Two years, perhaps for one huge transformer. They are custom made and the only two countries producing them are our good friends to the north, Canada and, of course, our BFFs China. Hmm. Think we might be low on the priority list to get back on line?
They are so heavy according to folks who claim to know, they have to be routed by special routes. You can’t just drive down I-5 with one loaded on a semi.
I once saw a big tank being moved down Hwy 395. They had guys with long fiberglass poles walking along through the town of Bishop, CA, propping up the wires hanging over the street, so the tank moved at a slow walking pace through the town of Bishop and as far as I could tell, it was just a large empty steel tank being moved some place, not a hugely heavy transformer.
The flatbed was moving down the center of the road through town, so you can foresee that traffic was stopped in both directions. Somehow I lucked out and was only a couple of cars behind the flatbed, so when he pulled over to let traffic go by outside of town I was one of the lucky ones who got by him quickly. Every time they got to wires over the road the guys with poles had to get busy. I am sure it was a tedious process getting that tank hauled down Hghwy 395 to wherever it was going.
An EMP burst over Kansas would have a burst radius according to folks who claim to know of about 1500 miles. Both Southern Canada and Northern Mexico would get to enjoy our discomfort. Folks in the northwest of Washington State and the Florida Panhandle might escape as well as the tip of Maine and San Diego, but with the grid crashing down in such a large area, unless the operators were standing by with their hands on the switches, those grids would get crashed because they are all hooked together with the exception of Texas which might be the only entire state with juice flowing through the lines. Texas has their own grid and is not hooked to the national grid. At least that is what I have read. I haven’t personally checked to see if that is accurate.
Thanks for the photos, Mike. I tried to count the axles on that flatbed but couldn’t distinguish them after I got to 15. Not something you see tooling down the 101 between Topanga Canyon and White Oak Blvd. every day for sure. I am not sure how long it takes to build something like that but have read that it isn’t something you order off the shelf from Electronic.com. I do think there would be a short time lag if a couple hundred were needed all at once. Interesting that the two already in place are protected against overlarge. I wonder to what level they are protected. While an EMP strike may not be the doomsday event predicted by EOTW fiction writers, I am confident that it will be mightily inconvenient if it happens. Although I think a computer systems hack is just a deleterious and just as likely as an EMP attack. Either will be a lot more inconvenient than spilling your coffee in your car on your commute to work.
I was the Concrete and Rigging/Transport contractor. My part alone was north of $250K. The rate for the Goldhofer and crane were an additional $150K. We had a lot of fun with this one.
Man your reaching way back into my memory, if memory serves I 'believe this one was a Prolec-Ge, American made some where on the east coast. I know the rail time added up to about 4 months.
Jericho is a great TV series, only two seasons. Very patriotic and appeared to be on the conservative side. As far as “instructional” or accurate as far as nuclear war, not so much. During one scene where a character was exposed to fallout he was instructed by a doctor to drink Providone Iodine (a definate no no!). Morgan from “The Walking Dead” stars in it. Currently on Paramount + streaming. Could not be made today.
Great tv series, CBS brought it back for one more season after fans’ “nuts” campaign.
What I find interesting is post-apocalyptic human behavior, the rise of true leaders and tyrants.
Well, then we’d have to revert to Plan A.
Bend over, tuck your head between your knees, and kiss your *ss goodbye.
Remember to listen to the Conelrad station, 640 or 1240 on your AM dial!
A single HEMP, 248 mi above the central USA, could reach and devastate all contiguous states. Potentially 1/3 of the population would be dead within 2 weeks (thirst/hunger), half within 2 months, and up to 90% in a couple years.
One over Iran? Meanwhile, in most of the Middle East, absolutely nothing changes.
Something I just read about the effects is that our electronic gun safes would fail. Make sure yours uses a key for backup if it doesn’t have a circular combination lock.
