I'd like to read this book. As an electrical engineer, and always love a good Armageddon story, this idea has always intrigued me. Even though it has been noted that some significant number of autos and other vehicles will likely still function following an EMP attack (and more, in the case of a solar flare scenario), my own opinion is that somewhere between 70% to 90% of the US population would be dead within a year of such an event. There is no way the rest of the world (assuming they were not also affected) could respond within the one to two week window, with sufficient resources, necessary to prevent the millions of deaths that would occur with that time frame. Oh, and those back-up generators to keep the nuke reactors from melting down? They do not typically have the fuel to run those generators long enough to "safe" the facilities. They've got enough to run the pumps long enough to restore power from the grid, which would be down for as much as a year in this scenario.
The instant loss of most civilian communications, along with all the computers that run everything these days, would prevent the federal and even state government from mounting any serious response. Fuel would not be pumped, water would not flow, air and rail traffic would be paralyzed, followed by road traffic once the fuel in your car and stored locally at gas stations runs out (assuming the computer controlled electric gas pumps wouldn't also be down). Also, while most large financial institutions have EMP hardened databases, that won't help the average person. Most people don't have more than $100 cash on hand, and stores will likely go cash-only (until the 3-days of food has sold out). Instant inflation (supply and demand doesn't take a holiday for this) will insure that $100 won't last long. I could go on, but anyone who thinks about it will realize it's a worst-case disaster. Even if only the USA is hit directly, it would be felt world-wide. The USA is a major exporter of food, and the world financial markets still use mostly the US dollar as their reserve currency. Add to that that many countries' economies are greatly dependent on US trade, the resulting world wide financial catastrophe would insure the rest of the world would be too busy dealing with their own collapsed economies and resulting societal chaos to provide more than lip-service aid to the US.
It is criminal that our Federal Gov has not spend the roughly 2-3 billion dollars it would take to prepare for such an event (I hope that, should it occur, a hungry D.C. populace will turn to them as a ready source of protein...would serve them right). Purchasing back-up transformers, upgrading surge protection capabilities, and breaking up the grid into a larger number of interconnected, but quickly isolated, sub-grids could be started tomorrow. The inability of Congress to take action is nothing short of treasonous.
Since the government will be of little help to the average Joe, what can you do to prepare? At a minimum, I'd recommend the following first steps:
1) Have three weeks of non-perishable food, plus water, in your home. It won't see you through the full-duration of such a disaster, but you'll survive longer than most people. Plus, for less society ending disasters, it gives you options. For quite a bit less than the cost of a new car, you can actually procure a year's supply of freeze-dried food (25-year shelf life), but start by simply buying extra cans/boxes of stable, easily prepared food that you already buy. Once you've got a stockpile, rotate it as you use and buy more.
2) Prepare a 72-hour bug-out bag for each member of the family. Some disasters will be such that sheltering in place is preferred, but don't count on it.
3) Cash is king: have some cash ($1,000 is not too much) on hand, as well as barter items like silver, gold, and ammo (the three precious metals; gold, silver, and lead).
4) Very important: have a plan and make sure your family knows it.
Note on firearms: I know the fluffy, non-scary thing to say is that, "If you don't feel comfortable with having guns in the house, than don't." However, the four horsemen are not gonna politely knock on your door and say pretty please. A firearm is an equalizer, and in the event of a large scale disaster, the police are not going to be available to patrol the streets or respond to your 9-1-1 call (assuming your phone still works). Fun thread (in a warped way).
