We’ve done this multiple times in various forms over the last few years…a little “what if” exercise.
You’re visiting an out-of-town friend, so you’re far away from home and/or your bug out location. You flew here without even a carry-on bag, so you just have whatever you would normally have in your pockets. (that would have made it through airport security!)
It’s a quarter until 11 PM but your flight isn’t until half past midnight so after your farewells, you had your UBER stop at a grocery store (that’s still opened) on the outskirts of town a couple miles from the airport so you could get some real food instead of eating from the airport vending machines. Your driver says he’ll “just chill” while you dash into the grocery.
The store only has about a dozen customers, maybe a half dozen employees, and a security guard at the entrance. Suddenly the store goes PITCH black. Lighters blink on and a few seconds later, most of their emergency lights actually come on. The mall cop yells into the store that the city is completely black. He tells the apprehensive customers that have gathered around that he "has a buddy in the NSA that told him a week ago that this might happen sometime in the next few weeks.” “We’ve been hit by an *EMP!” He explains that there might not be electricity for quite a while and that we needed to get our families somewhere safe as soon as possible because the EMP might be followed with a nuke…probably not here, but close enough that there could be considerable fallout which he said we would absolutely not want to have drop on us.
The store manager was amazingly calm…he said: “Look folks, I need to roll the armor down on my windows and doors pronto, but I’ll tell you what, you’re here now, so grab one or a couple of these baskets, or even a cart, and you’ve got 10 minutes to fill up with anything (except cash) that you can carry out of here…free of charge! Remember me in case you ever see me again, be kind to one another, good luck, and God bless!
Employees, you can do the same as soon as you help me get these security shutters down!”
*A severe electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event could take the power grid down for months, and possibly even for years. An EMP is a very intense pulse of electromagnetic energy, typically caused by the detonation of a nuclear bomb or other high-energy explosive device.
The threat of an EMP event and its potential impact on millions of people is highly probable and currently unmanageable. This reality is amplified, given the level of dependency of the world population on the uninterrupted flow of electrical power.
Some experts have suggested that a major EMP could result in the death of up to 90% of the U.S. population. A major EMP event would be devastating for the United States and the planet. Without electricity, much of life as we know it would cease in short order.
For example, oil refineries would be offline, resulting in fuel shortages and problems powering backup generators that maintain operations at hospitals, telecommunications earth stations, global positioning satellites (GPS) and cell towers. Sewer and water systems would also go offline, resulting in mass panic and severely challenging the food supply as well as police, fire and emergency services.
You’re visiting an out-of-town friend, so you’re far away from home and/or your bug out location. You flew here without even a carry-on bag, so you just have whatever you would normally have in your pockets. (that would have made it through airport security!)
It’s a quarter until 11 PM but your flight isn’t until half past midnight so after your farewells, you had your UBER stop at a grocery store (that’s still opened) on the outskirts of town a couple miles from the airport so you could get some real food instead of eating from the airport vending machines. Your driver says he’ll “just chill” while you dash into the grocery.
The store only has about a dozen customers, maybe a half dozen employees, and a security guard at the entrance. Suddenly the store goes PITCH black. Lighters blink on and a few seconds later, most of their emergency lights actually come on. The mall cop yells into the store that the city is completely black. He tells the apprehensive customers that have gathered around that he "has a buddy in the NSA that told him a week ago that this might happen sometime in the next few weeks.” “We’ve been hit by an *EMP!” He explains that there might not be electricity for quite a while and that we needed to get our families somewhere safe as soon as possible because the EMP might be followed with a nuke…probably not here, but close enough that there could be considerable fallout which he said we would absolutely not want to have drop on us.
The store manager was amazingly calm…he said: “Look folks, I need to roll the armor down on my windows and doors pronto, but I’ll tell you what, you’re here now, so grab one or a couple of these baskets, or even a cart, and you’ve got 10 minutes to fill up with anything (except cash) that you can carry out of here…free of charge! Remember me in case you ever see me again, be kind to one another, good luck, and God bless!
Employees, you can do the same as soon as you help me get these security shutters down!”
*A severe electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event could take the power grid down for months, and possibly even for years. An EMP is a very intense pulse of electromagnetic energy, typically caused by the detonation of a nuclear bomb or other high-energy explosive device.
The threat of an EMP event and its potential impact on millions of people is highly probable and currently unmanageable. This reality is amplified, given the level of dependency of the world population on the uninterrupted flow of electrical power.
Some experts have suggested that a major EMP could result in the death of up to 90% of the U.S. population. A major EMP event would be devastating for the United States and the planet. Without electricity, much of life as we know it would cease in short order.
For example, oil refineries would be offline, resulting in fuel shortages and problems powering backup generators that maintain operations at hospitals, telecommunications earth stations, global positioning satellites (GPS) and cell towers. Sewer and water systems would also go offline, resulting in mass panic and severely challenging the food supply as well as police, fire and emergency services.
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