Quote:
Originally Posted by xxmagex
Discussions in the workplace have started about what steps should be taken in prepping for an EMP event. The only thing I could contribute is suggesting a Faraday cage for the important electronics.
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What's the point?
You gonna save your cell-phone? Okay, there's no one to talk to, and no cell-phone network. You spend time and money building a Faraday Cage and your cell-phone lives an additional 6 hours until the battery dies and then that's it.
Dig a 6-inch hole, lower the cell-phone into it and give it a 21-gun salute.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xxmagex
What suggestions would the forum have for this situation?
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For EMP? Realistically speaking in your life-time, the possibility of an EMP environment can arise from two scenarios: an EMP attack -- currently only Russia, China, France, Britain and Israel are capable of pulling that off -- and a Solar Flare, but not just any Solar Flare, an X-Class Solar Flare at least X10 or greater and also -- and this is the important part -- it would have to be accompanied by a massive proton storm (not all X-Class Flares have proton storms and even those that do are often minor or insignificant). Since the UV particles and X-rays already ionized the upper atmosphere, there's nothing to stop the protons --- they ionize the lower atmosphere all the way through to Earth.
If you want to survive...
1] Figure out the carrying capacity for your county. I finally figured out how to get to the City-Data data pages
https://www.city-data.com/countyDir.html
For shats and gaggles, I'll just randomly pick a county.
Marion County, Indiana (Indianapolis)
County population in July 2009: 890,879
Population density: 2248 people per square mileAgriculture in Marion County
Average number of cattle and calves per 100 acres of all land in farms: 3.20
Corn for grain: 6877
harvested acres
All wheat for grain: 307
harvested acres
Soybeans for beans: 8136
harvested acres
Vegetables: 430
harvested acres
Add up the total number of acres (ignore orchards):
6877 + 307 + 8136 + 430 = 15,750 acres
In the EMP world, you will not have chemical fertilizer, or chemical herbicides or chemical pesticides. You will be farming exactly the way people did up until the early 1870s when chemical fertilizers were first introduced. That means your crop yields will be miserable. You can expect 10 to 18 bushels of corn per acre (depending on exact location in the US, soil conditions, weather conditions etc), and half as much wheat per acre (meaning 5 to 9 bushels).
If you are a cockroach or a mouse, that is fantastic, but it sucks to be human, because you need at least 25 bushels just to live. You need 28 bushels if you want to live and farm and have the strength to defend yourself. You'll need 30 bushels to be, um,
bourgeoisie.
So, as a Rule-O'-Thumb: about 2.0 to 2.5 acres per person. I use 2.5 acres per person.
15,750 acres / 2.5 acres per person = 6,300 people. That's the carrying capacity for Marion County, Indianapolis. Since there are 890,879 in Marion County, that means 884,579 people are going to die of starvation, dehydration, violence, illness, disease, injury, misadventure or their own hand. I'm real sorry about their luck.
You need to decide which group you want to be with: the 6,300 who live or the 884,579 who become worm food. If there is farmland in your community or adjacent to your community then you are in luck. All you have to do is organize protection and defend what already exists. If the farmland is on the other side of the county or something, then you'll need to get chummy with the farmers and befriend them and ingratiate yourself to them so that you will have a place to go when "it" happens. Maybe you can do a square dance or something. It would help tremendously if you can bring something to the table to show your value and worth, like a skill.
And, no, sorry, in the post-Apocalyptic World, texting is not a required skill.
2] Determine the defensive potential for the area. It is possible that you have access to a lot of farm land, but it's tactical situation is such that defending it is near impossible or would be incredibly costly. Note that in the case of Marion County, you have about 3 cows per acre of farm land, and so damn near 50,000 head of cattle. You need to protect them. They will be useful for transportation, hauling, farming and also as food and milk.
In my situation, the bulk of the farmland sits between 3 rivers. It is bounded by two minor rivers to the east and west, and a major river to the south. The only way people can get to us is from the north. Where you have rivers, you have bridges, and bridges canalize threat forces making them easy to kill. Read Sun Tzu, especially Part 12
The Attack by Fire. Fire is a cheap, easy and effective way to kill a lot of people (and troops).
If you determine your area is indefensible, then you will need to find somewhere else to go. Remember, you will be in a world that is totally hostile to you. This is not an hurricane or a tornado or an earthquake; it is the end of the world, and there is no help coming from anyone. Away from your community, you will be an outsider; an intruder; an interloper; a meddler; or as they say in Germany and the Netherlands --
ausländer -- a foreigner. They will not tolerate you, unless you have some incredible gift that no one can do without. You need some tie to that community. Maybe you have a relative living there or a friend who can vouch for you and your worthiness. If not, then try to create a tie to that community so that people know you, know your character, know what you're about and they will accept you
without hesitation.
3] Plan your travel to your safe haven. For a nuclear EMP attack, it will occur during the week day, most likely late in the afternoon, around 3:00 PM (but possibly around 8:00-9:00 AM) to maximize chaos and damage. For Solar EMP, the proton storm will hit that part of the Earth facing the Sun, which means day-time. Most likely, you will be separated from your family members, meaning both spouses are at work or one at work and the other running errands and the children in school.
That is not really a problem in a rural or semi-rural area, but in urban areas it is. Violence will erupt within the hour, and travel on foot will be difficult and dangerous. You need a Rally Point; a safe place where they can get to easily where they will be met by you or others in your group, and then escorted safely to the safe haven. We use a State park that's about 4,500 acres. It's easy to get to and offers safety and concealment. Patrols will regularly run between the park and the safe haven to escort people safely.
4] Form a group. Collective security is the only way to survive. Check out all the Big Brains that are spending $Thousands on bunkers and MREs and survival garbage. They think they're going to live in their little bunker and pop the hatch a year later when the food runs out --- only to die.
Why? By that time, the real survivors will have already formed solid communities, and they will not accept outsiders for any number of reasons. They will be resentful, since you didn't get your ass in the grass with the rest of them; they will be suspicious and hostile, believing you to be spies for a group who is hostile to them; they will believe that you were expelled from a group because you are diseased, or disease carriers, or because you made trouble or worse -- you didn't pull your weight. And their situation might be very tenuous, meaning they cannot possibly afford to feed three or four or five more mouths.
So the bunker pukes spent $Thousands to die. You need at least 8 acres to ensure you can feed 4 people, and it will take 3 adults to farm 7-8 acres. Look at the historical record: 3 adults spent 10 hours per day 220-230 days per year farming 7 acres just to get enough food to feed 4-6 people. So a family of 4 with 2 children will do what? Die. There won't be anything to hunt, not that anyone would have time to hunt anyway. 10 hours a day in the fields, and what about cooking, gathering fire wood etc etc etc? They just don't have enough labor.
Every year, there are 50 Million to 300 Million weed seeds per acre of land, and this is what happens when you don't have chemical herbicides:
That's why you spend 10 hours a day 7 seven days a week in the fields.
So if you want to prep, get yourself a 9mm, a decent shot-gun and a decent rifle (and a scope), some mountain or BMX bikes, formulate a plan to get your family to safety, or to get them together, get with a group of like-minded people for collective security, find a place to call "home" and figure out how to defend it. A survival note-book would come in handy too. 3 x 5 index cards, or 5 x 8 index cards or regular paper -- doesn't matter -- just keep info on everything you think you need to know. Some examples are principles of hydraulics (making water and fluids work for you), wind/wind-mills, turbines, motors, dynamos, vacuum tube technology, farming tips, veterinarian tips (so you can keep your animals healthy), home-made weapons like mortars and recoiless rifles, grenades, etc, etc and things like that.
There will be no help.
Nuclear EMP most likely will take out most of southern Canada and northern Mexico. Solar EMP most of the Northern Hemisphere. You are on your own. The rest of the world can do nothing. Look at the Berlin Airlift. 2 Million people living in Berlin and what did it take to feed them? You would need 154 Berlin Airlifts to save the US and that is just impossible. There aren't enough aircraft on Earth. It doesn't matter. So a plane-load of food lands in the US. Now what? Nothing. That plane is stuck here, because it has no fuel to get back. Which brings up another point. The Berlin Airlift was Frankfurt to Berlin, a flight of 90 minutes, not 7 hours from London to New York (9 hours from Frankfurt to New York).
Cargo ships? Not gonna happen. For Solar EMP, the Southern Hemisphere will be lucky if it has enough food to feed its own people (they don't -- so about 10%-20% will die) and in the event of an EMP attack on the US, the rest of the world will have enough food to barely feed the rest of the world, and that's about it. So, as you can see, any attempt at resurrecting the Berlin Airlift would be equally futile.
Another issue you want to plan for is government. There will be no Continuity of Government during an EMP event, at least none worthy of mention. That means local government will have all of the power and control. The real question is, do you want local government making decisions that affect your life?
Our mayor is an incompetent buffoon. He is not even remotely capable of making decisions that are necessary and proper, or even just. I would not recognize his authority in a time of an apocalyptic crisis. If you have issues with local government, I would suggest staging a
coup d'etat within the first 7 days, so that you can get organized and start effectively dealing with problems. Call it a "
sudden recall election by popular referendum" if you want.
For an EMP event, Triage is an absolute necessity, and must be done immediately, as within 72 hours. In many areas of the US, Triage will mean the difference between 90% of the people dying, and 50% of the people dying. Unfortunately, local government lacks the courage to Triage. Triage is simple: tell fat-bodies to try not to die near sources of water, so as not to contaminate it. If you read the medical literature, someone used to chowing down on 3,000 to 5,000 calories per day and is suddenly cut to 900-1,200 calories per day, well, the potential for health problems is overwhelming, and you don't have the resources or time to deal with the heart attacks, organ failure and other complications. Same with people on certain types of medication. Thank them for their service to their communities, and tell them to die well. As soon as their meds run out, their health problems will flare up and you don't have the time or resources to deal with that.
Don't be so foolish as to cast away the elderly simply because they are old skins. They were born and raised in the world you are now living in; the non-technological world. Some 80 year old was repairing TV's and radios with vacuum tubes in the old days. You
need him; so keep him alive as long as you possibly can. By the way, that little scrap book you should be making -- you can make vacuum tubes. That would be something useful to know.
Planning for EMP is more important than prepping, because failing to plan is planning to fail. If you do as I suggest, your odds of survival are better than 90% and will increase dramatically over time.
The first 30 days are critical. Defense is the key and that can only be done through collective security. If you want an idea of what things will be like, get the film
Black Hawk Down and watch the part where the two Delta boys defend the helicopter and crew. That is exactly how it will be, except they won't be after the pilot, they'll be after the food that you are sitting on.
Those of you who live in or near urban areas, you're going to have to deal with hordes of people who are literally crazed. The Psychology of Armageddon is very different than the Psychology of Disaster. People will be driven insane; go berserk and do things they wouldn't normally do. Gangs will be a big threat early on. They are already organized, and they will expand in size quickly. Impromptu gangs will also form (because collective security works).
The winners will be those who have the best collective security and leadership. By the time you get to the 6 month mark, the population will be down to about 92 Million and most of the threats will have been eliminated. You can shift your focus from defense to survival. Once you make it through the next harvest, you can focus on re-building whatever is left.
My guess is after the 1-year mark, the rest of the world will have divvied up the US into "Zones of Protection," "Zones of Administration," "Zones of Security" or something to that effect and start moving in troops and administrator types, so you'll have to eventually plan to deal with that somehow.
Surviving...
Mircea
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) It is an option, though, and I've slowly been trying to get the "necessary" items we depend on for our everyday lifestyle in non-electric form. If that goal could be achieved, an EMP wouldn't really do much on a personal level. Nor would a power outage. Admittedly, it's pretty hard to do these days since, if you think about it, we really are 100% dependent on electricity in so many ways.
