What will you do when the lights go out?

What will you do when the lights go out? I'm talking about a massive EM pulse here. So not just lights, but every electronic thing goes kaput, around the world. Unless you're living in a lead lined cave, every device with electronic parts will cease to function.

Even if you DO live in a lead lined cave, only YOUR electronics will continue to function, and only on what power you have in your cave. You won't be hooked up to anything. No power grid. Cellphones won't work. No TV, radio, any car newer than the 1970s won't work (and gas will be scarce, pumps won't work). A return to around 1850 technology. You get the picture.

So what do you do?

BTW, I see this scenario not as a "what if", but as a "when"...

 

stock up on canned goods, drinking water, seeds, bulk foods, batteries, candles, fuel, ammo for your weapons (if you own such), camping gear (in case you get kicked out), cash (although it might become worthless fast).

Find people with the same attitude and stick together to help each other and for defense.

In fact, people should be doing this NOW. Later you might not get the chance or you might have to fight others to get what you need.

Find some land where you can farm. You might want to score some farm animals if you can, like chickens, who can provide immediate food (eggs).

 

Yup, the hipforums would become history. Hopefully you've already printed out all the tips on how to survive. HHB posted a bunch of shit like that long ago...

 

Chained slaves don't do much work. Those are prisoners not slaves.

Yes, there will be rapes and pillaging. I bet Americans will be very good at that. It's a pity though that only about 2% of Americans have anything worth pillaging anymore.

And guess what? All that paper wealth will disappear in the EM pulse. So if they haven't put it into something useful or edible, they're gonna be SOL.

I can picture an army of Wall Street zombies leaving their offices in the middle of day after the EM pulse, completely stunned, walking directionless, unable to think of what to do next. They'll all be trying to text something, even though there are never going to be any BARS on their cellphones again.

Fortunately for me there is a huge geothermal power plant a short distance away. Should be easy to hook up to that for power and heat. But of course all their electronically controlled devices will be dead. So something mechanical would need to be hooked up to restore power.

Those who have solar power will fare much better in the short term. They can probably keep a fridge going, have light and a few other things. Oh, wait though... The transformers will be fried. So no, solar is not likely to be much help unless you know how to rig it without any electronics.

 

You realize everyone will pretty much be stuck where they are. There will be no transportation unless you have an old car or motorcycle. So you'll have to make do with your current situation, but no power or electronics.

If you're in a big city, good luck! There will be so many people vying for limited resources. No more goods will come into the city, so it's just a matter of divvying up what is already there. Shouldn't take more than 24 hrs for every bit of food to be claimed by someone.

Things might go relatively smoothly for a few days, besides all the looting...

But then when people start to run out of food and water, esp. water, what will happen? No pumps means no water in those high rises. No air conditioning, no heat, except in much older buildings that use oil without electronic controls. No elevators!

Depending upon the weather, people will soon desert their apartments and venture out onto the streets in search of food and water. It will make all those zombies movies look tame. There's a movie script here if anyone cares...

Imagine all those zombie movies where they move slowly and can't dodge your bullets or sword or whatever. Now imagine they're all hungry stockbrokers, amped up on meth, who care nothing for anyone other than themselves. And they're armed (although they're no rambos).

Then you have them confronting gangs of armed thugs looking to control sections of the city. Don't expect the police to come to your rescue either! They'll be stuck at home or in stations, no cars, no communications, they'll be helpless. And of course they'll be too busy fending off attacks on their stations by people seeking more powerful weapons. Remember in Iraq how police stations were always being targeted? Same thing gonna happen here.

 

Precisely. And all those things made in China, will never become available again, since there will be no shipping anymore, at least on the scale of supertankers or cargo ships. So to manufacture most of things we now have would require us to build new factories for things we no longer produce at all.

But in order to create a new factory, you need to have things like steel and fuel and construction equipment, and those factories that make steel and construction equipment will have to be rebuilt first, before other factories to produce goods can be built.

The real battle will be between the forces of chaos vs. those forces trying to restore order and get things going again. My guess is chaos will win out since there won't be enough time to restore order. There will be no way to get those "talking points" out via the propaganda machine, cause there will be no more propaganda machine (Halleluiah!). So to unite people will be a huge challenge.

I see ad hoc groups forming based upon mutual need of defense and support. It will be survival of the fittest and smartest.

 

I'm sure under those circumstance, communes will really welcome strangers who want to leech off their supplies...