# Feds And Utilities Face Off Over The Electromagnetic Pulse Threat Coming In 2014 Rea



## Kellog (Mar 3, 2012)

Excerpt from http://www.businessinsider.com 
Apr. 23, 2012, 5:02 AM

WASHINGTON - As scientists warn of an impending solar storm between now and 2014 that could collapse the national power grid, thrusting millions into darkness instantly, a debate has flared up between utilities and the federal government on the severity of such an event.

NASA and the National Academy of Sciences previously confirmed to G2Bulletin that an electromagnetic pulse event from an intense solar storm could occur any time between now and 2014.

They say it could have the effect of frying electronics and knocking out transformers in the national electric grid system.

Complete story here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-...panies-over-the-solar-storm-emp-threat-2012-4


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## Guardian (Jan 17, 2012)

But December 2012 marks the end of the world so is this trip really necessary?


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## ms_a2gwus (Feb 27, 2012)

Vengeful said:


> But December 2012 marks the end of the world...


Or... it's just the beginning of a new calendar cycle.  They really shoulda drawn their calendar out on a hide or some form of flexible material (thin sheet of gold?) :hmmm: instead of stone, that stuff is way to cumbersome to be packing around for doing the updates for the next cycle! :soapbox2:


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

ms_a2gwus said:


> Or... it's just the beginning of a new calendar cycle.  They really shoulda drawn their calendar out on a hide or some form of flexible material (thin sheet of gold?) :hmmm: instead of stone, that stuff is way to cumbersome to be packing around for doing the updates for the next cycle! :soapbox2:


What if they wanted it written in stone?


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

It's got so a person dosen't what to worry about first.
N. Korea with nukes
Iran with Nukes
domestic or foriegn terroists
will Zimmerman be convivted or set free
the Patroity Act and the New Defence Bill
the coming EMP.
the ice and snow next winter
the coming economic collapse
the coming inflation
the coming civil unrest
the coming drought in the NE
four more yrs of Obama
four yrs of Romney


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## Autumnvicky (Mar 30, 2012)

I wonder how long we would be in the dark? It wouldn't be a forever thing. I'm just prepping as much as I can and waiting for something or nothing to happen. If I stopped to worry about it all now it wouldn't help other than to stress me out. I plan to survive this year or die trying.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

Autumnvicky said:


> I wonder how long we would be in the dark? It wouldn't be a forever thing. I'm just prepping as much as I can and waiting for something or nothing to happen. If I stopped to worry about it all now it wouldn't help other than to stress me out. I plan to survive this year or die trying.


In thirty yrs, all the younger people will be setting around the xmas tree laughing at all the scare mongering and paranoia the people went thru the first fifteen yrs of this decade.. "Century""sorry


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## Turtle (Dec 10, 2009)

The various federal agencies have been tossing this issue around for various reasons for more than a decade, at least. A dozen years ago they commissioned a report to study the effects and results of an EMP attack, and last summer a senator from Maryland (Ben Cardin, I believe?) made a push to investigate this exact issue of how an EMP would devastate the infrastructure of the country. Unfortunately, like most far-reaching concepts brought to the attention of the federal government, it probably won't be taken seriously until it is impending and we are in crisis mode.


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

lotsoflead said:


> In thirty yrs, all the younger people will be setting around the xmas tree laughing at all the scare mongering and paranoia the people went thru the first fifteen yrs of this decade


And that is certainly one possible scenario. However, should we experience a CME on the same magnitude as the 1859 Carrington event, which set telegraph stations on fire, it would certainly wreak havoc on today's electronics which are not nearly as stout as the telegraph lines of the 19th century. 
There are countless studies and plenty of conflicting opinions on the impact of a CME. Who do you believe? :dunno: 
I've only had to live without the grid for a 3 day stretch. It was inconvenient but not life threatening. I prefer to ere on the side of caution by having a back up plan. There are millions that don't and are thrust into a life threatening situation every time there is a major ice storm that takes the grid down for weeks at a time. What would happen if the grid was down that long all across the country? I shudder to think of the possibilities.
So lets hope we never have to deal with it and the grandkids have a good laugh on us. I'm OK with that.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

UncleJoe said:


> And that is certainly one possible scenario. However, should we experience a CME on the same magnitude as the 1859 Carrington event, which set telegraph stations on fire, it would certainly wreak havoc on today's electronics which are not nearly as stout as the telegraph lines of the 19th century.
> There are countless studies and plenty of conflicting opinions on the impact of a CME. Who do you believe? :dunno:
> I've only had to live without the grid for a 3 day stretch. It was inconvenient but not life threatening. I prefer to ere on the side of caution by having a back up plan. There are millions that don't and are thrust into a life threatening situation every time there is a major ice storm that takes the grid down for weeks at a time. What would happen if the grid was down that long all across the country? I shudder to think of the possibilities.
> So lets hope we never have to deal with it and the grandkids have a good laugh on us. I'm OK with that.


 60 Minutes done a story a yr or two about having an EMP, It seems like they said we would be without poiwer for five yrs as we do not make the parts and would have to order them from France or some place. the parts are not in stock and would have to be made. I bought my first generator back in 1968 as it seems like we're without power everytime the wind blows.


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## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

lotsoflead said:


> In thirty yrs, all the younger people will be setting around the xmas tree laughing at all the scare mongering and paranoia the people went thru the first fifteen yrs of this decade


And that's when their Christmas tree lights go out...


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## JoKing (Mar 11, 2012)

ms_a2gwus said:


> Or... it's just the beginning of a new calendar cycle.  They really shoulda drawn their calendar out on a hide or some form of flexible material (thin sheet of gold?) :hmmm: instead of stone, that stuff is way to cumbersome to be packing around for doing the updates for the next cycle! :soapbox2:


Things that make you go "Hmmm"


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## md1911 (Feb 9, 2012)

I live in sothern missouri. I think it was 2005 we had a bad ice storm. At the time I lived way out in the country. We were with out power for 28 days.. we survived just fine. Didn't have any generator or solar for power but we got by


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

You know, I feel so much more calm about not having power than I did a couple of months ago. We have a wood burning stove now and I have LOTS of oil lamps and oil. I even have new games, cards, fiction books and puzzle books stowed away for the kids so they don't kill each other, lol. I guess I figure what we don't have yet is either going to be gotten soon, or we will have to try to figure out how to do it later.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

The outcome of such a storm is beyond the imagination of most people. If all electrical power was lost worldwide there'd be more suffereing than anyone could imagine. The first big problem would be loss of emergency services as communications systems would be destroyed. Think riots and crime like you've never seen before on a world-wide basis. Also remember that grocery stores carry about a three day stock of food which would be exhausted with-in hours by panic buying. Then there'll be the loss off public water supplies since they all depend upon electric pumps. Hospitals would run out of fuel for their generators (assuming the generators would still function). No sewage or trash disposal so it would pile up in the streets. And that's just the first week. After that the real bad times begin. Our civilized lifestyle depends completely on cheap and abundant electricity. 

Cheers

Steve


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

Of course, I'm sure the government has a fix that will include massive tax increases.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

mosquitomountainman said:


> The outcome of such a storm is beyond the imagination of most people. If all electrical power was lost worldwide there'd be more suffereing than anyone could imagine. The first big problem would be loss of emergency services as communications systems would be destroyed. Think riots and crime like you've never seen before on a world-wide basis. Also remember that grocery stores carry about a three day stock of food which would be exhausted with-in hours by panic buying. Then there'll be the loss off public water supplies since they all depend upon electric pumps. Hospitals would run out of fuel for their generators (assuming the generators would still function). No sewage or trash disposal so it would pile up in the streets. And that's just the first week. After that the real bad times begin. Our civilized lifestyle depends completely on cheap and abundant electricity.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Steve


 food would be almost non existent after an EMP because all the food stored in climate controlled ware houses would rot even if the trucks could run to deliver it. Just the people who have home canned and prepped dry goods would be in the drivers seats. People not having food would solve the sewage problem very fast.


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## Von Helman (Oct 31, 2009)

I shudder to think about the young generation on their social media devices (iPhones, iPads, internet Etc..) and who for the most part ignore others because they are so wrapped up into their own little world. If such a power outage happens they won't have a clue what to do. They wont be able to wiki any solutions much less access any Ebooks for dummies. 

Then the people in hospitals dependent on life support or other such stuff will die, and it will become a chain reaction. The best you can do is prep for off grid living now. Even if you don't have the means at least try living without lights or electronic gadgets to help yourself become mentally prepared. 

On the bight side even without electricity, half the day you will have sunlight.


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## Axelight (Apr 21, 2012)

mosquitomountainman said:


> The outcome of such a storm is beyond the imagination of most people. If all electrical power was lost worldwide there'd be more suffereing than anyone could imagine. The first big problem would be loss of emergency services as communications systems would be destroyed. Think riots and crime like you've never seen before on a world-wide basis. Also remember that grocery stores carry about a three day stock of food which would be exhausted with-in hours by panic buying. Then there'll be the loss off public water supplies since they all depend upon electric pumps. Hospitals would run out of fuel for their generators (assuming the generators would still function). No sewage or trash disposal so it would pile up in the streets. And that's just the first week. After that the real bad times begin. Our civilized lifestyle depends completely on cheap and abundant electricity.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Steve


You're absolutely right, Steve. Another major problem that would arise in this scenario is the nuclear plants that would be out of power for extended periods. Look at the near catastrophe that happened at Fukushima, and that was only with a partial loss of power. Now imagine this scenario occurring simultaneously with the 700 plus nuclear plants in existence worldwide, and this would be during a period of communication blackouts / food and water shortages / and general societal breakdown. Very, very scary.


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

people will be out here trying to steal my breaker point vehicles..... Seriously, the cars all the way up to the big trucks are computer controlled now. I had a man stop by my shop today, I didn't know him, but he asked me to find him a 1 ton crew cab 4x4 and he already had someone else ready to install an older Cummins diesel in it for him. He said he didn't believe in all the 2012 stuff, but him and his family was going to have a vehicle that would get them out of here if they needed to get out. That happened this morning! IF there is just a hiccup in the freight delivery, it will be disastrous. Most replying on here think it's no big deal, but most of us live in a good place. These big cities will be terrible. I live in the bottom of Arkansas and you couldn't go anywhere around here because of the Katrina people. And that was from just one small area. They were kicking doors in and robbing houses, beggin, sleeping in all the parking lots, raping, killing, it was really bad. Next time we will help them with some buck shot.


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## cabinetman (Apr 14, 2012)

Axelight said:


> You're absolutely right, Steve. Another major problem that would arise in this scenario is the nuclear plants that would be out of power for extended periods. Look at the near catastrophe that happened at Fukushima, and that was only with a partial loss of power. Now imagine this scenario occurring simultaneously with the 700 plus nuclear plants in existence worldwide, and this would be during a period of communication blackouts / food and water shortages / and general societal breakdown. Very, very scary.


Let's assume that some of the grid were to survive. That would still leave large pieces of the grid down for a very extended time. No power for even five days would gut all existing stores and drain all existing fuel stations. ATMs would not work and banks would not open. I've already experienced all of that back in October for a mere 8 days and here in Connecticut it was a sight to behold. It was a great time to assess our preparedness. There were many generators stolen and homes broken into. People really didn't know how to act even though it was only for a short time and you could drive 50 miles out of the affected areas. No ATMs meant no money, too and it was eeire to see the banks closed for the entire time. So, like death from a 1000 cuts, long-term spot outages will have a very similar effect as a massive outage, especially in any heavily populated areas like cities.

Rome


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## citygirl85 (Apr 26, 2012)

cabinetman said:


> Let's assume that some of the grid were to survive. That would still leave large pieces of the grid down for a very extended time. No power for even five days would gut all existing stores and drain all existing fuel stations. ATMs would not work and banks would not open. I've already experienced all of that back in October for a mere 8 days and here in Connecticut it was a sight to behold. It was a great time to assess our preparedness. There were many generators stolen and homes broken into. People really didn't know how to act even though it was only for a short time and you could drive 50 miles out of the affected areas. No ATMs meant no money, too and it was eeire to see the banks closed for the entire time. So, like death from a 1000 cuts, long-term spot outages will have a very similar effect as a massive outage, especially in any heavily populated areas like cities.
> 
> Rome


I'm in CT too and those 8 days in October were rough! Not only was I miserable at work everyday that week freezing my butt off at 5:30 am with a candle and flashlight, it really opened my eyes too! Many of my clients homes were broken into, as their security systems were down from not having power. It was wicked scary to hear about these affluent neighborhoods, often with police officers living next door, getting completely cleared out! Generator sales were nuts and friends I know drove to mass and RI to buy them to sell... Scary stuff!!


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