
Heaven forbid that we would actually lose electricity and the Internet. We might have to start talking to our neighbors again !!

Pete2

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