EMPact America, the nation's leading advocate for electromagnetic pulse (EMP) catastrophe preparedness, congratulates the New York Association of Towns for its leadership in readying the state's citizens, government and infrastructure for an EMP event.

The state-wide Association of Towns passed a unanimous resolution on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, calling for increased preparation to protect against an EMP event. The Association of Towns is made up of over 900 towns across New York State.

An Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) is a high-intensity burst of electromagnetic energy. An EMP event can be caused by a natural event like a severe solar storm or a manmade event like a high-altitude nuclear burst.

National experts have concluded that a natural or manmade EMP event could be long-lasting, continent-wide and cripple the US critical electricity-dependent infrastructure, which is highly vulnerable and largely unprotected.

"The New York Association of Towns has taken an important step in preparing our state for a highly likely occurrence of an EMP catastrophe," said EMPact America President Dr. Peter Pry.

"We applaud the Association's concern for our society and its call for immediate and resolute action."

EMP is "a very important topic," said Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Anthony F. Caruana. It was "very well received and caught the attention of our local government officials, who now understand the significance that EMP can have on their communities unless something is done now."

With American society now completely reliant on electricity and electronic controls at all levels of life, the cascading effects of a wide-spread and long-term outage would be severe. Of particular concern would be the permanent destruction of large electrical transformers by EMP.

They are critical to our ability to deliver power, we have precious few spares, there are long lead times and they are not made in the United States. Currently, the U.S. can replace less than 1% of its critical transformers, each of which take at least 18 months to produce by the manufactures in Germany and South Korea.

"I'm glad that New York State towns are out in front of this issue, and the economic impact it can cause in our area," said Town of Elma Supervisor Michael P. Nolan. "With Federal stimulus dollars available, this is an opportunity for New York to update its aging electrical grid and vulnerable elements of its infrastructure."

The Association of Towns asked the New York State Legislature to study EMP and develop a protection plan, called upon state power authorities and companies to take immediate action, and requested the New York State Congressional Delegation work to reestablish the national EMP Commission.

"This resolution raises awareness of EMP as one of the single most catastrophic and realistic threats to Americans," said Town of Brant Supervisor Leonard K. Pero. "It will be the catalyst for state legislators to create a committee to act and for Washington to re-establish the EMP Commission as soon as possible."

For a copy of the New York Association of Towns' unanimous resolution, click here.