Reading this article makes me wonder what good is money in the bank or the stock market if electrical transmissions can be totally knocked out by EMP. All necessary supplies for life would likewise be made inaccessible. Little is being done to protect us from such a catastrophe.
EMP is electromagnetic radiation from an explosion (especially a nuclear explosion). The worst of the pulse lasts for only a second but any unprotected electrical equipment - and anything connected to electrical cables, which act as giant lightning rods or antennas - are affected by it. If a nation with a nuclear bomb and the ability to explode it high above an American city were to do so, it would have a massive effect in all directions. Almost immediately all communications systems in the country would be disrupted completely. No radio. No television. No internet. Indeed no electricity at all. Most of the country literally would be in the dark with no possibility of recovering any electrical facilities. We would not be able to run our cars because the gasoline pumps would not work. Water distribution systems would not work.
While
there would be few immediate deaths connected with such an explosion,
the long-term consequences would be profound. The national power grid
would be rendered completely impotent. It would take many months or
even years to have it up and running but with no power tools available,
accomplishing this likely would be impossible. There would be no
telecommunications. Railroads would be unable to run. Even if the few
steam locomotives left were employed, there would be no signal systems
and no ability to switch tracks. Our entire financial system would be
disrupted because computers would shut down. I could go on but you get
the picture. Recovery would depend upon the restoration of electric
power, the possibility of which would depend upon whether a part of the
country was unaffected and that would depend upon where the bomb
explodes.