Category: Disasters

Do You Now Understand Why You Need To Prepare For Emergencies? This Has Been The Worst Year For Natural Disasters In U.S. History

There has been a natural disaster that has caused at least a billion dollars of damage inside the United States every single month so far this year.  According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there have been 10 major disasters in the United States this year.  On average, usually there are only about 3 major disasters a year.  At this point, disasters are happening inside the United States so frequently that there seems to be no gap between them.  We just seem to go from one major disaster to the next.  Last year, FEMA declared an all-time record of 81 disasters inside the United States.  This year, we are on pace for well over 100.  We just got done dealing with Hurricane Irene, and now we are dealing with historic wildfires in Texas and unprecedented flooding up in the northeast part of the country.  This has been the worst year for natural disasters in U.S. history, and we still have nearly four months left to go.  Hopefully after everything that has happened this year it has become abundantly clear to all of us why we need to prepare for emergencies.  The world is becoming an increasingly unstable place, and you never know what is going to happen next.

Read the rest of the article for more (and there’s a lot more):

Do You Now Understand Why You Need To Prepare For Emergencies? This Has Been The Worst Year For Natural Disasters In U.S. History

 

Living in a Shanty Town

The link goes to a photo article of a group of homeless people in NJ.  It shows life living in a shanty town.  If you study the pictures, you can learn a lot about what life like this is like and what is important for survival.  You’ll notice that being comfortable, even in a minimal sense, is important and shouldn’t be underestimated.  Surviving isn’t a camping trip, it’s everyday life.

THE GREAT RECESSION: Life In “Tent City” In Lakewood New Jersey

Most Americans Can’t Afford A $1,000 Emergency Expense

Most Americans can’t afford a $1,000 emergency expense – Aug. 10, 2011

Prepping isn’t just about doom and gloom, it’s about surviving the things that everyday life throws at you.

We’ve talked about the various levels of disasters on several podcasts and how the personal level are the most likely to occur to you. Things like car repairs and sick children are just a couple of things that come to mind. Most of us have family in another state, if you need to take an emergency flight to be with them, it’s expensive to buy last minute plane tickets.

If you don’t already have an emergency fund, start saving for it now. If you do have an emergency fund, keep adding to it. One thing I do is when my emergency fund grows large enough, I take some of that and convert into silver.  It’s still easy to liquidate, but also retains the value of that savings.

Solar Storms Are Set to Hit the Earth

Latest Global Crisis: Solar Storms Are Set to Hit the Earth – Technology – The Atlantic Wire

The NOAA predicted four extreme solar emissions which could threaten the planet this decade. Similarly, Nasa warned that a peak in the sun’s magnetic energy cycle and the number of sun spots or flares around 2013 could enable extremely high radiation levels.

Apparently, the sun is approaching what’s known as solar maximum—the high point in its roughly 11-year cycle of activity, according to National Geographic. Scientists anticipate stronger storms around solar max, in 2013. So while Rich Lordan from the Electric Power Research Institute said that “based on the data and the scenarios we can reasonably expect, I believe the power-delivery system can operate through a solar storm,” overall the danger is becoming more critical.

Hit the link to read more.

The Preparedness Podcast – Episode 110 – Staying Real

Staying realistic. Real life rarely goes like depicted in works of fiction, like movies or books. While these stories have great entertainment value and, to some extent, provide some really good what-if scenarios, you should keep in mind that the good guys don’t always win.

In this podcast, I discuss two pieces of fiction, a recent movie and a short online book, that deals with the “good guys” losing. Generally, I don’t like this type of fiction because I’m usually looking to escape from everyday life for a little bit and be entertained, etc. But pieces like this are good, because they break us out of that expectation that good guys always win and bad guys always lose.

The point of this is that without proper preparations, you could easily find yourself on the losing side of a disaster.

Remember: Complacency Kills.

Find the recent podcast at the links below.

You can listen to The Preparedness Podcast on any of your favorite audio players.  Find us in iTunes here: Preparedness Podcast iTunes Link or go to PrepCast.info for direct links to the audio files.

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