Monday, September 22, 2014 · 12:10 AM
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Power out? Being prepped for the EMP

(Survival Manual/ Prepper articles/Power out? Being prepped for the EMP)

A. The Big Blackout: Why I’m Going Low-Tech to Prep for an EMP
30 July 2014, of The Organic Prepper Contributed by Daisy Luther*
Pasted from: http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/the-big-blackout-why-im-going-low-tech-to-prep-for-an-emp-07302014

* Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheOrganicPrepper?ref=hl) and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

 emp blackout

This might be stating the obvious, but in the event of an EMP, things will not be the same, no matter how great your generator is.

Aaron Dykes of Truthstream Media wrote an excellent article about the extreme likelihood of a catastrophic event that could take out our power grid:

Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer is warning investors – and more broadly, lawmakers and leaders – about the potential destructive power of an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, which could be triggered by solar events or artificially, via blasts in the atmosphere.

According to Singer, research shows that no other incident, including a nuclear bomb, has the potential for such wide-scale devastation, coupled with the relative likelihood of occurring. While a nuke would primarily impact on the location of a such (such a city), an EMP could occur globally or across large-scale regions, wreaking havoc on the entire electric grid and devices…

…Government agencies, such as NASA and Homeland Security, have taken some preliminary steps towards preparing for an EMP attack – regardless of the potential for natural of man made causes – but the public at large remains cripplingly unaware of the dangers present to modern life, and its reliance on all things electronic, digital and, thus, transient. (Check out the rest of this MUST-READ article, ‘Catastrophic’: Hedge Fund Billionaire Paul Singer Warns of EMP, see below.)

We’ve all read many articles about the likelihood of grid failure. We’ve been warned again and again that it isn’t a matter of if, but when, it happens.

Because of this, a lot of people are preparing for a very different future.  Folks are getting ready for the Big Blackout.  The thing is, I am not sure everyone is thinking this through.  Many people are spending buckets of money on preparations to try to keep their lives as similar as possible to how they are today. They’re investing in diesel generators and Faraday cages to protect their electronics. They are buying propane-fueled appliances.  They’re stashing away fuel to run these gadgets.

Generators are not a practical investment for EMP preparation.
The problem with that method of preparation is, the fuel-generated lifestyle will only last for as long as you have…well…fuel. Very few of us have enough storage space or the proper facilities to store 5 years’ worth of fuel.  If the power grid goes down in a catastrophic way, it’s going to take at least 5 years to get things up and running again, and that’s assuming things ever get up and running again in the way they are now.

That means that people are spending thousands of dollars investing in items that will only sustain their lifestyles for a brief period of time.  Generators are not a long term solution unless you have renewable power. (More on that later). While a generator would be a blessing in a short-term emergency (think a week-long power outage due to a storm), for a permanent way of life they are completely impractical.

Furthermore, in the event of an EMP strike, if your generator is not protected, it may not work no matter how much fuel you have stored.

Maybe the fact that I’m not rolling in money is the reason I feel this way. Maybe people with lots of money to spare have ideas about how to keep their generators running forever. But for my personal situation, this is a preparation strategy that is completely impractical.

A low-tech lifestyle is the best way to prep for grid-down survival.
If money is an object in your preparedness endeavors, (and let’s face it, money is an object for most of us these days), then focus your dollars on preps that are sustainable without electrical power.  Instead of trying to live the exact same life you are living right now, only fueled by an individual generator, look for low-tech solutions instead.  This reminds me of people who stop eating gluten but still want to eat exactly like they have been eating their entire lives, only now with expensive gluten-free baked goods that cost 4 times the price of their wheat-filled counterparts.  When things change dramatically, accept the change and adapt to it, instead of trying to maintain the illusion that everything is the same.

Whether you can get power from an outlet in the wall or not, the necessities of day-to-day life will remain the same:

  • Water
  • Shelter and Warmth
  • Food
  • Sanitation and Hygiene
  • Light

The ultimate preparedness goal should be to provide those necessities without any help from the power grid, generators, or fossil fuel. (LEARN MORE about planning for a long-term disaster, The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Preppers-Blueprint-Step-By-Step-Disaster/dp/1496092589/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=theorgpre-20&linkCode=w01&linkId=&creativeASIN=1496092589)

When my youngest daughter and I lived in the North Woods of Canada, we lost power frequently throughout the year. Lots of folks in the area had generators that they would fire up when the power went out, and that was a viable solution, since gas stations were available and fuel was pretty much unlimited as long as you could afford to go get it.  We were on a tight budget, however, and we adapted our situation to live without power during those outages.  After the first couple of outages, we had worked out most of the bugs and we even began to look forward to our time without power – it was like a little vacation from the regular workday.  As plugged in as our society is, power is not actually a necessity – it’s a luxury, and we can live without it as long as we are adaptable, creative, willing, and prepared.

Let’s look at some specific examples of low-tech ways to take care of our necessities.  These ideas are just food for thought, based on my own preparedness plan – they may not be the solutions that will work best for you, but the goal here is to brainstorm your own situation and figure out how to live your life low-tech if the need occurs.

Off-grid Water

If you haven’t located water sources near your home,  it’s time to break out the topographical maps of your area and find them!  A low-tech water plan might include some or all of the following:

Off-grid Shelter and Warmth

Homes these days aren’t built to function without a connection to the power grid.  If you aren’t fortunate enough to live in an older home that was designed for off-grid living, look at some ways to take your home back a century or so. A secondary heating system is vital in most climates.

  • An antique oil heater can use lots of different oils and requires little effort for installation.
  • Have a woodstove installed
  • Clean your chimney and get your fireplace working
  • Set up an outdoor fireplace with large rocks to bring inside for radiant heat (this won’t get you super warm but it’s better than nothing)
  • Have a good supply of blankets, warm clothes, and cold-rated sleeping bags
  • Learn techniques to stay warm with less heat; see article at: http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/how-to-stay-warm-with-less-heat-2-12042012

Off-grid Food

Not only do you need access to food, but you also need a way to cook it and a way to keep your refrigerated and frozen items from spoiling.

Off-grid Sanitation and Hygiene

How will you keep clean and deal with human waste in the event of a long-term emergency?

  • If you are on a septic system, store water for flushing and have a collection system to save your used water in the future
  • If you are not on a septic system, devise a plan and get supplies for an outhouse or cat hole
  • Learn how to do your laundry off-grid (I use a janitor’s bucket for wringing out clothes – get the best quality you can afford – the cheap plastic ones will break when you use them for laundry)
  • Learn how to make your own cleaning products

Off-grid Lighting

The world is a scary place when it’s dark, and most of us have forgotten how dark true dark really is, due to light pollution and the proximity of neighbors. Here are some lighting solutions for an off grid world:

Renewable power is practical power.

25May14 4 panels flat

home battery bank everything on table

[Above photographs: Top 4 ea 130watt solar panels that supply electricity to a 12 volt battery bank composed  of 4 Vmaxtanks AGM 125ah batteries. The system runs a 4.4 cu ft back up refrigerator and charges all of the household’s rechargeable batteries. Lower picture shows the type of common household items that can be charged from a 12 volt system, see Steven Harris website at: http://battery1234.com/    Mr Larry]

One exception to my no-generators rule is renewable power. If you can afford a solar set up for your home, then very little would change about your day-to-day life, aside from you being one of the few people with power.  You don’t have to go totally solar to have power for a few important items. Assuming you have electronics in working order, they can be powered with solar, wind, or water.

Most of us can’t afford an entire set up but these are some options to consider:

What will you do when the electrical power goes out?

Do you have plans in place for a long-term (or permanent) power outage?  Are you planning to use generators and maintain your current lifestyle, or are you planning to go low-tech?

.

B.  ‘Catastrophic’: Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer warns of EMP
30 July 2014, Truthstream Media, By Aaron Dykes
Pasted from: http://truthstreammedia.com/hedge-fund-billionaire-paul-singer-warns-of-emp/

 emp strike

Imminent: ‘Only a matter of time’ until entire electric grid destroyed by natural or man-made event…
Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer is warning investors – and more broadly, lawmakers and leaders – about the potential destructive power of an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, which could be triggered by solar events or artificially, via blasts in the atmosphere.

According to Singer, research shows that no other incident, including a nuclear bomb, has the potential for such wide-scale devastation, coupled with the relative likelihood of occurring. While a nuke would primarily impact on the location of a such (such a city), an EMP could occur globally or across large-scale regions, wreaking havoc on the entire electric grid and devices.

CNBC reported:
“(A natural EMP event) today would cause a massive disruption to the electric grid, possibly shutting it down entirely for months or longer, with unimaginable consequences,” Singer wrote. “Only two years ago, the sun let loose with a Carrington-magnitude burst, but the position of the earth at the time prevented the burst from hitting it. The chances of additional events of such magnitude may be far greater than most people think.”

“It would not cause any blast or radiation damage, but such an attack would have consequences even more catastrophic than a severe solar storm. It could not only bring down the grid, but also lay down a very intense, very fast pulse across the continent, damaging or destroying electronic switches, devices, computers and transformers across America,” the letter said.

Members of Congress and other officials based in Washington have previously conferred on the threats rendered by an EMP, with Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) – a senior figure in the House Homeland Security Committee – warning that “The Likelihood of a severe geo-magnetic event capable of crippling our electric grid is 100%.“

The Center for Security Policy, along with other officials, have similarly warned:

And experts forecast if such an attack were a success, it effectively could throw the U.S. back into an age of agriculture.

“Within a year of that attack, nine out of 10 Americans would be dead, because we can’t support a population of the present size in urban centers and the like without electricity,” said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy.

Government agencies, such as NASA and Homeland Security, have taken some preliminary steps towards preparing for an EMP attack – regardless of the potential for natural or manmade causes – but the public at large remains cripplingly unaware of the dangers present to modern life, and its reliance on all things electronic, digital and, thus, transient.

We reported in August 2013 on then Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano’s claim that a collapse of the grid was an imminent ‘if not when’ scenario… unsettling, whatever one’s read on the looming government agendas at work.

What You Can Do: Preparing for the Worst
The prolific writer Michael Snyder, warning that an impending EMP event that could bring down the entire grid is “only a matter of time,” outlined some steps that individuals can take to prepare, protect their devices, and plan for adjustments to life off the grid, which could take months or even years to repair in some areas. See article at: http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/what-are-you-going-to-do-when-a-massive-emp-blast-fries-the-u-s-electrical-grid

In short, consider your own reliance on electronic banking, credit/debit cards, ATMs, heating, lights, Internet/TV/radio, phones, ATMs, gas/fuel, and government/commerce at large.

With this in mind, hedge your preparation for emergencies with as much physical currency, food, fuel, candles, water as you can reasonably store/save up, as one would for other emergencies.

Also, with some planning, you can create Faraday cages and bags to shield electronics (perhaps backup units and parts) from damage. You can convert such common objects as metal trash cans into safe storage areas, but it must be done in advance. See article at: https://4dtraveler.net/2012/03/08/faraday-cage/

Consider this source (and others) for further information: Getting Prepared for an Electromagnetic Pulse Attack or Severe Solar Storm, see at: http://www.futurescience.com/emp/emp-protection.html

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