Let’s just say that the unthinkable becomes the real and happening. Let’s take this article and go over it. This will be a segment in three parts, the next ones being immediate actions taken at work and at home. I’m hitting on traveling first, as there are so many vacationers jaunting around happily over the landscape. All kidding aside, traffic is congested during the summer, extending traveling time on the commutes. Let’s game the scenario, and here it is.
Here’s the scenario:
You’re cruising down the highway in your 2013 four-door sedan, having just dropped the kids off twenty minutes ago to the swim club. Now you’re on the open highway with a heavy traffic flow…about 5 miles from the edge of town and 7 miles from work. You’re listening to the radio, when suddenly it crackles and goes dead, along with your engine. You look around and pumping the brakes manage to slow down and then drive off the road onto the shoulder, just feet away from the back bumper of another vehicle.
The vehicle comes to a stop, and you try the ignition again. You look at your watch, a Casio G-Shock, to find there is no display. You reach for your cell phone. Nothing. It’s dead. There are perhaps a dozen cars around you…half to your front and half to your rear. All of them have stopped, and most of the drivers have gotten out. You hear the sound of an engine, and looking up, see a ’58 Ford pickup truck weaving in and out of the stalled traffic, moving toward your rear, away from town. The book “One Second After” has just played out in real life. The United States has been attacked by an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) weapon. You’re 15 miles from home, and the “S” has hit the fan.
On Friday 7/29/17, North Korea just successfully tested an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) and experts from four different countries including the U.S. have determined that they have the capability of striking the U.S. anywhere. That means the optimal point for an EMP strike (dead center of the continental U.S., at 300 km above ground) is not only their prime target but also attainable.
15 Tips to Get Safely Home Following an EMP
Back to our scenario. Most will be clueless and unprepared. Let’s do it up, down and dirty with the steps that you should take if you are “Citizen X” outlined in the scenario:
1. Have a plan already in place: That means to formulate one right now, f you haven’t already done so.
2. If there are a lot of people around, such as in the scenario, then immediately grab your gear and get out of there. What gear, you may ask? We’ve “gamed” much of this to the point of nausea, but let’s list out those essentials:
“Go/Bug Out Bag”: This guy already needs to be packed and ready, in that vehicle that will become a 3,000-lb. paperweight. Three days’ supply of ready-to-eat food, one day’s worth of water and the means to filter more. Compass, flashlight, knife, first aid kit, poncho, jacket/sweatshirt, extra socks, map, light sleeping bag, fire starting material, small fishing kit (hooks, line, bobber), sewing kit, MSW (Minor Surgical Wound) kit, extra cash ($20 denominations and smaller), ground pad, extra clothing (hat, OG bandana, etc.), and ammo. An EMP may be followed by radiological and nuclear consequences. Having an NBC gas mask and anti-radiation pills in your vehicle could be a lifesaver.
Weapon: Please don’t feed me “legal information,” or “I can’t do that in my state.” These are “sink or swim” rules. If you don’t have a weapon now, you may not have one later. If you don’t have the fortitude to take that weapon and be ready to use it when the time comes, then you probably won’t survive this or be able to help your family. One rifle, one pistol, with ammo for each.
Grab that bag and put it on, securing your weapons. Then secure the vehicle, closing the windows and locking it up. If nobody is around, throw it into neutral and push it off the road. Camouflage it with branches and leaves…taking care not to cut them from the immediate area that you stash it. Most likely it’ll be “violated,” so now is the time to take the stuff you need and get it out. If the scenario above applies, just secure the vehicle and get out of there.
3. Traveling: Do not walk on the roads. Skirt the road with about 50 meters (that’s about 150 feet) between you and the edge of the road. Stay away from people unless you know them and trust them…both qualities are emboldened.
4. For metro people: If you are out in the suburbs or open road, and you must return to the city? It may be better for you and your family to arrange for a rallying point outside of the city. If that isn’t possible, then you should exercise extreme caution. Allow the nearest family member to secure the home and then wait for you. Travel when it’s dark to be on the safe side. Your visibility is cut down, and so is the visibility of those who may be hunting you.
5. Long distance to go? Forage along the way. Refill your canteens/water bottles whenever you’re able, and take note of any freestanding water supplies or “blue” features (that’s the color of water on a military map) for use in the future. DON’T MARK YOUR MAP! If someone gets a hold of it, you do not want them to be able to find your home. You must commit the route to memory and adjust your steps accordingly.
6. Dealing with the Stress of the Event: The power is not coming back on…ever…and it really has begun…the Day After Doomsday is here. Take a deep breath and concentrate on your training, your preparations. If you don’t have any, then this piece is a wake-up call to get moving! The best way to do it is immediately accepting what has happened without dwelling on it. Concentrate on the tasks at hand: navigating home, scouting what is in between, and foraging for anything you need. You have a job to do! Reconnaissance! We’ll go over that now.
Reconnaissance: You must see on the ground what is in between you and the happy Hallmark home you’re returning to. You should take note of any places that hold medical supplies, food, or anything you may need for yourself or your family. You should take note of possible refuge sites to hide if you and the family hightail it out of the home instead of having a “Walton Family Homecoming.” You must take note of water features, danger locations (cliffs or impassable terrain features), as well as dangerous individuals. Yes, the ones who were jerks before all of this? Wait until you see how they’ll be now, with no controls exercised over them.
7. The best advice I can give: Travel at night. This may be impossible for several reasons. Firstly, if it’s an all-out nuke attack, there may be the problem of radiation for you, in which case you’ll have to either reach home immediately or seek shelter immediately to remain in place for several weeks. Secondly, you may have other family members that need to be attended to and cannot wait for a long time. The kids in the scenario are a prime example. If it is an EMP only, there will be a “quiet period” of about 6 to 12 hours before everything breaks loose and the sequel to the movie “The Road” begins in real life. Darkness is the best time to travel. It hides you and helps you to cover your tracks until the morning light.
8.The rest of the family: They must KNOW THE OVERALL PLAN AND HAVE A PLAN OF THEIR OWN TO FOLLOW UNTIL YOU GET THEM OR UNTIL THEY REACH HOME. This is all going to take some preparation on your part and remember the saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Don’t put it off!
9. Avoid people, families, and groups of people. Your goal when traveling is to be invisible. I wrote some articles on how to hunt and how to avoid the manhunt. You may want to refresh yourself on those points, and follow a few basic rules I keep in my own mind and heart:
- When a disaster occurs, everyone is your “friend” even when they are not
- There is no interest but self-interest outside of you and your immediate family
- Whatever you need and have, they also need and want
- They will kill you for the barest of essentials of what you’re carrying
- Don’t talk to anyone: don’t exchange information, pleasantries, and do not tell anyone anything about yourself, your family, your general destination, or your home…it can be used against you later…and it will be.
10. Coming home: Don’t walk right on in. Use a roundabout route, and go to a spot where you can watch your house for at least half an hour or so before making your “triumphant return.” The S has hit the fan, and this is not the return of the Prodigal…you’re just going to tiptoe in. But before you tiptoe through the tulips and the window, keep in mind that Tiny Tim and his gang of marauders may have done it before you. That is why you want to watch the house closely. Best Advice I can give: Have your kids/spouse put up a long-distance-visible sign/signal so that you know everything is either OK or that you’ll have to come in and rescue the family. For example, if the birdhouse is still on the corner of the porch, then all is well. If the birdhouse is gone, or if it’s sitting on top of the post that holds the mailbox…well, time to play CQB (that’s Close Quarters Battle) and clear the house of the rats.
11. Never underestimate anyone’s ability to take your family members hostage: That goes for the “friendly neighbors,” most of all…the biggest rats on the block. If that happens, guess what? You’re now the HRT (that’s Hostage Rescue Team), or you better have a couple of guys such as this in your survival group/pod/neighborhood unit. The hardest guy or gal in the world will “cave” when their son or daughter is being held at gunpoint by some goon.
12. You’re home…Now, it’s time to fight! That’s right! Just when you thought it would be cozy and comfortable…just you and the family and your happy supplies…here comes a whole bagful of “Gummi Bears” down the block…only these bears are armed with baseball bats, zip guns, chains, and crowbars. Armed also with about a week of BO (that’s Body Odor), all twelve of them combined still have an IQ of 50, tops…and here they are, at your door. They don’t want Halloween candy, by the way. You just walked twenty miles. Say, remember that article I wrote about using ginseng, and drinking coffee to help you keep alert and awake? I hope that one comes to mind because it’s about to become a “festival” at your house. We’re going to cover more on this in the next segment.
13. Obtain that “second set” of electronic equipment. Oh yeah, the one JJ continuously warns about! Well, now that all your electronics that were exposed are junk, I hope you made some Faraday cages and stashed an extra one of those radios…or even several, for those of you who thought long-term. You need to find out what’s going on. Ham radios may help if you shielded them. So may CB’s and satellite phones.
14. Arm the whole family: by the time you reach home, every family member either accompanying you (small children and toddlers excepted) should be armed. Time to really see how tight and full of solidarity you are as a real family unit…one that must fight in order to survive.
15. Exit stage left: You may just find that the homecoming isn’t; that is, you must write it off as a loss and get out of there…it’s either destroyed and burning or occupied by the marauders. Unless you have the skills and the ability to deal with all of them, it is better to retreat and stay alive. You need a plan in place in order to make this work.
We’ve covered a lot of information here. This is all designed to stimulate those creative thought processes. The thinking alone is not enough: you must formulate a plan and then implement it. A plan without action is of no use. A plan executed too late is a tragedy: a funeral dirge getting ready to play. Don’t be too late to formulate your plan for you and your family. If the lights go out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the party’s over…and the party may be one that never comes to an end. Fight that good fight each and every day! JJ out!
Why somebody wants to scare people off like this is beyond me. In practically every single disaster around the world, “human hunting” and widespread murdering of random people has been effectively non-existant. Humans in such a dire situations have always risen above them normal selves, not turned into animals. Yes, there are exceptions, but they are so scarce that your risks in everyday life are higher. Looting could be pretty imminent, but the need for rifle and a gun? Bull.
As the situation goes on for longer and longer, it might evolve into something uglier, but I do have a lot of faith in our societies. Both civil and government.
As you americans have never witnessed war in your homeland, or countries beside you, you seem to have hard time understanding how awful catastrophies bring people together, its the human instinct. Yes, with exceptions, but they are scarce. We don’t loose the respect for human life in an instant. Some seem to have done so ages ago, though. Remember, your lookout to the war is heavily distorted. You have always been in war in foreign country, and only military has taken part. You have very little experience and stories about the life of refugees and civilians as most (not all) live in cocoons of peace in your (practically) own continent.
Do remember hurricane Katrina. People of New Orleans showed all of you the spirit of communities when the hardships hitted them hard. There is no reason the expect anything else, no matter what these war mongering paranoids want you to think. It’s wise to get prepared, no doubt about it, but it just seems that to some preparing means a reason to get armed to the teeth.
To someone living in a more civilised and secure nation, (in europe, pick you’re guess, any country fits the bill) your obsession with guns, seem truly odd. You are fine even with illegal guns, isn’t there a cause-effect-thing going on? Everybody needs to have a gun because everyone has a gun. Wouldn’t it be smarter, that everybody does NOT have a gun? Do you have any idea how horrible your gun related crime rates are, or just murders compared to other countries? You are on par with some pretty struggling countries. And the cure? More guns? Or maybe drastically less?
And do remember what are the chances for anything like that. Minimal. DPRK is the most likely candidate, and even they are not THAT dumb. They maybe could hit Guam or shores of Alaska, but it would do no good to them, only spell the destruction of their system.
So pleace take care when everything is fine. And do remember that the guns that are protecting you, kill multiple times more than in other high-income countries. An american is about five times more likely to be killed, than your average european. And your president is scared of how things are here! 😀
‘My Name’, I will take your comments for what they are, naive and very delusional. You will be one of the first taken should things really turn South and if things got really bad and there was not enough food to go around I can assure you that the worst of humanity would come out in spades. You can be the victim and pretend that everyone is friendly or you can prepare for the worst and hope for the best. JJ is helping the later.
we got plenty of food. and when that runs out, we will grow some more. we got land, we got seeds, we will be rid of bankers so the world for us would improve. don’t scare monger and don’t under value the People of this nation. We are not the government in DC.
May you rest in peace, but getting there might be a tad bit hard. I pray you don’t have a family depending on you!
Fear mongering is not good parenting. This sets a very bad example for families. If you are a parent, you should learn to control your fear and try to work with people, not against people. Teach your children to be fair, honest and unselfish. Don’t teach your children to be paranoid, selfish and violent.
LOL obviously you have no idea what you are talking about because you most likely have never been outside the USA borders. I have and you have no clue what it is like in most countries on this planet. Even some of the “civilized” countries you think of are not close to what we have here in rules, laws and freedoms.
Why don’t you take a trip to the middle east, africa and a few other places before opening your mouth again…
I’d rather have a gun and not need it than need it and not have it.
Apparently you never heard about what we euphemistically call our “Civil War” with was very much contained inside the country, contrary to your claim that we have never witnessed war therein.
The respect for human life can’t be lost, but it is also seldom loosed.
You obviously are so thoroughly indoctrinated with globalistic anti-gunitis that you can’t recognize that it may come down to your having one or being in the morgue.
Our president isn’t afraid of anything anywhere, he’s just caught up in neo-con war lust that will prevent him from carrying out his agenda. Fortunately none of that will extend to the county I live in, where there are 14 registered guns per capita, all the way from peas-shooters to RPGs, and that means that those who live here can defend themselves from those who live there in their ignorant bliss.
I envy you your 2A. In Canada we have such restrictive gun laws that there is no way we can carry, and no way to just store one at our place of work. All we can do is work toward getting home, where the guns are, safely. After that it’s no holds barred.
I live in a van and I keep a Glock 19 and a Mossberg 12 gauge in it. In addition, I also have two flare guns, which you might be able to possess legally because they are marine distress signal devices, rather than firearms. Nobody in their right mind will argue with a bright orange 12 gauge barrel.
If you drive to work you can follow storage regs and trigger lock a NR firearm in your trunk. Add a locked ammo can and your legal. Throw in a hunting license or range membership and there’s no questions.
A short barrel shotgun or 357 Mare’s Leg could be a good choice to defend yourself while walking home.
Grab yer BOB & weapons and ammo… and get going. Stay away from groups and built-up areas if possible. Get off the roads and get out of the area asap. There will be desperate folks out there and they will attack you. Remember that your firearm trumps that tire tool the thug is carrying. Hopefully gvt will also be immobilized, making travel easier, but you never know. Get to yer familyrally point asap.
Maybe I missed it, but I would add a good sturdy comfortable set of boots to the list for the BOB.
And as for the fruitcake you had to answer above, apparently he thought the gun shots in the back ground during and after Katrina were fireworks.
paranoid much? don’t get an attitude while insulting good Red BLOODED AMERICANS. We are better than that. It is our government that is corrupt, not the people. And,don’t quote to me about Hood rats, bc even in good times, they loot. Free stuff is something they live for. They can have the TVs. They won’t work anyway. Maybe they can set them up and pretend?
JJ – as you know my history, we’ve seen these things, we know how people will respond and when they’re scared and hungry, that little old lady cashier at the food store will slit your throat for a candy. In the words of Marcus Tullius Cicero ~ To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. If you live that long! As always JJ, thanks for the reminder RLTW!!
Spot on as always JJ!!
LOL! selfish people get paranoid.
Thanks for the great information on all your articles. I think we have never been closer to having an EMP (or worse) false flag attack to use North Korea as a patsy for the next big act of the “War Of Terror” which has been a war on US citizens as much as any overseas. “We fight them over there” while they now import them in droves over here. Proof positive Sept 11th was not muslim hijackers. A major war right now will be a last ditch attempt to save the petro dollar, make Trump a ‘war president’ and finalize their plans to control The US. Folks have been predictive programmed for zombie waves and end times.
This guy hates Americans to be so negative towards us all. I lived thru several black outs in NYC and we had a block party. You are seriously insane to adopt this plan as your own. BTW, people do share, that is what we are all about in this country. When the chips are down, everyone pulls together. Don’t be such a scare monger. Do not believe that we are the enemy, we are the solution. If everything goes off w EMP, (which N. Korea does not have……..0 EMP FOR KIM) .then everyone will pull together and maybe we can get rid of the swamp bc they won’t have the power anymore.
You protest too much. You also insult Americans. Katrina was on purpose to clear the slums for developers. the dams were blown up by the shadow government, as they like to be called.
Additionally, if you live in a slum, you will find slum rats. If you live in a normal neighborhood, you will have normal neighbors. If you live in Texas, no one will mess with you bc Texans do not take any shiit.
One last thot: If we get nuked, it will be karmic retribution for all the wars of aggression that we have waged against nations that NEVER attacked us. Additional, the war powers is only in Congress, only after a full and public debate. Article 1, section 8 says ONLY CONGRESS CAN DECLARE WAR. We have not yet been attacked. WW2 in Japan was allowed to happen even though the code was broken bc the Shadow Government wanted to enter WW2 for profits and laughs. The allies bombed the heck out of Dresden and slaughtered 350K civilians in 4 days. Vietnam was another travesty, slaughtering more than a million civilians. Unarmed civilans, I might add. And, the Korean war was also merciless. and so was Afghanistan, those cave dwellers never attacked us, there was not even one person allegedly on any planes on 911 from Afghanistan….only from Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Israel. Since then we have totally destroyed those two nations with bombs on unarmed civilians, and then branched out w Obama into causing a revolt in Egypt, destroying Libya and their entire nation, which was nice before we got there, and now Syria. We keep attacking people all the time nobody really ever questions it. We should have already had Nuremberg style trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. We used and use torture. We target the unarmed. This time we may have a bit of trouble w N. Korea bc the guy is scared of US. Scaremongers want the world to be destroyed so that they can play at war games. You say get your tent ready? You are only wishing for something so that you can play mental games. Since you were part of all these illegal wars of aggression that violate the 4th Geneva Conventions and the US Constitution, you are typically shell shocked and used to self delusion for participating in these crimes against humanity. And, don’t get me started on depleted uranium or micro mini nukes or micro nukes or mini nukes or MOAB that we dropped on people who never attacked us. There is no telling how many people are living in refugee tents bc of the actions of the war machine behind the Shadow Government.
While some of this article is worthwhile, some of it is actually wrong.
If you have prepared, you should have separate and distinct plans for DIFFERENT type of events because none of them require the same actions, response etc.
While I am not going to get super detailed here since I run my own group with its own discussions elsewhere, I will point out at least one item here..
With EMP, you should have an automatic rally point that you and your family/friends head to within seconds of the EMP OUTSIDE and away from ANY city or military base.
Why? Because in the event of an EMP strike, there is a very very high chance it will be followup by nuclear strikes in major cities and military bases.
Going back home or re-entering a city after EMP is the worst choice you can make.
And that is just one thing about the article that I found…
This is true. One of the main things I have talked to my family about is in the event of an apparent EMP attack, there is a solid chance that this is only the first wave of a larger strike. Know this when it happens, and when everyone else is wandering around confused as to what is happening, you better be doing your best to take cover.
This is why I tell people in my group to fully vet out articles, authors and people that purport to claim to be experts. Don’t just blindly trust the information without knowing who and where the information comes from.
It irritates me when I come sites, articles and so called ‘experts’ who give out information and it is actually completely wrong.. so wrong in fact people would die were they to actually follow it.
This particular article is not bad but it is also not really fully accurate either as I pointed out. My point is people need to understand to not take things as they are unless they are sure they can trust the source giving out the information.
Let’s “vet” you out, then. Who are you? This guy has been writing on this site for years, and never have I heard any negativity or bragging out of him.
Who are you? A “preparedness group leader,” right?
Yeah, you want JJ’s whole record in front of your eyes…and once he is who he says he is, then what? You’ll apologize until the next fruitcake wants some ID out of him. Or worse: you’re probably some “turd” who wants to hurt him, or something.
Just shut up and let the guy help others. You read so far into what he wrote, that YOU STARTED OUT TO ATTACK HIM…NO MATTER WHAT HE WROTE.
Some people just have a bone to pick, but what “bone” are you?
Who are you, “Malakie?” When did you serve?
Vet you, Malakie! Is that the same Malakie as out of “Children of the Corn?”
CSM (Ret) Will Danner,
1st SFG (Abn); 1971-1986
Sorry, that “58 Ford pickup” wouldn’t be driving around unless it had been protected by a faraday cage when the EMP hit. Of course this kind of protection would also have worked for a modern vehicle.
Just a thought: do you realise that an article like this, giving the advice that is does, is basically a blueprint for a successfull attack on the United States? If Americans really do react like this in case of a blackout or EMP, all a potential enemy needs to do is cause such a event and then sit back and wait until Americans start killing each other. Your mighty military would soon be useless as they would no longer receive any orders from a home front that (according to you) would cease to exist within days. I really hope that you are wrong (although both 9/11 and Katrina indicated that you might be right).
Sad, but true. Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck and without direct government assistance would turn into a hungry mob within a week. There would indeed be mass chaos. Most are simply ill prepared for a short disruption of the Just-in-Time consumer market.
‘Stacey’s Quest’, available on Amazon, tells exactly this story and the aftermath. Most people are good, most will help if they can. But….then there are the pathologic 20% who revert to their animal instincts.
Fortunately I live in a mobile get out of town bag.
If the lights don’t come back on in 7 days we all will become animals and lying to yourself won’t change that fact.
We have always been at the top of the animal food chain. That won’t change. Those who are addicted to modern technology will die first. Then those of us who can MacGyver will get to work rebuilding what they left behind.
The USA is the most powerful nation on earth.
Don’t waste time and energy camouflaging your 3000 lb paperweight. Our never going to see it again. Don’t worry about marking your map at a large scale but you won’t need makings to find your own home in your town.
Stay ON the roads at first. You’re just going to waste time and energy playing escape and evasion during the first few hours when people are milling around bewildered and Nott a danger. As the hours and days go by and people become more hungry and thirsty they will become more dangerous but right after the event getting home ASAP is priority.
Don’t iillegally carry a weapon that can get you thrown in jail. After the event do what you need to do of course.
What a load of equine feces. The Norks will not EMP us. Period. Cut the crap.
This will be a segment in three parts.
apr 13 today.
Where are the other two parts of this?
Going over old articles out of boredom.