EMP Prep, What would you do if you had 45 minutes to prepare?

[citytransplant]

Earlier I wrote that during the 45 minutes, I would save a copy of most recent bank statements, pension verification, etc. to a thumb [or flash] drive. This presumes I'm near my computer when the alert comes (I would allocate no more than 5 minutes of my allotted 45 for "document gathering" both paper documents and digital). Today I'm going to save a digital copy of my birth certificate, driver license, title to car, tractor, RV, and trailer, deed to my property, pension verification, and social security card. That leaves 2 separate bank and 2 brokerage account websites to visit at game time. I'm assuming that electronic equipment in my home, including my computer and its hard drive, would be permanently fried by a high burst of electromagnetic energy.

Who is going to pay these benefits and how?

The data would be saved with the presumption that at some point, financial institutions will return to a state of normalcy. At that point I want to be in a position to verify financial information (bank balances, dividends, pension payments, etc.) if needed. I would rather have this information and not need it than not have it and have some financial institution tell me they have no record of _________ (fill in the blank).

Thieves and con artists never let a good catastrophe go to waste. Financial institutions will go to great lengths to prevent fraudulent activity in the aftermath of some such disaster. I want to be readily able to verify my identity and how much of my money they were entrusted with on the day that the dam broke. Finally should the dust settle and I find some stranger tooling around on my 4-wheeler, it would be nice to be in a position to readily verify that I'm the rightful owner.

 

[TnAndy]

TN Andy, What kind of a door is that to the left. Non consumer junk things always catch my eye. I'm thinking safe or big *** walk in freezer.

Home built walk-in cooler. Door is a Craig's List find off a commercial unit. Got about 800lbs of beef aging in it right now, in quarters. (pic is of pigs from one year)

 

[flyerdan]

A tech question for the more knowledgeable regarding EMPs, say you are out of the immediate source region of the emp, several states away. Does the damage to electronics primarily come form being plugged in, as the electric grid acts as an antenna to funnel the charge into items that would otherwise be unaffected if they weren't plugged in? Or should one plan on losing anything electronic that wasn't unplugged and in a faraday cage?

 

[Industrial Toys]

I learned years ago how semi conductor junctions are created using doping. How does EMP turn these junctions on? Is the EMP just a radio wave? What frequency? Is it like subjecting these junctions to microwaves? Do they recover?

Nice walk in cooler and contents.

 

[ning]

I learned years ago how semi conductor junctions are created using doping. How does EMP turn these junctions on? Is the EMP just a radio wave? What frequency? Is it like subjecting these junctions to microwaves? Do they recover?

Nice walk in cooler and contents.

Current & Voltage surges.
Will jump that little gap no problem.

 

[Industrial Toys]

It's not a gap. But that's not the point. Someone said that the EMP pulse will cause all such junctions to conduct. Just to be clear, there may be thousands of such junctions in a microchip, maybe many more. Only one failing will render the chop useless. That always boggles my mind. I wonder, that any of them work at all.

 

[bunyip]

Standard military response when I was in the RAAF, what steps would you take, very big ones and quick in the general direction of away.

 

[Liquidsilver]

The American public... look at all those mouths to feed.

A huge percentage couldn't walk a mile without heart failure. I don't think there's ever been a generation of humanity so completely helpless and dependent on technology to eat their next meal. I think before any of these 'zombie-hunter' scenarios could even materialize, if something happened on a mass scale, starvation would be staggering. Men, women and children. Sad to imagine. I'm able bodied, have firearms, some emergency rations... but I think my best tactic would be to just pray.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

A tech question for the more knowledgeable regarding EMPs, say you are out of the immediate source region of the emp, several states away. Does the damage to electronics primarily come form being plugged in, as the electric grid acts as an antenna to funnel the charge into items that would otherwise be unaffected if they weren't plugged in? Or should one plan on losing anything electronic that wasn't unplugged and in a faraday cage?

I guess it depends on which "several states away" you're talking about. Several Texas/Alaska sized states? No problem. Several Rhode Islands? You have big problems.

EMP is strictly Line-of-Sight. And the energy gets dissipated quickly in the lower atmosphere. With space being a vacuum, the EMP energy will not be dissipated, and remain "lethal" to electronics over great distances (in space). Really the only efficient deployment of an EMP attack is to burst it in low orbit, still outside the atmosphere, and over your enemy country's territory. All civilian satellites in LoS are now toast. So are the folks in the International Space Station, if they're in LoS. All U.S. military satellites are "EMP hardened", and are tested before launched to make sure they can survive a burst.

But, back to your question, if you are several "Texas sized" states away, probably the first thing you will notice that there's a problem is when all your TV's stop playing whatever you were watching on cable/satellite service, your internet will go down, and then some time after that, your power goes out at your house. If you're directly "under" the blast, pretty much everything you own that is electronic will stop working. Smart phones, computers, TV's (as in no longer power on), radios, anything with discrete electronics in it will be fried.

But look, none of this is "new". The major military forces have known about, planned for, and planned on how to respond to EMP attack since the 50's. The only thing that is "new" here, is some asshat talking heads have been bringing this up lately over Lil' Shorty Kim over there in N. Korea (and right before it was "Kim" as the danger, they were yapping about some terrorist getting a hold of a "dirty bomb" and doing the "EMP thing" here). But even Kim's not stupid enough to actually touch one of these off over U.S. . And that's assuming he can actually get one there, get it to actually trigger itself (as in go full chain reaction to achieve true EMP weapon release) while still above the atmosphere.

He touches one off, and he's pissed off a whole bunch of the world, including like Russia and China, where his bread, cheese, wine and other goodies come from. Because if he touches one off, it will destroy a whole bunch of orbiting equipment that other countries own as well. Countries will be waiting their turn in line to "nuke him back" if he actually tries it, and manages to get it to work.

 

[/pine]

Although many have been calling for an effort to begin protecting the national grid for a long time...it was the near miss of 2012 that brought the issue to light to some legislators but it still gets little mention...

Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 212 | Science Mission Directorate