ONE SECOND AFTER BOOK REVIEWAUTHOR WILLIAM R. FORSTCHEN
There are few books I have read which are as intense as One Second After. Part of that chill running up and down your spine is that the author was originally intending to publish all his gathered facts on the effects and aftermath of EMPs (electro magnetic pulse) as a study but then though he would be labeled as one of those crazy survival types... I know the type.
He instead delivered those EMP facts in a fictional storyline which combines a still horrible but best case situation and also the more chilling results when there is a void of leadership. Another scary fact is that military and government gaming strategist have said definitively it not a question of "if" the the US will be struck by an EMP, but "when". The read makes you squirm because it feels more like you are reading prophecy than fiction.
So what is an EMP? An EMP is a Electro Magnetic Pulse which is a very high amp current surge which fries pretty much anything with a transistor, pc board or chip as if it has been struck by lightening. If it runs on AC or DC current with or without power connected at the time of the blast it will be fried unless it is significantly "EMP hardened". Because there is limited nuclear testing going on now, there are obviously limits to what EMP testing is going on. This lack of substantial testing is of great debate on what sufficient hardening means however a generally accepted test is to place a cell phone in the hardened container and call it. If it rings whatever is in the container will be fried during an EMP. Unlike lightening it is believed that only an air tight sealed metal faraday container is sufficient. Chicken wire is not going to do it. Turns out dropping you stuff in a plastic bag inside a lidded paint can does not allow the cell phone to ring so in theory that would be sufficient hardening. I also performed the same test with the phone simply placed in my Liberty Fat Boy safe however it rang. Any gaps or holes at all will leak in a signal and EMP which makes it tough to run wires in/out to harden things like US Power grids and automotive electrics. The problem is only a very small percentage of our government and military stuff has even attempted to be hardened and it is said most of our bunkers lack hardening. The budget was canned for hardening our US power grid so we can expect an EMP to have maximum effect.
We do know even a best case scenario will be devastating and the how devastating question has to do with how big the nuclear explosion is and how far it explodes off the ground.
Generally a measurable EMP is caused by gamma rays a nuclear blast however a sun solar flare could do it also or anything with a very large energy release. For a ground level explosion, unless the nuclear explosion is very large, the earth will absorb the majority of the EMP effects. So for instances if a ground level nuke went off in Chicago, it would be wasted, radiated, and EMP'ed with fallout carried over the Eastern US, but St Louis would be in relatively good condition and untouched. Elevating that same explosion to atmospheric levels about 250 miles above the earth, radiation and fallout are not a problem at all and in fact you might not even see the explosion unless it was at night. Our own atmosphere will actually amplify and spread out the EMP effects to the point that that same big ass nuke we talked earlier would now theoretically fry about 80% of the electronics in the US or whatever was in line of sight of the nuke within the horizon line. Technically it would only take one very large high altitude nuke to EMP the entire US and part of Canada and Mexico, however as the book alludes to three nukes would do a more thorough job.
The aftermath is what One Second After addresses in torrets syndrome inducing intensity. My dog for some reason freaks out every time Mrs Pandemic or I swear, so he hated the book because about every page my wife or I read we let out thought provoking exclamations of "sh*t", "fuuuuuu*k". Plus I keep telling my dog to fatten up because he is officially the other other white meat.
What if everything controlled by electronics in all the US stopped working? Everything... cars, the flight you wife was one, trains, water pumps, tractors that harvest food, all the stuff in hospitals, back up generators, medication manufacturing and distribution, your electronic red dot sight, or you digital lock on your Liberty safe. It would be midevil back to the dark ages before steam power and before even the use of maggot treatments for open infectious wounds.
Sure we have the farm land, but we don't have the mules, oxen, or horses, and chances are they would be eaten anyway in the first couple months and most of our meat are confined and feed by trucked in grains. Best case the farmers just open up the pins. Sure we have seeds, but nearly 100% of our seeds are genetic hybrids which cannot be reseeded so we are screwed long term even if we hand work the fields. We are now a national and global economy the depends completely on massive trucking and rail distribution with much of our food imported so even if one area had excess rotting in the fields we couldn't get it to those in need. Re-establishing distribution would take far too ling. Then of course you have potentially massive bands of roving war and pillaging parties. Sure perhaps you and you neighbor are skilled Marine snipers but you don't stand a chance against the 90,000 people exiting a city pillaging as they go with your homes in the path. Got penicillin? As numbed and drugged Americans that take a pill every time we fart or sneeze, our immune systems are not designed to handle some of the old standards like cholera, typhoid, or even a the new bread of standard flus without medical intervention. Through massive pesticides we have kept insect plagues at bay. That half a can of Cutter in your basement and last years left over Spectricide will not be able to keep your house and body pest free for long. An EMP is pure and simple the event that even the well preparedness may not survive.If you are serious about preparedness or survival you owe it to yourself to read One Second After. It will change forever how you think about preparedness and extended survival. It scared the hell out of me and definitely has spurred discussions and new articles in process.
SOURCES
One Second After book by William R Forstchen
http://www.onesecondafter.com/
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