A North Korea EMP attack and solar flares have many Americans concerned about the power grid. Homesteading expert Rick Austin recently sat down with The Inquisitr to discuss what life would be like if an EMP threat or massive solar storm became a reality. The author and public speaker explained how such disasters could destroy the power grid and change life as we know it.
IQ - 2013 is rapidly turning into the year when solar flares and EMP topics are constant headline makers. What would happen if massive solar storm struck the Earth?
RA - First of all there are two types of EMP event possibilities. One is natural and caused by a solar flares (coronal mass ejections) and the other would be man-made. We have had natural events in the past, both small and large ones. But most of these events have occurred in times of humanity when there was no real effect to the populace or to mankind's infrastructure.
In 1859 the Carrington Event occurred which was a powerful geomagnetic solar storm from a coronal mass ejection that traveled along telegraph lines, the only real electronic devices we had at the time. This event shorted out telegraphs, ran along the telegraph lines, killed linemen, and burned telegraph paper in telegraph offices.
If such an event where to happen in our electronically, computer driven, web-based, interconnected world today - it would change life as we know it. Think about Hurricane Katrina, and how society completely unraveled in a matter of days. This would happen not only country- wide, but world-wide.