One Second After...in San Diego: The story of an EMP attack and recovery

A very good book, "One Second After...", describes the effect of an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) attack from the point of view of Black Mountain, a small town the mountains of North Carolina. In response to the attack, the community retreats into itself and finally fights to defend its dwindling food supplies with its own militia. I totally disagree with this response. To recover from an EMP attack, the whole country has to pull together to restore water, food, communication, transportation and other essential services. In this book, the EMP attack is told from the point of view of San Diego, California. The military, specifically the Navy and Marines, take the lead in starting the recovery in San Diego. The military has two huge advantages over Black Mountain. First, they are organized. Second, their equipment is designed to be radiation hardened which will withstand an EMP attack. However, the military is not trained to restore water, food, transportation, power, healthcare and other services. They have to learn by doing and improvising. This book describes some of their problems, successes and failures.