This writer just doesn't want feedback. He has email disabled, he has story comments turned off, there's just no gentle way to contact him. He has a nice story going on, well-written and well-proofed/edited. However, he's writing about subjects that he knows nothing about, and sometimes he misses things that are obvious to those who are familiar with those subjects.
The usual example is flying. If you aren't a pilot, don't write about in-flight emergencies and how they are handled. You can't possibly get it right, and anyone who IS a pilot will very strongly lower their opinion of your work. If you have to have that for drama, re-write it as a passenger who lives through it. No one expects a passenger to understand what the pilots had to do. I have an ASEL Private License, and I have helped a couple of writers on things I know about. Not multi, not rotary, not seaplane. I would not attempt to write a story about what a Citation pilot has to do when an engine fails on takeoff. My knowledge about that is limited to "Get the damn thing down on the ground as fast as possible, fuck everything else. The plane is toast. Just try to save the people." And I may have that wrong. Maybe they can take off with one engine.
Anyway, apparently, EDP is unfamiliar with the concept of 'diesel engines'. Diesel engines operate on the principal (Edit: That should be 'principle', of course -ZM) that gasses heat up as they are compressed. If you compress a flammable mixture (maybe an atomized fuel mixed with air), eventually it will reach a temperature where the mixture explodes all on its own. No need for a spark plug, or any sort of electrical system to generate the pulse that makes the spark. No need for ANY kind of electrical system.
Small diesel engines that run small devices are very common among people who work in unimproved regions. Chainsaws, pumps, generators. I have a diesel-driven dewatering pump in my garage as we speak, along with a couple much larger diesel engines. It's small enough that it can be started with a pull-cord, just like most small engines. Nothing electrical anywhere on it. And completely impervious to EMP attacks. Small diesels are very reliable, as long as you feed them good clean fuel. They are a little heavier than the gas version, but 'reliable' trumps 'light' every time. And any member of a forestry service or a SEAL team would be very familiar with them.
Did you know that you can get diesel-powered vehicles, too? They couldn't use a modern one with computer-controlled fuel injection, but they've been at this long enough to have come up with an older vehicle with no electrical system. There are multiple ways to get them started. If nothing else, find one with a manual transmission, remove the electrical system, park it on a hill, and roll-start it.
The inability to use electrical devices should not stop people of this caliber for longer than a day. Unless the author wants it to.
-ZM