All About EMPs Part 2 – The Result of an EMP Blast

Welcome to part 2 of our 3 part series on electromagnetic pulses, or EMPs. In Part 1 you were introduced to the EMP and the major sources of them. In this part we’re going to look at what happens when an EMP goes off. The results are different depending on the type and the strength of the pulse, but there are a few basic results that almost always happen. With the results of an EMP understood, you can then start to prepare for them.

The Movies

If you watch movies and television shows that have electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) in them, you’re probably used to seeing power lines exploding and cars completely shutting off; basically everything going dark. While this can be true, the reality is that utilities like power transmission will do less exploding and more frying and shutting down. Protective measures will go into action and shut down power to the grid while major portions of the system will be without power.

Movies and television may add some theatrics, but a solid EMP can wreak havoc with any electronic device that isn’t shielded.

EMP, GIC, HEMP…HELP!

If the EMP or geomagnatically induced current (GIC) is strong enough it can cook transformers across the grid, which are tuned for receiving electromagnetic power in their daily operation. Since the 1989 geomagnetic storm that caused the Hydro-Québec power grid to go down for 9 hours, many advances have been put into place for geomagnetic storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The real work for these systems would be a high altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) going off, causing damage to the actual systems as well as the grid itself.

Along with the power grid, other large grid systems would be dramatically affected, including pipelines. In the long run this can cause corrosion issues and in the short it can damage relay stations, sensors, and overall pipeline grid health.

Looking past damage to infrastructure, a HEMP would damage or destroy most personal electronic devices including computers, phones, radios, and just about any other solid-state device that isn’t shielded.

EMP Myths

One big myth about EMPs is that all newer cars that have computers will immediately shut down and be rendered useless. This is actually surprisingly untrue, depending on the strength of the pulse. Just about every vehicle is shielded to some extent from electromagnetic interference. This is why your car’s computer can be in such close proximity to an engine shooting off sparks and carrying high levels of current through it. A study was done by the EMP Commission that tested 37 cars ranging from production years of 1986 through 2002 and they found that only four of these vehicles experienced issues that required the operator to intervene. While other issues ranged from fried dashboards and radios to the car stalling and needing a restart, they were all generally not affected for the long-term.

This doesn’t mean that an EMP will leave cars untouched, but it does mean that you shouldn’t assume that your daily driver will be out of commission for good. You’re far more likely to run out of gas as the pipelines stop delivering fuel and the electric pumps stop pumping.

Let me be clear, an EMP could pose a significant threat to life as we know it, as we depend on electronics for just about everything, which is why preparing for one is a very good idea. Doing so is actually pretty simple, and can be done for not a lot of money.

EMPs don’t just shut down electronics, they fry them by overloading the system. fuses melt, breakers die (after passing current past them, though) and anything solid state becomes mostly unusable forever.

Part 2 Wrap-Up

Now that you see what the basic results of an EMP are on the large and small scale, we can move on to the most important part of the series: part 3 where we learn how to protect ourselves form an EMP or GIC.

source: www.survivalbased.com

www.patriotnetdaily.com