Yesterday was the first anniversary of the Great Blackout of 2003 in New York City and across the Northeast. I was there, of course:
Traffic chaos in Lower Manhattan.
Selling (and giving away) food by candlelight.
The Empire State Building in the dark.
Madison Square Garden, too.
Stranded at Penn Station.
Times Square, darkened.
In addition to being one of the most fun and memorable experiences of my life, the blackout was also a wake-up call to the serious dangers that we face from the vulnerability of our electrical grid. The latest such danger to catch my eye is the threat of a devastating Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack which could knock out power to the entire country for an extended period of time:
An EMP attack occurs when an enemy sets off a nuclear explosion high in the Earth’s atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse generated by the blast destroys the electronics and satellites in its field of vision. For a detonation above the Midwest, that could mean the entire continental U.S.
No American would necessarily die in the initial attack, but what comes next is potentially catastrophic. The pulse would wipe out most electronics and telecommunications, including the power grid. Millions could die for want of modern medical care or even of starvation since farmers wouldn’t be able to harvest crops and distributors wouldn’t be able to get food to supermarkets. Commissioner Lowell Wood calls EMP attack a “giant continental time machine” that would move us back more than a century in technology to the late 1800s.
The Commission notes that little in the private sector is hardened to withstand EMP attack and that the military has only limited protection. After an EMP assault, the nation would be highly vulnerable to secondary attack by conventional forces or a biological weapon.
Hat tip to Andrew for e-mailing me that article.
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Categories: News, Terrorism & Homeland Security
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August 15th, 2004 at 8:52:56 am
What the article fails to mention is that scientists around the world have been working on(and from what I have heard, some have been successful in) producing this phenomenon without the nastiness of a nuclear explosion. Militaries have been interested in this technology ever since it was first discovered to have such an effect. Unfortunately, it would be silly for an advanced military to use a portable EMP-emitting device. The reason for this is that EMPs affect all electronic devices; they don’t care which side of a fight you are on.
So a battle would then set back to 19th century tactics, prior to the advent of radio or air travel. In any case, armies without much advanced technology (like those in less developed countries) wouldn’t be at as much of a disadvantage.
Just a thought . . .
August 15th, 2004 at 8:55:28 am
Armies? Who said anything about armies? I quote from the article: “But it’s a relatively unsophisticated EMP weapon in the hands of terrorists that really scares the Commission. All it would take is one nuclear warhead attached to a Scud missile launched from a barge off the U.S. coast to shut down much of the country.”
August 15th, 2004 at 9:37:49 am
Someone hasn’t been listening to American propaganda recently . . . there have been numerous references to “armies of terrorists” . . .
August 15th, 2004 at 10:20:31 am
Hmm… apparently this propaganda hasn’t been very effective at reaching the mainstream media.
August 17th, 2004 at 3:38:27 pm
Oh, good. First we get the warning of “…a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon…exploded in Times Square…“, quickly followed on by the impish EMP scenario in the ionosphere high above Omaha. {South Bend? Incidentally, what ever happened to the EMPwives? Never mind… :)
It’s clear to me that if Osama really wants to get the biggest Blub-blub-blub for his Buck, all he’s got to do is just Roll one right down the old Smokestack at the volcanic island of La Palma. Mount Doom, indeed. / Why, Yer Man could assemble a team of renowned Waziristani geologists to go on a scholarly field expedition to the Canaries, laden with much scientific equipment, and lob the sucker on in there. (“Yo, Abdul, you dropped something.”)
But seriously. / The EMP Commission’s actual Report is persuasive. As it says, EMP is an old weapon, but rogue states & transnational terrorists are newer potential users of it.