Imagine seeing bright flashes in the sky followed by darkness. You notice all the lights and electronic devices around you have abruptly shut off. As your mind races through likely scenarios, you realize even your battery powered mobile phone and laptop have shut off. When the cell phone finally powers back up, it can’t get a signal.
The above describes what could happen immediately after your area has been under an EMP attack. What makes a powerful EMP more threatening than a storm related power outage is the range and depth of destruction it can bring on society. Depending on the severity of impact, the power grid could be down for years. Supply chains and critical infrastructure would break down as a result. Basic goods such as food and fuel would become scarce.
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How to Survive an EMP Attack?
Depending on the intensity of the EMP, the electrical grid could be down for days to years. If the electric grid and telecommunications networks go down for months to years, society would plunge back into the pre industrial era. Surviving an EMP attack would require a combination of primitive skills and self sufficiency. Having enough food, water, and medical supplies will be critical for survival. Anyone who has the ability to generate electricity independently would find themselves in a highly advantageous spot.
What is an EMP?
Electromagnetic Pulse, EMP, is a burst of electromagnetic energy from either a natural or man made source. Natural causes of EMP can be attributed to solar storms and lightning. EMPs can also be artificially induced by detonating a nuclear weapon at a high altitude.
The EMP produces radiation that strips electrons from atoms in the upper atmosphere. As the electrons accelerate towards the earth’s surface, their negative charge interacts with the earth’s magnetic field to produce a very brief electromagnetic energy pulse.
The energy pulse creates an electromagnetic field strong enough to induce a current in all conductive materials. Any device that isn’t able to handle the voltage surge risks getting fried.
Past EMP Occurrences
Solar flares and CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections) are examples of naturally occurring solar storms where the sun’s magnetic energy explodes into space, reaching the earth’s atmosphere.
Most CMEs are quite common and harmless, showing up as auroras in the sky.
The strongest recorded CME happened in 1859, known as the Carrington Event. The CME caused a geomagnetic storm so strong that it took down telegraph networks around the world. In recent times, a solar storm in 1989 caused outages in Quebec’s electric system and another powerful solar flare in 2012 narrowly missed the Earth.
EMPs can also be triggered by man made weapons, specifically by detonating a nuclear device at a high altitude. The higher altitude, the greater the area impacted. The nuclear weapon’s ability to trigger EMPs was initially discovered in 1962, during a high altitude nuclear test (Starfish Prime) over the Pacific Ocean. After the test, over 900 miles away in Hawaii, numerous power outages and disturbances to transmission stations were reported.
How Do EMPs Damage Electronics?
EMPs cause disturbance to electronics in two phases. The first phase occurs when the field of electrons from the air makes contact with the conductive material inside electronics. A voltage spike occurs as a reaction, traveling along the conductive material as a direct electrical current. The longer the conductive material, the stronger the reaction. In other words, electronics with longer wires will generate a higher voltage, potentially facing greater risk of damage.
Now, imagine our electric grid, a massive, interconnected conductive system. The power surge generated within the grid system will surpass any other electronics by orders of magnitude.
As the power surge travels through the grid system into homes, electronics that are connected to the wall socket will receive a second surge of energy. Because the second energy surge is expected to be much stronger than the first, any device that’s plugged into the wall will most likely be permanently damaged.
Any device that’s not connected to the grid at the time of the EMP will only have to be able to handle the voltage spike generated within itself. Most electronics do not have long enough wires to generate enough surge voltage to cause permanent damage. The only exceptions are electronic components built with semiconductors where the parts are highly sensitive to voltage spikes.
Protecting Specific Electronics with Faraday Cages
One way to ensure the safety of your critical electronics is to place them into a Faraday cage. A Faraday cage is essentially a fully enclosed metal enclosure that acts as a barrier between the electromagnetic field and the items inside.
If you decide to use one, make sure to get one with uniform enclosed walls. Some high frequency electromagnetic waves can pass through mesh openings and thin metal walls. You can repurpose metal garbage cans as long as the lid is closed tightly. Or wrap several layers of heavy duty aluminum foil over a fully enclosed box that’s made from another material to achieve the same effect. There are also Faraday bags that can be purchased for this specific purpose.
Do EMPs Harm Humans?
The part of EMP that humans are exposed to is the electromagnetic field created by the electrons from the atmosphere. We are constantly exposed to electromagnetic radiation through common devices like cell phones and televisions.
Granted, the electromagnetic radiation is much stronger from an EMP than radio waves. The exposure time would be so short it’s unlikely to cause significant damage to the human body. The electrons will simply pass right through our bodies to ground.
What Vehicles Can Survive an EMP?
The US EMP Commission conducted an official test on 37 cars produced between 1986 and 2002. When the electromagnetic field strength got above 30 kV/m (kilovolts per meter), three cars turned off. Two of which were able to restart.
Based on the test report, EMP fields of 25 kV/m and under are unlikely to cause any disruption to vehicles. At higher fields, about 10% of vehicles’ engines may shut down and two out of three may experience anomalies such as blinking lights or dashboard display issues.
Cars made in the past decade are packed with microprocessors with small and intricate wiring making them more sensitive to high voltage EMPs than older models. Something to keep in mind is that not all of the sensitive components are critical for the car to run. You may still be able to drive the car without the dashboard features.
If an EMP is strong enough to damage cars, the grid will most definitely be taken down and fuel supply is guaranteed to be affected. Old diesel engines with minimal electronics are considered the best EMP proof vehicles because of fuel flexibility.
EMP Proof Garage
When an EMP strikes, the location and direction of your car relative to the detonation point can impact the strength of the electromagnetic field on the car. Since no one can predict the exact height and azimuth of detonation, it’s impossible to park your car in the safest position from EMPs.
However, parking your car in a garage away from electrical wiring can minimize the EMP damage. A metal garage has similar effects as a Faraday cage, sending the electric field to ground, shielding the car.
What Life Might Be Like After an EMP?
The EMP’s greatest danger to society is bringing down the power grid and all the modern day infrastructure we’ve come to rely on. If a large enough region is impacted, our government might not be able to restore power for months to years.
Our power grid relies on transformers to route and distribute electricity. Transformers will not be able to withstand the excess surge voltage. Components in the power grid are very expensive and take months to build. We don’t have the backup resources or manpower to replace broken parts quickly.
If a large enough region loses power, the entire supply chain for that region could come to a full stop. Oil and gas refineries will not be able to operate. Trucks won’t be able to deliver fuel and food.
Without electricity, water pumps won’t be able to operate. Basic services like hospitals and fire departments will cease to function. Even if your cell phone turns on after an EMP blast, our telecommunications system will not be up and running.
Even experts have different views about a post EMP society. Some believe we will have to live like the 1800s before electricity was discovered. Some expert predictions expect 90% of the affected population to be wiped out. Needless to say, electricity and computer automation have taken over every function of modern life. An EMP attack will plunge us back into the dark ages.
How to Prepare For an EMP
Short of nuclear warfare, an EMP attack is going to be one of the worst disasters. The days and weeks after the EMP can get chaotic as panic and shock sets in for most people. Months into the new way of life, lives will be lost from insufficient food, water, and medical care. Knowing what to expect and being prepared will make all the difference in survival.
Backup Food Supply
An EMP can bring down the entire supply chain. The covid pandemic already gave us a reality check about the state of our supply chain. If toilet paper can sell out within hours, imagine getting food out of a supermarket when credit card chip readers, cash registers, and even door sensors stop working!
A good backup supply for facing a typical natural disaster or storm is generally one month of food for the family. To prepare for an EMP, it’s best to store up to a year’s worth of food.
The economical way to store food is to keep a larger supply of shelf stable foods that you already eat. Start with grains and dried beans. Then add more nutritional variety with canned and freeze dried foods.
Canned meats and vegetables are cheap to acquire and easy to prepare. You can also opt for freeze dried which can be kept much longer but comes at a higher cost.
The key to creating a food stockpile is utilizing proper storage techniques to help extend shelf life. Depending on the item and packaging, you want to keep out some combination of moisture, oxygen, light, heat, and pests.
Backup Water Supply
When the power goes out, water pumps will stop working immediately. Within hours, the pressure in the pipes will be lost and the tap will go dry. Unless you have a private well and a house that runs on off-grid power, you will lose your clean water supply.
If you have the space, create a stockpile of drinkable water in food grade water containers as a prep for your family. Ideally, you should have a few 55 gallon barrels of potable water stored. Also keep a few cases of bottled water on hand in case you need portable drinking water.
If the grid is down for months, the stored water supply will run out. You will have to consider collecting rain water or collecting water from a nearby stream or lake. Any time you collect water from nature you will be dealing with pathogens and contaminants.
To avoid serious illness, you have to purify the water before drinking. Depending on the contamination level, you can first filter the water and then either boil it or use purification tablets to make it safe for drinking. If the water has chemical or industrial contaminants, you will have to distill it.
Medical Supplies
After an EMP, hospitals will not be able to operate like they do now, even if they manage to stay open. Medical care will be unavailable to most people. Aside from being ultra careful to stay safe physically, you should stockpile over the counter pharmaceuticals and supplies.
Make sure you have enough wound dressing supplies, inflammatories and fever reducers. When you have to live by performing primitive skills, you put yourself at risk of injury. Keep a healthy supply of blood stoppers in case of blunt injury.
Also, stock up on gastrointestinal medications like immodium. Diarrhea from food poisoning or contaminated water can cause too much water loss for recovery to be possible.
Antibiotics will also be invaluable in the post apocalyptic world. Even small injuries can lead to infections that can be fatal. Antibiotics will also be great for bartering for other resources.
Communications
I highly recommend you getting a ham radio, even if you are not licensed. Anyone who is unlicensed is technically not allowed to broadcast but when facing an emergency broadcasting is allowed . Many ham radio operators are also preppers and they are a great source of information during a chaotic time.
If you decide to go with a regular radio, make sure to get one that has solar charging or hand crank options. Although batteries are safe from EMPs, the prolonged nature of grid outage means you should not depend on any non renewable power sources.
Backup Power
After the grid goes down, anyone who is able to have electricity running in their house is going to be at a great advantage. You can wash clothes, cook, potentially run heating and air conditioning.
You can get backup power by using generators or solar power stations. Generators are typically more powerful, being able to run more appliances at the same time and for longer periods than solar power stations.
The downside to using generators is that they rely on a fuel supply, typically gasoline or propane. In the event of a major EMP event and the supply chain breaking down, you will not be able to refuel easily. To solve this problem, you can place propane storage tanks that can store up to 1000 gallons on your property. The alternative is to use solar power, which is a completely renewable energy source.
Solar power stations have the benefit of being completely independent. As long as the sun still rises, you can always charge up your batteries. They don’t require any maintenance.
Generally speaking, if you don’t plan to store fuel onsite, generators will not be too helpful in case of a prolonged outage.
Off Grid Solar Power
To truly be insulated from the grid, an off grid solar system is what it takes. Without any connection to the grid, any power surges from the grid can’t hurt electrical components in your house. You will also continue to run your well pump, heating/cooling, all the electric systems without disturbance from the grid going down.
Will EMP Destroy Solar Panels
Most likely your solar panels will survive an EMP just fine. Solar panels do not contain enough electronics to be vulnerable to an EMP. As mentioned earlier, batteries are also pretty safe against EMPs. The most vulnerable parts of a solar system are the charge controllers and inverters which do contain a fair bit of microprocessor chips.
Companies like SolArk happen to make EMP proof inverters and charge controllers. They test their inverters under real high voltage EMP conditions. Solar power systems that are not connected to the grid will have much shorter wiring, making them much more robust against EMPs.
How to Protect Your House from an EMP
The main thing you want to protect is your house’s internal circuitry and all the electronics you run inside the house. Any electronics that is connected to the wall socket is at risk of getting fried by the EMP’s power surge entering your house through the grid.
You might want to consider installing a whole house surge protector at the input of your main electrical panel. The surge protector will divert extra voltage away from your house back into ground. The important keys to picking the right one are
- Joule rating should be 600 Joules or greater. The higher this number the more voltage it can divert before getting burned out.
- Clamping voltage should be no more than 400 Volts. This is the amount of voltage that the surge protector allows through to your house.
- Choose one that is rated by Underwriter’s Laboratory.
- Get a professional to install it for you.
Conclusion
An EMP that is strong enough to take out the grid for an entire region can be one of the most disruptive disasters. We live in a world supported by machines. A life without electricity is going to be miserable. Sure, it’s good to learn primitive survival skills to get through roadblocks. But when it comes to prolonged disasters, life is going to be much harder without any modern conveniences. Getting your bug in location hooked up with some type of alternative energy source will put you way ahead of the game.
