Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire EMP Attack On Power Grid Could Kill 9 out of 10 Americans

I agree that 9 out of 10 seems far fetched. Also, an EMP only works on stuff that is turned on at the time. Just saying�

In all fairness, if they can take out the refrigeration at Walmart there is a better than even chance of starving most of your population.

Your average grocery store only has three days worth of food.

In all fairness, if they can take out the refrigeration at Walmart there is a better than even chance of starving most of your population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Second_After

This is a work of fiction..... A well written book though set near where I live.......Started buying more canned food after reading it...... Had the ammo thing already covered..... Wise to have a supply of needed medications too......

Your average grocery store only has three days worth of food.

I don't think you're in any way right on that one. EMP effects most electronics.

Wow does this bring back memories
That would be correct . EMP effects most all electronics that have not been shielded.
So some digital like in phones might not be effected .
But there would be an effect on the vast majority of the electrical systems in the US .
The claim at one time , at least from what I recall in my training was that the equipment needed to be on for the pulse to over load and fry the system . However this was also based on early electronics which did not carry a constant charge . IE point ignitions in vehicles where the condensers were held a charge while the engine was running.
Today however most all vehicles and electronics hold a charge constantly or are delicate to the point that when installing them even a static charge can damage a chip . So my training may be very dated

As to if one blast would or could take out the communication and transportation systems in the US,
That would depend on the yield and altitude of the blast .
Its been a while but I want to say that the claim was that it would take 3 separate blasts , strategically placed to effect the main communication hubs .

The whole subject however is kind of mute since such a blast at the proper altitude would require a whole lot of other systems to fail well prior to such a blast even happening in our skies .

a dirty bomb wouldnt do it .
any ground blast would only effect the area within the blast yield radius containing the emp pulse . it would have to be a altitude blast or the result would only be a localized areas as within a city .
So called dirty bombs also don�t need to be an actual nuclear blast at all . They can be a small yield or a conventional blast which produces radiation contamination to a given area .

With an EMP target , you want altitude and a yield suitable for creating a large enough pulse to cover the target area .

a dirty bomb wouldnt do it .
any ground blast would only effect the area within the blast yield radius containing the emp pulse . it would have to be a altitude blast or the result would only be a localized areas as within a city .
So called dirty bombs also don�t need to be an actual nuclear blast at all . They can be a small yield or a conventional blast which produces radiation contamination to a given area .

With an EMP target , you want altitude and a yield suitable for creating a large enough pulse to cover the target area .

The close shave happened almost two years ago. On July 23, 2012, a plasma cloud or "CME" rocketed away from the sun as fast as 3000 km/s, more than four times faster than a typical eruption. The storm tore through Earth orbit, but fortunately Earth wasn't there. Instead it hit the STEREO-A spacecraft. Researchers have been analyzing the data ever since, and they have concluded that the storm was one of the strongest in recorded history. "It might have been stronger than the Carrington Event itself," says Baker.

The Carrington Event of Sept. 1859 was a series of powerful CMEs that hit Earth head-on, sparking Northern Lights as far south as Tahiti. Intense geomagnetic storms caused global telegraph lines to spark, setting fire to some telegraph offices and disabling the 'Victorian Internet." A similar storm today could have a catastrophic effect on modern power grids and telecommunication networks. According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, the total economic impact could exceed $2 trillion or 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina. Multi-ton transformers fried by such a storm could take years to repair and impact national security.

Had the eruption occurred just one week earlier, the blast site would have been facing Earth, rather than off to the side, so it was a relatively narrow escape.

Does anyone know how many nukes we've set off in our own atmosphere?