5 thoughts on “EMP risk

  1. Great post Stephen. I think it’s really scary that the U.S. has not made a big deal about a threat of an EMP attack, especially since a lot of people depend on electricity. The country would be at a standstill. I’m not sure if there is a movie about this kind of apocalyptic scenario, but it would be interesting to watch how people would cope with it and try to survive. I don’t think we would last long.

  2. That is an extremely scary thought. I could only imagine the chaos this would cause among Americans. I remember a couple of years ago when there was that huge black out in New York that lasted almost a day, where it seemed as if all time had stopped. I remember seeing hardly any cars driving around town and most stores closing, it was like civilization was put on hold. I would imagine in an EMP attack, the back up generators wouldn’t even work, which makes it all the more terrifying.

  3. Imagining the entire US being affected by an EMP attack is frightening. The 2003 blackout only affected the majority of the Northeast; imagine all types of modern technology ceased to be useful.

    I remember during the 2003 blackout, my family was sort of prepared; we had a bunch of supplies that we had kept in case of Y2K. We were able to find out that the blackout wasn’t due to terrorism through a wind-up radio. We had flashlights and the plumbing in the house somehow still worked. To think that after an EMP attack, you wouldn’t even know what just happened; even a wind-up radio wouldn’t work. Your flashlights would be useless, your water grid is frozen and you can’t even get any water to drink, and your car wouldn’t be able to start. It would be mass hysteria throughout the country. It’s a scary thought.

  4. Thanks for the post Stephen. Although an EMP attack is something that seems can only be coordinated by a sophisticated military force, another type of attack called a “cyber attack” has the ability to cause similar damages to our infrastructure. The US has been the victim of several cyber attacks recently and the possible repercussions from a cyber attack are very dangerous. Below is an article about this type of threat:

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106431460

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