[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Courtesy Don Loucks
Contributing columnist to The Statesman
Part 3 of a 3-part series

After the Great Texas Winter Storm of 2021, we have heard much about the lack of preparedness on the part of various governments and utilities. One news account in the Statesman described the storm as “unprecedented.” It was not. The winter storm of 1899 was nearly identical to the February event, but it happened so long ago – 122 years – that it was mostly forgotten.

It is never a good idea to forget such events. Just like the Carrington Event of 1859 — a massive Coronal Mass Ejection coupled with a devastatingly powerful electromagnetic pulse — that we tend to disregard for two reasons. First, it happened too long ago; and second, we fail to understand how such an event might affect our country now with its current level of technical sophistication.

In 1987, Jerry Emanuelson wrote in a letter to a scientist colleague: “An EMP attack on the U.S. does seem plausible to me. Three or four (or maybe even one) nuclear weapons detonated in space would instantly shutdown the U.S. economy. It would cause billions of dollars-worth of direct damage to electronics equipment and a much greater loss in indirect costs to the economy.”

Times have certainly changed. “Billions” is now certainly many trillions, and that’s not considering loss of life. What has changed is the complexity of interaction of our economy and society with computerization. A form of computerization is found in nearly every electrical appliance we use from coffee pots to cellular phones. What is most troubling is that we do not realize how much we depend upon that technology. In my previous column on the storm, the surprise we feel when a light switch does not turn on a light during a power outage was noted.

Imagine nothing at all working; not a light, cell phone, television, car – nothing. Just silence for the entire country. Our sophistication just might kill us.

Generally, the more complicated something – anything – is, the more vulnerable it is to failure. For example, compare a fountain pen and kerosene lamp to a personal computer. Our American society has become as complicated as our computers. Interdependence is the watch word. Look at the chaos even a truckers strike could cause. Remember all the changes to our lives brought about by COVID-19?

So, let’s consider it a given that computers and devices with microprocessors are inextricable from daily life. What single thing can disable all of them, even the ones that control your cars and microwave ovens?

The kill mechanism is overvoltage — the introduction of much higher electrical voltage into the very small circuits of a microprocessor.

Before your eyes glaze over at the prospect of technical jargon, let’s make it simple by comparing electricity in wires to water in garden hoses. Voltage is just like the pressure of the water in the hose. If the water pressure becomes too high, the hose can burst and spray water to an area of lower pressure (outside the hose). If the voltage in a wire becomes too high the electricity can arc (leak) by sparking across to another wire or place of lesser voltage.

When lightning hits the ground with 1 billion volts, it generally leaves a burn mark consisting in part of carbon, which conducts electricity. Carbon left on a microprocessor board can short out and kill a microprocessor.

Easily available “surge suppressors” can lessen the chance of a power surge from utility lines when the line voltage going into a computer spikes on the high side for some reason. However, an electromagnetic pulse overvoltage is a quite different animal. By its nature, it bypasses the surge suppressor and induces the overvoltage directly into the computer’s microcircuitry.

Remember the lightning strike and carbonized burned area I mentioned? If the tiny copper traces of a microprocessor arc from one to another there will be a carbon trace that will conduct electricity and short out the microprocessor’s delicate circuits, killing it.

Is there a solution? We have heard about “hardening” the Texas electric grid, but that has not happened. It might be possible to harden some microcircuit appliances in your household by shielding them from an electromagnetic pulse. A “faraday cage 4, 5, 6” is the usual term for such a device. Essentially, it is a metal case or metal-laced bags to cover and shield a computer or even a cell phone from the effects of an EMP.

No, the government will not be here to help. They will be in the same canoe, and also without a paddle.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]