EMP - really?

This week, in the midst of the the craziness and stress over the Coronavirus, our power went out. Twice. If we were still living in Northam, that would be no surprise. But here in Butler you don't expect it. The Western Power people explained that it was an "Unplanned Outage", and there were suggestions that the system was overloaded - what with all the extra freezers running keeping the hoarders stockpiles fresh, as well as the air conditioners running in this hot weather with everyone staying at home.

The first outage was after dark. We were in our swimming pool for our evening splash, with the underwater light glowing blue and red, and suddenly ... total darkness.

But not silence. The local Corellas started up such a ruckus. Apparently they didn't like the sudden change.

Two nights later we had our second outage, but just before dark. Again the birds were very upset as it got dark - pitch black - and we heard them fly off in a massive, squawking flock.

Several days later, and ... still no birds. So what were they really upset about?

Well, then there was a rumour. The military planes that we have had roaring overhead recently are doing EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) testing. That can knock out the power grid.

And that would also really upset the birds, I would think.

It sure is quiet around here now.