EMP protection? Not true. There are isolated spots with internal protection but that won't help if all the feeders to them are gone. Military equipment is hardened but the national power grid is a naked as a jaybird (I guess that is applicable). The power companies can't pay for their upgrades because of passing on costs for a "maybe" event, and the costs would be very high. The largest transformers already have an 18 month lag time to be manufactured overseas, and ordering a dozen at once would take many years, so inertia will prevent adequate protection.
The hardest hits will be all the electronic parts: circuit boards with coils, car ignitions. TV sets, radios, Internet connections. Those will go in the first microsecond when the pulse passes through and the induced field collapses, zapping the circuits. The power line drop to each house would bring in the pulse like an antenna and blow out the transformer at the same time. We would need 40 or 50 million replacements. Good luck to us if that happened.
No, there is no national protection.
A Faraday shield is easy to make to protect small, backup devices. A 35 gallon metal trash can with a lid will work. Line it with cardboard to prevent the contents from touching the can. cut a long trip of copper or steel screen wire and put it around the top edge of the can so the lid will press tight to seal it from stray energy, stuff it with sensitive electronics, and leave it alone. The shielding will cause the high energy pule to effectively make a halo around the can and leave the inside untouched. Some people put 45 gal cans inside large, 55 gal metal barrels with banded lids. That's the best option for us. There is no effective way to shield a device you use. Even a power cord or cable going to it makes it vulnerable even if it were wrapped in copper screen.
Too many people have a normalcy bias that keeps them from understanding what "the grid is down" actually means and they assume that the big stuff will keep working. When it doesn't, it will not again in our much shortened lifetimes. If that happens, once the grocery store empty, existence will take on a new priority for everyone, including those who would normally be repairing things.
Just because it CAN happen does not mean that it WILL happen
It was news to me. Thanks for the info about the Faraday shield. I've read that microwave ovens work well, too, but I don't know enough about how they work to know if that's true, beyond the fact that they're doing some kind of shielding as far as microwaves go.
The thing about all of those devices, aside from some entertainment value, we're so interconnected now, if we're talking anything that runs off electricity—unless I'm off the grid and I've managed to somehow shield whatever I'm using to generate electricity—I can't use the stuff that plugs in. The stuff that run off a battery is fine for a while, but then they will need to be recharged. Plus, unless the cell towers, internet, etc., are somehow hardened, I'm not going to be using any of those. And in all practicality, I don't have a bunch of them just lying around, so the ones I'm using would have to be the ones that go into storage.
I think out of convenience, or shortcuts, or something, we've set ourselves up big time for an EMP event of some kind. Whether it's a strategically placed bomb or a naturally occurring event. It doesn't matter really to me what the probability of things are. If it can happen with any measurable amount of potentiality, we should probably be ready for it somehow. Which means it's going to be left to each of us as individuals and families to do it.
I have an older Kindle reader with downloaded manuals and lots of old books of all genres for educational and reference purposes. Downloads are free and the Kindle almost was. Also have a good AA and AAA battery charger that runs off a small solar panel. With that, I have 20 Eneloop rechargeable batteries: from Amazon, rechargeable for longer than we'll need them and they stay charged when not in use! Excellent buys. Also have a cheap digital shortwave receiver, recharges through a usb cable. Also a spare $20 charge controller (also with USB charging ports) to keep a 12v battery charged from a solar panel (every car will have a good battery and the car probably won't be).
In addition, I included an old Ham radio from a flea market that works really well on CW and will run on 12 volts. Once that was "in the can" (literally), I still have room for new adds. It takes a while to get the basics together, but it's enough to keep a few LEDs working, batteries charged, and be able to keep informed as well as maybe contact others. Not perfect, but good insurance, IMHO.
We are far too interconnected for anything to function without power, and two weeks without will cause a systemic collapse since most people have less than three days' food on hand.
ALSO: Do have at least a pair of the small walkie-talkie type radios marketed for campers.( Amazon has the BaoFeng BF-888S at $24 for a pair, and they are excellent. ) Under a SHTF scenario, those would replace cell phones for neighborhood use. I have a few for neighbors, just in case, since they will be early warning points for trouble.
BTW, an EMP is the Pentagon's #1 concern. It can happen without warning, and it is certain to happen in a real war, not matter who starts one, according the those in the know. Those same folks have questions about one of the two NK satellites that pass overhead every 90 minutes.