EMP has the Government Worried

[Moped]

I have six of them here in Nashville. Each has hundreds of gallons, and up to 1000 gallon capacity. Most will go way past 48 hours. During the Katrina aftermath, we refuelled them (along the Gulf coast) while they were running, and kept them going for weeks. we had our own supply lines, so there was no danger of running out of fuel. FWIW, the federal government was real interested in keeping us on the air, and called me every day or so to get status reports. LOTS of radios hooked to car batteries out there.

 

FWIW, my cell service wasn't so good.

 

BTW... Natural gas is a bad choice, because they tend to shut the gas lines down during most disasters. So, it's the opposite of what you would think in terms of reliability. It's why we have diesel fuel on top of skyscrapers in NYC.

 

Mike that's what the client told us, too.  They felt they could get a delivery within 48 hours.  But since the discussion concerned an EMP most diesel tankers are  not going to be moving, because their on-board computers are going to be fried. So you are back to 24 to 48 hours of operation time.  Of couse, it won't matter if all your radio equipment is fried as well. 

 

Some questions if you are allowed to answer, how long to test run your generators and how often?  Do you receive regular deliveries of fuel, where they top the tanks off or what?  How do you keep the fuel fresh?

 

BTW, for cell phone infrastructure, the back up power requirement is 8 hours for rural towers and 24 hours for Central offices, hubs, etc. Probably the reason your cell phone coverage was not so good.

[Grayfox54]

When I was still working for the city, part of my job was taking care of all our emergency generator sets. We have 16 units ranging from fairly small ones which might run a single building up to monster diesels to run water treatment plants. 24 to 48 hours is about right for run time on a fully fueled unit. 

When Hurricane Elvis hit the memphis area back in 2003, all I did for anywhere from 10 to 16 hours a day was haul fuel to these generators and keep a check on them. This went on for over two weeks. This was only possible because our shop generator also ran the fuel pumps. Our biggest consern was that our fuel supplier was having an awful time trying to get fuel. Since we were government, we did get priority, but even then we came very close to running out several times. in fact. there were a couple of times where we were praying the units wouldn't run out before our next fuel delivery.

But all of this would be a moot point in the event of an EMP as the control circuits in the gensets would be fried. They would never even start.

[mikegideon]

Mike that's what the client told us, too.  They felt they could get a delivery within 48 hours.  But since the discussion concerned an EMP most diesel tankers are  not going to be moving, because their on-board computers are going to be fried. So you are back to 24 to 48 hours of operation time.  Of couse, it won't matter if all your radio equipment is fried as well. 

 

Some questions if you are allowed to answer, how long to test run your generators and how often?  Do you receive regular deliveries of fuel, where they top the tanks off or what?  How do you keep the fuel fresh?

 

BTW, for cell phone infrastructure, the back up power requirement is 8 hours for rural towers and 24 hours for Central offices, hubs, etc. Probably the reason your cell phone coverage was not so good.

 

Not every piece of electronics will be taken out by an EMP. The electrical grid is one of the most vulnerable. because everything has long antennas, and because they have so many long lead time items. FEMA even owns a bunch of broadcast transmitters across the US, and those sites are hardened against EMP. My money says that FEMA will be able to gas those sites as well. My money also says that they will fuel big radio stations that need it.

[mikegideon]

After thinking about how I could survive, I realized my gun safe is electronic!!  No hunting or protection with a firearm.  I guess I would have to use my bow or trade out the safe for a mechanical lock. :doh:

 

Or, you may just be able to enter the combination and open the door.