EMP Attack

                Do you have any idea what an EMP is?  If so, do you know how it could affect modern society?  EMP is the common abbreviated name for electromagnetic pulse.  An EMP is “a short burst of electromagnetic energy and “may occur in the form of a radiated, electric or magnetic field or conducted electrical current…, and may be natural or man-made”

                An EMP would most likely disrupt or damage electronic equipment.  “The damaging effects of high-energy EMP have been used to create EMP weapons.  These are typically divided into nuclear and non-nuclear devices.  Such weapons, both real and fictional, are becoming known to the public by means of popular culture.”

                John Wohlstetter is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and London Center for Policy Research, two conservative think tanks.  He recently released an updated edition of his book, Sleepwalking With the Bomb.  He recently delivered a speech titled “Rethinking the Unthinkable Why Failures of Imagination, Projection, and Strategy Court Nuclear Catastrophe.” 

                The Blaze published an article by Benjamin Weingarten about an interview with Wohlstetter.  He was asked, “What would the doomsday scenario of an EMP attack against an America whose infrastructure is not currently protected look like?”

                “In a worst case scenario the detonation would be over Dorothy’s Kansas, in the center of the country.  And at 300 miles altitude, you would have a circle, 360 degrees, with a radius of 1, 470 miles… that covers the continental United States lower 48 states.

                “And in a worst case, you could see within a year 90% of the population die, as you don’t have electric power, nothing works, you can’t even get food to market.  It would be catastrophic beyond belief.

                And if you do it over the Eastern seaboard, you could center an explosion at a lower altitude, say 20-30 miles up over Pennsylvania.  And you would cove r about, if you centered it there … 375 miles ….  And what you would do with that is take down the Eastern interconnection which supplies 70% of the country’s electric power."

                Wohlsetetter argues that our infrastructure could be protected for about $10 billion.  He was asked if there are any contingency plans in place.  “If the Congressional panel that looked at it was correct, in a worst case … you could see 90 percent or 100 percent of the network taken out.  And if that happens, you can’t recover.  It’s not like out of a disaster like a hurricane where you have edge recovery – communities that bring in supplies, rebuild for you, house people who have been displaced as happened after Katrina for example.  You don’t have that edge recovery.  In the case of the network, there are some transformers in big systems that take several years when you order them to bring them in and put them online.  And … at least on what is known publicly, we do not have an adequate supply [of them].”

                Did you notice the references to the Eastern seaboard and the lower 48 states.  Maybe Alaska and Hawaii will be safe!  At any rate, no one knows if anyone has the ability to conduct this “worst case scenario”, but it sounds to me like our representatives in Congress need to make some contingency plans.  What are you going to do about it?