Quoted: EMP, either high level nukes or widespread use of EMP devices
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+1 on this.
Our society has come to depend on electronics so VERY much that even our cars are electronicized (is that a word?)
A series of EMPs over most of the country would disrupt everything from hospitals to our microwave ovens....and think about how many people actually cook, with a STOVE, nowadays?
Our highly computerized distribution systems for everything from food and gas to toilet paper would cease to exist; and since most stores don't have anything more than a 1 week supply of food available, there would be almost instant shortages in the bigger cities, that would eventually spread to the smaller ones. Those in the rural areas would do better because of the need to be more self-sufficient. And, since we've come to rely on electronics so much, no one has the foggiest clue how to run the same systems manually.
No car made after about 1983 would be able to work, since they all have electronic ignition. Air conditioners, furnaces, refrigerators, etc., would all stop working. So would trucks hauling food and other goods across the interstates. All forms of communications (with the exception of maybe CB radios not hooked up to their antennas at the time of the EMP) would stop working as well. Railroads would still function, but only with a lot more manual control.
Even our power grid would suffer, since most of it is computer-controlled.
To make matters worse, the repairing the damage would take forever, since replacement parts wouldn't be able to be ordered or shipped, if available; in addition, think how long it would take to repair the manufacturing capability to produce the parts you would need to repair a nation-wide outage.
Yep, massive EMP across the country would do the trick.