Mid Michigan - Saginaw area | Just some comments.
I have one million gallons of fresh water just steps from the house so I'm good for the moment - and they thought I was touched when the first thing I did was put in a pond even before I put in the driveway
All electronics will be toast - as we all agree.
The water systems in most communities are electronically controlled and depend on central power, and those folks will be flooding across the landscape within 8 hours demanding water.
Then, keeping them from stripping you bare will be the immediate problem. Likely you can't.
I know many of the preppers have the fantasy of standing off the hordes with a gun, but when your house is surrounded by thousands it will be over in 30 seconds flat.
Water will be the longer term main issue for 99% of us, so you need a method of drawing water from your well with no electrical power - at least at first - it all depends on the intensity of the EMP.
A really powerful one will blow out the windings on your engine starters and ignition coils leaving every gas engine dead and pump motors fried - and probably explode the batteries.
A less powerful one will not do that level of brute force damage to simple motor windings.
Mechanical diesel with a fuel rack and no electric fuel pumps will run afterwards if you are able to crank it somehow. My tractors will run - 70's technology. My trucks/cars will be DOA.
Most wells with a submerged pump can be worked around. Pull the pump out (easier said than done) and lower a can down inside the pipe to draw water.
Shallow wells and such, you might be able to force water up by using a manual tire pump and pressurizing the well.
Parts of the country might be able to dig a well down to the water table in time - many parts not.
Put a barrel under the gutter spouts on the buildings - even if you don't need it to drink, you can wash with it.
A couple of 5 gallon glass carboys of drinking water would be nice to have stored in the basement/shed ahead of time to give you time to deal with the well.
As the situation calms down over a few days and you start making a generator/pump out of bits and pieces that still function, water will be less of a problem and food will become number one on the hit parade. No power means no freezer or refrigerator. Food will keep a few days in these insulated boxes but the hand writing is on the wall. The Amish will be vastly better off than the rest of us.
But the real threat will be the ravening hordes spilling out from the city. I doubt that many farm families will survive simply because we have what they want.
And much of the horde won't survive afterwards, but that will be scant comfort to your cooling bones.
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When you can't access your money or communicate.
