1 second after

SHOCKNAWE

SHOCKNAWE

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Great book, fictional story about a sudden EMP and a complete shutdown of electricity and the chaos that ensues. If you think your prepared read this and think again
 
I bought a book called Darkest Days - How to Survive and EMP Attack to the Grid. Lots of good information on what to expect and how to shield important components to limit the electronic damage you will suffer is such an attack were to occur. I'll look to give the OPs recommendation a read too...
 
I read this a long time ago and liked it a lot.

I just read a similar book and I know you'll like it if you liked One Second After. The book is Surviving Home by A. American and it's a part of a longer series of six or so books.
 
fred2386 said:
I read this a long time ago and liked it a lot.

I just read a similar book and I know you'll like it if you liked One Second After. The book is Surviving Home by A. American and it's a part of a longer series of six or so books.
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Thanks! I will check it out, I am about ready to start One Year After
 
"The EMP threat: fact, fiction, and response"

For a good overview of the science behind EMP and damage estimation, see "The EMP threat: fact, fiction, and response" in The Space Review.

Most fiction vastly overestimates the impact of smaller EMP devices for dramatic effect.
The Space Review said:
Serious long-lasting consequences of a one-kiloton EMP strike would likely be limited to a state-sized region of the country. Although grid outages in this region may have cascading knock-on effects in more distant parts of the country, the electronic devices in those further regions would not have suffered direct damage, and the associated power systems far from the EMP exposed region could be re-started.

So-called “super-EMP” devices could boost the EMP, even for a low-yield weapon by, for instance, reducing the shielding of the fissile core in a preferential direction—say, downwards—and thereby increase the gamma-rays escaping in that direction. Such weapons would, typically, use non-spherical, e.g. cylindrical or linear, implosion techniques to match the asymmetry of the shielding. However, while these super-EMP devices will boost gamma-rays which can cause a more powerful E1 pulse, they will not induce a powerful E3 signal. Also, due to the fact that the super-EMP weapon will be directional, it is unlikely to affect a large part of the country: it could cause havoc, but, again, only in a small region of the country. To obtain a higher E3 pulse one must have bigger fireball from a larger device.
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Fundamentally, this means that with current technology, the EMP impact will, in the long term, be secondary to radiation, for any nuclear attack from tiny to massive.
 
I read 1 Sec After a while ago, good summer read and just started the sequel, One Year Later. The foreword to the sequel is pretty interesting. The author writes about preppers in general and how EMP awareness was diminished by the attacks of 9/11.
 
if you're rich enough to afford carbon fiber body panels, you don't deserve to live

[tinfoil] Just wrap your ECU in aluminum foil each time you park and you'll be fine.
Varmint said:
Just don't read Day of Wrath, that sucked balls. There's a lot of debate about whether EMPs would really shut down things like cars, but I don't know what the consensus is.
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Consensus is that if you are close enough to the blast for a nuclear EMP to affect your car, you have bigger things to worry about.
 
SHOCKNAWE said:
Thanks! I will check it out, I am about ready to start One Year After
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I read the first chapter; it seems a lot more political...let me know how it goes.

Once second after drove a lot of my preparations, from fuel storage to food storage to an MEP genset. Solar next. Maybe.
 
One Second After is a great book. The EMP threat is way over hyped IMO. I don't believe that an EMP would do that much damage to vehicles and personal electronics but it could take down the grid. What I think that book absolutely nailed is what would happen to a community and its people as it slowly starves. I think they were very lucky that it happened in early spring and were able to plant crops. Imagine if it happened in the fall. Most crops are done, cant plant anything and most likely no bulk seed for next spring.

One Year After was a big disappointment. It was political and a lot less about the survival of the community. It starts 2 years after the EMP. I would like to see how he sees the year from the end of One Second After to the start of One Year After.
 
Many of you young'uns don't realize that prior to Sept 11, 2001, there were minor News Stories every few days from people discussing how vulnerable the West was to Terror Attacks.

Very few paid attention.

Even among those who read the articles, most just shrugged and concluded it would never happen.

At least Trump realizes today's reality - and may actually address it - given the chance.
 
coastie said:
One Year After was a big disappointment. It was political and a lot less about the survival of the community. It starts 2 years after the EMP. I would like to see how he sees the year from the end of One Second After to the start of One Year After.
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This was my perception as well, which was why I didn't get past the first chapter. The idea of AC in a provisional .gov building while some bureaucrat ran a draft - with the rest of the population not having running water spiked my blood pressure
 
I jam this thought in every time I can:

Look into wood gassifiers. You could restart the world with enough of them to get everything else back online. I have hard copy plans printed from the FEMA site. I am still looking for a better set of plans.

I'm less worried about an EMP than I am a Carrington Event from the sun. That's why I liked 'Lights Out', they never went into what caused it, just the chaos that followed.
 
weekendracer said:
I jam this thought in every time I can:

Look into wood gassifiers. You could restart the world with enough of them to get everything else back online. I have hard copy plans printed from the FEMA site. I am still looking for a better set of plans.

I'm less worried about an EMP than I am a Carrington Event from the sun. That's why I liked 'Lights Out', they never went into what caused it, just the chaos that followed.
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There are several good books on them from Lindsay books. Having built a wood gasifier, I would honestly say they aren't worth it. You need a steady supply of good dry hardwood in small pieces. We used pallets that we cut up on a chop saw. All that wood would have to cut and split by hand and then dried down for at least a year if not 2 to get it dry enough. The engine would eventually get gummed up and need to be pulled apart and cleaned. We went through a number of head gaskets.
 
coastie said:
There are several good books on them from Lindsay books. Having built a wood gasifier, I would honestly say they aren't worth it. You need a steady supply of good dry hardwood in small pieces. We used pallets that we cut up on a chop saw. All that wood would have to cut and split by hand and then dried down for at least a year if not 2 to get it dry enough. The engine would eventually get gummed up and need to be pulled apart and cleaned. We went through a number of head gaskets.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I've read the better designs run cleaner. The bottom line, in a post-EMP (terrestrial or from the sun), a gassifier could be used. I'm thinking a central power unit for a small town that could run a generator or two to pump water or run a tractor. A small one could run a splitter, but hauling the wood would be an honest cast iron pain in the butt.

The tractor would feed you, the water pump would keep you in water. Considering the other options, I'm looking at what elevates my family in the ever remote chance something like that happened. But you are multiple steps ahead of me since I'm not much of a fabricator and haven't built one. So, I'm boned for the most part. I'm at least thinking about it, so I have that going for me.
 

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