Prepare: What To Do After An EMP Strike

Recent news stories, popular television shows and books like One Second After left many of us thinking what we could do in the event of a widespread EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) event. While nobody has all the answers, here are some suggestions that might help.

One minute the lights, air conditioner, computer, telephone and other electronics are working fine, the next moment, they are dead. Whether or not an EMP attack will happen, whether or not the effects are as described in popular writing, having a plan just in case is smart.

If you're at home, the first thing you will notice is the lights have gone out like in a power outage or winter storm. The air conditioning or heater, if electric, will cut out. The TV and other entertainment will shut off immediately. Cell phones and land line telephones will end calls and stop working. The silence will be deafening.

The same events will occur in cities, town, in the country, at schools and work places. Cars, not running, will not start or start and run roughly for a limited time. Airplanes in flight, as awful as this sounds, may lose engine power and quickly descend to the ground.

All electrical systems, except the most primitive, will stop immediately. Confusion will reign.

Quick; what do you do?

First things first. If moving, stop. If at work, move to a safe area. If at home. pause and consider if there is anything in your home which may be a threat or pose a danger. Verify that the power is out in the entire home or office and that battery powered devices aren't working either.

Then, where is everyone you care about? Kids at school? Spouse at work or store? How are you going to get them? How will they get home?

Does your car run? Check as soon as possible. If not, is there a neighbor nearby, one block or less, with a running vehicle? Do you have a bike? Can you ride to the kids school and collect them?

Remember, there are no phones working. That relative or friend who lives across town suddenly may as well be living in Africa and there is no quick or easy way to get to them. So forget about contacting Aunt Sue in Baltimore for the time being. Don't be surprised when you catch yourself reaching for light switches that don't work or grabbing that useless cell phone out of habit, though.

If the phones, car and power are all out, you know it's serious. Time to take action.

Go fill the tubs in the house with water. Unless you have a well, all water comes from somewhere else, usually far away, and brought to the house with readily available electricity. Water is still in the pipes and held in place with pressure so start filling the tubs and other containers. Fill everything because clean water will be very difficult to get shortly.

Next, make a judgement call - you can either go get the kids (if that applies) start checking on neighbors, relatives or friends or get supplies.

"The First Things To Go After An EMP Burst"

Pros and Cons - Neighbors are going to be a lifesaver. For instance, the lady across the street can watch your kids while you run down to the market to get more food. Also, neighbors can pool their resources and numbers to watch and protect their properties. A quick check next door with two nearby neighbors is a good start.

But, there's a bad side about spending the initial time after the EMP attack talking to neighbors. Many will be ill prepared to deal with the shock and consequences. Some will believe the power outage is temporary, they may argue and deny the seriousness of the situation. Dealing with these types of people will be a call on your part.

For me, after having the children collected, there are only two neighbors I will speak with before heading to the market nearby to get more supplies. Fortunately, there is a large market within walking distance and I have a bike cart I can use. It will also be a good idea to take along a large backpack and some canvass bags for simple transportation. Having help from a family member or neighbor is wise too.

Speaking of neighbors, I will offer to pool resources, such as money, with one or two neighbors when I go to the market. It's a good policy that will pay off later.

Going to the market - Cash is King. Have a supply of cash on hand for emergencies and an EMP attack is one of them. I keep several stashes of small bills around the house that I have added to each time I get paid. It does not take much to build a home cash reserve. Make it a habit to tuck twenty to two hundred dollars in the back of the wallet, purse or somewhere else hidden on your person. On paydays, take out an extra twenty for the home stash. Also toss in ones, fives and other small bills rather than spend them.

Stores will not be taking credit cards and possibly not even checks if their systems are down so have folding money on hand now. There may be a chance that the stores won't even be selling at all, so be prepared for anything. Most stores will probably allow shoppers to load a cart with necessaries if you make the case to the manager that you need food for the kids or something similar.

Note: I shop at the same store weekly and make it a point to know the worker's names. Knowing the manager or cashier may be useful if there's an emergency. 

If the grocery stores are selling, load up. Here's what to get..

- canned food
- baking supplies
- long term foods like rice and beans
- Over the counter (OTC) medicines
- vitamins
- toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates and feminine supplies
- matches, lighters and cooking fuel
- batteries and candles
- Soap, bleach
- bottled water

You cannot buy enough food in one trip to last during the total effects of an EMP strike; that period will be months if not years. That is why it is imperative that you start stocking now and use this last chance to buy as a "top off" of existing supplies only.

Taking an extra person along makes the trip easier. Have that second person focus on toilet paper, OTC medicines, feminine supplies, etc. since they are often on the same side of the store. Another person means two carts rather than one.

If there are other stores such as hardware or sporting goods stores open and nearby, take advantage now to get any building materials, gardening supplies, camp gear, guns and ammo. Also hit the gasoline station on the off chance that one may have a back up generator to get gas out of the ground, if you have a car or generator which is running. If anything, the rototiller needs gas so get some if possible.

If you have the money (or if the stores still take checks), make multiple trips to the stores as best as you can. In a few days there will be little or nothing moving to and from the stores and warehouses so the window is limited. That means in two or three days, the stores will be cleaned out of everything so get what you can now. For many of us, there are probably two or three stores nearby our homes. Visit each on the first day and get as much as allowed and which can be carried safely home.

Note: Don't forget, many shoppers will be buying short term stuff - cigarettes, liquor, beer, ice, sodas, snack food, etc. Only the older shopper (who remembers the Cold War) or the resident of Hurricane Country will understand which items go first and fastest. Shop wisely.

Don't think for a minute you are hoarding. You are providing for your family. Also, you can share what you have purchased with friends, family and neighbors who were not prepared or unable to get to the stores.

At home, put up the groceries and take a quick stock of what you have and how long it will last. Rationing will now be in effect for the whole family. Food in the fridge is eaten first, followed by the freezer and the pantry last of all.

Meals can be cooked outside if the weather is good, over the barbecue grill or if necessary, over a fire. At this point, you're probably wondering how much charcoal, propane and firewood you have on hand. Make a list because things like this will come up several times a day and need to be addressed.

When it gets dark, there will be more work to do. The lights are out, phones don't work and the car is dead. What will you do if there's a medical emergency? What if a fire breaks out? What if a passerby traveling on foot with others decides to come in the backyard to help themselves to your dinner?

Now is the time to make sure you have firefighting equipment like fire extinguishers, shovel, buckets, sand and water on hand. Same for locks, chains and other means to secure the front and back door, garage and windows. It might be a good idea to have plywood on hand to board up windows too. And items for home protection, such as firearms, will most likely not be available for first time buyers either.

What happens next? Do you have a nearby water source? Toilets will still flush for a few days at least, but you'll need to fill the water box. Only put used water from bathing or washing clothes in the water box. Clean water is for drinking and cooking only! Water can also be collected from rain spouts, from a nearby creek, river or stream. A swimming pool, even an above ground plastic pool, is a lifesaver for collecting water for flushing, clothes washing or bathing.

What about transportation? After an EMP, an older vehicle manufactured before 1972 or so, should still run as will many older diesel powered vehicles. If you have a running vehicle, keep it close (in the garage) and drive it only when necessary. A running vehicle will attract attention and may result in it being stolen or commandeered by local government. Also, what will the neighbors think if you and family have a running 1967 Mustang? Suddenly, you're rich by their standards and their attitude toward you may change.

Avoid attention and use "sneaker power" or a bike for getting around, but try and stay near the house. There is no need to go wandering around town unless necessary.

Find a way to get news. Old radios that run on vacuum tubes rather than transistors should still work. That "antique" tube radio of grandpas sitting on the shelf is more than decoration. With power from a car battery through an inverter and you have a lifeline to the outside world.

With a radio, you may find out that your situation is restricted to a limited geographical area. Or that there is an active government relief effort underway. Or maybe that the whole world is effected and the remaining governments are preparing the population for a new dark age. Without communications, you will never know.

Finally, what will you do when your food stocks run low? If its the right time of year, growing food is ideal. Do you have room for a garden? How about a place for containers such as on the patio? Do you have seeds? Have you ever grown anything? Now is the time to start practicing. Also, many of us don't live in rural areas flush with wild game, but there are options, even in the city. Search out websites now which describe urban hunting or foraging.

Also, think outside of the box where food may be stored for salvage later. Like disabled trucks, train cars, office building break rooms, abandoned warehouses. As always, respect private property and know the difference between looting and salvaging.

Regardless, the first 24 hours of an EMP event are critical to long term survival. Think and act. Afterward, things can go several different directions, so get prepared now.

If it's any help, here's what NOT TO DO after immediately after an EMP event -

- Don't waste time having a two hour meeting with neighbors. As noted, if they can't help, move on. If they can help, start getting supplies and agree to meet later that evening.

- Don't hang around work or school - go home the first chance you can.

- Don't wander around the neighborhood discussing what happened - there is time for that AFTER you have obtained supplies.

- Don't ride or walk into town and see what the government is doing. They will be busy, as lost as you are and bothering them may result in your detention.

- Don't start gardening, cleaning up your garage or inventorying your "preps". All of this should have been done before and there will be plenty of time in the days to come.

- Don't try to show off your preparedness skills - "Who wants to watch me make a solar oven?" - to anyone nearby. You'll have plenty of time to demonstrate skills as time goes on, use your time now wisely.

- Don't start defrosting food (the food in the fridge goes first and freezer will stay cold a day or so longer).

- Don't bother trying to get the 2009 car running. It won't happen.

Preparing for an EMP isn't something that can be done in a single day, but every day the power is on is another day to get ready. Stockpile supplies today, have a plan for day one and pray each day this doesn't happen.

Don't forget about the book which made this subject more relevant today..

One Second After

Good luck,

Prepare: One Second After Review

So this week, I finally sat down and read One Second After by William Forstchen. This is a work of fiction about an EMP (Electro Magenetic Pulse) attack on the United States. One Second After made it to the NYT Best Seller List earlier this year which shows Americans have an appetite for this type of work. Sort of like making a list before Christmas gets here.

The synopsis -

Small town, Black Mountain, North Carolina outside of Asheville, population about 6,000, is where the story takes place. The main character is John Matherson, a retired U.S. Army colonel turned professor at a small private college in the hills. The good professor is also a widowed father of two girls, one a teen, the other a twelve year old who has Type One diabetes.

On a normal afternoon, the U.S. is plunged into darkness when the EMP bust takes place. Suddenly, all modern electronics, cars, phones, power, water and everything related is shut off.

Within four days, Black Mountain is suffering. There are thousands of stranded motorists from the nearby interstate in the town straining the few resources they have. The hospital no longer has any functioning equipment. The nursing homes patients are dying for lack of air conditioning, water, medicine and trained staff. Without vehicles, the town's fire department, police and ambulance are unable to send help. There are no shipments of food or medicine coming into town and an unsuccessful trip to nearby Asheville lets the town's residents know not only are they on their own, they actually have to fear their larger neighboring cities.

Matherson, well respected in the community, steps up to a leadership role and describes events over the critical first year. It is not a pleasant picture. Without spoiling the story too much, there are a lot of hungry people, a lot of dying from basic illnesses and injury and a bunch of nasty events including a massive battle against a roving, brutal gang.

How did I like it?

I am a big fan of survival fiction. One Second After is sort of like a modernized version of Alas, Babylon, without all the conviniences. In Babylon, Randy and family pretty much get off unscathed. Sure, their clothing and cars are falling apart, but they still have a secure home, food, and organization.

Not the same in One Second. Things don't go so well for Black Mountain, North Carolina. There are no happy endings. Just one sad event after another. One Second After made me think I was reading a prequel - "What happened five years before the events in Cormac McCarthy's The Road take place".

The purpose of this is very clear from the author's standpoint; Forstchen wants to literally scare the pants off readers so that they will insist their elected representatives do something about this very real threat.

One Second After is also the complete polar opposite of the similar EMP attack story, Lights Out which can be found online. While the characters in Lights Out are dominated by local politics, rescue missions and vengeful neighbors, they never go hungry and even have time to take a daily shower and get medical attention. Forget about that in One Second After (at one point, many of the central characters go a number of months without a real bath. Think lice. Yuck).

OK, so what were my frustrations with One Second After?

First, when the lights go out, when the cell phone dies, when the car does not start, don't continue having a bar-b-que. Get to the darn store and buy everything! The main character allegedly wrote, while in the Army, a paper on the threat of an EMP attack and its affects on the U.S. He should have known better than everyone else. Yet after the attack, he is no better prepared than the town's insurance salesman.

Second, if your kid is sick, don't wait two days before going to the pharmacy! What was the main character thinking?

Third, why is it in books that the main characters can't wait to have a formal meeting with as many other characters to discuss what happened? Sure enough, Day One after the EMP attack, there's Professor Matherson having a meeting with the town mayor, police chief, etc. What's there to talk about? Get to the store!

Not me. Day One, Two and Three after the event are going to be spent getting my hands on as many resources as possible and securing my location. "Sorry, my calendar is full tomorrow Mister Mayor. I will be at the Food Lion buying all the rice and peanut butter before you folks figure out there won't be any more groceries coming in. I will be happy to pencil you in a week from Tuesday though".

Fourth, it takes the town about a month to realize they better start growing some Victory Gardens for food. Duh.

Fifth, chickens are for eggs. Get all the chickens together. Put them in one spot. Guard them and feed them. Let them lay eggs. Make many omlettes. Do not start killing the chickens to put them in a pot. Same with cows and milk.

Cigarettes are a good thing to stock up on now for trade and barter. So is a 50 lb. bag of rice and extra dog food.

There are some very poignant moments in One Second After. The scenes with his youngest daughter. The death of a couple of central characters. The sadness which becomes every day life.

Everyone should read One Second After. Everyone should start getting prepared today for this event. Unlike nuclear war from the 1980's, there won't be a build up of hostilities or even twenty minutes to take cover. Just the whole world different and backwards in time in the blink of an eye.

Note: One more thing that occurred to me since writing this review. i would love if someone like Jerry D Young or Gary Ott (online SHTF fiction writers) would take a swag at a story like One Second After. Often, both writers write much more optimistically than I think reality would be. I would be neat to see one of these writers take One Second After from the middle of the story and look at the ending from a different perspective. Worth a thought.

SHTF: EMP Attack

Last month, everyone was talking about the new book, "One Second After" and for good reason. It is a mainstream publication (not a story on a survivalist forum), was written by an established author with several other respected works and has been touted by famous authority figures (Newt Gingrich, for instance).

"One Second After" follows a single father of two daughters who has to deal with a sudden Electro Magenetic Pulse (EMP) attack on the United States which leaves anything and everything connected to the electrical grid or dependent upon modern electronics dead in the water.

If this were to happen here and now and if you have not researched EMP and its effects, let's take a walk through what might happen.

First, an EMP attack involves a high altitude nuclear detonation over the continental United States, maybe even a number of them. Within seconds, theoretically (we do not know the full potential damages or limitations, it has never happened outside of a test zone), all electronic and printed circuit boards would overload unless they were shielded and grounded.

That means all cars not running, all aircraft, all modern powered systems, all forms of transportation would cease to operate. There are some who believe that an automobile already running may continue to run until the fuel systems ceased delivering fuel correctly - maybe for a few minutes, maybe until the car ran out of gas.

Aircraft without proper shielding would lose power and would fall from the skies or crash at take off/landing. This is the most chilling ituation as thousands of aircraft fall from the skies. Older aircraft would still be airborne, BUT, would not be able to use the air traffic control system. They would quickly have to land wherever it is safe to do so.

Cars would not start. Some older models might be able to (pre-1970's to make it easy for shoppers checking online for an EMP safe vehicle). But those vehicles would find roads and parking lots grid locked. A case where the car runs, but there is no way to go anywhere may quickly develop.

Those cars that are running and shut down would create slow moving catastrophic chain reaction car wrecks in every major city and interstate.

Power would shut down almost immediately. Power stations, transformers and relays would all die and power generation stations would have to shutdown, if they are still running, to avoid power feedback.

Loss of power would mean a lot of things would have no lights and power. But here are some serious implications: incubators, respirators, operating rooms, and other medical equipment. Those on the table may die; those in ICU may as well.

Loss of power means all hospital and health care functions, short of administering medicine would come to an end. Generators may come on with manual assistance, but they will not kick in automatically. Those systems would also go down.

So would traffic lights, air conditioners, the 911 system, computer call centers, credit card processing, automatic doors, scooters, call boxes, and every other electronic based device in the path of the EMP burst.

What would happen first?

A lot of confusion. Most people will stand around and wait for something or someone to do something.. Those with children, older relatives and pets will go at once to their charges. Some will take advantage of the situation. Looting, theft and random acts of crime.

There will be panic, especially as airplanes and cars crash. There will be fear as many will rightfully believe this is terrorist attack and will expect worse soon after.

Most of all, there will be little if any communication. There will be no radio, satellite television, cable or internet. No instant communication which we are accustomed to. If the government, local or federal, manages to put together a broadcast, most of us will never hear it nor know where to tune in as we will have no notice or system of communication.

The government brings up another issue. Much of the military has "hardened" hardware in the event of an EMP burst. There is a good chance different chains of command could be organized and put to use. However, the U.S. military is limited in size and much of it is overseas. There would not be an organized effort directed at every city in the country. Don't expect to see National Guard troops in your neighborhood handing out MRE and water bottles.

Here is something more. With no communications, don't wait wait for some sort of organized plan regarding food and medicine distribution. Many will get emergency supplies (small amounts from under prepared and overwhelmed adhoc efforts) simply because they were in the right place at the right time.

But wait, it gets better. What will happen to the two million prisoners in our city, county, state and federal prisons? With no power or food deliveries, expect them to be released en masse by who ever is left guarding them. Or perhaps they will have already broken out within a few days anyway.

What about law enforcement? There are no working radios or police cars. No dispatch. No 911. Other than randomly walking around (or riding horses or commandeered working vehicles), police will be limited to what they see and hear. And most law enforcement, unable to contact the family, will simply find a way to head home to protect their own.

Within one day, expect chaos in most urban areas simply because nobody in our information driven society will know what is going on.

Within three days expect the deaths and injuries from the initial attack start to overwhelm survivors.

Within a week expect the point of no return, that is, unless some miracle takes place and power is restored. By this time, there will be no running water in the cities. There will be widespread crime and looting. There will be no force sufficient enough to organize any sort of reconstruction or rebuilding.

At this point, the only fortunate ones left will be those who are far enough from large groups of the hungry, sick and dangerous who will begin moving out from their current location to new parts where supplies may be found.

The fortunate will be those who have either sufficient medications for their illnesses and conditions to see them through the crisis or simply are healthy enough to not need regular medications.

The fortunate will be those who have a supply of food, clean drinking water, means of protection (both from bad guys and disaster) and the ability to grow more food in the future.

An EMP attack is probably one of the worse scenarios imaginable. 300 million otherwise healthy twenty-first century people, completely unprepared for life "on their own" cast into the equivalent of the 1800's without warning. Ugly.

You see who will be prepared. An EMP attack could happen tomorrow. Most of us will be caught with our pants down. However, we can make plans to get ready for this sort of disaster along with our normal emergency preparedness plans.

- Store food
- Store water and have a way to get more, clean water.
- Can you grow food? Raise meat?
- Do you have all the normal medicines you need? Do you have extra?
- Do you have a running pre-electronic ignition vehicle? How about a horse or bike?
- Do you have a working tube radio? How about a working short wave radio?
- Do you have at least one firearm and no how to use it? What about ammo?
- Do you trust your neighbors? Do you know them?

Lots to think about.

An EMP attack can happen. The technology is here and those with the motivation are legion on this planet.

Be Prepared For Anything Survival Guide