Emergencies can happen at any time. It’s important you have a survival plan for a range of different scenarios. Without solid preparation, it’ll be much more difficult to protect yourself and your family.
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack could potentially be carried out on American soil one day. Here are some ways on how to prepare for an EMP attack.
What Is an EMP Attack?
An EMP attack uses a sudden burst of electromagnetic radiation to fry the circuits of electronic devices and completely disable cars and other vehicles. An attack is carried out by using a nuclear detonation at a very high altitude.
The aim of such an attack isn’t to cause any direct casualties, but rather, to disrupt the infrastructure of society so severely that law and order will quickly cease to exist.
With huge numbers of electronic devices completely useless, society, as we know, would quickly start to shut down. There would be no internet and a huge amount of essential infrastructure will be instantly non-functional.
So should you be worried about an EMP attack? Many experts believe there could be a threat of an EMP attack from North Korea.
Why would they use an EMP strike over a conventional nuclear attack? An EMP strike doesn’t require anywhere near as much accuracy as a nuclear strike in order to be effective. An EMP attack would also be much more difficult to defend against in comparison to a conventional nuclear attack.
Surviving an EMP Attack
The key to surviving an EMP strike is to have the right attitude. It’ll serve you well to remain as calm as possible. It’s much easier to remain calm when you have a plan.
Having a plan isn’t just important if you want to survive an EMP strike; it’s crucial to have a plan for just about any disaster scenario. If you don’t have a survival plan for you and your family, you should make one as soon as possible.
Your plan should always work under the assumption that no one is going to save you. Don’t assume that agencies such as the National Guard or the Coast Guard are going to come to your rescue. During an EMP attack, their ability to help anyone will be seriously impacted.
You Need Water and Food
If you plan on surviving, water is absolutely essential. Without water, any human being will die within a few days.
You’ll need to have access to about a gallon of water per day, per person. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot provide this, you’ll need to do something to change your situation quickly.
When you properly plan, the risk of being without water is significantly reduced. During an EMP attack, you won’t be able to rely on local infrastructure.
Consider investing in water purification tablets and adding them to your survival kit. These tablets can easily make water safer to drink.
Not only do humans need water, but they also need food, and what’s in your fridge will be gone within the week. This is why you should always have a survival stash containing non-perishable or freeze-dried foods.
You Need Information
Besides food and water, information is the key to EMP attack survival. Unfortunately, the nature of an EMP strike means many of our communications systems will be knocked out. Your cell phones will almost certainly fail to function, and your TVs and laptops will also be broken.
You could consider building what’s known as a Faraday cage. This is something that can protect electronic devices from the EMP. If your mobile phone was inside one of these when the EMP went off, it would be saved.
Even if your phone survives, the cell phone network will almost certainly be totally nonfunctional. It’s still worth having a protected phone or two, but you shouldn’t rely on it to help you in the short-term. It’ll be a long time before the cell phone networks come back online.
You could consider putting a radio inside a Faraday cage. If any information is distributed by the authorities, it’s likely to be done by radio.
A Faraday cage isn’t expensive at all. Check out Tech Protect for a good example of an affordable version. You might want to consider a solar-powered radio so you don’t need to worry about a power source.
Consider Transportation
During an EMP strike, it’s very likely all of the cars in the area will be completely disabled. Your survival plan needs to accommodate for this. Think about getting a bicycle; you don’t want to forced into walking for miles.
With that being said, you should also consider having some good walking boots in the event that you do need to travel by foot.
You Need to Defend Yourself
Depending on where you live, there could be a very real possibility you’ll need to defend yourself or your family during an EMP attack scenario. Consider owning a gun and learning how to use it. You should learn all the rules of gun safety and stockpile a reasonable amount of ammunition.
If you do choose to own a gun, you should use it very carefully during any kind of disaster situation. Having a gun is actually going to make you less safe if you don’t know how to handle yourself. Only point a gun at someone if you feel your life is in danger.
How to Prepare for an EMP: Have a Solid Plan
As you can see, having a plan is essential if you want to secure the safety of yourself and your family.
There are many things to consider when thinking about how to prepare for an EMP. Having a gun and ammunition might be useful, but you would be a lot better off with a plan and no gun, rather than with a gun and no plan.
During an EMP attack, panic will almost certainly start to set in. When you have thorough preparation and all of your family is on the same page, it’ll make it so much easier to pull yourselves together and do what you need to do.
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