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Life After An EMP: What It Will Take To Survive

Life After An EMP: Why Most Americans Wouldn’t Survive

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Of all the possible disasters we face today, an EMP or major solar storm are two of the scariest. Few truly understand how devastating they would be to our way of life. We depend on electricity and electrical devices so much that life would be set back about 100 years, technologically speaking.

An EMP occurs when a nuclear bomb is detonated high above the atmosphere. Since there is nothing to absorb the explosion and convert the energy into blast energy, it all goes out in its original form, as electromagnetic energy. Hitting the atmosphere, that energy is actually amplified, speeding towards the surface of the earth.

Upon arrival at the earth’s surface, all of that electromagnetic energy is absorbed into electrical devices, the power grid and any metal it encounters. That which hits solid-state electronic devices overloads the circuitry, destroying it. Metal can protect those devices, having the effect of a Faraday Cage, but if the electronics are exposed, the EMP will hit them with a surge of power that is too much for them to handle.

The electricity that enters the power grid will flow along the wires, reaching transformers and substations. Many of them will also become fried by the high energy burst traveling through them. But some of the energy will get through. It will then overwhelm surge protectors, destroying any electronics that managed to survive the initial surge because of being protected by metal cases.


A major solar storm would do similar damage to America (and the world), and actually did so in 1859 during what is known as the Carrington Event. It destroyed telegraph machines, the most advanced technology of the time, although Earth has dodged similar solar storms since then. A Carrington-like solar blast nearly hit Earth in 2012. (Recommended: How A Simple Solar Flare Could Doom America – And The World.)

Within seconds of either an EMP or major solar storm, all solid-state electronics and computer-controlled devices will cease working forever. However, that’s not to say that all electronic devices will die. Surprisingly, simple electronics will survive, although there won’t be any power to make them operate. (Recommended: 5 Surprising Items That Will  Survive An ‘End-Of-The-World’ EMP Attack.)

Pretty much all of the infrastructure we depend upon will be destroyed. Airplanes will fall out of the sky, mid-flight. Gas pumps will stop working. The entire electrical power grid will go down. Most of us will be without water, as the pumps and water treatment plants won’t have the electrical energy they need to purify the water and get water to us. All commerce will be on a cash only basis at first, eventually morphing over to a barter system.

Will Anything Be Working?

One of the surprising things that will survive an EMP is solar panels. While the EMP will reduce their efficiency somewhat, it won’t really be enough to make much of a difference. Electric motors will function, too, so wind generators will still work and appliances may still be usable. Of course, with the grid down, the only way they would be usable is if you have your solar panels or a wind turbine to produce power.

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The people who will be the best off after the EMP will be those who live in rural communities, especially rural farming communities. They will have food available to them, even though transporting that food to the cities will be almost impossible.

We will see people dying off from the very beginning. There are a large number of people who depend upon medicines to keep them alive. Without the ability to distribute the medicines, many of those people will pass away once their personal supply of medicine runs out.

The big killers in the aftermath of an EMP will be starvation and hypothermia. This will be the second wave of deaths from the EMP and it will be so enormous that it will make the first wave pale by comparison. Without the ability to transport supplies, cities will become death camps. Those who can escape the city will actually have a better chance than those who stay behind.

Of course, people who have a food stockpile will have a much better chance of survival.

What Can You Do?

Preparing for an EMP is just like preparing for any other disaster, with one major difference. That is … there will be no turning back. As things stand right now, an EMP or major solar storm will be so devastating that it will take decades to recover from, not just years.

You can’t count on a year’s worth of food getting you through the aftermath of an EMP. About the only way you can be sure of surviving is to turn your home into a homestead. You’ll need to produce your own food in order to survive. That means an extensive vegetable garden, as well as raising chickens and other animals for eggs and meat. You will need to produce enough to feed your family for the whole year, not just enough to make it through a few months.

The ability to produce your own electricity could help as well, but only if you have electronic devices hidden away in a Faraday Cage. Make sure that you have a spare charger for your battery backup and a spare voltage inverter as well. Otherwise, those solar panels won’t do a bit of good.

What do you think the aftermath of an EMP will look like? Share your opinion in the section below:

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