'No help coming': State preps citizens for EMP attack ~ By F. Michael Maloof

In February 2013, Congressman Trent Franks introduced the SHIELD Act in the House of Representatives and established in the U.S. House of Representatives the EMP Caucus.

The SHIELD Act stands for Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage. It calls on industry and government to develop, promulgate and implement standards and processes that are necessary to address the electric grid’s current vulnerabilities and shortcomings that would be affected by an EMP.

Franks has been trying to get the SHIELD Act into law since 2011. In the last session of Congress, it passed the House but failed in the Senate. His efforts stem from findings of the congressional EMP commission which spelled out in considerable detail the cascading impact of an EMP on the electrical grid system and its catastrophic impact on life-sustaining critical infrastructures that depend on it.

Experts agree that if there were an EMP event, the U.S. could see some 90 percent of its population affected. Experts believe food, water, energy and other supply systems could be inoperational, possibly for periods extending to years.

Okay, here are the key words: "No help coming." That should be very concerning to all of us. There may be a reason why no help would come if there was an EMP attack on the United States, though. There seems to be people that refuse to believe it could ever happen. From the article:

State Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, was one of 17 lawmakers who voted against the original legislation, criticizing the focus on a catastrophe that he said was a very remote possibility.

“Really, we already have a major catastrophe in the state and that’s called our schools falling apart, our roads falling apart and we should be fixing those things,” he said. “Not living in some fantasy world worrying about some unquantified attack or some disaster that’s not gonna happen.”

I suspect that this Rep. Chad Campbell, a Democrat who sounds like he's pretty progressive, would probably never understand the EMP threat, possibly just because it has been written about so extensively on wnd.com, and I do not consider that to be a "remote possibility" at all! Or, perhaps the representative, and many like him, have never bothered to read any of the multiple reports and briefings that have been produced by the EMP Commission, such as their Executive Report. Here is a snip from the Abstract of that report, found on page 5:

Several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication.

EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences. EMP will cover the wide geographic region within line of sight to the nuclear weapon. It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of US society, as well as to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power.  (Emphasis my own.)

It does, however, illustrate one major reason why nothing has been done on the federal level,  It could be related to the ignorance about the plausibility of one of our enemies having the ability to launch a nuclear weapon into space, and detonating it right above the United States.

Keeping in mind that our current President and many of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate are not pro-military, it might explain why the SHIELD Act passed in the House last year, but went nowhere in the Senate.

Well, there is one thing that We the People can do to help prevent such a catastrophic event from happening, or at least to the magnitude that could be the reality right now.  You know what that is, and you know when we can do something about it:  It is called the Midterm Election this November 2014.  We must vote out the Representatives and Senators, mostly Democrats, but even some of the progressive Republicans, too, that are keeping this country from protecting itself.  Just sayin'...

RELATED STORIES:

• April 9, 2014 ~ DHS study: North Korea capable of EMP attack on U.S. ~ By F. Michael Maloof

Long-suppressed report concludes communist nation can deliver on threats

• February 10, 2014 ~ Approaching Iranian warships raise EMP threat

Experts: U.S. 'defenseless' against high-altitude explosion

• February 1, 2014 ~ North Korea EMP attack could destroy U.S. – right now

There may be nothing that we can do to stop such a tragedy from happening (except for maybe prayer). What really does matter is that you prepare yourself for an event that could feasibly happen.

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'No help coming': State preps citizens for EMP attack

F. Michael Maloof

By F. Michael Maloof

April 28, 2014

From wnd.com

WASHINGTON – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed legislation to require the state’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to prepare materials outlining what citizens need to know to deal with either a natural or man-made electromagnetic pulse event that could knock out the vulnerable electrical grid system over a wide geographical region.

The legislation, SB 1476, was introduced by Sen. David Farnsworth, R-Mesa. It includes the type and quantity of food, water and medical supplies that each person should stockpile in case an EMP occurs over the U.S.

The legislation, however, doesn’t require actual hardening of the grid within the state.

“In our lifetimes the emergencies we’ve seen have been local emergencies, and really all we have to do is be prepared enough to hang on until help arrives,” Farnsworth said at the time he introduced it last February. “With an EMP, there’s no help coming.”

Under the legislation that now is law, the Arizona Division of Emergency Management is to post on its website recommendations such as the type and amount of supplies residents should stockpile to be prepared for an EMP event.

Farnsworth’s more immediate concern was the prospect of an EMP triggered by the detonation of a high-altitude nuclear weapon. The EMP would have the effect of knocking out the vulnerable grid system and any unprotected electronics.

“My hope is that by bringing this out, we’ll start discussions and come to the realization that as a government we can’t feed all these people, but as responsible citizens we need to do our part and make individual preparations,” he said at the time he introduced the legislation.

A co-sponsor of the legislation, Don Shooter, R-Yuma, had criticized the federal government for not taking a similar public education program.

~~~ READ MORE on wnd.com ~~~

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Senate fumbles EMP protection

There is really very little I need to say about this column, except that you probably had not heard about this in the lamestream news. However, WorldNetDaily DID cover the story in an article written by Bob Unruh on August 7, 2010, "Senate dumps strategy to prevent EMP damage".

So that you know what kind of damage EMP can do, I have included the video below. Apparently, though, some U.S. Senators don't seem to have watched the video. I am not sure they even have a clue about EMP. Or, maybe it was because they wanted their own plan, S. 1462, which promotes "clean energy." Oh, brother... Can you believe that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee thought that was more important than spending a mere $100 million to "protect the national electric grid from 'all hazards' – including EMP from geomagnetic storms, nuclear EMP from terrorists or rogue states, cyber threats, sabotage and natural disasters? Do ya think? Just sayin'...

EMP - Segment from "33 Minutes"

Video provided by EMPACTAmerica

But the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chose to ignore the EMP Commission, the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy. Every member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee received a personal appeal from the EMP Commission and other prominent experts to pass H.R. 5026 with its provisions for protecting against EMP and "all hazards" intact – but those appeals were ignored.

H.R. 5026 may yet be saved when the Senate and House go into conference.

Perhaps in this election year the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would heed a demand from the American people to restore the original H.R. 5026.

By Peter Vincent Pry

Posted: August 19, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2010

The Earth dodged a bullet from the sun the week of Aug. 2, a bullet in the shape of a solar flare that could have had catastrophic consequences for the existence of our modern civilization – a threat that was barely noted in the press.

On Aug. 1, NASA reported that satellites detected a coronal mass ejection, or CME, "heading in the Earth's direction." According to NASA, CMEs "are large clouds of charged particles that are ejected from the sun. … They expand away from the sun at speeds as high as a million miles an hour. A CME can make the 93-million-mile journey to Earth in just three to four days. … When a coronal mass ejection reaches Earth, it interacts with our planet's magnetic field, potentially creating a geomagnetic storm."

On the same day, the federal government issued a warning that an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, from a gathering solar storm might damage the electric grid in the United States. The Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned, "There is a 10 percent chance that this CME will result in a severe geomagnetic storm."

The EMP from a severe solar geomagnetic storm can have disastrous consequences. A severe geomagnetic storm in 1989 collapsed the electric grid in Quebec, destroyed a transformer in a nuclear plant in New Jersey, caused $2 billion in damage and left 5 million people living in the dark.

A "great" geomagnetic storm, a rare but inevitable phenomenon, could have truly catastrophic consequences that would imperil the existence of modern civilization. In 2004 and 2008, the congressionally mandated EMP Commission warned that every hundred years or so an exceptionally large solar flare will generate a "great" geomagnetic storm. The EMP from such a storm would collapse the national electric grid and the critical infrastructures – transportation, communications, banking and finance, food and water – that sustain modern civilization and the lives of 310 million Americans.

The last "great" geomagnetic storm was in 1859, called the Carrington event. Modern civilization, so dependent upon electronic systems, has not yet experienced a "great" geomagnetic storm. Many scientists think we are overdue. Some scientists believe that, as we approach the solar maximum over the next two years, since the solar maximum brings increased solar flare activity, the possibility of a "great" geomagnetic storm will also increase.

In 2008, the National Academy of Sciences produced a report for NASA that confirmed the EMP Commission's warning that a "great" geomagnetic storm could have catastrophic consequences for modern civilization. According to the NAS report, if the 1859 Carrington event happened today, it could destroy nationwide the electric grid, collapse the critical infrastructures and take 4-10 years to recover – if recovery is possible at all. In June 2010, the Department of Energy and North American Electric Reliability Corporation released a joint report that, again, confirmed the EMP Commission's warning about the catastrophic threat from a "great" geomagnetic storm.

Fortunately, Earth dodged the bullet from the sun. Fortunately, NOAA's estimated 10 percent chance of a severe geomagnetic storm did not materialize – this time. We may not be so lucky next time.

So it is incomprehensible why the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Aug. 5 – just days after NOAA warned about the possibility of a severe geomagnetic storm actually striking our planet – would gut H.R. 5026, "The Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense Act," that is designed to protect the United States from the effects of a geomagnetic storm. H.R. 5026 would protect the national electric grid from "all hazards" – including EMP from geomagnetic storms, nuclear EMP from terrorists or rogue states, cyber threats, sabotage and natural disasters. H.R. 5026 embodied the recommendations of the EMP Commission, the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy.

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

RELATED STORY:
Senate dumps strategy to prevent EMP damage

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