re: Hypothetical: no power for 6-12 months because of EMP attack

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you don't download the files from Spankbank?

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Yes, but my computer has to work for me to see them.

https://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/a-survival-q-a-living-through-shtf-in-the-middle-of-a-war-zone_10252011

Several readers alerted us to a forum thread at Survivalist Boards that centered around an individual named Selco who spent several years in a city setting during the complete collapse of Bosnia circa 1992. Selco describes the experiences and the survival strategies that he, his family and his community used to stay alive. Many forum members chimed in on the conversation and asked questions of Selco, who took the time to provide vivid details to an interested survival community.

SHTFplan editor’s note: When it hit the fan in Bosnia in the 1990’s the electrical grid and water utilities went down, thus there was no heat in the winter and no potable water available for drinking. The currency and banking system were non-existent and commerce in its traditional form came to a standstill – leaving only barter as a way to acquire goods. The food supply and transportation systems fell apart. Police, fire, and medical services disappeared. Violence, disease and death spread throughout the region. Few were prepared for what would follow. This is Selco’s story. Pay attention, it may save your life one day.

“Nobody wins, we just survived, with a lot of bad dreams.”

— Selco

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In the scenario you meation, it’s a time period of decades before you have the infrastructure back to allow the disconnected society we have today.

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Eh I think you are being a little dramatic. Why would it take that long?

It’s not like every aspect of the grid needs to be rebuilt.

We actually have our own hydropower grid. Wouldn't take long to get it back online

Head to the farm which is very rural and secluded with one road in/out with basically unmanageable terrain on each side for miles where all my extended family would go.

Enough ammo there to deter anyone from getting close with all the available water and food we could ever need.

Doubtful. It’s not the source of power, it’s all the computers, transformers, and electrical components needed to regulate and distribute that energy that would be fried.

I don’t think that would come back online any faster than a coal burning plant.

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If we’re being honest here, non-urban areas with smart, industrious folks wound end up fine. You’d see small communities form that provide services and trade with each other. This would happen within weeks. Most everyone else would die. Most in the inner-cities would succumb to the savagery of mobs and then eventually starvation. Life would start over with natural selection choosing the best of us to survive.

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You don’t think the starving city mob would start heading to the outer areas and overwhelm them?

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Eh I think you are being a little dramatic. Why would it take that long?

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Because you would need the industrial capacity of a superpower to replace everything that needs to be replaced, particularly the high voltage transformers. Especially given the parameters of your hypothetical.

A simple watch needs to be replaced?

Well the machines that made the watch need to be replaced as well.

As well as the vehicles to transport the equipment and the raw materials to make the watch.

As well as the machines to build the vehicles.

As well as the machines that mine the metals and plastics used

Are you are beginning to see the problem? And that’s for a fricking watch.

While the know how is still there, there will be a major time lag to get it all back up because the entire economy/industrial capacity will have to be brought back up piece by piece

The rest of the world may try to help, but they are likely to be busy dealing with the power vacuum if not the economic mess from the US getting switched off.

The real killer will be the loss of manpower to run the economy. While weekend hunters probably feel they can work it out in such a scenario, the fact is they are likely failing to appreciate how interconnected and dependent they are.

They don’t have anything remotely approaching the skillset of the rural households of the early 1900s. And even if they did, we don’t have population densities appropriate to work in that kind of food gathering. Your hunting and fishing skills don’t mean shite if the deer and fish aren’t there due to millions of desperate people trying to feed their families.

It isn’t for nothing that the official estimate for the scenario you meation has 90% of Americans dead within 12 months.

So no, things won’t be back to normal within a couple of months.

I agree with everything you said other than the decades part.

I only used 6-12 months as a timeframe because that’s all that is needed to see the massive deaths and chaos occur.

I don’t think it would be decades before we had power and decent infrastructure though. Other countries will see a significant opportunity in helping us recover.

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Probably more likely to get murdered in a city but maybe more likely to find medicine you need as an example

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good luck with that medicine hunt. Not a chance of finding anything useful like that in the caos of the city