Let’s just say that the unthinkable becomes the real and happening. Let’s take this article and go over it. This will be a segment in three parts, the next ones being immediate actions taken at work and at home. I’m hitting on traveling first, as there are so many vacationers jaunting around happily over the landscape. All kidding aside, traffic is congested during the summer, extending traveling time on the commutes. Let’s game the scenario, and here it is.
Here’s the scenario:
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You’re cruising down the highway in your 2013 four-door sedan, having just dropped the kids off twenty minutes ago to the swim club. Now you’re on the open highway with a heavy traffic flow…about 5 miles from the edge of town and 7 miles from work. You’re listening to the radio, when suddenly it crackles and goes dead, along with your engine. You look around and pumping the brakes manage to slow down and then drive off the road onto the shoulder, just feet away from the back bumper of another vehicle.
The vehicle comes to a stop, and you try the ignition again. You look at your watch, a Casio G-Shock, to find there is no display. You reach for your cell phone. Nothing. It’s dead. There are perhaps a dozen cars around you…half to your front and half to your rear. All of them have stopped, and most of the drivers have gotten out. You hear the sound of an engine, and looking up, see a ’58 Ford pickup truck weaving in and out of the stalled traffic, moving toward your rear, away from town. The book “One Second After” has just played out in real life. The United States has been attacked by an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) weapon. You’re 15 miles from home, and the “S” has hit the fan.
On Friday 7/29/17, North Korea just successfully tested an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) and experts from four different countries including the U.S. have determined that they have the capability of striking the U.S. anywhere. That means the optimal point for an EMP strike (dead center of the continental U.S., at 300 km above ground) is not only their prime target but also attainable.
15 Tips to Get Safely Home Following an EMP
Back to our scenario. Most will be clueless and unprepared. Let’s do it up, down and dirty with the steps that you should take if you are “Citizen X” outlined in the scenario:
1. Have a plan already in place: That means to formulate one right now, if you haven’t already done so.
2. If there are a lot of people around, such as in the scenario, then immediately grab your gear and get out of there. What gear, you may ask? We’ve “gamed” much of this to the point of nausea, but let’s list out those essentials:
“Go/Bug Out Bag”: This guy already needs to be packed and ready, in that vehicle that will become a 3,000-lb. paperweight. Three days’ supply of ready-to-eat food, one day’s worth of water and the means to filter more. Compass, flashlight, knife, first aid kit, poncho, jacket/sweatshirt, extra socks, map, light sleeping bag, fire starting material, small fishing kit (hooks, line, bobber), sewing kit, MSW (Minor Surgical Wound) kit, extra cash ($20 denominations and smaller), ground pad, extra clothing (hat, OG bandana, etc.), and ammo. An EMP may be followed by radiological and nuclear consequences. Having an NBC gas mask and anti-radiation pills in your vehicle could be a lifesaver.
Weapon: Please don’t feed me “legal information,” or “I can’t do that in my state.” These are “sink or swim” rules. If you don’t have a weapon now, you may not have one later. If you don’t have the fortitude to take that weapon and be ready to use it when the time comes, then you probably won’t survive this or be able to help your family. One rifle, one pistol, with ammo for each.
Grab that bag and put it on, securing your weapons. Then secure the vehicle, closing the windows and locking it up. If nobody is around, throw it into neutral and push it off the road. Camouflage it with branches and leaves…taking care not to cut them from the immediate area that you stash it. Most likely it’ll be “violated,” so now is the time to take the stuff you need and get it out. If the scenario above applies, just secure the vehicle and get out of there.
3. Traveling: Do not walk on the roads. Skirt the road with about 50 meters (that’s about 150 feet) between you and the edge of the road. Stay away from people unless you know them and trust them…both qualities are emboldened.
4. For metro people: If you are out in the suburbs or open road, and you must return to the city? It may be better for you and your family to arrange for a rallying point outside of the city. If that isn’t possible, then you should exercise extreme caution. Allow the nearest family member to secure the home and then wait for you. Travel when it’s dark to be on the safe side. Your visibility is cut down, and so is the visibility of those who may be hunting you.
5. Long distance to go? Forage along the way. Refill your canteens/water bottles whenever you’re able, and take note of any freestanding water supplies or “blue” features (that’s the color of water on a military map) for use in the future. DON’T MARK YOUR MAP! If someone gets a hold of it, you do not want them to be able to find your home. You must commit the route to memory and adjust your steps accordingly.
6. Dealing with the Stress of the Event: The power is not coming back on…ever…and it really has begun…the Day After Doomsday is here. Take a deep breath and concentrate on your training, your preparations. If you don’t have any, then this piece is a wake-up call to get moving! The best way to do it is immediately accepting what has happened without dwelling on it. Concentrate on the tasks at hand: navigating home, scouting what is in between, and foraging for anything you need. You have a job to do! Reconnaissance! We’ll go over that now.
Reconnaissance: You must see on the ground what is in between you and the happy Hallmark home you’re returning to. You should take note of any places that hold medical supplies, food, or anything you may need for yourself or your family. You should take note of possible refuge sites to hide if you and the family hightail it out of the home instead of having a “Walton Family Homecoming.” You must take note of water features, danger locations (cliffs or impassable terrain features), as well as dangerous individuals. Yes, the ones who were jerks before all of this? Wait until you see how they’ll be now, with no controls exercised over them.
7. The best advice I can give: Travel at night. This may be impossible for several reasons. Firstly, if it’s an all-out nuke attack, there may be the problem of radiation for you, in which case you’ll have to either reach home immediately or seek shelter immediately to remain in place for several weeks. Secondly, you may have other family members that need to be attended to and cannot wait for a long time. The kids in the scenario are a prime example. If it is an EMP only, there will be a “quiet period” of about 6 to 12 hours before everything breaks loose and the sequel to the movie “The Road” begins in real life. Darkness is the best time to travel. It hides you and helps you to cover your tracks until the morning light.
8.The rest of the family: They must KNOW THE OVERALL PLAN AND HAVE A PLAN OF THEIR OWN TO FOLLOW UNTIL YOU GET THEM OR UNTIL THEY REACH HOME. This is all going to take some preparation on your part and remember the saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don’t put it off!
9. Avoid people, families, and groups of people. Your goal when traveling is to be invisible. I wrote some articles on how to hunt and how to avoid the manhunt. You may want to refresh yourself on those points, and follow a few basic rules I keep in my own mind and heart:
- When a disaster occurs, everyone is your “friend” even when they are not
- There is no interest but self-interest outside of you and your immediate family
- Whatever you need and have, they also need and want
- They will kill you for the barest of essentials of what you’re carrying
- Don’t talk to anyone: don’t exchange information, pleasantries, and do not tell anyone anything about yourself, your family, your general destination, or your home…it can be used against you later…and it will be.
10. Coming home: Don’t walk right on in. Use a roundabout route, and go to a spot where you can watch your house for at least half an hour or so before making your “triumphant return.” The S has hit the fan, and this is not the return of the Prodigal…you’re just going to tiptoe in. But before you tiptoe through the tulips and the window, keep in mind that Tiny Tim and his gang of marauders may have done it before you. That is why you want to watch the house closely. Best Advice I can give: Have your kids/spouse put up a long-distance-visible sign/signal so that you know everything is either OK or that you’ll have to come in and rescue the family. For example, if the birdhouse is still on the corner of the porch, then all is well. If the birdhouse is gone, or if it’s sitting on top of the post that holds the mailbox…well, time to play CQB (that’s Close Quarters Battle) and clear the house of the rats.
11. Never underestimate anyone’s ability to take your family members hostage: That goes for the “friendly neighbors,” most of all…the biggest rats on the block. If that happens, guess what? You’re now the HRT (that’s Hostage Rescue Team), or you better have a couple of guys such as this in your survival group/pod/neighborhood unit. The hardest guy or gal in the world will “cave” when their son or daughter is being held at gunpoint by some goon.
12. You’re home…Now, it’s time to fight! That’s right! Just when you thought it would be cozy and comfortable…just you and the family and your happy supplies…here comes a whole bagful of “Gummi Bears” down the block…only these bears are armed with baseball bats, zip guns, chains, and crowbars. Armed also with about a week of BO (that’s Body Odor), all twelve of them combined still have an IQ of 50, tops…and here they are, at your door. They don’t want Halloween candy, by the way. You just walked twenty miles. Say, remember that article I wrote about using ginseng, and drinking coffee to help you keep alert and awake? I hope that one comes to mind because it’s about to become a “festival” at your house. We’re going to cover more on this in the next segment.
13. Obtain that “second set” of electronic equipment. Oh yeah, the one JJ continuously warns about! Well, now that all your electronics that were exposed are junk, I hope you made some Faraday cages and stashed an extra one of those radios…or even several, for those of you who thought long-term. You need to find out what’s going on. Ham radios may help if you shielded them. So may CB’s and satellite phones.
14. Arm the whole family: by the time you reach home, every family member either accompanying you (small children and toddlers excepted) should be armed. Time to really see how tight and full of solidarity you are as a real family unit…one that must fight in order to survive.
15. Exit stage left: You may just find that the homecoming isn’t; that is, you must write it off as a loss and get out of there…it’s either destroyed and burning or occupied by the marauders. Unless you have the skills and the ability to deal with all of them, it is better to retreat and stay alive. You need a plan in place in order to make this work.
We’ve covered a lot of information here. This is all designed to stimulate those creative thought processes. The thinking alone is not enough: you must formulate a plan and then implement it. A plan without action is of no use. A plan executed too late is a tragedy: a funeral dirge getting ready to play. Don’t be too late to formulate your plan for you and your family. If the lights go out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the party’s over…and the party may be one that never comes to an end. Fight that good fight each and every day! JJ out!
Almost 8 years ago, I kept a couple of bags ready for the “just in case” scenario in Oklahoma that a tornado, wildfire or other unexpected emergency would require our exit from our home for a period of days.
Then, we moved here and there will be no bugging out from Whoville.
I have to agree with you maggie there will be no bugging out. Worst case we bug out from the house to the swamp out back. We now only keep a BOB to carry in the car. It has been reconfigured to be a get back home safe bag.
This year one of my goals is to learn to ride horses and get a couple of them for the wife and I. Neither one of us have been on a horse since we were kids, fortunately many around here have horses and don’t mind spending some time teaching you. Also they can be had for cheap as many people end up not being able to feed them.
It is already pretty quite around here with not much light at night, so an EMP won’t be that much of change. I only hope that our 100 mile buffer is enough distance between us and the swarm of black goo that is sure to ooze out away from Phoenicia.
I’m about 17 miles from the center of my own Whoville. Most of the time I’m at home. Okay, fine. But if I happen to be downtown on Der Tag? Problem, given my age and decrepitude. An elderly vehicle is looking better and better.
Horses are EMP proof.
Bicycles too 😉
If there is one thing KY has a multitude of, it is horses. How long will cows/horses last when there is no food in the stores? All food will be gone with a quickness, two weeks and livestock will be a dinner. Wildlife will be gone within weeks also.
I know where to find some tasty rabbits. 🙂
And Granola.
I’m old too, but I never smoked so still in good shape for walking. Touching on older vehicles, an old tractor might fit the bill for you folks, it did for me. I bought a 1952 8n Ford. These old tractors can be bought from $500 up to $10,000, if you want one of showcase cosmetics. Mine shows the cosmetics of being born a year earlier than me, but runs great and is devoid of all electronic ignition, computer chips and so on. EMP proof! We keep a ten foot wagon behind it at all times to load quickly and bug out if necessary. However, I’m growing more accustomed to the thought of just dying in place on my small farm. There is a lot to be said for meeting death where you first met life. Christ bless, thanks.
What would be most realistic to prepare for would be more like what we saw happen to people in the Balkans instead of some kind of Rambo thing that doesn’t actually deal with people the way they really act in emergencies and wars or allow for the fact that you are not Rambo.
At 76 years of age, EMP means Eat My Porridge.
There are many in their 70’s on this site. My guess is that if FSA attempts to loot their homes someboby is going to die….and the old men are going to kill them.
Maggie, I’m uneasy about this as well. I think the 4T crisis is upon us.
I’m in my 60’s but one of my joys in life is shooting steel plates at the range. Shooting them really fast I must add. Surprise! Surprise! as Gomer used to say. Anyone found here at night will be found here in the morning.
Jake, as I walk innocently down the tree line on your property and you take me out, you just started a war with a large family that would skin you and feed you alive to the ants….the idea of shooting first because people are walking by is just plain stupid. You are asking for war, when they choose. You will be worn down and tired after 2 weeks of waiting up nights for theirs attack. If anything it’s best to get to know people and built vs destroy and be a badass. Bad asses don’t last very long trust me…..
The book he references,”One Second After”,should be read by all survivalists.As a novel it’s not so good but it gives a realistic view of what will happen.
When the people who did not prep vote in a town council and they mandate under penalty of death that you turn in all your food supplies,what will you do Maggie?
If you are within a few hundred miles of a major city,you’re within reach of packs of feral young men who will rampage as they move along.
It won’t be pretty.
People need to design their landscaping in their retreat to channel bad guys into killing zones. Raised beds become a ready source of dirt for sandbags or just filling tubs that provide cover and will stop about anything fired at you.
Jeff Cooper had a home designed from the ground up as a fortress in the sticks in Arizona.
We have discussed at the regional level the idea of watching bridges over large rivers. At some point, the County Sheriff might be the law of the land.
We have a lot of armed deer hunters here.
I’ve read One Second After. As a matter of fact, that book was the first step taken toward getting ourselves here to the hills.
‘Please don’t feed me “legal information,” or “I can’t do that
….”. There is no scenerio where the apparatus of government will just evaporate. In a major crisis, martial law will be declared which will make the government significantly more powerful rather than less. Crimes will still be crimes, and anyone arrested will sit in jail indefinitely because the Writ of Habeas Corpus will have been suspended, as per Article One, Section 9, clause 2 of the US Constitution.
“Mr. Marshall has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.” Good luck with that honey.
If this country is emp’d, as with the two orbiting korean satellites, and all power is lost to all people including the government then how will anyone declare martial law. It will be everyone for themselves. And ladies, you need to know and understand this thoroughly, your husbands will die quickly and you will die when the feral bands of men grow weary of listening to you scream. And by the time they are through with you there may be very little left of you to die. I saw countless rape victims in Sudan and American women are even less prepared to handle this kind of trauma. Every woman in this country should read about what German women suffered after the Russians took Berlin. And what happens here will pale in comparison to 1945. Think about these things and prepare accordingly. thanks
I have a feeling that who and what is “authority” to determine criminal behavior is about to be turned on its head. Collectively.
You are a good example of a bad example – Dr Pangloss
Take a look at the illegal pollos traveling through the Sonora desert for miles in the dark or in the bright summer sun. They fall in culverts, stumble on rocks, they succumb to heat stroke or dehydration. They break a leg or twist an ankle and get left behind, an automatic death sentence.
The coyotes don’t care, they have to get the most people across as quickly as possible and can’t take the time to tend to an injured pollo. Men, women, young boys or girls get left behind; their carcass a boon for the wildlife.
20 Pray that your escape may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. 21 For at that time there will be great tribulation, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again! 22 Unless those days were limited, no one would[a] survive.[b] But those days will be limited because of the elect.
Coyotes are being stalked by our local mountain lion. I’m not sure if Pangloss could come up with “deeper meaning” in that.
Walking down the road or even off the road with a backpack full of goodies, Yeah good luck with that, or to put it another way, you don’t need to prepare a backpack, all you need is a weapon that can reach out and touch someone a few hundred yards and then sit patiently near a road and wait for the guy carrying a backpack full of goodies.
Never move in the light; never let anyone see you.
i have so many issues with this: 1) a 2013 vehicle has a +80% survival rate (per the CIA testing). 2) this same dude probably preaches normalcy bias but assumes everyone goes ape-shit-nuts when the power goes off. 3) Assumes your neighbors turn into blood thirsty hordes at a drop of a dime.
So much crazy here … It will take 2-3, possibly 4 days to start the festivities, what you do in the first 3 will determine your survival rate. Use this time to build your tribe, show your worth, organize, develop plans. lone wolf mentality will make you suspicious and get you killed. sure there are idiots to watch for – meth heads will come first, hang a couple of the law breakers and show them off – law an order will be restored.
Very true Cynikal about the cars still working. There is a Mythbusters episode out there where the guys try to knock out a car (I think it was a Honda Civic, but don’t remember for sure) with an EMP. They couldn’t do it. They kept trying harder and harder eventually ending up putting the EMP genrator directly above the car only a few feet from it and then cranking the juice on it to it’s maximum. Even with that they still could not disable the vehicle. I throughly enjoyed the book “One Second After” and certainly don’t want to downplay the ample ill effects of the grid going down; however, the idea that an EMP will disable vehicles has no basis in fact.
Him out of shape, drive 50k miles a year and the other day was in Chicago walking and almost died of foot knee pain after one day of sightseeing. I realized I need a get home bike in my truck to compliment my GHB. I watched a guy riding a bike and how fast it was and the space he put between us even though I was walking in the same direction. Walking 100 miles would take me 2 weeks biking 2 days….the difference of finding my family and bugging out or raped and charred by fire when Imget home. Seems Imcan never be fully prepared but every little bit will be appreciated in that time I am sure. I also thought I need some type of wagon to carry all that stuff besides my back pack….at least I can live well the first 2 days and the load lightens as it’s eaten etc eventually ditching the wagon. Another fear is if I’m on the wrong side of getting home and must travel through the bad parts which will be like walking the valley of hell in the shtf scenario. Going around the city costs another day at least….my truck biz can only hold so much….do they make mini hot air balloons? LOL. Those little push scooters are even better than walking…but silence is key, need big rubber tires that won’t puncture or collapsible bike….just wanna get home asap….the thought freaks me out if I am 300 miles away, could take a month….