While you should not obsess over the possibility of an EMP wiping out power, you should be prepared to survive without power for anywhere from days to weeks or even months.

The following are some things to think about in preparation of an unlikely, but possible EMP event.

Non-Electric Appliances

No electricity to operate your electric can opener? If you had a hand-operated one, Fluffy wouldn't have to go without her Fancy Feast. Check out camping catalogs and companies that sell non-electric household devices. There is a surprising number of choices in the marketplace. Here are a few:

1. Solar oven: As long as the sun shines, food can be cooked and water can be boiled.

2. Manual can opener: The P38 is a military classic, and it even fits on a key chain.

3. Grain and meat grinders: Grind flour from whole grains or create burger meat from available critters.

4. Crank coffee grinder: For the caffeine addicts who turns up their nose at instant java.

5. Wind-up flashlight: Will light the way, assuming the electronics inside it weren’t fried by the pulse.

6. Butter churn: Find cow, milk cow, separate cream, churn butter, enjoy.

7. Hand-powered water pump: To get water out of a well or cistern

8. Well sleeve (or well bucket): This is one of the most important gadgets that most people have never heard of. A well bucket is a cylinder fitted with a couple hundred feet of string and lowered down slender modern wells to draw up water. This is a cheaper option for your well than a hand pump, but much more work.

Barter Items

If the power is out, your credit and debit cards aren't going to do you much good, and the ancient art of bartering once again becomes a viable economic option. It's best to hold onto food with a long shelf life and weapons that could be used against you. But other items—goods that serve no major constructive use in the home but are popular nevertheless—could be parted with if you can find a willing trading partner.

Beans, bullets, and gasoline should be hoarded, but vices like alcohol, cigarettes, and caffeine; hygiene products; and various forms of entertainment, like books and playing cards, could be very valuable to the dependent, the dirty, and the bored.

Lighting

Chemical light sticks are a good non-electric light source, but what about something with a longer burn time? Candles are EMP-proof, but they are dim, messy, and vulnerable to the wind. This is where oil lamps come into play, my favorite being the lightweight Dietz Original lamp. This classic lamp works indoors and outdoors, through wind and rain. The little lamp’s eight-ounce fuel capacity gives you an 11-hour burn time. The heat output is around 900 BTU’s per hour, and it puts out an average of 7 candle power with a half inch of burning wick exposed. The lamps cost about $11 each and operate on an average of 3 cents worth of lamp oil per hour. When’s the last time you received an hour’s worth of anything for 3 cents?

Approved Fuels for Oil Lamps :

1. Non-dyed (clear) kerosene

2. Klean-heat kerosene substitute

3. Standard clear lamp oil

4. Citronella oil (outdoor use only)

Keep in mind that paraffin oil (wax oil, Nowell's, Ultra-Pure, Tropical Lights, etc.) might be marketed for oil lamps, but it typically burns half as bright of any of the approved fuels listed above. Paraffin oil is thicker than those and its flash point is 100 degrees higher than kerosene. This inhibits the capillary action of the wick, and will cause lanterns with wicks 7/8 inch or larger to burn improperly and erratically. Once a wick is contaminated with paraffin, it must be replaced in order for the lamp to burn properly with a different fuel.

Hand Tools

Repairing and reinforcing your home won’t be very easy if all your tools require electricity. Keep some backup hand tools in your tool chest. Hand saws and a hammer are obvious choices, but grab some less obvious choices too, like planes, block sanders, and a brace and bit for hole drilling and driving screws. Add a variety of nails, screws, and glue to round out your tool set.

It should be made clear: An EMP is not an inevitability – it is a possibility, and given the state of our electrical grid, were one to happen, it is highly likely we would have to cope without conventional power sources for some time.

The only way to do that is to be prepared – even the US Congress and US federal government say so.

To read about other preparation items you should think about to help survive an EMP and its aftermath, visit Outdoor Life.