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Storm Warning: The Gloomy Forecast for EMPs
The Foundry (Heritage Foundation) ^ | July 6, 2012 | Jessica Zuckerman

Posted on 07/07/2012 7:41:45 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Almost a week after the D.C. area was pummeled with raging storms, many individuals are still suffering in the July heat without lights, phone lines, and, perhaps most importantly, air conditioning.

In the immediate aftermath of this event, tens of thousands of Washingtonians, Marylanders, and Virginians were left without power. Storms across the country had similar effects, and Americans from Richmond to Detroit are still facing the summer heat without many basic comforts.

As awful as this is, things could be even worse. Imagine for a moment that that the power never came back on.

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.heritage.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Computers/Internet; Food; Health/Medicine; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: beprepared; disaster; emp; getreadyhereitcomes; powerfailure; preparedness; prepperping; preppers; prepping; solar; solarstorm; sun; survival; survivalping
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To: little jeremiah
Nothing bad will ever happen.

I guarantee you that we will never see the really bad things coming.

Especially idiots like you who think you're so much smarter than everybody else.

61 posted on 07/08/2012 9:13:46 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

My fiancee’s nephew works as a higly placed consultant for NASA and he told us that the govt’s number one fear is an EMP. It would only take about $100 mil to harden the grid but not to worry folks Congress recently announced that they have no plans to do it. Spending money on something we really need just seems so foolish.

If you have no plans for an alternative electrical system think about it again as we will all be on our own if the grid goes down.


62 posted on 07/08/2012 9:24:35 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: PapaNew

I am not mocking religion. I am mocking those who use religion as a crutch for not doing anything to help themselves.

I am a Christian but I also prep for the bad times. My prep is not just carrying a Bible around and saying Jesus will provide.


63 posted on 07/08/2012 10:04:28 AM PDT by packrat35 (Admit it! We are almost ready to be called a police state!)
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To: Georgia Girl 2; All

I listened to a show the other day, it was a broadcast interview with a guy who is a construction specialist.

He specializes in and owns a company that builds basically hardened underground bunker type places and upgrades existing structures to make them more impervious to surviving various kinds of SHTF attacks.

He is very pricey, so he has alot of high-end clients. He described them as being mostly “rich republicans”.

The number one fear that his clients had, the main reason they were moving to/upgrading their environments, was...

Total economic collapse.

I thought it was interesting to hear it from a guy who is basically hands-on.


64 posted on 07/08/2012 10:10:15 AM PDT by djf ("There are more old drunkards than old doctors." - Benjamin Franklin)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I guarantee you that we will never see the really bad things coming.

So everyone else except you is suffering from mass hallucinations, then. And I certainly don't think I'm smarter than everyone body else! You certainly got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning.

I guess you think human nature all of a sudden changed and humans no longer have the faults that brought down every other civilization since the beginning of time.

65 posted on 07/08/2012 10:33:08 AM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: Georgia Girl 2

I just read this AM that it will take something like $600 (I THINK that was the figure) BILLION to harden the grid. Might want to check your numbers, I’ll look for where I saw it.


66 posted on 07/08/2012 10:36:53 AM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: little jeremiah
I guarantee you that the next disaster that occurs will be one you never saw coming.

You aren't nearly as smart as you think you are.

67 posted on 07/08/2012 10:41:23 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: packrat35

There are some things nobody will be able to prep for. That’s why Jesus is coming soon. That’s not an “excuse” for anything. It’s God’s rescue operation from unimaginable calamity about to be unleashed. Do we fearfully cower in the meantime? No, we boldly live with His light shining through us to as many as possible before the Day of the Lord.


68 posted on 07/08/2012 11:24:07 AM PDT by PapaNew
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I can see that discussion with you in a rational manner is not possible. Too bad.


69 posted on 07/08/2012 12:57:32 PM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: little jeremiah
I'd bet dollars to doughnut holes that you'd make money on any EMP solution.

What do you sell?

70 posted on 07/08/2012 1:03:36 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: little jeremiah

I’m pretty sure its only $100-$300 million. Thats why its so insane that they won’t do it.


71 posted on 07/08/2012 1:50:47 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I live on a small fixed income (NOT from the gov) and am way below poverty level, have health problems which prevent me from working in the public in my trade, and also have less than no interest, ability or training in any kind of financial/investment stuff. It’s meaningless to me. I don’t mind being poor, have been my whole life.

You’re barking up the wrong tree.


72 posted on 07/08/2012 1:53:46 PM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: Georgia Girl 2

If I can find the reference I read, I’ll bring it here. Your figure is so extremely low there is no rational reason why it would not be done; it just seems low compared to my recent reading. If only I could remember where it was!


73 posted on 07/08/2012 2:34:13 PM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: PapaNew

So are you preparing for bad times or are you just a street corner preacher talking about end times that I have seen since I was 5 years old?

Just because you think the end is near doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare for your time remaining on Earth.


74 posted on 07/08/2012 3:59:25 PM PDT by packrat35 (Admit it! We are almost ready to be called a police state!)
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To: little jeremiah

I just googled it again a little while ago and there are several articles putting the figure at $100 Mil to $300 Mil. I think Newt was saying $200 Mil. There is no rational reason not to do it. Our govt is out of touch and out of control.

That is why so many people are buying retreats and alternative electrical systems. Us included. When that grid goes down and its going to at some point I’m not going to be out in the front yard boiling clothes over a pot. You have to be born to that stuff. Thats why people only lived to be 40 years old.


75 posted on 07/08/2012 5:36:34 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: packrat35

Hey, I’m glad you’re a Christian - means I’ll see you in Heaven someday. In the meantime, hope you get the best from the Lord and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord until He returns.


76 posted on 07/08/2012 7:25:45 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: Georgia Girl 2

I did a search and this is the most detailed description of cost, sort of broken down. Other sources that cited lower figures were just figures without any explanation, some links below. I personally know zilch about the technical stuff, just trying to discern the facts. It looks as though the lower figure is the cost of vital transformers; but to harden the entire grid would be a lot more. What exactly that hardening would consist of is beyond my ken although I might get a grasp if I read something dumbed down.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/229205059

House Homeland Security Committee adviser Christopher A. Beck told the crowd that an EMP attack would transfer the U.S. from the 21st century to the 19th. The EMP conference drew academics, researchers, government officials, and business people from all over.

So what’s the fix? Can we protect every electrical device? Every integrated circuit? Of course not. But we can protect power grid’s backbone.

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, former staff member of the congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, told Newsmax yesterday that several hundred of the big electrical transformers required to keep the electrical grid up and humming could be hardened (just as military and intelligence systems are), at a cost of $200 to $400 million.

Pry estimates that an investment of $20 billion could harden the entire power grid from an EMP attack.

If Pry’s figures are accurate, and it would only cost $400 million to harden our power grid (essentially the nerve and respiratory system of modern society) than it’s nothing less than negligence that the money isn’t being spent — at the very least to deter such an attack.

The additional $20 billion to harden the rest of the grid could be done over time. What’s important is to have the capability to recover electrical power within weeks and months, rather than years — in the wake of an EMP attack.

Weeks without power, people could survive. Months without power, too many would certainly die. But following a year without the ability to easily transport food and treat water — what would be left when the lights came back on?


Very long and detailed article, couldn’t find any figures for hardening the grid. (Maybe no one really knows??)

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/08/before-the-lights-go-out-a-survey-of-emp-preparedness-reveals-significant-shortfalls


http://www.brucespeaks.com/?tag=emp

Snip: (scroll down a bit)

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 10:26 AM
By: Ronald Kessler

At the least, Pry says, 100 to 200 large transformers used in electrical transmission should be protected against EMP attack.

“The key for our electric power grid are these big transformers,” Pry says. “All together, there are about 300 of them. They are absolutely indispensable to the operation of the power grid. If you fry those things, there are only a couple of countries in the world that sell them for export, and it takes a year, at least, to make one of them,” Pry says.

Equally important are small computers that regulate the power grid.

“This country can’t survive for six months without electricity, let alone a year,” Pry says. “Everything else would go down after losing electric power.”

To harden those transformers against an attack would cost a mere $200 million to $400 million, Pry says. For perhaps $20 billion, the entire power grid could be protected, Pry says. By comparison, the stimulus bill costs nearly $800 billion. Yet without electricity, no one would have a job.


77 posted on 07/08/2012 7:43:44 PM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: little jeremiah

Yes, everything I have read about the grid going down is in relation to the large transformers. Apparently we do not manufacture them in this country and it takes about 2 years to get them so I guess they are the most important part of the grid to protect.

Bottom line it looks like the govt is not going to do anything much to harden the grid so if and when it goes down we will all be on our own for a couple of years if not more. Some people are preparing some aren’t. I would hate to try to survive for 2 years without power. It would be miserable.


78 posted on 07/08/2012 8:21:10 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

I’ve lived without electricity actually quite a lot; and not with a gigantic array of solar panels, but more simply. BUT - the rest of the world still had electricity. I could go to town and buy propane, food at the store and so on.

IMHO people need to prepare for a very different life and be ready to live very simply and without any fancy stuff that most people cannot imagine living without. Even though I have electricity now, I still live very simply - for one thing, I have very little money. And two, I’m used to it, and have few needs. But so many people will be mentally and emotionally shocked if (when...?) things they take for granted are history.

Things like shopping for whatever they want, all the time - shampoo, hair conditioner, instant and pre-prepared food, eating out, watching all the new movies, new clothes all the time, never having to mend or fix anything, watching TV, having their hair and nails done; that kind of thing. And throwing clothes in the washer and dryer...


79 posted on 07/08/2012 10:44:40 PM PDT by little jeremiah
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To: PapaNew

Since you won’t answer simple questions, I’ll mark you down as a victim.


80 posted on 07/09/2012 12:14:28 AM PDT by packrat35 (Admit it! We are almost ready to be called a police state!)
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