What would you do if an EMP went off?

[Soubriquet]

How would it affect your life?
How would it affect your job?

My job would be obsolete.

Online shopper. No internet means no customers can place their orders.

No internet means the shop can’t see if it’s in stock or now.

No internet, no productions, and no working factories would mean a lot of our food would have to come from smaller shops.

No car would mean I would struggle to get to the supermarket even if they managed to get some form of system going

Home life for me would be dull. No Tv, no WiFi etc. I would be bored.

I wonder how kids would cope. They adapt pretty quick but I think a lot would be bereft without their minecraft and roblox

I don't know what an EMP is! No internet would stop me going on Mumsnet. No doubt it would massively affect supermarkets/ petrol supplies so that would affect everyone.

What is an EMP??

@Nacknick

What is an EMP??

I have no idea!

Electromagnetic pulse. It's something that terrorists could use and it literally wipes out anything that is powered by electric

Electric magnetic pulse

Electrical Malfunction Protocol?
Emergency Medical Priority?
Elephantine Magical Powersurge?

I thought we were protected from this now?

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy. Depending upon the source, the origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic field, as an electric field, as a magnetic field, or as a conducted electric current. The electromagnetic interference caused by an EMP disrupts communications and damages electronic equipment; at higher levels of energy, an EMP, such as a lightning strike can physically damage objects such as buildings and aircraft. The management of EMP effects is a branch of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) engineering.

EMP weapons are designed to deliver the damaging effects of a high-energy EMP that will disrupt unprotected infrastructure in the country,[1] thus the employment of an EMP weapon against a country is the scenario of war most likely to collapse the functionality of the electrical network of the country.[2]

I would die within 3 mins as I have a pacemaker that I am completely dependent upon. A large EMP would wipe out the programming on it.

Why are you thinking about this ? too doomsday for my liking lol

I read the book Lights Out In Lincolnwood last year which covers this scenario - I don’t think it actually says in the novel that it’s an EMP but basically everything electrical stops working. Planes and trains crash, hospital equipment stops working, people start looting shops. Interesting read if you like this sort of thing!

EMPs can also be caused by massive solar flares. It happened in the early 1900s (I think) and fused all the telegraph equipment in North America.
Not so much of a problem then, but a massive problem now. If you're electronic equipment was turned off when the emp hit, it would still work, but only as long as the battery lasted. It could mean people with electronics in the body would drop dead if the electronics stop working.
People in remote areas would probably fare better than people in towns and cities as they are usually well stocked with food and are used to coping with power cuts etc.
Longer term it would drop us back into the dark ages until the equipment could be got back up and running. Life would be so much harder and most things would have to be done manually. Office work would have to be all paper based again, factory work would become very labour intensive. We would survive but it would be hard

My whole life revolves around online/elecrictity working, the work I do is completely online, the university course I am doing is completely online and I do pretty much all my shopping online, a lot of my hobbies are online based, I Chat to most of my friends online

Like in Ocean’s Eleven?

I work in IT so my job would cease to exist, almost all my hobbies would be out of the window, or at least made a lot harder (bye sewing machine), and Is be a lot more aware of my disability without the convenience of electrical goods.

Strongly suspect without electricity feminism would be set back enormously, as housework would take much longer and the load would (of course) fall on women.

How long would the effects last?

Well
I always have 12 Tins of tomatoes in stock. After that I would starve.

That's everyone's heating and hot water gone (no electric pumps or immersion heaters). Not just no internet.
No refrigeration in homes or shops.
No mobile phone charging.
Factories production lines would stop.

It would be apocalyptic.

It would end our jobs, we couldn't work, we wouldn't even be able to get in the building as all internal and external doors are electric fob controlled, you can't get in or out without having a security pass and even if the doors could somehow be opened, all operating equipment requires electricity anyway. Home i don't think it would cause too many problems, would be cold with no heating and all the food in the fridge and freezer would go bad but that's about it I think

@SpiderinaWingMirror

Well I always have 12 Tins of tomatoes in stock. After that I would starve.

😂 I currently have 8 tins of kidney beans for some reason. Happy to do a swap!

Most of my work is paper based but they would have to write out physical drug cardex.

Manual blood pressures and pulse checks and Mercury thermometers would be an absolute pain in the backside. Plus no xrays/CTs so no real idea of what was going on with people. No ECGs so can't really check heart rhythms. Would be much easier in primary care than secondary care where they are having to rely on eyes and ears, old school methods and what they have to hand in houses a lot more.

I have a gas camping stove, pasta, tinned milk, oil lamps, a multi fuel stove, books and plenty of wool for my crocheting, so I reckon I'd be fine 😄

@chaos76

Why are you thinking about this ? too doomsday for my liking lol

Was watching a film where one went off

It would last forever. You can never get electrics back on. (I know. Very morbid)

I think overall, it would depend on the radius affected by the EMP. Exactly how big are we thinking?

It's not likely to take out the whole world at once, surely, or the hypothetical terrorists would also be screwing themselves too.

It would suck for the people in the immediate fallout area, but then supplies and equipment could be brought in from outside like we do with floods and hurricanes and tornadoes.