"I wonder what this is composed of. I would imagine that states like Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Indiana that were not nuked would have the best chance of maintaining themselves as a separate political entity from the rest of the Union. Cities like Nashville, Memphis, Birmingham, or Indianapolis would maintain some sort of functionality due to the large amount of material and infrastructure physically deposited in them that could be used to do whatever might be needed to maintain large urban populations. There are a lot of farms in the Southeast, along with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. I seriously doubt that the EMP knocked out everything in the whole lower 48. Also, TVA maintains numerous coal and nuclear plants throughout the region, most in Tennessee and Alabama. Electricity for that part of the country would not be a problem to produce."