I do not believe One Second After or Lights Out give all that close of an approximation as to what will happen in a full scale EMP attack on the US. Both, however, have been effective in getting people to think about such things, which is very good. Just not in a very realistic way.
24 ours after the public realizes what has happened there will be anarchy. 72 hours and there will be full scale rioting, robbing, looting, murder, and official attempts by various 'legal' authorities to 'take over' and control the situation, including military martial law, and attempts of civilian governments declaring martial law. Within 7 days 50% of the population will be dead from violence and dehydration. 6 months later and 90% of the population will be dead and the other 10% will be cooperating with each other to provide stable, safe environments for themselves.
Just my opinion.
Disagree with your points. Within LESS THAN 24 hours, you're going to have the looting/robbing....look at Ferguson as an example and there were cops during this time. Thugs, punks, looters, etc. aren't stupid. Once they see that NOTHING is moving, they'll start running amuck, hitting every store they can. Of course, the stupid ones will go for the big screen TV's (using a cart to get it home), while others will hit snack /junk food places, shoe stores, etc.
In this scenario, the cops have no communications/transportation, so there's nothing to stop these people unless the store owner(s) use guns to keep what they have like the Chinese did during the Rodney King riots in L.A. Within 7 days, MASSIVE raping, murder, looting of everything, everywhere will occur. Think of the movie The Purge, but with NO time limit AND NO TRANSPORTATION.
I think some people are going to start their own vigilante groups to protect their neighborhood as in we stick together or we all go down. In L.A., during the King riots, people did block access to the streets where they lived and told people if you don't live here or vouched by someone, you're NOT coming in. Something that was rarely reported by the news media along with shop owners arming themselves to protect their property.
Once the stores are looted, their will be a breather space of a day or two until these supplies run out. Then mobs/refugees from the cities will spread out as written in One Second After. And who knows, maybe a lot of people will stay in the city as long as possible, thinking "tomorrow, everything will be back to normal". Think gangs will also stay in the cities out of habit for awhile until they can't find more supplies or they start getting low. And just how many vehicles are registered as classics in various states? Old VW's for example...no computer chip(s) in them, so not everyone's going to be walking. Though no doubt, some will be robbed or killed to get that vehicle.
50% dead within 7 days from violence/no water? Think that's totally unrealistic. 6 months later, 90% (?!) of population is going to be dead? Man is a mean and nasty critter which is why we're on top of the food chain. I figure it's people in nursing homes, hospitals (regular and VA), children and those on life supporting medications that will be dead within the first couple of weeks.
I read somewhere that the author is writing a sequel to One Second After called One Year Later.
