Many Americans across the country woke up on Thursday morning without cell service. But we still don’t know what caused the outage, which greatly affected AT&T customers, as well as some users of Verizon and T-Mobile. Was it a solar flare? Or was it a massive cyberattack? Either way, many Americans got a small taste of what life would be like after such an attack. So, are you prepared for an even bigger cellular outage, which would wipe out much more than your cell service: food, water, medicine, our entire supply chain? Glenn speaks with “One Second After” author William Forstchen, who has been warning about the devastating effects of an EMP or cyberattack for years. He and Glenn explain what you should have on hand to be ready.
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Over 50,000 AT&T outages were reported, officially at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time this morning. Most issues were happening in Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
Other -- other systems were also affected. Verizon and T-Mobile. Looks like -- well, looks like they're heading on the way back up. And most of it is fixed.
They don't know what it was. But yesterday, there was a cyber attack on the phone systems, the cellular systems in Israel.
And the Israelis are reporting that that was Iran that did that. I think this is on me a matter of time, before we see stuff that will cause real problems.
There's a -- a guy, John A. Cuff.
He wrote today. Tweeted, once you've read One Second After, cell phone outages carry a different weight. And it's true.
If you've never read One Second After, I highly, highly recommend it. It was written by William Forstchen. And he tells the story about what happens, one second after an EMP. And it -- I mean, you will -- it will open your eyes into how dependent we are.
And this was written years ago. And at the time, I was like, oh, my gosh, I never even thought about that.
Oh, man. Yeah. That would no longer -- you just don't think of it. And Williams is with us now, to talk about the outage, and the attacks on our truck. Hi, William. How are you?
WILLIAM: Good morning, again. And thank you for the kind words about my book.
GLENN: Yeah. It's fantastic. William, the attack on cell phones. Our cell phones go down. And I think, a lot of Americans, they go into detox immediately. Like, I don't know what to do.
But this is something. We don't know about today. But this is something that we know our Department of Homeland Security is saying, they are waiting for cyber attacks.
It's a matter of -- of when, not if, anymore. And they're preparing.
What. Go ahead.
WILLIAM: You know, Glenn. My college. One Tree College, has a strong cyber security training program. And I'll go in their lab and just sit there sometimes. Half an hour later, I walked out scared to death.
Because if you saw the number of attacks, incoming attacks on our infrastructure, on our military, it's unrelenting.
We don't even know if some of them have broken through. Put sleepers into them. And are waiting to hit.
This is just a foretaste of the future.
GLENN: So tell me what do you think is most likely, and how it will affect us. And what we should -- how we should prepare for it.
WILLIAM: Well, first of all, if our cell phones really were dead, my daughter would have a nervous breakdown.
GLENN: I think a lot of children would.
WILLIAM: Yeah, the whole college. But number one, of course, is cyber attack. That's unrelenting from Russia, any number of bad players. Number two, actual --
GLENN: Wait. Wait. Wait.
Cyber attack, could include our water system. Our electrical grid.
Or -- do you think it would be all of it, or some of it?
WILLIAM: It could be targeted to a specific or in a general offensive. Like what I would call a first strike scenario, are widespread.
For example, take where you are. To pose water, all across the board, will shut down for 48 hours.
Because that's all electronically controlled.
What would happen to your town in one day, if all water was turned off?
GLENN: It wouldn't be good.
WILLIAM: It would be very bad, within 24 to 38 hours.
GLENN: Yes.
WILLIAM: I'm mainly focusing more on our electrical infrastructure.
I'm doing a lot of work. I talked with FEMA last week.
That's the bad one. Because if you lose electricity, that's the fundamental Billy -- then everything goes.
Water food, medical, all of it.
All of our distribution systems are off and on.
GLENN: How prepared -- I hate asking people questions like this.
How prepared are we?
WILLIAM: We're not.
GLENN: Okay. You're not improving my mood much.
WILLIAM: And my talk with southeast FEMA last week. There are a lot of good people working in that system. They're not bad guys.
And they say the number one thing is, if only Americans would be prepared, one month worth of emergency supplies on hand.
That applies to everybody.
Whether you're living in an apartment in the city. Have emergency water on hand.
Have food on hand.
Charge your systems up.
Have a small cell phone charger. These are basic things. And 90 percent of Americans just rile go along.
It could be a very bad day.
Don't you want to be prepared before, rather than after?
GLENN: So if something like this happens, would we be -- do you think we would be in lockdown situation? Or would you be able to travel to --
WILLIAM: Lockdown.
GLENN: Lockdown.
If you lost your whole electrical grid, even just regionally.
It would very quickly have to be a lockdown. To avoid panic.
Trying to keep control on population. Those people living in New York, remember when sandy hit ten years ago.
It got a little hairy there. Even though, tens of thousands of emergency supplies were being moved in.
They were down for two weeks. It would have been really bad.
GLENN: Yeah, my -- my uncle used to -- my uncle used to work for, I don't know. What department in -- in the military.
But he did some of the original studies on, you know, the aftereffects of war. And crisis.
And everything else.
And he said, generally speaking, you have 72 hours.
If everything isn't restored in 72 hours, you're done. You're done.
WILLIAM: Right. He is dead-on the mark.
72-hour max. Again, if you have -- everybody listening to you. If you have a month' worth of emergency supplies on hand, it doesn't cost that much.
You can at least hunker down, while the crazies are running up and down the street.
GLENN: Yeah. So if we had -- you know, there's -- it's strange.
You know, I -- I thought EMP is the worst thing that could happen to us ever.
WILLIAM: It is.
GLENN: However, the more I see AI and everything else, it may in the end. And I'm saying 50 years from now. If AI has gotten out of control. An EMP may be our best friend. It will kill millions of people. But it will release a slavery. If God forbid, I'm in science fiction world here. But God forbid, AI went bad.
It's -- the ones and zeros would have to be confused.
WILLIAM: Well, the EMP scenario, which indeed is the worse.
According to two Congressional studies, which I base my novels on. I've done four books on the subject. Eighty to 90 percent of the population would be dead a year later. And people go, what?
Again, no food. No water. No medical supply.
No command and control.
People die. And they die very quickly.
GLENN: You know, when I read, this is years ago. One second after.