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Are EMP and CME a Hazard or Not?

People pooh-pooh things they don't want to prepare for.

I don't think I'm a wild-eyed fanatic, but sometimes lately I'm beginning to feel like one. 

First read this article, Lawmakers, Experts Say Texas Power Grid Vulnerable To Nuclear EMP [electromagnetic pulse] Attack.

Now, do I think that a nuclear weapon fired at the United States specifically to disable our electronics is an "expected event?" No, I do not. However, the impacts of a cyberattack on our grid, or a solar storm (coronal mass ejection, orCME) are much more likely and in the case of a solar event, expected to occur eventually. That piece is not a maybe ...

Currently we are working on getting funding for a tabletop exercise on long-term power outages. Guess what, there is push-back from people and agencies that think this is a far-fetched scenario and not realistic. Such an event would be an extremely unlikely occurrence and need not be planned for or exercised. If we are going to plan for electrical power outages, let's make them shorter, more manageable and of a natural-hazards-caused event. A comment was made a few months back that we need to invest our money in things that save lives. Ah, turn off the power for weeks or months and see how many people die ...

Thus, I appear to be the wild-eyed fanatic in the room.

 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.