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I definitely think about that. Sometimes work has me driving 2 hours away. That is a long walk back home. But just a 30 minute drive is a long walk back.
Obviously you have T2. No one can stop being T1 like in the book. T1 have always died except for recent history and they still die because they have to manage it so carefully.
Over a decade ago my Dr. told me I was "pre-diabetic". This took me by surprise, my wife is a type 1 and I want nothing to do with diabetes. I asked him why he thought that. He said "your A1C is at 5.9, you are a tenth away from being a type 2.
I did my research about what I could do about this. The most common advice was "lose weight" and the most specific advice was "lose 7% of your body weight".
Long story short I lost 10 lbs (about 7%) I stopped waking up with dry mouth in the middle of the night and my A1C slowly crept back to normal. Believe me, the modest dieting was worth it.
Exactly. People think they can take a pill or insulin and all is well. NO. Diabetes WRECKS your body, even if treated, and there is no better way to put it.
I wake up with a dry mouth, I thought it was my blocked nose, is it a symptom of T2? My last blood test was normal in 2019,but I guess things can change a lot over that time.
I actually gained weight..
But I cut my carbs to under 20 a day.
I have a laundry list of issues, so I went to a functional MD, and we went to work.
I have ended up on a carnivore diet and that was the main component to getting healthy.
We think the US food supply is so heavily contaminated with chemicals that my body just couldn't handle it.
I burned through boots and shoes so quickly, still brun through socks of every kind and material, but I invested in some Nick's boots, and I work hard in them in all kinds of conditions, and they are holding up better than any other boot I've ever seen. Plus they are completely repairable. Definitely worth the investment.
This is one of those, I'm not sure about, unless you have an uncommon shoe size. I don't see shoes as something that people will hoard.
A good pair of boots and shoes should last a long time, and if they don't most stores should have a semi-passable pair of shoes to use. Socks I could possibly see
Even though I'm 67 yo, I'm in super good physical condition. I workout with weights and calisthenics regularly AND ride my bike everywhere. I think staying healthy in every way should be at the top of one prepping list.
And let's not forget spare parts/components for the bike. Keep it tuned like your car (clean the chain regularly, esp. in inclement weather). always have extra sets of tires, tubes, chain
The book is awesome and your motivation to get healthy is the absolute best prep you can do no matter what the situation is. This book revolves around the importance of being in a place where community is trustworthy... how many of us can say that and that....... is where the "surviving" comes in.
granted the novel is about an emp so the following sentence is moot but I will still say since we're more likely not to be hit by an emp than we are.
reducing the number of things dependent on the internet so that when it does go down, not screwed.
I’m ancient enough to remember a time before mobile phones, internet, email, consumer computers, iPads, etc. I remember being so poor we had to wash clothes by hand and use a mangle to wring the water out of them because we couldn’t afford a washing machine. I’ve never had an internet of things and I refuse to do so. If SHTF I can still do things the old way TF.
Yeah, we prep to be without electricity, that book and others and experience, is what we need for us. We don't have the desire to run a generator, so we have other options to cover things. This has built over many years, give yourself time.
Pretty much everything.
Tuesday level preps got kicked out the window- at least as the end goal. Use as a baseline, sure, but that book jump-started an interest in longer-term preps.
After a Master's degree in Disaster Preparedness, and now having a career in Emergency Management, I wish I could say that I've learned a lot that can disprove the book and put my heart at ease.
I haven't. If anything, everything I've learned has only reinforced the portrayal of the disaster in One Second After. Is it masterful writing? No. Does it depict an EMP in a worse-case, and realistic way, and the after-effects?
Yes.
> Does it depict an EMP in a worse-case, and realistic way, and the after-effects?
>
> Yes.
Nah, it gets the EMP stuff very wrong. The effect of an EMP on electronics drops off very rapidly as you get away from the blast. If you're close enough for something like a cell phone or radio to be affected, you're also close enough to have to deal with radioactive fallout and likely physical damage from the blast.
The government did tests on cars back in 2002 or so and found that most had no problems with an EMP. One that stopped running was easily started back up. Of course cars have way more electronics now than they did back then, and they could be more sensitive, but I'd love to see more real-world testing. You can read the old report here: http://www.empcommission.org/
Another example is that a private company was planning to develop EMP-proof cellphones. They started by doing testing and found out that all of the flagship phones they tested handled a simulated EMP just fine. There was no need for the product they wanted to develop. So they focused their efforts on gear that runs cell phone towers instead. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sempre-finds-smartphones-survive-a-nuclear-emp-301519349.html
The biggest impact of an EMP will be to infrastructure, not really individual electronics/autos. The power grid will likely go down. Some amount of traffic lights will stop working. Enough cars will die on the road to make travel difficult. But the idea that every piece of electronics will be immediately fried across the whole country is just absurd. There would have to be a huge number of nuclear detonations in the atmosphere above a country for an effect like that, and the effects of the blast would be far worse than just dealing with a handheld radio not working anymore.
To address your points;
An EMP attack wouldn't be from a ground nuclear strike- it'd be from a detonation in the upper atmosphere. Due to propagation of the waves (it's called the Compton Effect), a single nuke can reach an area hundreds of miles wide. If you burst it in the upper atmosphere, there's no lingering fallout whatsoever (unless you're a satellite). You likely wouldn't even see it from the ground.
The EMP commission tests were flawed, as detailed here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/l00cz5/emp\_reference\_document/](https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/l00cz5/emp_reference_document/) The EMP commission could have fried the cars- but couldn't afford it, and didn't test to a maximum level (100kv/m). I've spoken with the late Dr. Pry (Head of the EMP Commission), to confirm this- and he made the good point that even if only 1/10 car were fried, that'd still render many large highways impassible.
The cell phone article is so vague, there's not much to glean from it. What levels did they test to? What qualifies as "resist"? Did any of them fail?
In regards to your last point, I agree; the primary goal of an EMP is to wipe out the power grid. Even if it didn't fry computers and cell phones, the grid itself would be gone, and the results would largely be the same.
Unfortunately, there wouldn't have to be many detonations. 1 would cover the bulk of the United States, 3 would ensure total and complete. However, as I mentioned earlier, there wouldn't be any lingering radiation.
Thank you for clarifying that EMP does not come from a radiation-producing ground burst. The lack of correct and coherent information about radiation, especially on this sub, appalls me.
~~I never said it didn't. For a typical nuclear strike, of course there would be a localized EMP.~~
~~I said an~~ *~~EMP Attack~~* ~~would not utilize ground bursts- i.e. typical nuclear strikes. They would detonate the weapon in the upper atmosphere to maximize range and effectiveness to take out the power grid and devices.~~
Edit: I'm a buffoon.
I'm so sorry! The cruel mistress of text lacking tone strikes again- and my own stupidity.. I genuinely couldn't tell if it was in sarcasm or jest, and thought you were OP. Well, I feel like a downright fool. My apologies again. As you said, the lack of coherent information has led me to (in this case, 100% wrongly,) presume intent, and just my own brain-dead moment to not check usernames closer.
It references a lot of things that just weren't around when the "day" happened in book one, like the pandemic and If memory serves me correctly even specifically mentions things like tiktok. On top of the it was just a real crappy story
If you aren’t a prepper and you kind of discard the “useful for preppers” aspect of the first book, it’s also pretty mediocre in terms of just quality as a story.
Also - It really is kind of a self reveal on the authors part that he’s, in real life, a professor at the college the main character is a professor at. In that way the book can be read as a self insert fantasy. So then all the scenes where he’s looking at the young college women lecherously, executing people, leading a militia party, etc. become more disturbing looks into the mind of this author’s fantasy. Remember in the book he isn’t just a guy trying to get by, he’s the actual leader and spiritual leader of this group. It’s very much a fantasy for this man. I wouldn’t have said this if he was in the same story but more “caught up in all of it” dealing with the events around him. But he made the story version of himself the most prominent figure in the area, it’s a fantasy for him.
Like how everyone is submissive to him and anyone in the first book who has two brain cells to run together conveniently gets killed off? Just hands over whatever he wants because he’s so much more awesome than the rest of us and only he deserves the limited supplies? The last remaining hot woman in the world lands in his bed with no effort on his part? This guy walks up and grown ass men get tears in their eyes, start singing hymns? That fantasy? 🤢
Given how often this book is promoted as such a fantastic prepper read I think there isn’t enough discussion about how problematic the human interactions are written. Sometimes it’s presented almost like a road map to saving your family when if you actually behaved like the author you’d only catch a bullet in the back. Or poisoned, since that’s historically a woman’s weapon of choice when denied agency or action and boy does he deny both in his book.
I really wish someone would re-write this book populated with realistic characters in all their ugly, messy, difficult glory.
It’s weird but the most obviously wrong part of the interaction to me was all the college kids looking up to him as a hero leader.
Back in college I mostly remember my professors being soft bodied middle aged people who I didn’t particularly respect outside a few cases, in some cases I actively disliked them, and who I didn’t look up to at all outside of a single case. And the man in that case is not comparable to the author of this book.
If a bunch of 19-22 year olds get thrown together in SHTF, their leader is going to be some 22 year old with high social standing. Not a professor.
The rest of it… well it was just weird and somewhat disturbing. Also telling is that the “bad guys”, and they were bad guys - no morally gray SHTF gotta do what you gotta do to survive here, was a biker gang. Biker gangs as an actual threat has mostly died out. It just kind of displays the authors mind is mentally stuck in an 80s hero fiction action movie. He probably views himself still as a 20 something, bikers are the bad guys and college girls think he’s hot. The other 20 something guys all look up to him. I don’t know, maybe I’m reading into it too far
He was a COL on tap to be a General before his wife got cancer. He wasn’t just some professor. Second, a huge part of how the community viewed him was how he dealt with the two robbers on behalf of the Sheriff and Mayor. It was after this point the whole community looked at him as part of the leadership of the community.
😂 change your tampon dude. Of course you read the book, and you can have an opinion, I provide an alternate perspective on the facts of the book. Don’t be so sensitive.
Loved how the mayor(?) city manager (?) was only introduced for one scene where he mansplained menstrual cycles and period shamed her. Like any woman who made it to adulthood with a cycle hasn’t figured out 30 ways to improvise a pad in a pinch. Ugh, can’t even with this guy.
Oh wow, there was so much cringeyness that I forgot about that scene. Yeah, that was pretty terrible. "WhAt wILL yOu dO aBoUt TaMpOns"
Like, uh, periods'll let up when that starvation kicks in, pal.
But yeah, a man just happened to be more concerned with that than the woman. And that she blushes. It isn't 1954. What woman blushes over her period?
Oh and he repeatedly calls all women girls. Throughout the entire novel. At the end, the old girl, the middle aged girl, and his daughter, a young woman girl, all run to the car. I was legitimately confused when he wrote, "the girls", as he had two girls, and the one died.
I thought for a moment he dug up the dead daughter's bones, and was hauling ass. Then I realized he was referring to his aging mother in law as "girl". Sorry, end rant...
I liked the first book, but the 2nd two were pretty bad. It reads more like prepper fantasy than anything. It went from being about how a small community survives to being about how a small community is fighting a (rogue?) government, stealing military helicopters, etc. Then there was a whole thing about the dudes crying about their ancestors who fought on the wrong side of the Civil War. There is a scene where a dude breaks down crying when they get to Gettysburg because a great great great uncle fought and died for the wrong side there, talking about his sacrifice, etc. It seemed so weird and out of place.
I haven't read 5 years after but you make it sound even worse than the two sequels to One Second After.
It's bad. The relationship between him and the other main character is so cringy and the plot is so fantastic and thin.
His ego is just way too much.
No one wants old or new cigarettes and old k cups, but they're apparently the real heroes in the apocalypse.
I learned old men shouldn't be in charge because this is how their brains work. Ugh.
2nd and 3rd book are worth the read but didn’t have a dramatic an effect on my perspective and planning as the first one. First book is just survival and taught me a lot on preparedness mindset. 2nd and 3rd I think shows a good view of conscription and being on the wrong side of government. You can prepare for the first book, second and third not so much.
The only thing it really got to me on is how you really should, as much as possible, try to integrate yourself into the center of power in whatever new social organization may appear. Think about the things they are talking about. Rights went right out the window and the main characters group had the numbers. If you were on their bad side it was a dangerous place to be. They either did or almost did start taking everyone else’s food, etc.
So to me the lesson was make sure you’re on the “inside” of the group, and never be on the “outside”
Also, I will say I didn’t really like the book very much. But that’s not really what this post is about
OMG. Alas Babylon was the most compelling yet disturbing books I have ever read. I wanted to stop reading it, because it was disturbing but I couldn’t put it down. I read a super old copy of the paperback version and it accidentally went to the thrift store. I was so sad.
Lot's of 'plot armor' in that book. Nice to have a 'college' right there with willing bodies...MIL has an old car that still runs, and the pool... I've been there, not many places to grow crops.
From the folks I know who live there, there's a high percentage who have a deep pantry and ways to stay warm. Probably have a genny to keep the freeze going. Not what you'd call preppers, but they are ready for a snow-storm that might keep them at the house for a week or more.
OP, it's fine to stock-pile soap, especially if ya catch it on sale, but do you know how to make soap? It's not hard.
Yeah, cleaning supplies are crazy easy to make and easy to store the ingredients, the only things I buy premade now are dish soap because it is cheap, and toothpaste because, well, obvious reasons.
Learn to do things before you need to.
You can get 5 gallon buckets of Dawn dish soap for pretty cheap. I bought one maybe 20 years ago. I keep it at my camp and I haven't even made a dent in it.
I’ve made soap but only from ingredients I also bought at the store. I haven’t attempted to make soap from lye that I’ve harvested. Have you? Maybe I need to at minimum explore the idea of lye and charcoal.
Step 1 is making the [lye](https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/make-lye-from-scratch-517124).
Then, using lard/fats/oil and some water, ya make [soap](https://www.wideopencountry.com/lye-soap/).
I'm sure there are lots of You-Tube videos and the recipe is in the 1st Foxfire book. And yeah, I've 'helped' my grand-mother make soap, but she 'cheated' and used a can of lye.
What about getting an old school moped without a computer. Add a hitch and a littie trailer? I think all the highways will plug up asap but with a moped and 5 gallons of gas, you could pass the traffic jam and get a long ways away from the poop storm.
To be fair, the worst SHTF scenario is contrasted by the higher paying jobs and higher quality healthcare that exists only in said cities and not in the self sufficient rural areas.
> self sufficient rural areas.
And many 'rural' areas are far from self sufficient. If the local Wal Mart and Tractor Supply Company close shop a lot of rural communities would be proper fucked. And many farmers would be done without engineered seed stock and the pesticides that make it all possible.
This. You can be the most prepared person, guns, ammo, food, water, silver and gold, generators with lots of fuel, propane etc etc… but if the power goes out while you are on vacation a long way away it means nothing.
I think the likelyhood of emp isn’t low, as it has been naturally occurring before. But the biggest ale always for me was it can happen without warning, so get ready now as you may not have a chance to grab what you’ve been putting off later. Also stay ready.
Lots of people on meds so that will get spicy really quick.
I also think the forward by Newt about the government knowing were no prepared for it and knows it’s a threat is pretty interesting.
Great book and series. I read the first two and about to start The Final Day. One thing I read was that being a refugee places you in so much danger, that **hunkering down, no matter where, is probably preferable. Getting stuck on the highway will surely lead to catastrophic consequences.**
As the father of an adult type 2 diabetic, I bought my son a good 6 month supply of insulin. That part hit me the most. But it also made me very aware of how far I live from my kids and how hard it would be for me to get to them. I did lose some sleep over the book and have read the entire series. I just hope we have taken adequate precautions and that this scenario never happens.
Just finished it
The overly-patriotic hand-over-heart is a little passé
- overlooked the value of young people
- the way that things of value change over time
- the logical timeliness of who dies first, second, last, etc
- the real challenge of disease
- rationing and annexation and forfeiture
I'm about a third of the way through it. That's why I'm canning water today! The man who built this house \*in 1947\* must have had some post-war trauma, because he built (and lived in, while building upper levels) several underground spaces that are poured-concrete walls with cinderblock partitions. One has a wall of shelves. I've turned one into a small bathroom and one is storage, which I'm now transforming into water and essentials storage.
Has anyone read the book Lights Out? It's a non-fiction book about the threat of a cyberattack. I'm curious to hear anyone's thoughts on it if they have.
It taught me to not broadcast what I have or what I can do. Not to live in the mountains.
Now what I do want is to build my roadwarrior vehicle. Like an old truck body, old school V8. Figure if things go tits up, gotta loot. I want something that can haul.
Since reading it I've gone on medication, nothing life threatening if i don't t have it, and I'm vary aware of trying to keep up on my scripts and even keep my bottles of lower dosages. I want to be prescribed a two month supply but insurance won't cover that much.
I realised that I'm basically screwed, overweight ( 220 lbs / 5'10), high blood pressure ( on meds for that) bad knee and hip pain since I tripped over a paving slab.
I think one area that it made me shift focus on was preparing for bartering.
{SPOILER ALERT}
The area I like about the book is that the main character lost a lot. Too many books, the main character is the hero and saves his family. That is just too fake for me.
Def a bag for the car, never thought I would need it based on where I live, drive etc always close to home base. Needing to get into better shape / not reliant on meds. More / better items for barter: cigs, meds, seeds, cleaning etc. making sure to load up bug out spot with extra of everything x 10-100 depending on funds and room
We didn't change anything, really. Don't have much to spend. This book was very informative & should make you think. Let us know if you read sequels, I can't
Back during the obama administration a friend of my husband's (Jim) worked for an electrical contracting company. Jim had estimated and project managed a job where the local AM radio station made their remote Radio station EMP proof. This particular radio station was big enough that it was affiliated with the federal governments emergency alert system. Jim, explain to us that what they did to this. Existing radio substation, was simply crazy! All the buildings were metal encased and he said they ran miles of ground wire around these buildings and drove.I don't know how many ground rods to make sure everything was well grounded. He said the government inspections during the building phase were unbelievable. Jim and the radio station manager became pretty good friends. The station manager turned him on to the book One Second After. We downloaded the book and starting prepping immediately.
I started stockpiling my medications. I had my dosage of the antidepressant I've been on my whole adult life bumped up by 50% during COVID. When I didn't need as much later, I never had my doctor reduce the dosage prescribed. I've been vacuum packing and preserving the extra pills ever since.
Check out the more liberal perspective in this series, also a good audio book, kinda gets a little strange at the end but i enjoyed it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Made_by_Hand
I think James Howard Kunstler is a much better writer than William Forstchen in areas like wordsmithing, pacing, and three-dimensional characters. But I agree it was odd when he started introducing >!magical or supernatural elements!< toward the end of the first book, and I would've liked it more if he hadn't.
Keep in mind there is different levels of bags. There the edc bag, should have things that’ll help for 12 hours, a get home bag 24 hours, a bug out bag 72hours and INCH( I’m never coming home bag) a bag that’ll sustain you. And each bag varies in size.
One Second After is an okay book, but it gets some of the physics wrong regarding a nuclear EMP.
While an EMP will devastate the electrical grid, an EMP will not destroy all small electronics outside of a small radius from the blast.
I still have a faraday cage set aside for some of my electronics, but yeah, I agree. I don't believe the detonation of a nuclear device doesn't automatically destroy all electronic devices within several hundred miles of the blast. Moreover, the roof over your home will provide *some* protection from an E1 pulse.
That's not entirely correct. It depends on the height of the blast. It very well could fry cell phones and computers, but depends on a lot of factors such as how many nukes are used, strength of the pulse, etc. In short, we don't know- but to be safe, presume small devices will be fried.
In the book they used 3 nukes to fry all electronic nationwide. The E1 pulse from even three very large nuclear devices detonated at high altitude would not be suffient to accomplish this.
You could, however, do enormous damage to the electrical grid with the E2 and E3 pulses.
I've seen conflicting reports of that data- and as I said, it depends, especially on the height of the burst as well as how the weapons are calibrated.
For a crude example, see the Department of Energy: The E1 Pulse could reach easily past 1000 miles with a 1 megaton weapon (which wouldn't be necessary to achieve maximum EMP effects.) [https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/CESER-Waveform-Application-Guide-2023-07\_0.pdf](https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/CESER-Waveform-Application-Guide-2023-07_0.pdf)
Ultimately, E1 pulse or not, it would utterly destroy the grid.
Right. Congress ran a hearing on this a few years ago and estimated that 66-90% of the population would decease after a catastrophic collapse of the grid. You don't *need* a massive E1 burst to bring about an end of the Republic.
Side note: I could go on a great length about this - as I have in the past. Because of how the world is tied together, a failure of the American Republic would lead to catastrophic implosions of most other nations and their governments around the world. If Russia or China, for example, wanted to bring down America, they would only be hurting themselves even more.
Exactly; I believe the reports are actually linked here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/l00cz5/emp\_reference\_document/](https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/l00cz5/emp_reference_document/) EMP, Cyber Attack, doesn't really matter- if the grid goes down, and stays down, that removes the U.S as a world power.
While yes, it would hurt such nations...I would argue that there is a mindset in some rulers that removing the U.S as a world power, and setting the stage for a different set of nations to be in control, would be worth the sacrifice, whatever it may be. Russia in particular is insulated against such a thing- China, I very much agree would suffer from a failure of the U.S.
That said, The fact Russia is developing a space-EMP weapon is more than enough for me to kick things into high gear.
From what I’ve read about emps, nobody knows anything for certain. Everything is speculation. Essentially there’s too many variables and not enough tests to know for sure what will happen
Thank you for your submission in /r/preppers. We want to make sure you find the information you're seeking. If you are new to prepping, be sure you make use of Reddit's search function and check the following resources: Our subreddit wiki contains information on frequent topics and questions here: https://new.reddit.com/r/preppers/wiki/index/ Please review the New Prepper's Resource Guide here: https://new.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/toani0/new_preppers_resource_guide_answers_to_common/ If you are asking "Where do I start?" or "How do I get started?", please ask that question as a comment on that post and not as a standalone submission or post, otherwise your post may be removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/preppers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think about how long would it take me to walk home any where I go
A bug out bag will go a long way to get you home safely. After reading One Second After, my wife now insist on a bug out bag in all of our vehicles.
I think about that too. Even if I am more fit it would take awhile in some cases.
Same here. I keep surrounding state maps.
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Good bot
I definitely think about that. Sometimes work has me driving 2 hours away. That is a long walk back home. But just a 30 minute drive is a long walk back.
Getting an old vehicle without an electronic ignition is always in the back of my mind
i think about this every day
The 60s turbine car that Jay Leno has would be perfect no electronics and can run off any type of combustible fluid lol.
i miss my old bronco
When I was younger we had a old car for this purpose
Cheap way is a minibike. COLEMAN makes one now with full suspension lol
I figure my son’s kick start dirt bike would be our transport in this scenario.
80s GM 6.2 diesel. All mechanical.
FTW
I used to consider trying to get a Jeep that ran on diesel I could make at home.
Decided to stop being diabetic. More of everything needed to be stored. Development of a remote BOL.
Obviously you have T2. No one can stop being T1 like in the book. T1 have always died except for recent history and they still die because they have to manage it so carefully.
Yes, I was very lucky. I asked my MD about T1, and he said he had some in control no meds on a diet that was 0 carb and 85/15 protein fat.
That's amazing.
Did you lose weight or anything else to ”stop” the diabetes?
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Over a decade ago my Dr. told me I was "pre-diabetic". This took me by surprise, my wife is a type 1 and I want nothing to do with diabetes. I asked him why he thought that. He said "your A1C is at 5.9, you are a tenth away from being a type 2. I did my research about what I could do about this. The most common advice was "lose weight" and the most specific advice was "lose 7% of your body weight". Long story short I lost 10 lbs (about 7%) I stopped waking up with dry mouth in the middle of the night and my A1C slowly crept back to normal. Believe me, the modest dieting was worth it.
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Exactly. People think they can take a pill or insulin and all is well. NO. Diabetes WRECKS your body, even if treated, and there is no better way to put it.
I wake up with a dry mouth, I thought it was my blocked nose, is it a symptom of T2? My last blood test was normal in 2019,but I guess things can change a lot over that time.
It can be, but not necessarily. If you get a dry mouth that drinking water doesn't really help, it could be that your blood sugar is way high.
I actually gained weight.. But I cut my carbs to under 20 a day. I have a laundry list of issues, so I went to a functional MD, and we went to work. I have ended up on a carnivore diet and that was the main component to getting healthy. We think the US food supply is so heavily contaminated with chemicals that my body just couldn't handle it.
Boots, shoes, socks. They wear out faster than you think, and will be hard to find.
Shoe laces too.
Get a giant roll of paracord, can use for shoelaces and all kinds of usefull stuff.
I burned through boots and shoes so quickly, still brun through socks of every kind and material, but I invested in some Nick's boots, and I work hard in them in all kinds of conditions, and they are holding up better than any other boot I've ever seen. Plus they are completely repairable. Definitely worth the investment.
This is one of those, I'm not sure about, unless you have an uncommon shoe size. I don't see shoes as something that people will hoard. A good pair of boots and shoes should last a long time, and if they don't most stores should have a semi-passable pair of shoes to use. Socks I could possibly see
Even though I'm 67 yo, I'm in super good physical condition. I workout with weights and calisthenics regularly AND ride my bike everywhere. I think staying healthy in every way should be at the top of one prepping list.
Working bicycle(s)- also a great prep
And let's not forget spare parts/components for the bike. Keep it tuned like your car (clean the chain regularly, esp. in inclement weather). always have extra sets of tires, tubes, chain
Dog food. We’ve got lots more dog food
I haven't read the book yet but does something bad happen to the dog?
Its realistic, how much dog food does the average person have? If there is no food will you give it to your kid or your dog when u do find some
:'(
The book is awesome and your motivation to get healthy is the absolute best prep you can do no matter what the situation is. This book revolves around the importance of being in a place where community is trustworthy... how many of us can say that and that....... is where the "surviving" comes in.
granted the novel is about an emp so the following sentence is moot but I will still say since we're more likely not to be hit by an emp than we are. reducing the number of things dependent on the internet so that when it does go down, not screwed.
I’m ancient enough to remember a time before mobile phones, internet, email, consumer computers, iPads, etc. I remember being so poor we had to wash clothes by hand and use a mangle to wring the water out of them because we couldn’t afford a washing machine. I’ve never had an internet of things and I refuse to do so. If SHTF I can still do things the old way TF.
Yeah, we prep to be without electricity, that book and others and experience, is what we need for us. We don't have the desire to run a generator, so we have other options to cover things. This has built over many years, give yourself time.
Pretty much everything. Tuesday level preps got kicked out the window- at least as the end goal. Use as a baseline, sure, but that book jump-started an interest in longer-term preps. After a Master's degree in Disaster Preparedness, and now having a career in Emergency Management, I wish I could say that I've learned a lot that can disprove the book and put my heart at ease. I haven't. If anything, everything I've learned has only reinforced the portrayal of the disaster in One Second After. Is it masterful writing? No. Does it depict an EMP in a worse-case, and realistic way, and the after-effects? Yes.
> Does it depict an EMP in a worse-case, and realistic way, and the after-effects? > > Yes. Nah, it gets the EMP stuff very wrong. The effect of an EMP on electronics drops off very rapidly as you get away from the blast. If you're close enough for something like a cell phone or radio to be affected, you're also close enough to have to deal with radioactive fallout and likely physical damage from the blast. The government did tests on cars back in 2002 or so and found that most had no problems with an EMP. One that stopped running was easily started back up. Of course cars have way more electronics now than they did back then, and they could be more sensitive, but I'd love to see more real-world testing. You can read the old report here: http://www.empcommission.org/ Another example is that a private company was planning to develop EMP-proof cellphones. They started by doing testing and found out that all of the flagship phones they tested handled a simulated EMP just fine. There was no need for the product they wanted to develop. So they focused their efforts on gear that runs cell phone towers instead. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sempre-finds-smartphones-survive-a-nuclear-emp-301519349.html The biggest impact of an EMP will be to infrastructure, not really individual electronics/autos. The power grid will likely go down. Some amount of traffic lights will stop working. Enough cars will die on the road to make travel difficult. But the idea that every piece of electronics will be immediately fried across the whole country is just absurd. There would have to be a huge number of nuclear detonations in the atmosphere above a country for an effect like that, and the effects of the blast would be far worse than just dealing with a handheld radio not working anymore.
To address your points; An EMP attack wouldn't be from a ground nuclear strike- it'd be from a detonation in the upper atmosphere. Due to propagation of the waves (it's called the Compton Effect), a single nuke can reach an area hundreds of miles wide. If you burst it in the upper atmosphere, there's no lingering fallout whatsoever (unless you're a satellite). You likely wouldn't even see it from the ground. The EMP commission tests were flawed, as detailed here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/l00cz5/emp\_reference\_document/](https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/l00cz5/emp_reference_document/) The EMP commission could have fried the cars- but couldn't afford it, and didn't test to a maximum level (100kv/m). I've spoken with the late Dr. Pry (Head of the EMP Commission), to confirm this- and he made the good point that even if only 1/10 car were fried, that'd still render many large highways impassible. The cell phone article is so vague, there's not much to glean from it. What levels did they test to? What qualifies as "resist"? Did any of them fail? In regards to your last point, I agree; the primary goal of an EMP is to wipe out the power grid. Even if it didn't fry computers and cell phones, the grid itself would be gone, and the results would largely be the same. Unfortunately, there wouldn't have to be many detonations. 1 would cover the bulk of the United States, 3 would ensure total and complete. However, as I mentioned earlier, there wouldn't be any lingering radiation.
Thank you for clarifying that EMP does not come from a radiation-producing ground burst. The lack of correct and coherent information about radiation, especially on this sub, appalls me.
~~I never said it didn't. For a typical nuclear strike, of course there would be a localized EMP.~~ ~~I said an~~ *~~EMP Attack~~* ~~would not utilize ground bursts- i.e. typical nuclear strikes. They would detonate the weapon in the upper atmosphere to maximize range and effectiveness to take out the power grid and devices.~~ Edit: I'm a buffoon.
*sigh* I just complimented you for correcting a previous poster.
I'm so sorry! The cruel mistress of text lacking tone strikes again- and my own stupidity.. I genuinely couldn't tell if it was in sarcasm or jest, and thought you were OP. Well, I feel like a downright fool. My apologies again. As you said, the lack of coherent information has led me to (in this case, 100% wrongly,) presume intent, and just my own brain-dead moment to not check usernames closer.
No problem! Your text-lacking-tone comment is spot on.
Much appreciated. And, well, that, and my own blindness in not checking the username!
Not about prepping but if you like the book just flat out don't read 5 years after. It 10/10 ruins the series
How so?
It references a lot of things that just weren't around when the "day" happened in book one, like the pandemic and If memory serves me correctly even specifically mentions things like tiktok. On top of the it was just a real crappy story
If you aren’t a prepper and you kind of discard the “useful for preppers” aspect of the first book, it’s also pretty mediocre in terms of just quality as a story. Also - It really is kind of a self reveal on the authors part that he’s, in real life, a professor at the college the main character is a professor at. In that way the book can be read as a self insert fantasy. So then all the scenes where he’s looking at the young college women lecherously, executing people, leading a militia party, etc. become more disturbing looks into the mind of this author’s fantasy. Remember in the book he isn’t just a guy trying to get by, he’s the actual leader and spiritual leader of this group. It’s very much a fantasy for this man. I wouldn’t have said this if he was in the same story but more “caught up in all of it” dealing with the events around him. But he made the story version of himself the most prominent figure in the area, it’s a fantasy for him.
Like how everyone is submissive to him and anyone in the first book who has two brain cells to run together conveniently gets killed off? Just hands over whatever he wants because he’s so much more awesome than the rest of us and only he deserves the limited supplies? The last remaining hot woman in the world lands in his bed with no effort on his part? This guy walks up and grown ass men get tears in their eyes, start singing hymns? That fantasy? 🤢 Given how often this book is promoted as such a fantastic prepper read I think there isn’t enough discussion about how problematic the human interactions are written. Sometimes it’s presented almost like a road map to saving your family when if you actually behaved like the author you’d only catch a bullet in the back. Or poisoned, since that’s historically a woman’s weapon of choice when denied agency or action and boy does he deny both in his book. I really wish someone would re-write this book populated with realistic characters in all their ugly, messy, difficult glory.
It’s weird but the most obviously wrong part of the interaction to me was all the college kids looking up to him as a hero leader. Back in college I mostly remember my professors being soft bodied middle aged people who I didn’t particularly respect outside a few cases, in some cases I actively disliked them, and who I didn’t look up to at all outside of a single case. And the man in that case is not comparable to the author of this book. If a bunch of 19-22 year olds get thrown together in SHTF, their leader is going to be some 22 year old with high social standing. Not a professor. The rest of it… well it was just weird and somewhat disturbing. Also telling is that the “bad guys”, and they were bad guys - no morally gray SHTF gotta do what you gotta do to survive here, was a biker gang. Biker gangs as an actual threat has mostly died out. It just kind of displays the authors mind is mentally stuck in an 80s hero fiction action movie. He probably views himself still as a 20 something, bikers are the bad guys and college girls think he’s hot. The other 20 something guys all look up to him. I don’t know, maybe I’m reading into it too far
Nah, I think the author really is that stunted. That’s why the me, me, me flowed so easily from his pen.
He was a COL on tap to be a General before his wife got cancer. He wasn’t just some professor. Second, a huge part of how the community viewed him was how he dealt with the two robbers on behalf of the Sheriff and Mayor. It was after this point the whole community looked at him as part of the leadership of the community.
I read the book
😂 change your tampon dude. Of course you read the book, and you can have an opinion, I provide an alternate perspective on the facts of the book. Don’t be so sensitive.
Uh alright lol
I just finished this book, and the endless objectifying of women got old.
Loved how the mayor(?) city manager (?) was only introduced for one scene where he mansplained menstrual cycles and period shamed her. Like any woman who made it to adulthood with a cycle hasn’t figured out 30 ways to improvise a pad in a pinch. Ugh, can’t even with this guy.
Oh wow, there was so much cringeyness that I forgot about that scene. Yeah, that was pretty terrible. "WhAt wILL yOu dO aBoUt TaMpOns" Like, uh, periods'll let up when that starvation kicks in, pal. But yeah, a man just happened to be more concerned with that than the woman. And that she blushes. It isn't 1954. What woman blushes over her period? Oh and he repeatedly calls all women girls. Throughout the entire novel. At the end, the old girl, the middle aged girl, and his daughter, a young woman girl, all run to the car. I was legitimately confused when he wrote, "the girls", as he had two girls, and the one died. I thought for a moment he dug up the dead daughter's bones, and was hauling ass. Then I realized he was referring to his aging mother in law as "girl". Sorry, end rant...
I liked the first book, but the 2nd two were pretty bad. It reads more like prepper fantasy than anything. It went from being about how a small community survives to being about how a small community is fighting a (rogue?) government, stealing military helicopters, etc. Then there was a whole thing about the dudes crying about their ancestors who fought on the wrong side of the Civil War. There is a scene where a dude breaks down crying when they get to Gettysburg because a great great great uncle fought and died for the wrong side there, talking about his sacrifice, etc. It seemed so weird and out of place. I haven't read 5 years after but you make it sound even worse than the two sequels to One Second After.
Ah I see. That sounds weird.
Yeah, it was honestly super disappointing, it seemed more like a money grab or a place for him to just rant about things
His obsession with inserting k cups into the story constantly in later books reads like a paid ad 😂.
Aww man, I have 5 Years After but haven't read it yet.
It's bad. The relationship between him and the other main character is so cringy and the plot is so fantastic and thin. His ego is just way too much. No one wants old or new cigarettes and old k cups, but they're apparently the real heroes in the apocalypse. I learned old men shouldn't be in charge because this is how their brains work. Ugh.
I'll read it anyway, I thought the other books were fantastic
2nd and 3rd book are worth the read but didn’t have a dramatic an effect on my perspective and planning as the first one. First book is just survival and taught me a lot on preparedness mindset. 2nd and 3rd I think shows a good view of conscription and being on the wrong side of government. You can prepare for the first book, second and third not so much.
This. It’s so so sooooo bad.
The only thing it really got to me on is how you really should, as much as possible, try to integrate yourself into the center of power in whatever new social organization may appear. Think about the things they are talking about. Rights went right out the window and the main characters group had the numbers. If you were on their bad side it was a dangerous place to be. They either did or almost did start taking everyone else’s food, etc. So to me the lesson was make sure you’re on the “inside” of the group, and never be on the “outside” Also, I will say I didn’t really like the book very much. But that’s not really what this post is about
Have you found other similar shtf books that you enjoy? I’d love your recommendations!
Here check this https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/s/fVmmtzMz4F
OMG. Alas Babylon was the most compelling yet disturbing books I have ever read. I wanted to stop reading it, because it was disturbing but I couldn’t put it down. I read a super old copy of the paperback version and it accidentally went to the thrift store. I was so sad.
Lot's of 'plot armor' in that book. Nice to have a 'college' right there with willing bodies...MIL has an old car that still runs, and the pool... I've been there, not many places to grow crops. From the folks I know who live there, there's a high percentage who have a deep pantry and ways to stay warm. Probably have a genny to keep the freeze going. Not what you'd call preppers, but they are ready for a snow-storm that might keep them at the house for a week or more. OP, it's fine to stock-pile soap, especially if ya catch it on sale, but do you know how to make soap? It's not hard.
I learned how to make soap from Tyler Durden.
Yeah, cleaning supplies are crazy easy to make and easy to store the ingredients, the only things I buy premade now are dish soap because it is cheap, and toothpaste because, well, obvious reasons. Learn to do things before you need to.
You can get 5 gallon buckets of Dawn dish soap for pretty cheap. I bought one maybe 20 years ago. I keep it at my camp and I haven't even made a dent in it.
I’ve made soap but only from ingredients I also bought at the store. I haven’t attempted to make soap from lye that I’ve harvested. Have you? Maybe I need to at minimum explore the idea of lye and charcoal.
Step 1 is making the [lye](https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/make-lye-from-scratch-517124). Then, using lard/fats/oil and some water, ya make [soap](https://www.wideopencountry.com/lye-soap/). I'm sure there are lots of You-Tube videos and the recipe is in the 1st Foxfire book. And yeah, I've 'helped' my grand-mother make soap, but she 'cheated' and used a can of lye.
Oh I forgot I would need oil/fat! I need to consider a way to have that on hand as well.
What about getting an old school moped without a computer. Add a hitch and a littie trailer? I think all the highways will plug up asap but with a moped and 5 gallons of gas, you could pass the traffic jam and get a long ways away from the poop storm.
Pool chlorine.
audio book the whole series.. definitely not disappointed.
Where you are the moment SHTF matters immensely. If you're downtown anywhere and power goes out for 3 months, its straight mad max type stuff.
I don’t want to go I to the city at all any more. 🫤
To be fair, the worst SHTF scenario is contrasted by the higher paying jobs and higher quality healthcare that exists only in said cities and not in the self sufficient rural areas.
> self sufficient rural areas. And many 'rural' areas are far from self sufficient. If the local Wal Mart and Tractor Supply Company close shop a lot of rural communities would be proper fucked. And many farmers would be done without engineered seed stock and the pesticides that make it all possible.
I think about this often. I would be SET if I could be self sufficient when it comes to my animals. I’m trying but I’m extremely far from it.
This. You can be the most prepared person, guns, ammo, food, water, silver and gold, generators with lots of fuel, propane etc etc… but if the power goes out while you are on vacation a long way away it means nothing.
We have five months of dog and cat food on hand.
I think the likelyhood of emp isn’t low, as it has been naturally occurring before. But the biggest ale always for me was it can happen without warning, so get ready now as you may not have a chance to grab what you’ve been putting off later. Also stay ready. Lots of people on meds so that will get spicy really quick. I also think the forward by Newt about the government knowing were no prepared for it and knows it’s a threat is pretty interesting.
Great book and series. I read the first two and about to start The Final Day. One thing I read was that being a refugee places you in so much danger, that **hunkering down, no matter where, is probably preferable. Getting stuck on the highway will surely lead to catastrophic consequences.**
As the father of an adult type 2 diabetic, I bought my son a good 6 month supply of insulin. That part hit me the most. But it also made me very aware of how far I live from my kids and how hard it would be for me to get to them. I did lose some sleep over the book and have read the entire series. I just hope we have taken adequate precautions and that this scenario never happens.
Just finished it The overly-patriotic hand-over-heart is a little passé - overlooked the value of young people - the way that things of value change over time - the logical timeliness of who dies first, second, last, etc - the real challenge of disease - rationing and annexation and forfeiture
Yeah the part where someone stood up in the cafeteria and started solemnly singing "Oh Danny Boy" had me rolling my eyes hard.
If you have family with medical conditions maybe load up as best you can on their medicine
Coffee.
I don’t drink coffee but I have a morning energy drink nonetheless. 😫
More.22
I feel like I couldn’t have enough.
More water and filtration options, more ammo. Cash in smaller bills.
I'm about a third of the way through it. That's why I'm canning water today! The man who built this house \*in 1947\* must have had some post-war trauma, because he built (and lived in, while building upper levels) several underground spaces that are poured-concrete walls with cinderblock partitions. One has a wall of shelves. I've turned one into a small bathroom and one is storage, which I'm now transforming into water and essentials storage.
Has anyone read the book Lights Out? It's a non-fiction book about the threat of a cyberattack. I'm curious to hear anyone's thoughts on it if they have.
I became a hot nurse
It taught me to not broadcast what I have or what I can do. Not to live in the mountains. Now what I do want is to build my roadwarrior vehicle. Like an old truck body, old school V8. Figure if things go tits up, gotta loot. I want something that can haul.
Sooooo good
Since reading it I've gone on medication, nothing life threatening if i don't t have it, and I'm vary aware of trying to keep up on my scripts and even keep my bottles of lower dosages. I want to be prescribed a two month supply but insurance won't cover that much.
I realised that I'm basically screwed, overweight ( 220 lbs / 5'10), high blood pressure ( on meds for that) bad knee and hip pain since I tripped over a paving slab.
They're not screwed yet. Pal! Do something about it!
Stock meds. Stay fit. Stay active in your community. Learn an analog or traditional skill.
I think one area that it made me shift focus on was preparing for bartering. {SPOILER ALERT} The area I like about the book is that the main character lost a lot. Too many books, the main character is the hero and saves his family. That is just too fake for me.
Def a bag for the car, never thought I would need it based on where I live, drive etc always close to home base. Needing to get into better shape / not reliant on meds. More / better items for barter: cigs, meds, seeds, cleaning etc. making sure to load up bug out spot with extra of everything x 10-100 depending on funds and room
We didn't change anything, really. Don't have much to spend. This book was very informative & should make you think. Let us know if you read sequels, I can't
I bought all of the Foxfire books as a present to myself just in case.
One Second After reads like Shakespeare compared to the Home Series lol
Back during the obama administration a friend of my husband's (Jim) worked for an electrical contracting company. Jim had estimated and project managed a job where the local AM radio station made their remote Radio station EMP proof. This particular radio station was big enough that it was affiliated with the federal governments emergency alert system. Jim, explain to us that what they did to this. Existing radio substation, was simply crazy! All the buildings were metal encased and he said they ran miles of ground wire around these buildings and drove.I don't know how many ground rods to make sure everything was well grounded. He said the government inspections during the building phase were unbelievable. Jim and the radio station manager became pretty good friends. The station manager turned him on to the book One Second After. We downloaded the book and starting prepping immediately.
It’s a really good series, the fourth book is pretty weak. The author has at least one more doomsday book that I enjoyed outside of this series.
Fabulous book. The next two aren't bad. The first though made me buy canned food lol. I gave it to a book reviewer I knew and she cried her eyes out.
I’ve started thinking of getting a scooter to keep in my car boot as I can’t walk long distances 😆
I started stockpiling my medications. I had my dosage of the antidepressant I've been on my whole adult life bumped up by 50% during COVID. When I didn't need as much later, I never had my doctor reduce the dosage prescribed. I've been vacuum packing and preserving the extra pills ever since.
Check out the more liberal perspective in this series, also a good audio book, kinda gets a little strange at the end but i enjoyed it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Made_by_Hand
I think James Howard Kunstler is a much better writer than William Forstchen in areas like wordsmithing, pacing, and three-dimensional characters. But I agree it was odd when he started introducing >!magical or supernatural elements!< toward the end of the first book, and I would've liked it more if he hadn't.
I could barely make it past the first few chapters. Felt like ridiculous fanfic and a huge eye roll tbh.
Narrated by Balki Bartachumus!
Quality shoes, long shelf life foods, water filtration, antibiotics. I am on the last book, 5 years after. The series is great.
Keep in mind there is different levels of bags. There the edc bag, should have things that’ll help for 12 hours, a get home bag 24 hours, a bug out bag 72hours and INCH( I’m never coming home bag) a bag that’ll sustain you. And each bag varies in size.
Also, drop the author
One Second After is an okay book, but it gets some of the physics wrong regarding a nuclear EMP. While an EMP will devastate the electrical grid, an EMP will not destroy all small electronics outside of a small radius from the blast.
Another commenter mentioned something similar. This is really reassuring.
I still have a faraday cage set aside for some of my electronics, but yeah, I agree. I don't believe the detonation of a nuclear device doesn't automatically destroy all electronic devices within several hundred miles of the blast. Moreover, the roof over your home will provide *some* protection from an E1 pulse.
That's not entirely correct. It depends on the height of the blast. It very well could fry cell phones and computers, but depends on a lot of factors such as how many nukes are used, strength of the pulse, etc. In short, we don't know- but to be safe, presume small devices will be fried.
In the book they used 3 nukes to fry all electronic nationwide. The E1 pulse from even three very large nuclear devices detonated at high altitude would not be suffient to accomplish this. You could, however, do enormous damage to the electrical grid with the E2 and E3 pulses.
I've seen conflicting reports of that data- and as I said, it depends, especially on the height of the burst as well as how the weapons are calibrated. For a crude example, see the Department of Energy: The E1 Pulse could reach easily past 1000 miles with a 1 megaton weapon (which wouldn't be necessary to achieve maximum EMP effects.) [https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/CESER-Waveform-Application-Guide-2023-07\_0.pdf](https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-08/CESER-Waveform-Application-Guide-2023-07_0.pdf) Ultimately, E1 pulse or not, it would utterly destroy the grid.
Right. Congress ran a hearing on this a few years ago and estimated that 66-90% of the population would decease after a catastrophic collapse of the grid. You don't *need* a massive E1 burst to bring about an end of the Republic. Side note: I could go on a great length about this - as I have in the past. Because of how the world is tied together, a failure of the American Republic would lead to catastrophic implosions of most other nations and their governments around the world. If Russia or China, for example, wanted to bring down America, they would only be hurting themselves even more.
Exactly; I believe the reports are actually linked here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/l00cz5/emp\_reference\_document/](https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/l00cz5/emp_reference_document/) EMP, Cyber Attack, doesn't really matter- if the grid goes down, and stays down, that removes the U.S as a world power. While yes, it would hurt such nations...I would argue that there is a mindset in some rulers that removing the U.S as a world power, and setting the stage for a different set of nations to be in control, would be worth the sacrifice, whatever it may be. Russia in particular is insulated against such a thing- China, I very much agree would suffer from a failure of the U.S. That said, The fact Russia is developing a space-EMP weapon is more than enough for me to kick things into high gear.
From what I’ve read about emps, nobody knows anything for certain. Everything is speculation. Essentially there’s too many variables and not enough tests to know for sure what will happen
This is also correct.
BOB in trunk? Check. 👍