You are at home and an EMP burst goes off

I went through a 3 day with no power winter storm in early 2010 (this time last year). Here are a few things that I learned early during that 3 days, these will apply equally to an EMP that makes the power go out..

1) Gas stations need electricity to pump gas, so what you have in you tank and in the various jerry tanks in the garage is it. Period.

2) The grocery store needs electricity for lighting, with only the emergency lights running they are required to evacuate all customers out of the store. On day 2 afternoon the local store started allowing people to come to the door and you could give them a list and they would bring it to the door and then you could pay in cash only as all the computers and credit payment systems don't work. On day three they can not sell any dairy even if they have it as the coolers warmed up too much and it starts to go bad.

3) On second day neighbours notice who has a generator chained to their deck to power the furnace fan (natural gas will take a week or more to stop flowing), everyone who in towns who's house has gotten really cold will show up and ask to come in if word gets around you have heat.

4) The police on day two will try and encourage everyone to goto the local arena as an emergency shelter, even though it's a big cynder block box with no lights or heat with the power out and is not insulated so it's colder than most peoples homes.

5) No supply trucks that make deliveries to the grocerry store won't unload if the lights are off in the store. So by day three bread and produce are gone.

6) Someone will invariabley try and burn down their house with a unwatched candle or bumped lantern. Ina rural town the houses are spread far enough apart and covered with enough snow that it's unlikely to spread too far but in the summer or in a city fire will spread quickly.

7) Your neighbour will come over with half a dozen cans of assorted stuff and ask to power some power because he can't get his cans open since his can opener is electric.

8) By the middle of day three most people are dangerously low on gas in there cars where they have hidden to stay warm. Some people made the mistake of heading to the car as soon as the temperature dropped below 20C in there homes. The smart ones waited until it go down to 10C or less before heading for the cars.

9) Everyone in our community had water since the water plant has a natural gas generator to run the pumps but in an emp situation those pumps would stop working. The last item I learned was that the power will come back on when you have just finished spending 8 hours helping various neighbours drain down there water lines to prevent freezing of the pipes.

Originally posted by JDBlack
Can anyone give advice on building a faraday cage? Seeing as to the prevalence of public oppinion that likes them. Also an alternater would survive in a faraday cage right?

What about a metal lunch box?(Batteries storage) or a large aluminum garbage can?(Put laptops and other items in this.) Line both with aluminum foil where the lid goes shut. Wrap cell pones in aluminum foil. I have a piece of aluminum foil in my dash board for this purpose, my kids think I am over the top... Aluminum garbage cans also make great food storage containers, as long as they are brand new of course.

reply to post by JDBlack


There are (for me) perhaps a few variables left out of your OP that might well change my "first response", such as proximity of the EMP burst to my location/was it nuclear/is there fallout/are there incoming troops/surge etc....... you get the idea.

Within context of the OP question only, one of my first responses would be to test communications, see if, in fact, everything is out........... I would want information, and lots of it. Close on the heels to that would be to finally answer the question "does an EMP knock out the function of solar panels?", followed by going to the wooden lockers outside to see if my homemade faraday cage protected the electrical components of the PV/wind generator system -- charge controllers, batteries, junction boxes, switches, inverter, etc. The entire interior of the lockers -- including doors -- are layered in rubber-backed 4ml aluminum sheeting, and grounded.

After that, we would just sit tight, watch, and eventually wander out to check on neighbors and others in our group. I'm guessing that a meeting/feeding would center at our house, and I would begin filling containers of filtered potable water for those who needed it. I have a back-up 12V pump in a metal locker, and a hand-pump, if necessary.

Good food for thought.

Originally posted by frugal
I read somewhere it would take years to get transformers from over seas.

Ok…………

(Starts pounding head on table)……….

(Thinks about it for a second)……….

(Starts pounding head on concrete block until blood comes out ears)…………

(Cough........)

Hm……..

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Get my guns and start loading...
>chambering a round sound

my first reaction would be to look for the immediate following of an extremely bright light, at which point I would run as fast as possible in the opposite direction and hit the deck as soon as a hill is between me and it.

because EMP is usually related to nuclear explosions. and thanks to cod mw2 in spite of all its flaws, now half of the western world knows this to be true xD

E M P

Well it is possible. Have you read One Second After by William Forstchen? He was a commander who wrote this book that was passed out to the Congress by Newt Gingrich a few years back. He claims it is a significant threat to have just one nuke be able to detonate in the atmosphere and knock out the whole grid.....

Anyway, I would first secure my food, pets(food) and livestock. Load my weapons and guard my water supply. Yep....

Originally posted by exile1981
I went through a 3 day with no power winter storm in early 2010 (this time last year). Here are a few things that I learned early during that 3 days, these will apply equally to an EMP that makes the power go out..

1) Gas stations need electricity to pump gas, so what you have in you tank and in the various jerry tanks in the garage is it. Period.

That is where the proper delegation of resources comes into play.

If you know it’s going to be a long term outage, then get a generator from someone to power the pumps. That should be one of the primary priorities. That is the standard response when a long term outage hits this area. Some gas stations around here already have generators as a standard item.

I wouldn't exactly be ready for one of these... but I doubt it would hurt as much compared to others... I have no cell phone, no iPod, none of that stuff....
The bad thing is that my humongous family is mostly kids younger than I am, which means survival and storage would get tough, noting that my neighborhood is already really bad. I'll have to mentally prepare myself for my death and the deaths of various functional family members.
We'd probably walk all the way to Mexico, trying to reach our other family members in vain, but getting stopped by the drug cartels we meet along the way to my mom's home town.
Or, you know, reach out to the government when it's convenient, if the government still exists/hasn't abandoned its people.
We'd have to come up with a different set of morals. I prefer being on my own and taking several art things with me, because if I can't have music, I will have art.
It's hard to think about it at this moment.... but I predict that if I were to survive, I'd have to let the bad side of me take over.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


If you are really patient (and the station owner/manager/watever doesn't mind you could probably hook up a hand pump to the main tank.

reply to post by JDBlack


Check food storage, water supply, ammo, and bar the door!
Yeah, I got that stuff.

reply to post by frugal


Thanks alot. Hadn't thought of the aluminum garbage can, which would make good storage, even if there wasn't an EMP

I built some automatic light systems that are charged by solar power. I also have chargers for small batteries and such. What has to be considered is using ground resistors connected to all your electronics to bleed off that emp pulse, otherwise it's worthless.

reply to post by argentus


You should also consider wind direction relative to the blast, if you are running down wind it won't help much, so head off to the side, or up wind if possible (if upwind is toward the blast don't go that way)

Originally posted by Mr TrannyThat is where the proper delegation of resources comes into play.

If you know it’s going to be a long term outage, then get a generator from someone to power the pumps. That should be one of the primary priorities. That is the standard response when a long term outage hits this area. Some gas stations around here already have generators as a standard item.

Unfortunately the guy who owns the gas station doesn't live here and never even bothered to come out during the power outage, he lives 150km away in a city. So in an EMP people would likely just start tapping the tanks (they are above ground so way easier to access, but in a short term outage the cops get cranky if you do that.

reply to post by JDBlack


Another way to go is one of those 12V dispensing pumps that they use to dispense gas out of bed mounted tanks. Hook a hose on it long enough to reach the bottom of the ground tank, hook it to a battery, and start pumping. If the pump has a gallons counter, then that will allow for proper billing by the station owner. If it doesn’t then the station owner can charge per 5 gallon can filled. Most 5 gallon cans will hold 6 gallon when full, so just charge for 6 gallon per can filled.

If it's just a EMP with no fallout or nothing I'd probably just hang out at home for the first few days listening to the crank radio i have, to see the what states the surrounding publics in and cause i'm a Carpenter by trade I'd probably board up entrances to my house just in case..Plenty of food and water stored so I'd be fine....Here's a tip for anybody in a Catastrophe..Don't Panic it's only as bad as you make it and dont keep your Rations/supplys/guns all in 1 bunch because you could be told by national guard or mobs of people to share everything or relinquish everything under penalty of death..so keep most stuff hidden and take only what you need for a week or so out at a time so you dont get robbed for everything you prepared for this....(Katrina Showed A Fraction of Our Callousness)

reply to post by ArieZ


Very nice, having some hidden supplies is probably a good idea, just make sure that you (and not just anybody) can get to the supplies. Having stashes in the home is also probably a good idea

First thing to do is go to the breaker box and make sure they're all clicked on. No sense having them out when the power goes back on. Shouldn't take too long. Most of the electrical grid is based on 150 year old technology, and pretty much impervious to EMPs.

All my computer stuff, however, will likely be toast, although I have some small faith in the surge protectors.

reply to post by JDBlack


Thanks...Yeah for sure keep as many stashes as possible...and some people think stand offs are the way to go but i think the way to go would be cooperate with the Military and have some set aside ready to relinquish because if the military comes and everyone around the city u live in is starving but you're in great health/shape they're gonna do a quick assesment of the situation an know you have a hidden reserve so it's probably a good idea to have a dummy reserve to "reluctantly" give them so they think they cleaned you out and move on