When the SHTF – what do I do? Part 8

How will I know what to do when faced with a real disaster whether manmade or natural?

When a person thinks they are facing a fearful, near death situation all kinds of scenarios run through their mind. The blood pressure rises, as does the heart rate, adrenaline surges and the urge to bolt suddenly becomes less desirable and the heart rate balances to a high state but not too high to affect the body, the mind clears and conscious thought takes place – this is when you will decide what it is you must do.

Let’s take each disaster at a time and go through the entire gambit as to ways to cope when faced with it. I won’t go into great detail but will try to share what little I know.

Threat of Natural Disaster:

Wild Fire

Station Fire 2009Wild fire the best place to be is near water or a large open area keeping low to the ground to lessen the risk of smoke inhalation. If near a body of water no matter how small lay down in it soaking your body and clothing as much as you can. If you have to run away from the fire this will help dropping embers from harming you.

Fire climb up hill sides so go down away from the fire into an already burnt section if you can avoiding stumps and small burning patches as you descend.

Do not stand across a roadway from flames as a flame can catch a gust of wind and jump the roadway catching and trapping you.

Snow Storms

Snow storms often even insignificant ones hide dreaded ‘black ice’ on roadways and paved surfaces. Drive carefully at a decreased rate of speed if you have no choice but to be out and walk slowly and evenly when you have to traverse a section of paved ground.

Temperatures that shoot suddenly into the single digits can cause you problems if you are caught outside even dressed adequately prolonged exposure can lower your body’s core temperature and you can go into hypothermia, become disoriented and have an accident that can cost you your life.

In blinding snow falls when driving pull off into a well lit area and wait no need to take a chance when you cannot see and keep driving or pulling off into the berm and get struck by another vehicle from behind.

Lightning

This is one subject I can write about that I have experienced firsthand. I was inside my 2007 Altima when a bolt of lightning 5 feet in diameter struck not two feet in front of my car frying every piece of electronics from front to back, including my unopened laptop on the front seat.

The funny thing was the storm was 5 miles away and BOOM!

It is a tremendous and frightening force of nature and if your outside you have no place you can hide if it’s going to hit you.

Hurricane

Hurricane_Isabel_from_ISSHurricanes are another force of nature I have been through on at least 4 occasions. The last one had winds of 130 mph, blew down a 200 foot 6’ tall fence in my back yard and did millions of dollars of damage to the surrounding area blowing pool cages apart, tearing roofs off, blowing down 100-year old oak trees, blowing down a 4-story boat storage structure, wave surges pushing boats and sand 200 feet up onto an island community and flooding with water 10 feet deep.

You at least have advanced warning of a few days and can get out to safety which I definitely suggest you do.

Tsunami

A tsunami is something I’ve seen twice in my lifetime once in the Indian Ocean killing 250,000 people and in Japan killing thousands and creating one of the worst nuclear disasters imaginable. Both I viewed to my horror on television.

It happens suddenly and the coastal inhabitants face immediate death and have to fight for their lives.

Tornado

Now this is something I’ve seen in person and on television. There is a 15-minute warning sometimes and quite often they stay on the ground for up to 30-minutes traveling at unheard of speeds for such a mass of twirling wind.

They are rated on the Fujita scale from a minor tornado F0 to a massive, mile wide monster with winds exceeding 250 mph leveling everything in its path.

If its daylight you’ll see it, go to the bathroom with a mattress and get in and pull it on top of you and hope you survive.

Volcano

Here too I have only seen one volcano erupt and it too was on television Mount St. Helen’s nearly 20-years ago. The damage was incredible a forest of 2 foot thick trees fell in one motion from the force.

Lakes boiled, streams turned to steam, wildlife were dropped by the hundreds from the pyro-plastic blast that rolled down the mountain and the lava flowed unabated for miles 20 feet deep in some areas.

You have warning and when it happens get in your car and drive away fast do not go back or stop to watch – you can die 30 miles away.

Earthquake

I was unfortunate enough to be in California during the last huge San Francisco Earthquake. The ground surged upward and trembled almost knocking me off my feet but did scare me all the same.

The damage was huge and hundreds died as a bridge collapsed, building were toppled and the ground broke open water and sewer mains, streets were running fissures a dozen feet deep and there was no place to run to.

Flooding

When there is flooding conditions that cause it usually exist and you have some warning, melting winter snow, exceedingly heavy rainfall or a hurricane. If you can find safe shelter high up and avoid driving.

Trying to cross what appears to be a shallow run of water can sweep you off your feet and downstream you go often drowning.

Threat of Manmade Disaster:

Civil Uprising

civil-unrestA civil uprising can be caused by any number of problems that cause citizens outrage and demonstrations and protects are the beginning stages, then rioting and violent acts such as destruction of property and looting, harming of innocent civilians who happen to get in the way.

There has been 17 such incident in the USA since 2010.

You have to stand up for your beliefs and sometimes you have to take up arms to protect those rights.

Civil Race War

This is a perfect format for fomenting unrest using ethnic causes to erupt into a civil war causing martial law in order for government forces to confiscate guns and then the general population is going to say ‘the hell with that’ and will defense themselves against the police and military.

Like our civil war over 150 years ago where 625,000 were killed and another million wounded and maimed suing muskets and cannon, in this engagement the carnage will truly get astronomical into the multi-million deaths.

All of this caused by the government and media fanning the flames the citizens have to wake up and put a stop to it now before it does erupt.

You’ll have two choices fight or die.

Foreign Invasion

Melbourne-Air-Show-3Foreign invasion has happened twice on our soil with the British and once with the French.

(editors note: The Japanese also invaded US soil in WWII. read more about that here)

This time around it may be Chinese, Russian or Korean or them all together working in collaboration with one another to divide and conquer.

These is definitely cause to arm yourself and help drive them back to the sea or dead.

Economic Collapse

In an economic collapse much like the Depression days from 1929 – 1941 where millions lost jobs, roamed the streets homeless searching for work and daily soup kitchens provided one hot meal a day to these homeless men, women and children.

What will happen now? It will be about the same but the separation between the rich and poor will be huge and the masses will retaliate and bring down society.

Coronal Mass Ejections (CME)

solar-stormCoronal Mass Ejections is a gigantic burst of solar energy from the sun hitting the earth’s surface will in some instances expose humans to massive amounts of cosmic rays which in high doses are extremely lethal. Those people at higher altitudes and in aircraft will receive the most radiation.

OK great what could happen besides exposure to cosmic rays?

The satellites in space could be destroyed and the electrical grid disrupted or destroyed.

Typical protection for your home when advanced warning of a massive CME is to make sure your house electrical system is grounded in one or two places by driving a copper stake created out of a 1-1/2” piece of hammered flat copper tubing 3 feet long into the ground connected to a negative connection in your homes power source.

For protecting your appliances and electronics a make shift Faraday cage created out of making a cover out of heavy aluminum foil to shield them from the effective Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) that is likely to happen during a solar storm.

OK what about protecting myself?

If you have time to prepare make plans to stay inside with adequate food, water and sanitation preparedness in case the power is lost and toilets and water cease to function.

Another protection you can add to your attics insulation is an aluminum foil backed insulation to the under roof and deck which will provide moderate deflection during low level cosmic rays.

Thermo Nuclear Attack

nukeStaying put in case of nuclear attack?

If you are under attack from an enemy’s nuclear arsenal you don’t want to be caught out in the open where exposure from radiation, blast, flying debris or blindness caused by nuclear flash can occur.

A global nuclear arsenal is a frightening thing with over 15,000 nuclear warheads and missiles armed and ready to rain global destruction from which there is no turning back and in which two billion with be killed at the outset and another billion from radiation poisoning.

Where is totally safe?

Truthfully nowhere is totally safe but areas away from cities, military installations, regular and nuclear power plants, shipping ports, major rail and transit hubs and refinery locations.

I have spent hundreds of hours researching, reading, looking at maps and scouring over safe areas in America and have found a few that may offer some margin of safety but shifting wind patterns over a day or a week may significantly vary that prediction.

Wilderness and heavily wooded areas more than 50 miles from any of the areas I mentioned provide a margin of safety such as expansive national forest areas and deserts.

Survival areas that present no direct nuclear hits and possible lower radiation zones are Central Idaho, south central Florida, central & NE Nevada, northern New Hampshire and NW Wyoming.

What about the rest – of course some pockets of humanity will survive but sickness from radiation and fallout, contaminated foods, infected water sources and inhuman acts but for most areas in America its glow in the dark for many years.

Is such a horrific event even worth surviving?

To me I’d rather be alive regardless of the situation unless I’m incinerated in a flash and nothing I could have done would possibly matter anyway.

Famine

This is not only fact that it’s happening right now in the SW USA but in numerous places globally.

The land that was once rich and fertile has received no rain for months, the grasses have withered and died, streams are beds of sand and water is scarce.

Crops have dried up and died nothing is growing.

Food will become scarce and with a population of 315 million we as a nation will know hunger and starvation.

Why is this part of my article?

The control of water and food gives control of the American people to the financial elite.

It’s politically and financially motivated. Who will gain – the wealthy, which’ll lose everyone else?

What can you do? Have a one year supply of assorted foods, dry goods, freeze dried, canned goods, Meals-ready-to-eat and dehydrated.

Yeah short on bucks – any suggestions – yes, stockpile $50 worth of food a month for a year that will give you about 400 pounds which if chosen wisely can last the average person ½ a year maybe more with careful use and finding outside food sources.

Plague

When there is a shortage of clean water, filthy living conditions, poor sanitation and sickness a plague can occur by rodents spreading disease to humans and other mammals they bite and it affects those whose immune systems are weak. Human plague infections are presently found in the western USA.

World War III

Yep, we hear that old biblical saying ‘wars and rumors of wars’ well its slowly becoming a global epidemic small political civil wars, ethnic and religious conflicts, wars over resources such as oil, water and food.

All it will take is one global super power to step up the game and a reprisal will occur and the end of life as anyone knows it will happen in the blink of an eye.

I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending to know how it will happen or what you can do to prepare because it will be the most horrific end times scenario we as a people will ever face.

Sure people will survive they always have but the survivors will not have any quality of life in a world contaminated and laid waste. Survival may mean doing terrible things like cannibalism and other equally gross and disgusting things.

There will be a shortage of everything food, water and shelter and a true return to the Dark Ages.

Doesn’t sound like some place I wish to live.

1 Comment
  1. Reply
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