After an EMP how soon can I safely remove a flashlight or an electronic device from a protective container? I heard two weeks but I need verification.

Jeanette Isabelle

Immediately. The EMP passes through and then it's gone. Unless/until another EMP is generated from whatever source.

What electronic device would be worth having, even if functional by itself, after an EMP wipes out the power grid and supporting infrastructure? Your flashlight should be fine after an EMP if is one of the old style ones with just a basic switch. The newer ones that cycle through various modes and brightness levels might be toast though. Transportation (motorcycle, car) would be good for sure, but those are probably beyond the physical size that a normal person could protect.

I haven't really thought about "after the EMP" much, except "nothing would work and we'd all die shortly thereafter". Much of my thinking along those lines comes after reading the book "One Second After".

What type of devices were you thinking about protecting?

All of my flashlights are LED. Would the LED be affected? I have two of my flashlights in protective containers. I also have my computer back up in a protective container. The backup does little good if I don't have a working computer.

I wish there were a way to protect my singing doll. She is mint in box and sitting on the shelf as is the rest of my collection. The only way is to hide her away in a protective container until the EMP that may never come. If the EMP fries everything, my only source of music will be the singing doll and music box.

I don't plan on dying after an EMP, not until the Mirtazapine runs out. We have bottled water and a way to collect and purify rainwater. We can cook outdoors and though we have a small yard, we can still dig holes to do our business. In the winter we can throw an extra blanket on the bed but I will be miserable in the summer without a fan.

Jeanette Isabelle

Modern radios are unlikely to do anything useful if protected against an EMP, for some period of time. Any LED emitter is likely to be destroyed if not protected. If I were prepping for an EMP I'd at least have a couple good radios and flashlights in whatever container I was using.

If a radio is protected, it cannot be used after the EMP? How long then do I need to keep a radio or another communications device protected?

Jeanette Isabelle

An EMP is very likely to make the radio spectrum unusable for a period of time. How long? I don't know exactly, it will depend on the mechanism used to create the EMP. There's no reason to protect a radio after the EMP has passed unless there is another EMP. But it won't be usable until the radio spectrum clears.

A lot of the transmitters would likely be inoperable after an EMP as well, probably wouldn't be much to listen to even with a working radio.

Yes, it passes almost instantly.

I see little point in trying to save most sophisticated electronics since they will be of little use without supporting infrastructure. Probably little point in saving computer data since it is of little uses without computers and electrical infrastructure.

I would try to save the simpler types of LED flashlight and some basic radio broadcast receivers. Radio transmitters would almost certainly be destroyed by an EMP event, but I believe that TPTB have emergency transmitters stored for just such an emergency.

Remember that modern lithium rechargeable cells need sophisticated electronic chargers, that in turn need electrical input.
The future after an EMP event is going involve a great deal less electricity, with wet leclanche cells, flooded lead aid batteries, and zinc carbon dry cells largely replacing more modern types.

Thanks. This information is helpful.


Computer backup takes up little space and it will come in handy if I get another computer, after I bug out to a location not hit by an EMP.

I have two of my flashlights in protective containers.

Jeanette Isabelle

As for 'usefulness' of an electronic device.... I can see an ipod being used for music and that sort of thing.

That might be useful if things returned to normal a week or two after an EMP. But I don't think it works that way. We're probably talking years, if not "forever", before electronics/electrical infrastructure gets repaired. On the bright side, most people would probably die long before their iPod battery did.

If I had music as a "must have" on my post-EMP list, I'd buy a training book and some kind of sturdy instrument like a harmonica, ocarina, recorder, panflute, etc. You'd have plenty of time to learn how to play it after an EMP. Even more time after you started starving, developed medical problems, ran out of water, and became bedridden while waiting to die.

I just can't envision be-booping around with your iPod while scrounging for cockroaches and grubs to eat.

A lot would depend on the reason for/source of the EMP. With a bad solar event the EMP could be widespread and of variable severity. But I would consider that the "good kind" of EMP; the other option would be a nuke! With a solar event a lot of havok could be wreaked but there'd be a lot of folks pulling together to get things back up and running. If it was due to warfare or a very bad terrorist attack then getting stuff back up would be orders of magnitude more difficult.

I too find it unlikely you'd care much about your iPod if it was a Mad Max style 'pocky-klipse'.

Salvaging tech could be important, though. If your Kindle was kept safe it could run a month or more on a charge and literally hold enough books to rebuild civilization! At a minimum it would safeguard information on survival, emergency medicine, etc. Maybe tech manuals. A solar charger could keep a few low drain devices going for the foreseeable future.

Military satellites may be hardened enough to survive many EMP events so a GPS could retain its usefulness. A shortwave set could be a boon to anyone trying to communicate after some kind of disaster, too.

The only likely cause of a true EMP is a nuclear detonation at high altitude. The effect would be instant destruction of virtually all unprotected electronics, including all but vintage vehicles.
I would expect that most of the population would perish within a few weeks, from want of food, water, medical attention, and probably from violence.
Without going into forbidden p0litical territory I think it safe to say that national and regional government would in effect cease to exist. How are they to govern over significant distances without modern communications and transport.
Basic very local government of a sort might survive.
No significant EMP event has ever occurred, though there is some evidence of relatively localised effects from early above ground atomic bomb tests.
I would thoroughly recommend the novel "one second after" as a fictional but IMO somewhat accurate account of an EMP attack.

A severe solar flare is a very different event, it would induce damaging electrical currents in long electrical conductors.
Long distance high voltage grid lines and equipment connected thereto would be the main casualties.
Also at risk would be other long conductors such as pipelines, telephone and telegraph cables, railroad lines, even long wire fences could have dangerous voltages induced that could start fires.
Physically small equipment if not connected to the grid should be fine, by "small" I mean anything that can be delivered or moved by a truck.
There might be no, or very severely rationed grid power for some years, but other electrical or electronic equipment should be fine.
A severe solar flare has previously occurred, but it was before the days of large grid systems.
Google the "Carrington event" for details.
A less severe event occurred some years ago and disrupted the electrical grid in Canada and parts of the USA,

after an EMP ...

use candles for light
talk to your neighbors for communication
check your vegetable garden

if anyone actually hits the USA, or Europe, with an EMP ... then the world has much bigger problems to deal with.

good luck,
Pete

I would hope everyone here has bottled water, means of collecting and purifying water, food, a means to cook and enough first aid supplies to at least stop bleeding after an EMP.

Me? I would have a problem if I were to run our of Mirtazapine. In 2005 I was wasting away to nothing because I wasn't eating. In the hospital, I was put on Mirtazapine and got my appetite back.

I would not knock the importance of music. An EMP will be a depressing situation. We can't pull ourselves up by our bootstraps if we don't have bootstraps. Music is a means of escape and getting us through the situation. I listen to iTunes on my computer; if I had an iPod, which I'm thinking of getting, I would put it in an EMP proof container.

Jeanette Isabelle

Yes, and possibly use your remaining stock of scarce and valuable batteries to listen to the radio for news from now distant places such as the next town.
A flashlight might be handy for brief use such to light a candle or lamp, but sparingly.

music might be better home made, and knowledge be best stored in paper printed books.

It might be worth storing the materials to make old fashioned wet Leclanche cells, the dry materials store indefinitely.

Perhaps the better question is, how long can we last after an EMP? The biggest challenge I've been looking at, and know of, is how do I get life-saving medication? I was able to get extra medications, through another doctor, but not Mirtazapine: an antidepressant and an apatite stimulant.

I was off of Mirtazapine for a while. I was not hungry, so I didn't eat. I lost weight, had no energy and could not think clearly.

Jeanette Isabelle

In your particular case, rather than speaking more generally, could you manage with a lower dose of the medicine, but still obtain prescriptions for the full dose and thereby build up a reserve.
Could extra supplies be obtained via irregular means, whilst times are normal and thereby save more of the regularly obtained supplies for any future emergency.
If supplies run short, could you "force" yourself to eat even when not feeling hungry, so as to maintain a normal weight.

I have a pill splitter for my Clonazepam and thought about doing the same for Mirtazapine at the first sign that the supply could run dry. As an added measure I should get a backup pill splitter. Even a quality unit costs a few bucks.

I don't know what other means there is.

Been there, done that. All I could do was pick at my food. It would take all day to eat one TV dinner. I was able to drink the nutritional supplements; they did not help much.

Jeanette Isabelle

I recommend that you research the source of these two meds. Are they made from a chemical mix or derived from a plant or animal. If from a plant, what is being extracted from the plant? Does the plant grow in North America or some continent in the Sub tropical zone. Are there local plants that provide the same ingredient? The solution to your supply may be at your doorstep.

St. John's Wort is known to be an effective anti-depressant but efficacy varies from person to person.

Depression is not my biggest concern. People can't die of depression; they can die from not eating.

Jeanette Isabelle

Since I don't have your problem (I'm on the OTHER extreme of eating behavior), I don't understand how you are knowledgeable about needing to eat to live, but not able to force yourself to eat even in the absence of appetite. But like I said, I haven't been there.

Would marijuana work? Supposedly it gives people the munchies, but I've never tried it to find out for myself. I'm only half-joking here. Could it be grown in your garden as an appetite enhancer? (probably only *after* an EMP, where drug laws would most likely become meaningless)

There are several medical reasons for appetite loss though mine is not listed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexigenic


I was not sure I could mention this; that is one thing I considered and researched. In the research I have done, it has to be in pill form, not inhaled.

Jeanette Isabelle

Before anyone "splits" a drug dosage, a bit of consultation with the M.D. is in order. Drug effects aren't always linear. Sometimes there are windows above or below which the drug isn't effective. Mirtazapine has an odd side-effect profile: low doses (15mg or split) tend to be very sedating whereas high doses tend sometimes to be over-stimulating, or over-energizing. Of course there may be individual differences, but your MD should be able to answer your questions. I'd hate to think what the effect of taking, for instance, sub-clinical dosages of an antibiotic. Or insulin.

"
Yes, and possibly use your remaining stock of scarce and valuable batteries to listen to the radio for news from now distant places such as the next town."

Thats actually a very good suggestion. But i think that your shortwave radio would really need to pick up broadcasts from long distances, even other countries.

So that raises a good question ...

Whats a good shortwave radio, battery powered, for picking up foreign broadcasts. The simplest possible option, without getting too elaborate. Any ideas?


Pete

You're good to need a good antenna (read: not a 3" antenna on a cheap transceiver) and a bit more than a pair of AA's to do that.
Along with and some radio knowledge. Probably best to make a new friend, ahead of time, that already has the equipment/knowledge.

A quick google search shows a bunch. I used to have a Grundig, but I didn't see them. As for antenna, a long (correct length) wire hung from a tree works fine for the bands received and is easy to deploy.

The Shortwave Coil Up Antenna is a good option if you choose to keep a shortwave radio as a receiver for use after an "event". Cheap and fairly foolproof.

As for a decent radio, there are lots, just check Amazon. I keep a CountyComm GP-5 SSB radio in my steel (hopefully EMP-proof) box. It's a good receiver -- good AM & FM, and the DSP cleans up a lot of noise. No affiliation other than as an owner/user.

As for atmospherics after an "event", a long time back I learned that while some comms will be reduced, others will be enhanced. Some HF/SW freqs use skywaves and others use ground waves for propagation -- same concept. After the event, set up your receiver and do a slow scan, see what's out there. $.02