Book: "One Second After"

[AlexdeLarge]

Retired Colonel John Matherson lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina with his two daughters; one of them suffers from Type A Diabetes and needs insulin to stay alive. They think the serenity of their location high in the mountains can never be destroyed until the day the lights go out. Everything electric based no longer works to include cars. John immediately understands what happened; that the United States was nuked in the atmosphere by a few bombs containing an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).

John becomes one of the town's leaders trying to keep things calm and peaceful as no station on the transistor radio in his car broadcasts. Food rationing is instituted and former high school students are trained as a militia. They turn away desperate refugees and as the food supply dwindles they must hunt and forage, and chop wood for heat. The Posse, a cruel group of cannibalistic gangbangers, murders, and rapists, are taking over the mountain. John and his allies must stop them before they overrun Black Mountain.
Meanwhile, his daughter's supply of insulin is getting dangerously low.

Already frightening the Pentagon and the Congress is the plausibly including the ease in which the United States can be sent reeling back to a modified medieval era. John and his fellow survivors are figuratively and literally in the dark as to who did this, but the first directive is survival which includes not giving up o hope that the USA still functions and will bring relief especially medical. Fans will appreciate this powerful apocalyptic cautionary thriller but also fear how simply this can actually happen.

Harriet Klausner

[pstarr]

I'm guessin' the ragheads did it?

[TheDude]

I've read it. Grim stuff. You'll definitely turn the pages.

The racial makeup of the perpetrators is only suggested at, owing to the lack of communications in the wake of the event.

[WhatMeWorry]

I love your yesplease quotes. lol Makes me all warm and fuzzy.

[pstarr]

I love your yesplease quotes. lol Makes me all warm and fuzzy.

We are in a quoting war of sorts. I have no idea if he is serious or not. He is always so self-important. The cornies tend to be like that. They believe they actually make a difference. Very smug and solemn.

[miskatonic]

This is a great book. It does talk about the break down of society in a very realistic way. I suggest everybody read it. It is a great argument for being prepared.

[Roy]

I agree. Great page turner. Quick read.

I liked it and give it a B+...

I used to live in the town where it was set so that made it more interesting to me.

My 2¢

[timmac]

Retired Colonel John Matherson lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina with his two daughters; one of them suffers from Type A Diabetes and needs insulin to stay alive. They think the serenity of their location high in the mountains can never be destroyed until the day the lights go out. Everything electric based no longer works to include cars. John immediately understands what happened; that the United States was nuked in the atmosphere by a few bombs containing an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).



I know its just a story book and facts can be off, however studies have been done and tests to back it up, when a EMP is exploded over our country not all cars will be effected, mostly only those close to the explosion but even many near the explosion will still run, its our electric grid that will shut down and many computers that are plugged in the grid socket will also short out, cars are very good at grounding off electric shocks, however no electric to the gas pumps is just as bad, so I guess cars will only be running around for just a few days before most run out of gas.

Just my 2 cents.

[Arsenal]

Some Pri-G, NATO gas cans, and a manual siphon hand pump....

Just a few preps to consider. Speaking of I need to rotate my stored gas.

[AlexdeLarge]

"One second After" and thoughts about an EMP attack................... picking up interest in several websites:




Letter Re: Some Details on the High Altitude EMP Threat
http://www.survivalblog.com/


"EMP 101" A Basic Primer & Suggestions for Preparedness
http://silverbearcafe.com/private/07.09/onesecondafter.html

[Narz]

Would be a good weapon for eco-terrorists to use and a doomer's wet dream. Maybe Derrik Jenson should get on this.

[Tanada]

This novel takes place from May 2008 to May 2009 in a small town in the inter mountain west side of North Carolina.

The scenario is, someone sets off an Electro-Magnetic Pulse at the perfect height over Kansas and short circuits every piece of computer technology in North America from Central Canada to northern Mexico. When every civilian vehicle coasts to a stop and every civilian airliner that has a modern cockpit in in falls out of the sky, and every locomotive stops running how do you keep people in the cities fed?

A very chilling scenario based on deep research into just how delicate our civilization stands poised on the knife edge of modern technology. I bought it Sunday afternoon, started reading it Sunday night and finished it at 1 AM Wednesday morning because I had to go to work and it interrupted my reading Very well written, very easy to read and comprehend. It is the story of one man's struggle to protect his family and keep them alive through the darkest days in American history.

If I could wave a magic wand I would say this is a must read for the entire PO community. It will make you think about what you really need to think about doing to survive if our society falls apart due to PO or any other reason.

[timmac]

Electro-Magnetic Pulse Bomb as the one you read about in the story will and can do serious harm but I have also read that modern cars and planes with computers that are around 500 miles or so away might not be damaged, but most computers in homes, stores, factories, banks, etc will be damaged, autos and planes have a good electro-magnetic protection built in but to close to the blast and they can have a different outcome.

The reason for there protection is the steel cage, like the car body or airplane body, it directs the current away from the electronics.

[TheDude]

It was reviewed here already: One Second After. Doesn't show up in a Forum Search for some reason. Fun stuff.



emp modern car electronics - Google Search

Bikerman wrote:
Just a quick observation;
Top Gear (a UK motoring show) ran a test on a modern car where they subjected it to 'lightning' strikes using high-voltage kit in a controlled situation. Whilst not directly comparible with a nuclear EMP it is interesting to note that the car suffered absolutely no damage to any systems.

(The US DoD has also tested modern cars under EMP conditions, under concerns about the level of damage that would result from an EMP attack. All the cars were fine. The only reason i didn't quote this fact is because i don't know how sophisticated the cars they tested were - did they have traction control, GPS, i don't know - and because i didn't feel inclined to look up the evidence when it's so obvious theoretically.)

[timmac]

Yep thats some of what I have read that you have posted, TheDude.

However the one in Tandas story is the Big Daddy of Electro-Magnetic Bombs, Russia has one and it is powered by a nuke weapon, test have shown that autos, plane and trains near by might suffer some damage and could range up to a 800-1000 miles out and still cause some problems with them, however every other electronic and computer in America will be toast, electric grid will be down for days/weeks/months and how would we get gas, food and water.

I believe this is a weapon of choice by terrorist because it would cause the most damage with just one bomb.

[Tanada]

Yep thats some of what I have read that you have posted, TheDude.

However the one in Tandas story is the Big Daddy of Electro-Magnetic Bombs, Russia has one and it is powered by a nuke weapon, test have shown that autos, plane and trains near by might suffer some damage and could range up to a 800-1000 miles out and still cause some problems with them, however every other electronic and computer in America will be toast, electric grid will be down for days/weeks/months and how would we get gas, food and water.

I believe this is a weapon of choice by terrorist because it would cause the most damage with just one bomb.

Indeed, and it is not as if getting a bomb up to 132,000 feet is actually all that difficult, most halfway decent surface to surface rockets like the SCUD can manage that feat.

Turn out the lights and inside a week you have chaos as food stocks run out and cities lose the ability to purify drinking water.

[gollum]

I just read it, and it is an excellent book. According to earlier studies cars would be affected, However according to a newer 2008 study most cars would still run. However that is not to say things wouldn't fall apart pretty quickly anyway especially in population centers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxVBer9h40g&NR=1

This is part 7 of an interview with the author, but you can link it back to part one.

[timmac]

We may not have to wait for the terrorist to set off a EMP Bomb, 2012 just might be the problem check these vids out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_TzIUlaQok

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hujQg2E_fDw

[pstarr]

Just bought it used on Amazon. Thanks for the recommendation

[Outcast_Searcher]

We may not have to wait for the terrorist to set off a EMP Bomb, 2012 just might be the problem

This is all well known phenomena. There is an early warning agency (NOAA) that monitors the sun, and sends alerts to shut down satellites to minimuize damage if a big solar storm comes our way.

So there is risk, but Fox is spinning this to grab eyeballs, as always.

BTW, the physicist in the 2nd link's video was often shown in "The Universe" series documentaries, and that's where I recall seeing the detailed explanation of the solar flare problem, and the NOAA processes already in place to help mitigate it via forecasting and dissemination of solar storm data/warnings.

Wikipedia has a decent little article on it without the histrionics: link