[MOS19K]

It's 8:15 Monday morning when suddenly everything electrical just shuts down. If you were driving your car it shuts down as do all the vehicles around you. Nothing on the radio or TV, all the traffic lights are out. You quickly conclude that it's an EMP attack.

Now what do you do? How have you planned for this event? How will your family react? Do you stay at work or home? If caught in the street where do you go?

The scenario is vague because it's different for everyone.

 

[skyy]

8:15 I am just leaving the house so my trip back home would be quick. Most of all my plans are based on getting home, evaluate the situation, and start working accordingly.

I always carry a get home bag (actually 2 bags with firearms) My plan is to get me and my family home. I work about 6 miles from home so should be able to make it in just a few hours I plan to take the back way to avoid as many people as I can. Should I not be able to make it home my bags have everything I need for about 3 days, once home I get everything out and ready for what what comes next.

 

[JRNC26]

@ 8:15 in the morning Im at work I would lock up my tool box.go out to my truck grab my pistol and knife.Then I would dig around and find a water bottle or two and fill them up and start the walk home.Im about 10 miles from home I should get there before dark.Im not seriously worried about what will happen after the first couple hours.Most people will be stunned or confussed by whats happening.The next day will be a different story.

 

[Jerry D Young]

Unless I'm at an early doctor's appointment, I'm most likely to be at home. I'd do a lock down, open up a tote and get out the Yaesu VR-500 shortwave receiver and the Oregon Scientific NOAA All Hazards radios and try to find out what happenned. Then react according to what the information is, including reading between the lines of what is being said, and if there is nothing being said.

 

[firecraft]

First of all I'd try to stop smiling and get down to business. Next comes a quick prayer. I'm not a morning person so 8:15 means I'm not far from the house. I'd grab my pack and pistol and book it back to the homestead. Even if I had made it to work on time I'd have to head home once i knew what had happened. I'm a Sys. Admin. so no power = no work at the office for me. I'd most likely be on the interstate when this happened but I could easily duck into the woods and navigate back home. The only problem I'd have getting home would stem from the rough neighborhoods between home and the office. After I cleared the house and made an assessment of the neighborhood I'd head out to get my wife back home. Thankfully she works in the same town that we live in...should be a relatively easy retrieve. The next step is to link up with like-minded friends.
Guess I need to run the wife through this so she knows where she should be headed. I'm glad it was easy enough to train her to grab her gun first thing.

 

[Watcher]

I'd walk to work, i'm close enough and i have responsibilities i'm reluctant to ignore.

Once there, i'd assess the situation as to whether to stay and help with whatever is needed or else to walk back to my home and bug in.

 

[BudgetSurvivalist]

What I would not do

 

[arisinwind]

I'd do a lock down, open up a tote and get out the Yaesu VR-500 shortwave receiver and the Oregon Scientific NOAA All Hazards radios and try to find out what happenned. Then react according to what the information is, including reading between the lines of what is being said, and if there is nothing being said.

I doubt your radios will work.

 

[BudgetSurvivalist]

I doubt your radios will work.

Even if they were stored in a Faraday cage, I doubt the radio stations would be broadcasting.

 

[Truthpick]

My wife has been instructed to stay put at her job. I would probably hang around for a while at mine as well to see if any news came through about the duration of the incident. If not, my partner and I would instruct our employees to leave if the wish but tell them to stay and we will get them home. We would then make the 8 mile hike to my house. There is my BOV, a 1983 GMC extend cab utility body pick up. I have the spae parts to hopefully get it going as it has none of the computers and modern BS.

We would then proceed to pick up our wives and children and deposit them at my house. Then back to work, to give our employees rides home. I'd open the safe and try to give each employee their weeks pay in cash (if possible seeing as it is a Monday and deposits are made of Friday). Then home where we would all assemble and decide whether or not to bug out now or wait a while and see if this passes.

If the truck doesn't work, we'll walk back into town and retrieve our loved ones that way.

(Hopefully it won't happen today as the truck is currently without a transmission. Replaced the clutch wekend before last and decided to go ahead and do the tranny work but haven't got the newer one installed yet.)

 

[contact00]

Even if they were stored in a Faraday cage, I doubt the radio stations would be broadcasting.

True, but with a scanning radio you can check a lot of frequencies quickly, and if someone was transmitting they would be someone worth listening to :thumb:

 

[Highlander]

Wait until dark, then start looting... :zombie

 

[BudgetSurvivalist]

The thing is, how could I differentiate an EMP burst from a run of the mill power outage? It's 8:15, I'm at work, and pfft there go the lights and computer (again!)... happens a lot where I work, especially in the fall when it gets blustery outside.

Sooner or later the word would come that nobody anywhere has power, but, in that interim when I am sitting around sipping my coffee and BSing with my cubicle buddies...

 

[PikeFlyerMike]

We would be at home which is, short of a forest fire where we will remain.

Would lock down and hit the knees, praying that our far flung children and Grands were okay.

Once our tears were exhausted, the Bride and I would react as best we could, as the situation evolves, waiting all the while for our loved ones to make it home.

 

[Highlander]

The thing is, how could I differentiate an EMP burst from a run of the mill power outage? It's 8:15, I'm at work, and pfft there go the lights and computer (again!)... happens a lot where I work, especially in the fall when it gets blustery outside.

Cars will not run. Your cell phone will not function. Phones will be gone. Any electrical device that was plugged in or on when the EMP hit will be affected.

 

[BudgetSurvivalist]

Cars will not run. Your cell phone will not function. Phones will be gone. Any electrical device that was plugged in or on when the EMP hit will be affected.

Radios and cell phones aren't allowed in our facility. Our phone system is VOIP, so when the power goes, the server goes, so phones would be dead either way. Anything plugged in would be off either during a power outage or EMP burst. Traffic is not visible from our building, so can't tell if cars just crapped out in the middle of the street.

So which would be worse, sitting around expecting the power to pop back on after a while (if it turned out to be an EMP attack), or running out to my car to get my EDC bag and boogying on foot (if it turned out to be just a local power outage)?

 

[arisinwind]

The thing is, how could I differentiate an EMP burst from a run of the mill power outage? It's 8:15, I'm at work, and pfft there go the lights and computer (again!)... happens a lot where I work, especially in the fall when it gets blustery outside.

Sooner or later the word would come that nobody anywhere has power, but, in that interim when I am sitting around sipping my coffee and BSing with my cubicle buddies...

Check your digital watch. It won't work.

If your digital watch, cell phone, electric power, radio, television and car don't work, then it's probably EMP.

 

[arisinwind]

Cars will not run. Your cell phone will not function. Phones will be gone. Any electrical device that was plugged in or on when the EMP hit will be affected.

Actually the item doesn't have to be "plugged in" to be impacted by EMP. The EM pulse will effect electronic items even if power is not applied to them.

 

[test]

Monday is my scheduled day off.

I would be just waking up and would be confused for a while, until I figured out what happened.

Then shock would set in: "I can't make my morning coffee!!!"

Communications would be out obviously, including my chief communication tool, the Internet.

I would stay 'holed up' at home, for at least a while. After that, who knows?

 

[Motherhen]

I would be home at that time in the morning and usually drinking my coffee and checking email/forums. The first thing I would think is that our power was out 'again' since in our area, its nothing new. I would check the phone to see if it was working..if not, I'd think something was up. I would also check a battery operated flashlight..if that didn't work, I would be suspicious but maybe its just not working anymore and the kids have been playing with it 'again' and/or try another since we have plenty. I would then test the vehicle in the driveway. If it didn't work, I'd know it was an EMP bomb.
If I were out--on the road--I would start walking home though it could be a long walk from town. One reason that we should always have appropriate winter clothing on or at least with us now that winter is here.