PrintThe United States has no defense against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon that can knock out the grid, blackout the country for a year, and kill millions of Americans. Those were the conclusions of the Congressional EMP Commission.
“The federal government has taken no action on several recommendations for responding to an EMP from a nuclear blast or a solar storm,” wrote Peter Pry in an op-ed for The Hill. Even though Pry and the commission made the recommendations in 2016, nothing has been done. An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of radiation generated by a Solar Storm or a nuclear weapon. An EMP can destroy most electronics by frying them. Experts think that a giant EMP burst would knock out the entire North American power grid and send the United States and Canada back to the dark ages.
Expert: The Government Is Doing Nothing To Protect America From EMPs
“The government is doing little to nothing to protect America from an EMP,” Pry concluded. Examples of how our government is not prepared for an EMP attack include:
• The government has not expanded backup electricity supplies for the grid. This is apparent even though the technology to build large battery backups for the grid exists and is widely used. Such backup systems are being installed in Australia by an American company Tesla, Endgadget reported.
• The number of people trained to repair or rebuild the grid in an emergency is very small. This is a huge problem in Puerto Rico, where up to 6,000 households and businesses are still without grid electricity nine months after Hurricane Maria, as Vox reported. A major reason that situation occurred was that there were simply not enough technicians available to repair the power grid.
• Black Start capability, the ability to quickly restart the grid after a blackout, is still limited or nonexistent. Up to 4,600 people might have died because of a lack of black-start capabilities in Puerto Rico, Vox reported.
• Efforts to protect critical infrastructure such as power plants from terrorism, sabotage, and EMPs are also very limited.
• The President has not appointed a person to take charge of EMP preparedness and response efforts.
• The President and Congress have not established a joint Presidential-Congressional Commission to secure the grid from EMPs.
• America has not strengthened grid infrastructures, such as power lines and transformers, to protect them from EMPs.
To make matters worse, critical data about EMPs is being withheld from the public by the Defense Department, Pry charged. Seven reports about EMPs are still classified by the Pentagon. Pry blames “Obama-era holdovers” for the failure to publish the reports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hC1lI9sk-0
How To Protect Your Family From EMP Blackouts
Even though the government is doing little about the EMP menace, there are many steps you can take to protect your family. Some of the steps every household needs to consider include:
• Provide your home with an off-grid source of electricity that does not rely on gasoline or diesel fuel. Such sources include solar-generators, wind turbines, and hydroelectric systems.
• Install a battery backup system in your home so you can keep lights, air conditioning, and electronics running when you cannot produce electricity.
• Get a satellite phone and satellite internet so you can remain connected to the world and the internet if your local grid is down. Such systems can allow you to keep running your business, doing freelance work, and banking when the grid is down.
• Have sufficient supplies of emergency food, water, medicine, ammunition, fuel, spare parts, batteries, and other supplies available in your home.
• Have some off-grid means of producing food, such as a garden, chickens, livestock, a fish pond, a greenhouse, traps, fishing tackle, and guns for hunting/defense ready so your family will not starve.
• Be sure to have some paper cash available so you can keep buying if the grid is down.
Responsible individuals hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Even a limited EMP attack might turn much of the United States and Canada into Puerto Rico. Smart people should prepare for that event.
You may also enjoy reading an additional Off The Grid News article: Power Plants And Power Grid Still Unreliable Despite New Trump Plan
Or you can read our free Blackout Report here.
Do you agree that the United States is unprepared for an EMP attack? Let us know in the comments below.
