Data shows that more and more Americans are preparing. The problem is, our government isn’t.

Despite the growing—and more serious—threats to our country, our government hasn’t stepped up their preparedness game.

They know about the dangers. They're even studying them. Yet, they have no plan in place. 

This should alarm every single American.

This Could Send Our Country into the Stone Age

Consider this alarming scenario Glenn Beck shared recently on his show:

The nuclear explosions instantly begin a reaction between the ionosphere and the Earth's magnetic field due to the placement of all 3 nuclear blasts. Only a surge of 3 electromagnetic currents blankets the entire continental United States – that is all it would take to send the entire country into the Stone Age. All lights, all power, everything that runs on electricity, your car, everything, worthless. Food production stops. Water would stop flowing. Medical Services would be down. You couldn't call anyone for help. There are no phones that work.

While Beck’s scenario sounds like the plot of a post-apocalyptic film, this type of event isn’t that far-fetched. 

He’s referring to a high-altitude nuclear electromagnetic pulse. There’s even an official EMP Task Force that’s studying this sort of event. 

EMP events have been:

Studied by the Department of Defense and our Government ever since the ‘Starfish Prime’ nuclear test on July 9, 1962; this was one of a series of five tests by the US, testing the effects of nuclear weapons in high-altitude/lower outer space. We could also lose our electric power and our critical infrastructures dependent upon electric power for an extended period of time across the United States by a massive solar storm striking Earth, OR a well-coordinated physical attack on our power grid, OR a sophisticated cyber-attack, OR any combination of these threats.

While our government is aware of this type of scenario and the growing threats of nuclear war, it has not made plans to withstand this type of event.

When it comes to the grid going down, our country is woefully unprepared.

One congressional report predicted that, if America were to suffer an EMP attack, “the result could be to shut down the U.S. electric power grid for an indefinite period, leading to the death within a year of up to 90 percent of all Americans.”

90 percent of Americans… dead in a year. 

Let that sink in. 

Nuclear War Is a Serious Threat

While we don’t want to use fear-mongering, it is critical that Americans understand that nuclear war is a serious threat—and one our country is not prepared for.

Nine countries currently have nuclear weapons. And some of those countries aren’t our allies.

As explained, a nuclear bomb does not even have to detonate on land to cause a massive disaster. 

Detonating just one in the sky above our country would be enough to evoke catastrophe and chaos.

It Doesn’t Even Have to Be Something as Terrifying as an EMP

It doesn’t even have to be a nuclear attack to take our country down.

America is unprepared, in general, when it comes to any sort of event that could bring down the electric grid.

In addition to an EMP event, natural disasters can cause our weak electric grid to falter as the current state of America’s power grid is a disaster waiting to happen. 

Our government knows our grid is fragile and old. Yet they don’t want to spend the money to fix it. 

We’ve seen states lose power for weeks due to hurricanes, winter storms, and earthquakes. But still, the grid has not been improved—the government may even be making it worse!

Consider Beck’s point here: “It is estimated that our energy grid already today needs $7 trillion in upgrades. What are they doing? They're not upgrading the power grid; instead, they're trying to sell you electric cars, which will put more demands on the already antiquated power grid!”

Just how fragile is our grid? Find out here.

Cyberattacks Will Only Get Worse

Again, we can take nuclear threats out of the conversation, and we are still in trouble. Cyberattacks are becoming more common and occurring on a much more dangerous scale.

We’ve seen cyberattacks on food production, healthcare systems, public water utilities, and power stations.

Yes, power stations.

In April 2014, there was a major attack on the electric grid in California, with snipers taking out 17 giant transformers funneling power to Silicon Valley.

Rebecca Smith reported, “It is an incident of which few Americans are aware. But one former federal regulator is calling it a terrorist act that, if it were widely replicated across the country, could take down the U.S. electric grid and black out much of the country. The attack was ‘the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred.’” 

There were also multiple attacks on power substations last year.

Guess what? The government didn’t take steps to strengthen our electric grid after any of these things happened.

In fact, just recently a “study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission concluded that coordinated attacks in each of the nation's three separate electric systems could cause the entire power network to collapse.”

In an article entitled “U.S. Risks National Blackout from Small-Scale Attack,” the writer explains, “A small number of the country's substations play an outsize role in keeping power flowing across large regions. The FERC analysis indicates that knocking out nine of those key substations could plunge the country into darkness for weeks, if not months.”

The keywords here are small-scale attack. 

It wouldn’t even take a massive nuclear attack, just a small-scale attack from a country that utilizes digital tools for warfare. 

Other Countries Are Much Better Prepared

Some people may believe that our government is just like every other when it comes to preparing for disasters and helping citizens in emergencies.

The truth is that some countries do a much better job of preparing for disasters in general, as well as preparing their citizens for them.

For example, last year, Taiwan released an updated civil defense handbook that includes sections our government—and media—would rather not discuss.

According to a Reuters report:

Taiwan's military released an updated civil defense handbook on Tuesday that for the first time includes a section on how to tell the difference between Chinese and Taiwanese soldiers based on their uniforms, camouflage and insignia. Taiwan unveiled the handbook last year amid a rise in tensions with Beijing and after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, detailing how to find bomb shelters, water and food supplies via smartphone apps, as well as tips for preparing emergency first aid kits.

This is just one example of a country preparing its citizens for worst-case scenarios.

Another example is Finland. According to YLE News, “In terms of food and fuel, the country's preparedness is ‘exceptionally good.’”

Not only has Finland stockpiled preparedness supplies, but Finland is also stockpiling European Union emergency equipment for nuclear attacks.

According to YLE News, “The European Commission is financing a Finland-based stockpile of rescue and health care equipment for use by EU countries dealing with radiation and nuclear-related emergencies.”

While Taiwan and Finland are excelling in preparedness, our country doesn’t even have a solid plan in place for when the grid goes down.

Aaron Bloom, Executive Director of NextEra Energy Transmission, LLC, was quoted by RMI as saying, “The United States is the only macro grid in the world that doesn’t have a plan of any type [for dealing with the power grid].” 

It’s also been widely reported that the US healthcare system is not prepared for large-scale disasters.

We don’t even need to discuss how well our country responds to major disasters. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has failed repeatedly.

Now, according to Scientific America, “Responding unnecessarily to smaller events has left FEMA understaffed and short of funds for major disasters.”

In other words, we are on our own.

Preparing Starts with the Fundamentals

Realizing you are on your own when it comes to major disasters can feel overwhelming.

You may immediately start thinking about building a bunker. But building a survival bunker takes a lot of time and money.

Don’t start there. Instead, start preparing by focusing on the fundamentals. You need to cover the basics of survival first:

• Finances – Pay down debt and start saving. Keep cash on hand for when ATMs and credit card machines stop working. Have gold and silver in your preparedness stash. Buy and store items you can barter in an emergency. 
• Food – Stockpile enough food for your family. Start with a three-day supply and steadily build it until you have enough food to survive a grid failure confidently.
• Water – Invest in water filtration tools so you can rest assured your family can have safe drinking water, even when water systems are contaminated.
• Power – Have backup power sources ready, and at the top of your list should be a solar generator.
• Health – If you have required prescription medications, make sure you have enough for a month. Refill regularly and ask your doctor for an extra dose in case of emergencies.

Start with the basics and grow from there, friends.

 

In liberty,

Elizabeth Anderson

Preparedness Advisor, My Patriot Supply