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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 2971233" data-attributes="member: 3649">EMP's fry electronics because the intense magnetic field creates an electrical surge. You hear about microprocessors all the time, but that's just because they are a particularly vulnerable component. The pulse will affect any unprotected electrical equipment just like a lightning strike will and more, because it actually induces a massive current. Metal pipes, phone lines, power lines, all that will transmit a sudden sharp current down itself until it reaches some vital component; It'll hurt any device that can be damaged by a huge voltage surge, physically frying materials and such. It'll destroy batteries, explode transformers, melt wiring, all that. Like a lightning strike, the effect on anything is unpredicatable. Some things might work, some might not.In other words it's going to act just like a tremnedous electrical spike. Blackouts sometimes last days or longer depending on just what has happened. The US electrical grid is actually a great deal ore vulnerable than people think; look at the massive 2003 blackout caused by one station and it's cascading effects. And that's without the added chaos of nuclear war. If there are multiple points of overload and failure, you can pretty much count on the entire US power grid dying and not coming back. In the event of nuclear war, most of the techs and managers will probably flee their post in order to get to their families; some will not and they may keep order for a short time, but most people are going to leave their job and not come back. There might be a manual means of override, but if there's no-one there to throw the switch... Most EMPs don't damage a very large area. A nuclear device set off at about 300 km in the air will blanket the entire continental US and more with an EMP but the inverse square law prevents most of that from being damaging. The closer you are, the more damage will occur. Depending on exact circumstances, a nuclear explosion can disrupt HF radio communications because it affects the ionosphere. Enough disruption and I assume that for a time only line-of-sight communication would be possible.It's possible to shield a device from an EMP. I'm pretty sure most military devices are sheilded in such a manner; some damage might occur but I think it mitigates a lot of the effect.This is all presuming it is a nuclear attack. From what Mistwell says, it seems open to debate as to what is really going on. If they are taking inspiration from The Stand, then who knows what could really be going on.</blockquote>

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