EMP Commission Warns Blackout Of Electricity, Food, Water To Last Year Or Longer With Huge Death Toll
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 7 months ago
Parts of the United States would be starved of electricity, water, food, internet service and transportation for a year or longer by the smallest electromagnetic pulse attack on the electric grid, according to a newly declassified report from a federal commission.
The so-called EMP Commission report said that the threat is real, jeopardizes “modern civilization,” and would set back living conditions to those last seen in the 1800s.
And as a result of the chaos, millions would likely die, according to the report titled “Assessing the Threat from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP),” from the recently re-established Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack.
“A long-term outage owing to EMP could disable most critical supply chains, leaving the U.S. population living in conditions similar to centuries past, prior to the advent of electric power,” said the July 2017 report provided Secrets.
“In the 1800s, the U.S. population was less than 60 million, and those people had many skills and assets necessary for survival without today’s infrastructure. An extended blackout today could result in the death of a large fraction of the American people through the effects of societal collapse, disease, and starvation. While national planning and preparation for such events could help mitigate the damage, few such actions are currently underway or even being contemplated,” added the executive summary.
[ … ]
In “Life Without Electricity,” he said the results would be:
- Social Order: Looting requires dusk to dawn curfew. People become refugees as they flee powerless homes. Work force becomes differently employed at scavenging for basics, including water, food, and shelter.
- Communications: No TV, radio, or phone service.
- Transportation: Gas pumps inoperable. Failure of signal lights and street lights impedes traffic, stops traffic after dark. No mass transit metro service. Airlines stopped.
- Water and Food: No running water. Stoves and refrigerators inoperable. People melt snow, boil water, and cook over open fires. Local food supplies exhausted. Most stores close due to blackout.
- Energy: Oil and natural gas flows stop.
- Emergency Medical: Hospitals operate in dark. Patients on dialysis and other life support threatened. Medications administered and babies born by flashlight.
- Death and Injury: Casualties from exposure, carbon dioxide poisoning and house fires increase.
I didn’t need the list, nor am I persuaded I need to spend any time studying the report. I’ve pointed this out before, and it was only after I began to point out the weakness of the main step-up / step-down transformers at power plants that the FedGov or corporations began to focus on thinking about those key aspects of our critical infrastructure.
So let’s paint the picture. Power goes out. It won’t return for a very long time. There is no power to run pumps to get gasoline out of tanks and into automobiles. There is no fuel delivery truck to bring the gasoline to market because pumps don’t work, and drivers are all at home taking care of their families.
Hospitals have no power except for urgent and critical care, and what little they can get comes from diesel generators (which will stop running when the fuel runs out). Traffic lights don’t work. Emergency responders don’t respond. EBT cards don’t work because food stores are empty, and there is no cash register to run the cards. We’ve seen how that goes before in Atlanta.
Pumps to bring water to urban and suburban centers don’t run. Every family is about 72 hours (three days) away from impending starvation. Looters hit the streets, violence becomes a way of life.
This doesn’t just happen with an EMP event, whether solar or weaponized. It happens on a smaller scale with terrorist attacks on the electrical grid. I’ve discussed this at length, so you know this and have been warned, just as I know (and have failed completely to prepare for).
Prior:
A Terrorist Attack That America Cannot Absorb
The Electrical Grid Is Still Vulnerable
See also CBS Chicago, Electrical Grid Vulnerable To Attacks, Natural Disasters
On May 14, 2018 at 6:20 am, Differ said:
A return to 1800s conditions would be survivable by a society which still had some semblance of cohesion. Not saying it wouldn’t be awful and that people wouldn’t die, but that the society as a whole would survive in tact. Unfortunately, we’ve lost that cohesion since the mid 60s and our added technological dependency has made societal survival outside a few rural enclaves distinctly unlikely.
On May 14, 2018 at 6:45 am, Kevin Mussack said:
Normalcy bias will not allow most Americans to even consider such an event.
Our leaders are parallelized, unable or unwilling to take action to protect our nation.
So the sword of Damocles hangs above our collective heads.
Action must be taken at the individual, household and neighborhood levels.
Lest we be counted among the 90%.
On May 14, 2018 at 6:51 am, ragman said:
In addition to the above, all modern jet engines will fail and the airplanes will crash. Their computers must be operable for the engines to work. Say goodbye to civilization as we know it.
On May 14, 2018 at 8:15 am, SGT.BAG said:
The fed.gov would welcome such a event because their infrastructure would remain largely intact and the dirt people would be eradicated without lifting a finger.
Law of the jungle baby.
On May 14, 2018 at 8:34 am, Rick Halabrin said:
I’ve never seen this discussed in any discussion about EMP’s Could the powers that be plan on using a EMP as a population reducing measure for the US??? That would, for the most part, leave our infrastructure intact and wouldn’t leave behind a dangerous lingering residue from a biological weapon Importing millions from the third world agrarian societies to start rebuilding/controlling food production would simplify control of any remaining population
On May 14, 2018 at 8:56 am, DAN III said:
ALCON,
Imagine if TPTB in fUSA had used the $1,000,000,000,000.00 spent on unending and undeclared war in the Middle East, on improving the electric grid ?
On May 14, 2018 at 10:08 am, Grandpa said:
Dan and all… you’ve hit the nail on the head. Sadly, our recent history is full of such errors. Misallocation of our resources is the biggest mistake – and it continues. The rest of the world thinks us fools because we don’t take care of ‘home’ first… TPTB seem unable to understand simple truths, and look at their complex activities as progress, when in fact they are “busybodies” doing busy work… no advance of meaningful things, but a lot of noise and smoke. Thoughtful effort is nonexistent, and their focus is on shiny objects.
“Oh look – there’s someone ‘famous’!”
May God have mercy on us… although, since so many choose to ignore Him, we shouldn’t count on it.
On May 14, 2018 at 12:18 pm, ~Lance C said:
Some terrorists in this country say that they are going to take us over by out breeding us 5 to 1, or 15 to 1, or whatever it is?
Perhaps the EMP’s can start early in such cities as Dearborn, MI and other such centers. If we are having a war or are going to have a war, let us fight to win…
Semper Fi
On May 14, 2018 at 12:39 pm, Fred said:
Couple of things. What @Rick suggests has crossed my mind. The continuity of .gov plan is fairly robust, oh, and it’s big club and you ain’t in it.
“Most stores close due to blackout.” This is very lightly treated to the point of derision. The stores will be permanently opened, windows and doors and most of the interior smashed.
“Patients on dialysis and other life support threatened.” This is also very politely stated. I’ll just say it; if you need meds to live you will die in the first wave.
And the part about traffic lights being necessary to the orderly movement of traffic if factually and historical wrong. Grid down might be rather different but without power everybody just starts cooperating in traffic, for the most part. Of course in my neighborhood and in the example link the average IQ is pretty high, plus historically and anthropologically this people group cooperates quite well.
Of course I don’t care because my plan is to take my 300 pound girth, a budget AR, and some off brand cammo and be the local warlord…Solved!
On May 14, 2018 at 12:52 pm, June J said:
Recommended reading “One Second After”, “One Year After” and “The Final Day” by William R. Forstchen. http://www.onesecondafter.com/
On May 14, 2018 at 1:07 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Fred,
“Of course I don’t care because my plan is to take my 300 pound girth, a budget AR, and some off brand cammo and be the local warlord…Solved!”
You don’t mean it? 300 lb girth?
Good men like you are very much needed. Maybe I need to start a series on PT. Take care of that heart health.
We need to wait for the first snow fall and do a meet-up at Mount Leconte with 45 lb backpacks. Half way for you, half way for me.
; – )
On May 14, 2018 at 2:09 pm, Fred said:
@Herschel, why only question the weight and not the weapon, the cammo, the ridiculous plan? Or, do you like my plan? :-)
Not exaggerating, I used to do 25 mile day hikes alone on a loop up to 6k plus, have a quick snack of oats, nuts and berries and head back out. Being in the woods with zero support has a way of focusing the mind especially when you have to call off a female bear at pre-dawn in order to take her trail. I could have been 15 miles into NC, on foot, middle of nowhere, poof gone, by sundown. I hope some younger men are reading this. Alas, I don’t think my knees could do that anymore.
On May 14, 2018 at 5:41 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel
The vulnerability of modern high-tech society has been known as long ago as the Second World War, when British SOE (Special Operations Executive) and U.S. OSS (Office of Strategic Services) personnel and their counterparts in occupied Europe inflicted disproportionately-high losses, material and human alike, upon the enemy, using small highly-trained teams of commandos operating behind enemy lines and attacking where and when they were least expected.
Of course, in that age prior to the invention of the integrated circuit and microprocessor, the raiders didn’t concern themselves with things like fiber-optic networks or computer-controlled power grids, but there were still multiple nodes of vulnerability, from electric power stations to hydro-electric dams to telephone exchanges and radar installations, to name just a few.
Complex systems can be remarkably brittle and prone to damage, especially networks which lack built-in robustness and redundancy – as so many of ours do in this country. Just-in-time supply chains are efficient, but far from robust. We are also highly-vulnerable since so much of our manufacturing base has been “off-shored,” so to speak. Many of the largest and most heavy-duty transformers found in electrical substations are not even manufactured domestically, but must be ordered from overseas on a custom basis, with lead times of as much as 6-8 months or more.
On May 14, 2018 at 6:33 pm, Lori said:
104 or so nuclear power plants melting down will add to the misery.
On May 14, 2018 at 9:59 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Lori,
Well, their D/Gs would supply them with 4160V power to essential equipment for a while, and after that they would have to get more (diesel fuel, that is), or go and stay on natural circulation with manual operator actions (I could describe it but it would take a while and it’s probably best that I don’t). It wouldn’t be easy or clean, but it could be done without melting cores. They sure wouldn’t be online producing power though.
On May 14, 2018 at 11:09 pm, SemperFi, 0321 said:
As one who lives near Jackson Hole, WY, I’m of the belief the elites plan to ride it out in their mtn or island enclaves until it’s safe to come out.
I’ve seen way too many C-130’s and C-141’s headed that way, there’s no military base in JH, but they sure do land a lot of military planes there.
Why?
Shitload of big time banksters live there for one thing. Lots of elk, bison and great fishing, along with several mtn passes that are easily closed and controlled.
Seems like a no brainer to me.
On May 15, 2018 at 12:16 am, Jorge said:
The water problem is massive. There are very few major cities in the US that don’t require water brought in via pipelines and aqueducts from a hundred plus miles away. I remember Dallas having this problem years back. LA has had this problem for decades before the recent drought. Without a ton of pumps and dams along the way working, millions will die in the first 2 weeks.
On May 15, 2018 at 5:31 am, Differ said:
John Robb @ Global Guerillas said it better than I:
“Why so pessimistic? It’s becoming clear that the US doesn’t have a shared narrative anymore. A narrative, combined with rituals and traditions, that provides us with us the basis of fictive kinship.
A kinship, not based on DNA, that allows us to trust each other rather than as strangers/enemies.
A shared understanding of moral and ethical conduct (the soft elements that make it possible for a legal and regulatory system to work).
An understanding that we are better off together than apart.
Where did our fictive kinship go?
We killed it. We didn’t alter it, adapt it, or evolve it. We strangled it and the rising sociopolitical incoherence we are seeing is the result.
The big question is whether we can survive the future without it? I suspect the answer to that is more no than yes. If that’s true, it makes civil collapse a very viable future.”
That’s even without an externally driven collapse.
On May 15, 2018 at 7:48 am, Gryphon said:
ragman – Completely Wrong about Jet Engines/Airplanes “Falling out of the Sky” with an EMP Attack – Engine FADEC and Flight Controls are Quadruple-Redundant and Shielded to the Same Mil-Specs as Air Force Combat Airplanes. Plus, the Fuselage and Wings of a Plane form a “Faraday Cage” or Shield against Electromagnetic Fields. Even Direct Lightning Strikes hardly ever do Damage to Electrical Systems. So I wouldn’t see this as anywhere Near a Threat as the EBT Cards not Working…
p.s. Jet Mechanic for 39 Years now, Worked through the Transition from Hydromechanical FCU’s to FADEC, and EMI Protection was a big Design Factor from the Start.
On May 15, 2018 at 8:12 am, Gryphon said:
Also, this -https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-14/emp-elaborate-hoax-or-legitimate-threat
On May 15, 2018 at 10:49 am, Buck Wheaton said:
It must be repeated that photovoltaic solar cells are highly susceptible to total destruction by EMP. This is due to the very physics of their design: a PV cell is in fact one big flat diode that is overlaid with a conductive grid to collect current. This grid also makes the perfect antenna for the induced voltage from the “E” of the “P”. (but not the “M”).
A semiconductor diode works by having a junction in two types of semiconductor. That junction conducts current only in one direction. But the kicker is that the junction has a voltage where it breaks down, where above which it will in fact conduct current. That is called the reverse breakdown voltage (or “Vr”). An EMP will easily induce a voltage in the front and back of the cell that far far exceeds the Vr of the cell. The current that flows when the junction breaks down burns tiny holes in the junction. Any hole ruins the cell. Instantly. Poof. Far faster than the pulse can travel down a wire to be absorbed by any nearby protective device.
Because of these facts, it is very foolish to rely on PV solar for more than a few percent of utility power. It is also a big gamble to count on PV solar as backup for grid failure due to EMP. I store my camping-grade solar panels in a big metal ammo can.
While my formal education was in a different technical field, I have done digital and RF design and have held an FCC Commercial license for 49 years. I have verified my statements via a business associate who was on the team that conducted the EMP testing of the B2 bomber.
On May 15, 2018 at 10:57 am, Herschel Smith said:
@Gryphon,
Okay. So I skimmed the ZeroHedge article. Non-scientists and non-engineers writing on scientific things. Meh.
I didn’t say it was likely. It’s possible, not likely. More likely is a threat to main step-up/step-down xfmers at power plants, mostly fossil fuel plants where security isn’t what it could be.
On May 15, 2018 at 4:16 pm, MtnBoy said:
Buck, Dr. Arthur Bradley, NASA scientist, believes that solar panels can be protected by installing Broadband Ferrite Chokes. I have installed them at the junction boxes on the panels, solar wires going into the combiner box, wires going from the combiner box into the charge controllers, on the 4/0 wires going from the batteries to the inverters, A/C output from the inverters going to the house and everything that has a wire plugged into a socket, including satellite cables, DVD player, electric grain mill, etc (We have a hand crank one too).
I hope they work.
On May 15, 2018 at 5:04 pm, Pat Hines said:
Most essays and articles about EMP ignore the profit incentive to get various aspects of the power grid restored. Let me assure everyone that the money to be made in getting electrical power to people will be immense.
Certainly some components involved in long range power movement will be unavailable, that’s not good, but short range transmission will be available.
The notion that the three national power grids are set up to not permit disruption is simply not correct. Individual power plants are routinely taken off line for a variety of reasons, repairs; decommissioning, and other reasons.
EMP would be disruptive, but not totally and not insurmountable.
On May 15, 2018 at 7:29 pm, Henry said:
My take is that until we hear of the US unleashing EMP weaponry against some “enemy” overseas, there’s little risk of being hit with it here. Why? Because:
1. If anybody has this weaponry, the US has it.
2. The US historically can never resist using a new toy, and will deploy it at its first opportunity.
It’s possible that someone out there has EMP weaponry and the US doesn’t, but it’s highly improbable.
On May 16, 2018 at 1:30 pm, Gryphon said:
My take from reading about the Soviet-Era EMP Test (they Deliberately set one off above a City) is that Anything connected to Grid Wires (Power or Comms) IS extremely Vulnerable to Damage, and that conventional ‘Surge Protectors’ are Not Up to that level of Overload.
This Test also demonstrated that even a Big Nuke (300 Kilotons) hardly Affected more than a 500-Mile area, so the Chances of a Single-Shot Nuclear EMP damaging ALL of the CONUS seems a Stretch. (Inverse-Square Law, folks)
As for Everything Else, it is Questionable if any given Small Electrical Device (Motors. Generators, Automotive Equipment, and Portable Comms Gear) will be Damaged.
The ARRL (Ham Radio Club) has some Excellent Info on EMP, including showing that Radios not connected to Power or Antenna Wires are not very Vulnerable to even rather High-Power EMP. Their Test were done under Laboratory Conditions at Field Levels a good bit Higher than the regular Calculations (From Military Data) shows a Nuke would Generate.
I have not seen any Articles regarding Automotive (current, electronic-filled Cars) Testing fir EMP, but I did see an Article that the Army is developing a Truck-Mounted, Phased-Microwave Weapon that has been demonstrated to ‘Jam’ Vehicle Electronics and temporarily Shut them Down, without causing Permanent Damage (allegedly). The Air Force also has Tested (and likely now Deploys) a Cruise Missile equipped with a Non-Nuclear EMP Device that was demonstrated to Damage/Destroy ordinary Computer-Based Devices.
It would seem to Me that We are much more Likely to see the feral government Deploy and Use mobile EMP Weapons against the People than someone like Lil’ Kim Fire a Nuke, with the Certainty of Retaliation.
…of course, the possibility of Traitors in the Military doing it, so as to Blame it on Kim or the Russians or Ragheads, is Far More Likely, IMO.