I didn’t want to read One Second After by William R. Forstchen.  I knew it was a dismal and depressing book, so I procrastinated. The book describes life in a North Carolina town following an EMP attack, which permanently shuts down everything that relies on electronics: cars, airplanes, all communication, medical equipment, etc.  After I finally forced myself to read it, I much prefer a complete collapse of the economy to what this book describes.

The possibility of a future EMP event has resonated with millions of people in America and around the globe, because the results would be devastating. From my book, Survival Mom: How to prepare your family for One Second After (A Jo... William R. Forstchen Best Price: $2.00 Buy New $7.18 (as of 09:15 UTC - Details) everyday disasters and worst-case scenarios, I wrote:

The consequences would be devastating and casualties would, eventually,be in the millions. (Remember, this is the worst-case scenario!)Communities would have little protection of police and fire departments.Prisoners would easily be able to escape, and it wouldn’t takelong for hospital generators to run out of fuel and no longer be ableto care for patients. Much of the military’s equipment and transportationwould be rendered useless to a large degree, unless the machineryhas been hardened to be either EMP-resistant or EMP-proof.

Backup generators for electrical plants, including nuclear powerplants, and city water and sewage Good Ideas RB55-BLUE B... Buy New $113.97 (as of 12:00 UTC - Details) systems would run out of fuel inshort order. In fact, there’s a good chance the generators themselveswould be of no use because they, too, contain electronic components.We saw something similar happen in Japan after the calamitous earthquake and tsunami in 2011, when fuel for backup generators didn’tarrive in time to prevent a meltdown.

If you happen to be on vacation when an EMP burst happens, youwould likely never be able to return home. How does a family of fourwalk from Disney World to Richmond? It’s likely you would neverhear from loved ones again, unless they lived within walking distanceand traveling that distance by foot was safe, which is doubtful. ThatEmergency Broadcasting System that interrupts your favorite TVprograms would be just as dead as your cell phone and laptopcomputer.

Here are just a few things that stuck with me after reading One Second After and pondering how it would affect me, personally, and ideas for preparing for such an event.

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