Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

America and the EMP threat
americanthinker.com ^ | 5/3/2018 | Daniel Ashman

Posted on 05/03/2018 8:35:00 AM PDT by rktman

A congressional committee report states that a large electromagnetic pulse (EMP) inundating America could cause 90% of Americans to die. The EMP is inevitable. The dead Americans are not.

Pry explained that an EMP can happen in a few different ways: if an adversary attacks America using nuclear weapons, or naturally via a large solar storm. The reason why a large EMP hitting Earth is inevitable is that solar storms are inevitable. They happen regularly. The only question is when a large one will cross Earth's path. For instance, NASA reported that if a solar superstorm from 2012 had happened just one week earlier, it would have blasted the Earth with a catastrophic EMP. We are playing this slot machine every day. Eventually, we're going to hit the jackpot.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: emp; friedelectronics; prepper; preppers
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-179 next last
To: polymuser

And water purification means.


121 posted on 05/03/2018 1:37:32 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN
sneaking a nuclear device into Yellowstone and detonating it where the effect awakens that super volcano

Probably needs to be detonated far underground to have any consequences.

122 posted on 05/03/2018 1:38:49 PM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: sneakers
We’re going to have our 200+ house rewired this summer (it has all knob and tube wiring running through it). Is there something the electricians should do to prevent such a situation? I’m a “better safe than sorry” gal!

Knob and Tube? Years ago while house hunting we ran into a few. My wife an I had a "signal" for "just no." Know and Tube were one reason.

I'm still looking for the supplier contact. Ugh. In the piles of files I have. The device is more of a DC shunt that switches the entire house to a separate ground. This isolates the wiring from the grid and is suppose to be resistant to E1 and E2 too. I'll keep looking. No promises.
123 posted on 05/03/2018 1:40:46 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 103 | View Replies]

To: Freedom56v2; Mariner

Mariner said, in Post #31, “Only stupid people believe man-made EMP, more than several miles from the source, will cause any damage whatsoever.”


Mariner, check out this article, specifically about Starfish Prime and Soviet Test 184: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse

Starfish Prime caused effects 900 miles away in Hawaii - well beyond “several miles” from the source. I’m guessing that you think that everyone in Hawaii that experienced those effects was stupid.

This article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Project_K_nuclear_tests has more details than the prior one about the EMP effects of Soviet Test 184. I’m guessing that you also think that everyone in the Soviet Union that experienced those effects was stupid.

You know, what is *actually* stupid is spouting off as if you’re an authority on a subject when, in reality, you know somewhere between zip and zilch about it. I don’t pretend to be an expert on EMP, but I do know how to access publicly available information about it, so as to learn. Maybe I’m being a bit bold here, but I’m going to suggest that you do something similar to what I’ve done. When you get more information, then you’ll be in a better position to give everyone an informed opinion, rather than just casually dismissing something that you don’t actually understand.


124 posted on 05/03/2018 1:45:57 PM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: Paulie

“or the powers-that-be don’t care if it happens”

Or they have a special place for themselves and their families to go already.


125 posted on 05/03/2018 1:47:06 PM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Justa

Noted. So long as you don’t just dismiss, out of hand, the impact that a nuclear EMP can produce (”can,” as in demonstrated in nuclear tests in the 1960s).


126 posted on 05/03/2018 1:48:07 PM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: Tilted Irish Kilt
IIRC that is Kenny Rogers, and Jesus knew which would betray Him, as evidenced in John 6.

There is a reason or reasons why America does not show up in Bible End times prophecy ... there ain't no power to US when the final 7 year end arrives. How that becomes USA reality has people guessing ...

127 posted on 05/03/2018 1:54:08 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 118 | View Replies]

To: palmer

No, resonance is the key ... a quick look at how the eruption sites have migrated over the past multi-millions of years reveals a resonance site.


128 posted on 05/03/2018 1:56:39 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 122 | View Replies]

To: palmer

My post #33 was only too long for those with a short attention span.

As for conflating high and low frequencies, I’m no engineer, let alone an expert in the area of EMP. However, I carefully laid out my sources and let them speak for me.

The Carrington Event speaks for itself. So does Starfish Prime and Soviet Test #184. Is our electrical grid different than in 1859 or 1962? Yes, certainly. In some ways it is more vulnerable, in some ways less so. We are also FAR more dependent upon electrical and electronic devices than at any time in history, so any pulse (from whatever source) that would effect transformers, long lines OR electronic devices would have effects - perhaps devastating effects. What I cannot stand here (and in society in general) is the Normalcy Bias (which I incorrectly listed as “Confirmation bias” in my Post #33) that says that such effects are impossible - people need to get informed before shooting off their mouths (or keyboards).


129 posted on 05/03/2018 1:59:03 PM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN

” How that becomes USA reality has people guessing ... “

Yellowstone, San Andres, Cascadia and the New Madrid all going off at once?

Oh, add in the entirety of La Palma sliding in the Atlantic for an East Coast effect.

Hey, it’s God!


130 posted on 05/03/2018 2:01:31 PM PDT by Rebelbase (YETI deathwatch, tick, tick, tick......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 127 | View Replies]

To: palmer

1. I already addressed Justa about this. He is correct about the Carrington Event-type of pulse (which is E3).

However...

2. If there is an artificial EMP, the E1 pulse will occur virtually instantaneously...and will leave our entire electrical/electronic infrastructure more vulnerable to E2 and E3 pulses.

I am presuming that we will have advanced warning of a Carrington Event-type of pulse, and be able to shut down some parts of our grid, and unplug as many devices as possible, so as to manually reduce the effects. There will likely be no such warning if we are attacked by another nation or a terrorist group that obtains a nuke on a rocket by some means. Proper planning would implement measures that would protect against BOTH natural and artificial EMPs - and my sole purpose on this thread was and is to let people know that the risks of either are not zero.


131 posted on 05/03/2018 2:04:33 PM PDT by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons is the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

To: palmer
Yeah, but what if it's a really yuge solar flare?


132 posted on 05/03/2018 2:06:10 PM PDT by Rebelbase (YETI deathwatch, tick, tick, tick......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies]

To: palmer

Personally, I prefer UPSs with solid state circuit breaker. I connect my power strips to a UPS.

CME is over-hyped though. It only loads up on exposed metal wire and cannot travel through walls to get into a house. The high tension cables and residential distribution lines (inc. transformers) have had over voltage protection for a long time. I have aerial electrical in my area so I have to take some precaution that buried electrical line users don’t.

Surprisingly the worst damage I took was when our power came back on after Irma. Apparently, some people on our grid did not disconnect their house circuit from the grid when they ran their generators. I.e. a separate breaker panel for the generator which is isolated from the house panel so they can shut off the main breaker and provide generator power to the house -not the street.

When electrical power was restored these ppls’ generator power was added on top of the line power. It was my misfortune to be up at 2am when the power was restored. I saw the street lights were on and went and turned off the generator and re-connected to line power (toggled generator panel breakers to Line Power and turned on the main breaker). Whack, there went one of the LED rows in my microwave’s display panel. I knew right away why. At 2am not many ppl on generator are awake to manually switch back to line power. If they haven’t shut off their main breaker they’re putting their generator output onto the grid. The expensive, automated generator systems are apparently few and far between in my neighborhood.


133 posted on 05/03/2018 2:08:25 PM PDT by Justa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 111 | View Replies]

To: Georgia Girl 2

Your neighborhood coyote club is holding its breath... hurry up.

We had to resort to an electric fence 3” and 10” off the ground we lost so many hens.


134 posted on 05/03/2018 2:13:13 PM PDT by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: Ancesthntr
The main point I would make is that the Soviet tests and Starfish Prime affected long lines. I agree that those would affect the modern grid. But you cannot compare that to hypothetical affects on electronic devices from high frequency EMP. First because high frequency EMP is not easy to produce and second because there are virtually no natural high frequency events (a galactic cosmic ray burst would be extremely rare).

OR electronic devices

Not "Or electronic devices", long lines only (meaning miles) and the connected transformers, and some electrical not on surge protectors or otherwise insulated.

135 posted on 05/03/2018 2:26:12 PM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: Ancesthntr
If there is an artificial EMP, the E1 pulse will occur virtually instantaneously...and will leave our entire electrical/electronic infrastructure more vulnerable to E2 and E3 pulses

Sure, but keep in mind the E1 is very difficult to generate over a wide area. E1 will never (except the 1 in a billion year thing) be generated naturally. E1 will never be accomplished by a terrorist group or Rocket Man. The Chinese or Russians could probably do some, but it is speculative how widespread the damage would be.

136 posted on 05/03/2018 2:29:08 PM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies]

To: Ancesthntr

If you had read the referenced material on Wiki, you would have found:

” Q: What about failure of power lines from other tests? A: I have no information on that,
with the exception of the military generator plant I already spoke of.
q. Q: Is the north-south and east-west orientation of lines is important? A: Definitely yes.
They are unambiguously tied to the geomagnetic field.”

The military diesel generator plant was nearly directly below the blast.

On the telephone lines:

“Q: Was the damage done to fuses only? A: Fuses were associated with air-suspended lines
only. The cable system switched itself off; resetting required manual operation. The line was
equipped with relays and were designed to switch off if they experienced a power surge of more
than 30 percent than the specification required.”

Required manual reset of fuses.

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/Loborev.txt

As for Starfish Prime, less than 1% of streetlights were affected by the surge in Hawaii. And that was a 1.4 MT air blast at 250miles up.

The people in Hawaii didn’t experience any effect, they just noticed a few lights went out.

Much ado about nothing.


137 posted on 05/03/2018 2:29:55 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 124 | View Replies]

To: Justa

I have an UPS with a mechanical breaker. It clicks pretty much all day long, but it is adequate in conjunction with surge arrestors. The very fast but quite hypothetical EMP pulse will simply fry all electronics, surge arrestor or not. I am not worried about CME personally although the economy and society will take a hit. Nor do I worry about the dirty neighborhood even without a brownout or blackout. I have lots of electronics completely off the grid and the microwave is unplugged most of the time.


138 posted on 05/03/2018 2:34:43 PM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 133 | View Replies]

To: palmer

The Carrington event was not a one off partial second occurrence. It happened over a period of 4 days. The electrical shield of the earth was also stronger at that time than now.


139 posted on 05/03/2018 3:11:17 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies]

To: PA Engineer
A long duration event can first weaken the earth's magnetic field and then induce more current. I don't know if that made a difference in the Carrington event. The earth's magnetic field has been weakening for about 2000 years, but very slowly. A "flip" or even a near flip of the field could make us much more vulnerable to a future event.

But none of those factors are going to make the orders of magnitude difference needed to affect wires the length of a house or even a neighborhood.

140 posted on 05/03/2018 3:25:06 PM PDT by palmer (...if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 139 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160161-179 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson