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#284953 - 07/12/17 12:55 AM Re: EMP [Re: Jeanette_Isabelle]
CJK Offline
Addict

Registered: 08/14/05
Posts: 601
Loc: FL, USA
As for 'usefulness' of an electronic device.... I can see an ipod being used for music and that sort of thing.

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#284954 - 07/12/17 04:09 AM Re: EMP [Re: CJK]
haertig Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 03/13/05
Posts: 2322
Loc: Colorado
Originally Posted By: CJK
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.

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#284956 - 07/12/17 07:37 AM Re: EMP [Re: Jeanette_Isabelle]
Phaedrus Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 04/28/10
Posts: 3148
Loc: Big Sky Country
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'. wink

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.
_________________________
“I'd rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” —Richard Feynman

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#284957 - 07/12/17 08:36 AM Re: EMP [Re: Jeanette_Isabelle]
adam2 Offline
Addict

Registered: 05/23/08
Posts: 474
Loc: Somerset UK
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,

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#284959 - 07/12/17 12:37 PM Re: EMP [Re: Jeanette_Isabelle]
Pete Offline
Veteran

Registered: 02/20/09
Posts: 1372
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

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#284961 - 07/12/17 12:47 PM Re: EMP [Re: haertig]
Jeanette_Isabelle Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 11/13/06
Posts: 2946
Loc: Nacogdoches, Texas
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
_________________________
I'm not sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago, but I admire the sadism. -- Wednesday Adams, Wednesday

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#284962 - 07/12/17 01:10 PM Re: EMP [Re: Pete]
adam2 Offline
Addict

Registered: 05/23/08
Posts: 474
Loc: Somerset UK
Originally Posted By: Pete
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


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.

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#284964 - 07/12/17 09:03 PM Re: EMP [Re: Jeanette_Isabelle]
Jeanette_Isabelle Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 11/13/06
Posts: 2946
Loc: Nacogdoches, Texas
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
_________________________
I'm not sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago, but I admire the sadism. -- Wednesday Adams, Wednesday

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#284965 - 07/12/17 10:17 PM Re: EMP [Re: Jeanette_Isabelle]
adam2 Offline
Addict

Registered: 05/23/08
Posts: 474
Loc: Somerset UK
Originally Posted By: Jeanette_Isabelle
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 appetite 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.

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#284966 - 07/12/17 10:32 PM Re: EMP [Re: Jeanette_Isabelle]
Jeanette_Isabelle Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 11/13/06
Posts: 2946
Loc: Nacogdoches, Texas
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'm not sure whose twisted idea it was to put hundreds of adolescents in underfunded schools run by people whose dreams were crushed years ago, but I admire the sadism. -- Wednesday Adams, Wednesday

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