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10 Places to Avoid Like the Plague When the EMP Hits
Smart preppers prepare for all sorts of society-shaking events: mega disasters, widespread civil unrest, even nuclear war. But out of all of them, the major event that is most likely to happen, and most likely to send society back to the Stone Age, is a powerful EMP.
Whether it is caused by natural cosmic phenomena, a nuclear exchange between global powers, or through the use of specially designed weapons for this purpose, the outcome is the same: a total collapse of the power grid, nearly all electronics, and all systems that depend on both.
This will result in a bewildering domino effect of secondary and tertiary consequences. Some locations around the country will become veritable death traps because of them.
If you’re smart, you’ll have a plan to get away from the following places as quickly as you can should an EMP threat become likely.
cars on the road inside city
Urban Zones
The first no-go location on our list for EMP survival should be obvious to seasoned preppers.
Urban areas tend to break down into mass chaos and violence during any sort of society-shaking event, but it’s hard to imagine a worse set of circumstances for major cities than an EMP…
Cities are only held together by increasingly fragile networks of utilities and services that are made possible only by electricity and modern telecommunications. Any potent EMP will destroy all of it.
That means no deliveries, no electricity, no water, no nothing, and the effects will snowball by the hour.
Crime will explode, transportation systems will be at a standstill, and you can count on complete bedlam. Ideally, you’ll be out of a city before the EMP ever takes place, but you won’t always have warning.
If you do, get out ASAP. If you don’t, do whatever it takes to get away before things get too bad.
“Bedroom” Communities
Don’t breathe a sigh of relief just because you are sitting pretty in the suburbs outside of a major metro zone.
Modern suburbs and small towns that are designed explicitly to house people who commute to cities typically rate very low on self-sufficiency metrics. Basically, they suffer from all the same problems that cities do, only with much smaller populations.
These so-called bedroom communities will be subjected to a double whammy: the EMP will put them in the dark just like larger cities, and residents will be facing a ceaseless tide of people fleeing the larger population centers, searching for supplies, food, refuge, or loot.
This is a truly dangerous combination, and regrettably, most residents of bedroom communities don’t form the sorts of strong bonds with their neighbors and fellow inhabitants needed to truly organize for mutual defense or aid.
If you live in one of these places, your best bet is to try and lock down a neighborhood—assuming you’ve got enough clout and trust with several other people in that neighborhood.
Otherwise, be ready to get away at a moment’s notice.
port of Genoa Italy
Heavily Industrialized Areas
One of the single most dangerous areas to be in or near when an EMP goes off is a heavily industrialized area. That’s because these areas always house and handle huge quantities of volatile, deadly, or explosive chemicals.
When the intricate control systems needed to contain these chemicals go offline or start functioning erratically, accidents are a certainty. And those accidents can take any number of terrifying forms.
Chemical spills or vapor releases will poison water and air alike for miles around. Others will blow up at the slightest spark, potentially causing widespread property damage just like massive military ordnance.
Possibly worst of all, these chemicals might combine with others to make even deadlier combinations, which function like nerve or lachrymatory agents. Many are just highly carcinogenic.
Keep in mind that all this will be happening against the backdrop of first responders being greatly reduced in capability or completely out of action.
The resultant effects are likely to continue for many weeks or even months.
Transit Hubs
Transit hubs like ground shipping distribution centers, seaports, and airports will descend into chaos immediately after an EMP occurs. That’s bad enough, as major accidents are likely.
But what’s even more worrying is that opportunistic or desperate people will flock to these places in a bid to get vital supplies or ill-gotten loot. For that reason, more than any other, you don’t want to be anywhere near them in the immediate aftermath.
Piazza San Marco in Venice, one of the busiest tourist places in the whole of Italy
Tourist Hotspots
What could be better, in the aftermath of an EMP, than putting your feet up, taking it easy, and waiting for the whole thing to blow over? It’s a nice thought, but the reality at a tourist location will be far from idyllic.
Think about it: an EMP will strand travelers from near and far at the location, and the vast majority of tourist areas depend on regular shipments of supplies to keep the fun, and the food, flowing.
Combine a pronounced lack of necessities with the potential culture shock and mistrust inherent between travelers and locals, and the stage is set for atrocity.
You might be okay if you are in a sparsely populated, out-of-the-way, quaint town or village, but the biggest travel destinations around the country and the world will fare especially poorly.
Remote Islands
This entry on our list can overlap with the previous one, but not always. Remote islands of any size, and even island nations or states, will be put to a severe test in the aftermath of an EMP.
That’s because pretty much all viable methods for reaching them in a timely fashion, be it for the delivery or extraction of people or the transportation of goods, will be offline for the foreseeable future.
Most boats and planes will be out of action, leaving wind or paddle power as the only viable option. In the case of distant islands, this will make getting there or back pretty much impossible.
Don’t forget that these remote islands have their own infrastructure in most cases, which will collapse just as readily.
A lack of room, completely inadequate natural resources, and the general feeling of being completely trapped will send the population of these islands, however big or small, spiraling into chaos. Pray you are not among them when the moment of truth comes!
Military Bases and Defense Installations
Another obvious entry, both military bases and related defense installations of any kind might well prove to be ground zero for an EMP attack in the first place, be it nuclear or non-nuclear in nature. Obviously, the closer you are to it when it happens, the worse things are going to be.
Military bases will go into a state of lockdown and high readiness instantly, and people who are near, on, or in these facilities might likewise be locked down or treated with suspicion. That won’t bode well for your health and happiness!
Perhaps a more troubling outcome is what will happen if military personnel abandon facilities under orders or if they go AWOL.
This will leave countless tons of war material and God knows what else just lying around for anyone to find. If organized criminal elements find this hardware, the outcomes will be just as apocalyptic as the EMP itself.
Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and get well away from all military and other DoD installations if you want to truly prepare for an EMP.
Areas Near Nuclear Power Plants
Nuclear power plants should—emphasis on should—remain operational, stable, and safe in the wake of a powerful electromagnetic pulse…
Most are designed around such contingencies and are therefore devoid of vulnerable digital control systems. They naturally supply their own power and have plenty of analog backup systems besides.
Nonetheless, it‘s really difficult to predict just how far-reaching the consequences of a potent EMP will be. I think it’s hardly out of the question to speculate that a nuclear power plant might be affected negatively. If that happens, the stage will be set for a meltdown.
Should a meltdown occur, you’ll now be dealing with deadly radioactive fallout to go along with the total collapse of the power grid and electronic technology. It’s basically like dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear war sans the colossal kabooms!
Major Hospitals
Hospitals are places you should avoid in the aftermath of all serious catastrophes. All will turn into locations of immense suffering and pain.
Good hospitals have redundant backup systems and generators for essential capability, but outside of routine function and integrity checks, we just don’t know if they will hold up to the power of an EMP.
That means life support will go offline, surgeries must be conducted without the benefit of robotics and in the dark, critical refrigeration of medications and corpses will fail, and a host of other terrible outcomes.
It really will be unimaginably awful, and so you should get away and stay away as soon as humanly possible when the EMP threat is elevated.
Anywhere Near Detention Facilities
There are some circumstances, desperate and trying circumstances, that could lead to the deliberate or inadvertent release of prisoners from jails and prisons.
We can save the ethical conversation about this for another time, but for now, suffice it to say that if you live near such a facility, your neck of the woods will be experiencing a sudden influx of people who, in all probability, deserved to stay behind bars.
You don’t need me to tell you that this is potentially deadly. Accordingly, don’t settle in a place that has a major penitentiary. If you do, and an EMP is occurring or likely to occur, consider this a bona fide bug-out situation. Get as far away and as fast as you can.
The post 10 Places to Avoid Like the Plague When the EMP Hits appeared first on Survival Sullivan.
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