Monthly Archives: October 2013

What Are You Going To Do When A Massive EMP Blast Fries The U.S. Electrical Grid?

About the Author: Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years. Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream. If you want to know what things in America are going to look like in a few years read his new book The Beginning of the End.

It is only a matter of time before a massive EMP burst fries the U.S. electrical grid.  What that happens, how are you going to survive?  In the United States today, we are completely and totally dependent on electrical power.  Unless you are Amish (or are a part of a similar community), you probably have absolutely no idea how to survive in a world without electricity.  Unfortunately, our electrical grid is extremely vulnerable at this point.  As you will see below, intelligence officials believe that China and Russia already have “super-EMP weapons”, and a whole host of smaller nations and terrorist groups are believed to be working on developing similar weapons.  But even if the U.S. is never attacked by an EMP weapon, scientists tell us that it is inevitable that a massive solar storm will fry our electrical grid someday.  If an event similar to the solar storm of 1859happened today, it would be absolutely catastrophic.  Known as “the Carrington Event”, that massive solar storm fried telegraph machines all over Europe and North America.  At some point we will experience another such solar storm, and some scientists believe that we are already 50 years overdue for another one.  In fact, the earth had a “near miss” just a few months ago.

So what will happen if we are hit by a massive EMP blast?  Well, according to a government commission that investigated this issue, approximately two-thirds of the U.S. population could potentially die from starvation, disease and societal chaos within one year.  It would be a disaster unlike anything that we have ever seen before in U.S. history.

Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy, is even more pessimistic.  He believes that a single EMP blast could potentially end up killing almost the entire population of the United States

“Within a year of that attack, nine out of 10 Americans would be dead, because we can’t support a population of the present size in urban centers and the like without electricity”

As a society, we are simply not equipped to function without electricity.  Dr. William Graham was the chairman of the government commission that I mentioned above, and he says that a giant EMP blast could knock the United States back into “the late 1800s” in just a single moment

Life after an EMP attack “would probably be something that you might imagine life to be like around the late 1800s but with several times the population we had in those days, and without the ability of the country to support and sustain all those people,” Graham says. “They wouldn’t have power. Food supplies would be greatly taken out by the lack of transportation, telecommunication, power for refrigeration and so on.”

And remember, this does not require an attack by a foreign power.  A gigantic solar storm could cause an event like this at literally any time.  According to a recent WND article, it is estimated that it would take four to ten years to recover from a direct hit from a massive solar storm…

If the earth is hit by a direct solar flare, some of which can be 14 times the size of the earth, scientists from NASA and the National Academy of Sciences say it would cost the nation alone up to $2 trillion in the first year. It could take four to 10 years to recover and affect 90 percent of the U.S. population, meaning widespread starvation and death.

So what would life look like for you and your family if this happened?

Consider the following…

-There would be no heat for your home.

-Water would no longer be pumped into most homes.

-Your computer would not work.

-There would be no Internet.

-Your phones would not work.

-There would be no television.

-There would be no radio.

-ATM machines would be shut down.

-There would be no banking.

-Your debit cards and credit cards would not work.

-Without electricity, gas stations would not be functioning.

-Most people would be unable to do their jobs without electricity and employment would collapse.

-Commerce would be brought to a standstill.

-Hospitals would not be able to function.

-You would quickly start running out of medicine.

-All refrigeration would shut down and frozen foods in our homes and supermarkets would start to go bad.

-Some vehicles would no longer be able to start at all.

-Traffic lights would no longer be working.

-Airplanes would not be able to go anywhere.

-Wall Street would not be able to function at all.

-Government services would collapse.

A lot of these effects would start to be felt immediately.  An article by Mac Slavo detailed some of the things that we could expect to see in the immediate aftermath of a massive EMP blast…

The first 24 – 48 hours after such an occurrence will lead to confusion among the general population as traditional news acquisition sources like television, radio and cell phone networks will be non-functional.

Within a matter of days, once people realize the power might not be coming back on and grocery store shelves start emptying, the entire system will begin to delve into chaos.

Within 30 days a mass die off will have begun as food supplies dwindle, looters and gangs turn to violent extremes, medicine can’t be restocked and water pump stations fail.

So what is the federal government doing to protect us against such a horrific disaster?

Absolutely nothing.

In fact, according to a recent WND article, ex-CIA Director Michael Hayden says that the Obama administration has no plans to defend us against an EMP blast…

Contrary to the findings of a 2008 commission mandated by Congress to consider a defense against an electromagnetic pulse attack and its effects on the national grid, a retired Air Force general who also headed the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency says that there isn’t a solution to an EMP attack.

Speaking before the Bipartisan Policy Center at a conference on the threats to the U.S. electrical grid, Michael Hayden also said the Obama administration has no plan to defend against an EMP.

In fact, Hayden says that “there really aren’t any solutions” to this problem…

“I don’t mean to be so flippant, but there really aren’t any solutions to this, so I would just leave it at that,” Hayden said.

Of course that is a complete and total lie.  It would take less than a billion dollars to protect the largest transformers in our electrical grid.  But the Obama administration refuses to do it.

Since the Obama administration is doing nothing, some state government officials are now considering taking action…

At the National Council of State Legislatures last week in Atlanta, a number of lawmakers said they’re preparing legislation similar to a bill introduced in Maine recently did under the leadership of Rep. Andrea Boland.

Efforts are under way to press the membership of the NCSL to address the EMP issue, since the federal government has failed to take action to mitigate the potential for a catastrophic event, whether natural or man-made. An EMP event could knock out the U.S. electrical grid system and the critical infrastructures that rely on it.

Along with the national electrical grid, other critical infrastructures include telecommunications, banking and financial transactions, oil and natural gas pipelines, transportation, food and water delivery, emergency services and space systems.

In short, an EMP event could cause the collapse of society.

And without a doubt, our electrical grid represents the “soft underbelly” of U.S. infrastructure.  Attacks on the electrical grid happen all the time, but most of them are not reported by the mainstream media.  The following report of an attack is from a recent Forbes article

More than 10,000 people in Arkansas were dumped into a blackout Sunday following an attack on that state’s electric grid, the FBI said today, the third such attack in recent weeks. In August, a major transmission line in the region, around Cabot, Ark., was deliberately cut.

The FBI said that two power poles had been intentionally cut in Lonoke County on Sunday, resulting in the outage.

The following is how the FBI described the attack

In the early morning hours of September 29, 2013, officials with Entergy Arkansas reported a fire at its Keo substation located on Arkansas Highway 165 between Scott and England in Lonoke County. Fortunately, there were no injuries and no reported power outages. Investigation has determined that the fire, which consumed the control house at the substation, was intentionally set. The person or persons responsible for this incident inscribed a message on a metal control panel outside the substation which reads, ‘YOU SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED U.S.’

But minor attacks like that are nothing compared to what an EMP weapon could potentially do to our electrical grid.

And our strategic enemies have been working on developing such weapons.  The following is a short excerpt from a statement by Dr. Peter Vincent Pry to the United States Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security on March 8th, 2005…

Russian and Chinese military scientists in open source writings describe the basic principles of nuclear weapons designed specifically to generate an enhanced-EMP effect, that they term “Super-EMP” weapons. “Super-EMP” weapons, according to these foreign open source writings, can destroy even the best protected U.S. military and civilian electronic systems.

But it is not just Russia and China that we need to be worried about.

According to Pry, North Korea also has such weapons

Pry pointed out that South Korean military intelligence has warned not only their government but also the U.S. that North Korea is developing super-EMP warheads with Russian help.

In 2011, Pry pointed out, a military commentator with the People’s Republic of China stated that North Korea has super-EMP warheads. Data from North Korea’s nuclear tests, he said, are consistent with a super-EMP warhead.

And it should be noted that it is very possible to create a devastating EMP burst without exploding a nuke high up in the atmosphere.  In fact, the U.S. and other nations have been very busy working on such weapons.  For example, the U.S. military has reportedly developed “a directed electromagnetic pulse gun” that can take out all electronics within a limited area.  This kind of EMP weapon can be fired from a plane, a cruise missile or even a drone.  The following is how this class of weapon was described in a WND article

A pre-programmed cruise missile not too different from a drone has been proven to be capable of blasting out an EMP-type microwave that was able to destroy personal computers and electrical systems inside a building over which it was flying.

The U.S. Air Force and its contractor Boeing have created the High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project, or CHAMP, which was just tested over a Utah desert.

In addition, “radio frequency weapons” are so simple that terror groups or even “lone wolf crazies” could easily build them and use them.  The following is from an article by F. Michael Maloof

Such an individual with a penchant for electronics can pull together components from a Radio Shack or electronic store – even order the components off of selected Internet websites – and fashion a radio frequency, or RF, weapon.

As microprocessors become smaller but more sophisticated, they are even more susceptible to an RF pulse. The high power microwave from an RF weapon produces a short, very high power pulse, said to be billions of watts in a nanosecond, or billionths of a second.

This so-called burst of electromagnetic waves in the gigahertz microwave frequency band can melt electrical circuitry and damage integrated circuits, causing them to fail.

Constructing a radio frequency weapon is not difficult at all.  In fact, you can find instructions for how to build them on the Internet.

In the future, electromagnetic weapons are going to become even more powerful and even easier to use.

Meanwhile, we are going to continue to become even more dependent on electricity and technology.

And of course even if there is never a major EMP attack against the United States, scientists tell us that it is only a matter of time before a massive solar storm fries the electrical grid.

I hope that you are getting ready while you still can.


Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years. Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream. If you want to know what things in America are going to look like in a few years read his new book The Beginning of the End.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

Would You Survive Doomsday? An Infographic from Nat Geo

I recently came across this infographic from the Nat Geo TV Blog.

It has some interesting facts and information about what it can take to be a prepper.

See if you agree.

 

http://tvblogs.nationalgeographic.com/files/2013/03/NatGeo_preppers.v.57.png

 

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

11 Emergency Food Items That Can Last a Lifetime

Did you know that with proper storage techniques, you can have a lifetime supply of certain foods?  Certain foods can stand the test of time, and continue being a lifeline to the families that stored it.  Knowing which foods last indefinitely and how to store them are you keys to success.

The best way to store food for the long term is by using a multi-barrier system.  This system protects the food from natural elements such as moisture and sunlight, as well as from insect infestations.

Typically, those who store bulk foods look for inexpensive items that have multi-purposes and will last long term.  Listed below are 11 food items that are not only multi-purpose preps, but they can last a lifetime!

Honey

Honey never really goes bad.  In a tomb in Egypt 3,000 years ago, honey was found and was still edible.  If there are temperature fluctuations and sunlight, then the consistency and color can change.  Many honey harvesters say that when honey crystallizes, then it can be re-heated and used just like fresh honey.  Because of honey’s low water content, microorganisms do not like the environment.

Uses: curing, baking, medicinal, wine (mead)

Salt

Although salt is prone to absorbing moisture, it’s shelf life is indefinite.  This indispensable mineral will be a valuable commodity in a long term disaster and will be a essential bartering item.

Uses: curing, preservative, cooking, cleaning, medicinal, tanning hides

Sugar

Life would be so boring without sugar.  Much like salt, sugar is also prone to absorbing moisture, but this problem can be eradicated by adding some rice granules into the storage container.

Uses: sweetener for beverages, breads, cakes, preservative, curing, gardening, insecticide (equal parts of sugar and baking powder will kill cockroaches).

Wheat

Wheat is a major part of the diet for over 1/3 of the world.  This popular staple supplies 20% of daily calories to a majority of the world population.  Besides being a high carbohydrate food, wheat contains valuable protein, minerals, and vitamins. Wheat protein, when balanced by other foods that supply certain amino acids such as lysine, is an efficient source of protein.

Uses: baking, making alcohol, livestock feed, leavening agent

Dried corn

Essentially, dried corn can be substituted for any recipe that calls for fresh corn.  Our ancestors began drying corn because of its short lived season.  To extend the shelf life of corn, it has to be preserved by drying it out so it can be used later in the year.

Uses: soups, cornmeal, livestock feed, hominy and grits, heating source (do a search for corn burning fireplaces).

Baking soda

This multi-purpose prep is a must have for long term storage.

Uses: teeth cleaner, household cleaner, dish cleaner, laundry detergent booster, leavening agent for baked goods, tarnish remover

Instant coffee, tea, and cocoa

Adding these to your long term storage will not only add a variety to just drinking water, but will also lift morale.  Instant coffee is high vacuum freeze dried.  So, as long as it is not introduced to moisture, then it will last.  Storage life for all teas and cocoas can be extended by using desiccant packets or oxygen absorbing packets, and by repackaging the items with a vacuum sealing.

Uses: beverages, flavor additions to baked goods

Non-carbonated soft drinks

Although many of us prefer carbonated beverages, over time the sugars break down and the drink flavor is altered.  Non-carbonated beverages stand a longer test of time.  And, as long as the bottles are stored in optimum conditions, they will last.  Non-carbonated beverages include: vitamin water, Gatorade, juices, bottled water.

Uses: beverages, flavor additions to baked goods

White rice

White rice is a major staple item that preppers like to put away because it’s a great source for calories, cheap and has a long shelf life.  If properly stored this popular food staple can last 30 years or more.

Uses: breakfast meal, addition to soups, side dishes, alternative to wheat flour

Bouillon products

Because bouillon products contain large amounts of salt, the product is preserved.  However, over time, the taste of the bouillon could be altered.  If storing bouillon cubes, it would be best repackage them using a food sealer or sealed in mylar bags.

Uses: flavoring dishes

Powdered milk – in nitrogen packed cans

Powdered milk can last indefinitely, however, it is advised to prolong it’s shelf life by either repackaging it for longer term storage, or placing it in the freezer.  If the powdered milk developes an odor or has turned a yellowish tint, it’s time to discard.

Uses: beverage, dessert, ingredient for certain breads, addition to soup and baked goods.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: readynutrition

DHS Battens Down the Hatches: “This Could Be All Hell Breaks Loose Day”

A few weeks ago we saw what happens when the Electronic Benefit Transfer system is threatened in any way. When access to food stamps went offline for just a few hours, the masses began to panic in what were essentially isolated hot spots where law & order totally broke down.

This Friday, because of guidelines set forth in the American and Recovery Investment Act, the 48 million Americans receiving nutritional food assistance from the government are going to see cuts to their monthly distributions.

According to the USDA, the average monthly food benefit for an American family is about $272. Come November 1st, that will be reduced by $36 – or about 13%.

Now, that may not seem like a big number, until you consider that the people depending on these distributions are already struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.

The government is, in essence, reducing their food availability by 13% overnight.

Most people aren’t even paying attention, but one organization certainly is, because they know exactly what can happen when you start taking food out of peoples’ mouths.

(Video follows excerpts)

November 1st could be a very, very iffy day.

This could be ‘all hell breaks lose’ day.

The Department of Homeland Security is spending $80 million on a wrath of armed guards to protect the IRS and other government buildings in New York, not from terrorist threats mind you, but from American citizens because on November 1st the food stamp program is set to start decreasing the amount that is allocated to food stamp recipients… and they’re worried that violence will ensue.

I guess they’re preparing for the worst…


If we do not radically change our economy and revamp so that those nearly 50 million people have an opportunity to be liberated from food stamps to get $75, versus $70, versus $65. What these people need is economic opportunity and a good job so they can put food on their own table.

You know, the slaves had food stamps too. It was called scraps from mazza’s table… we have a crisis within our country right now when you have 50 million people, nearly the entire West Coast, on food stamps.

That’s the real outrage.


 

While we don’t anticipate any serious riots or violence following the food stamp cut backs, this shows in unambiguous detail what the government and the Department of Homeland Security have been planning for.

For years they have been simulating the collapse of the U.S. financial system and its after-effects. And their simulations have concluded that any breakdown which leaves people without money, food, or access to government support will lead to widespread violence, looting and riots on the streets of America. The control grid has been put into place to handle what they know is coming.

Why else would they spend $80 million beefing up security to deal with the blow-back from this relatively minor food stamp cut?

Because they know what can happen – and they know what WILL happen!

They’ve spent billions of dollars stockpiling food, guns, ammunition, and militarizing our domestic police forces to deal specifically with riots and mass demonstrations.

We can pretend that FEMA refugee internment camps don’t exist, but any sensible police state would have designed, built and staffed these facilities well in advance as well.

The United States government, as well as governments around the world, are fully expecting that the game will soon come to an end and confidence in the entire global economic, financial, monetary and political systems will be lost.

And when that happens you can be assured that all of those supplies they’ve stockpiled will be used to support their policing efforts, not for the benefit of the people.

This means you and yours will literally be on your own and left to fend for yourselves.

It’s time to make and finalize preparations, because these are not the activities of a government expecting peace and stability.

They are expecting madness and pandemonium, so you’d better have your plans in place, including your food, water, gold, and other supplies that will help you survive when others will be left to deal with the horrific consequences.

This won’t be a short-term event, but rather, a sustained long-term decline that could potentially affect us for decades – thus we need to be thinking sustainability, and not just prepping for a single isolated emergency.

You best get ready. The government’s giving us a head’s up on what will soon come to pass.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

Look Out Below: Home Sales Plunge: “Biggest Drop in 40 Months”

Last week the Sacramento Bee published a report indicating the foreclosure rates had returned to “normal” levels and that the, “foreclosure crisis that overwhelmed the greater Sacramento area for the past seven years has ended.” The Sacramento, California area was one of the hardest hit by the recession and foreclosures, with average home price declines reaching 50% in some areas.

If foreclosure rates were dropping, suggested analysts, it means that home sales must be rising again.

Except they didn’t.

According to a report from the National Association of Realtors home sales plunged significantly in the month of September. So much so that it is the single largest drop in signed home sales in 40 months.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index dropped 5.6 percent last month from August to a reading of 101.6. That also pushed the index below its year-ago level, the first time that’s happened in nearly 2 ½ years.

There is generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed sale. The drop suggests final sales will decline in the coming months.

Via Sac Bee


The pending home sales data collapsed in September (and remember this is before the shutdown and was heralded at the time as buyers rushing to buy before the risk of the shutdown slowed acceptances). Affordability, argued by some serial extrapolators as still being ‘relatively’ positive – has drastically weighed on housing at the margin just as we argued previously. This is the first annual drop in 29 months, the biggest drop in 40 months, and the biggest miss against expectations in 40 months.

Via Zero Hedge

There are a variety of factors that may be at play here. Officially, the NAR reports that the drop in sales is a result of higher mortgage rates and the government shutdown.

Of course, the shutdown didn’t happened until the month after the drop, so there’s that.

Rising mortgage rates certainly play a role, and those rates only declined to begin with because of massive Fed monetary intervention.

In fact, the Federal Reserve has made so much money available, that many economists believe the debt party is back.

We are very closely approaching 2007 levels of personal and business debt. Likewise, we’re reaching new highs on stock market exchanges and home prices seemed to be recovering to boot.

But the real question is… how can we possibly be in a recovery when millions of Americans remain unemployed and underpaid?

How is it possible that home prices were rising and sales increasing while a record 107 million Americans received government distributions?

How can we be out of a recession when nearly 50 million Americans – fully 23 million households, or about 20% – are dependent on food stamps?

The answer is simple.

The entire economy is now a complete sham.

The CPI economic growth index indicates our economy is growing at a rate of about 2.5%. Simultaneously, however, the official rate of inflation is 2.5% (nearly 6% if we look at the real numbers). What this means is that not only is the economy not growing, we are actually in a growth decline of at least 3%.

By economists’ definition, a recession is a period of time in which we experience negative economic growth for two quarters. Given we’ve seen a real decline in economic growth for at least the last five years, does anyone still believe we’re out of the recession?

Or is it possible that we are in a greater depression that continues to chip away at Americans’ wealth?

When experts say we’re out of the recession because the economy is growing, it’s important to understand that the purported “growth” is simply inflation making it’s way into the system.

It’s the very same reason for why stock markets have once again reached record highs (none of these company’s earnings justify their outrageous stock prices!), and why home prices didn’t continue to collapse.

They injected the system, literally, with trillions of dollars to keep prices afloat and avoid a deflationary depression.

The consequence, however, will be continued inflation – likely hyperinflation – in years to come.

The only other option is to scale back the Fed’s monetary expansion – in which case we see a complete collapse in prices.

The bottom line is that all roads to true recovery will be extremely painful.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

“What People Have Got to Know is That They’re On Their Own, Literally.”

(Pictured: Help is not coming. Sandy victims rummage through trash for food in Bayonne, NJ)

Over coming weeks millions of Americans will be tuning in to NatGeo’s new American Blackout film about surviving in a post-power grid collapse environment that lacks electricity, fresh water and the normal flow of commerce.

For most it will be nothing more than standard evening entertainment, but what if such an event turns out to be a future American reality?

Such a scenario may seem improbable, but just in the last several years we’ve seen it play out time and again all over the world, albeit in situations limited in time and scope. Hurricane Katrina and over 50,000 people stranded at the New Orleans Super Dome with no water, Hurricane Sandy and starving individuals rumaging through garbage cans to find a morsel of food, and various other natural and man-made disasters are an eye-opening testament to what happens when the improbable becomes reality.

Just a few weeks ago we saw what the panicked hive mentality can lead to when thousands of people stormed Walmart grocery stores following a breakdown in the Electronic Benefit Transfer system for food assistance.

We’ve become so dependent on others – namely our governments – to assist us when crisis strikes, that this “learned helplessness” in our society has left people in major cities totally unprepared to cope with disasters.

Via ABC News Australia:

“What people have got to know is that they’re on their own, literally on their own,” he said.

“We can’t have a truck or a car at your door when you ring triple-0 in a disaster situation.”

Experts say people should be prepared to look after themselves for at least three days after any major disaster.

But Mr Winter says most people have no plans in place.

“If we turn off power and water, how long will you be able to survive?” he said.

“When we put to people, ‘Can you survive for 72 hours without external help?’, the reaction is their jaw drops.”


Such a disaster could mean a loss of refrigeration, no tap water or air-conditioning, as well as transport failures and traffic chaos.

Mr Winter says cities are particularly vulnerable to these failures.

“We are more vulnerable in our big cities because we’ve got transport, we live in high rises, evacuations – talk to people about Katrina, in New Orleans, getting people out of the city,” he said.

In 2009, a heatwave in Melbourne killed more people than the Black Saturday bushfires.

Triple-0 emergency lines were overwhelmed, hospitals overflowed and the ambulance service was near breaking point after 12 days of temperatures above 28 degrees Celsius.


“When flooding was occurring, people went to the grocery store and bought frozen goods,” he said.

“Frozen goods are the first things that you have to throw out. You want people to understand that they’ve actually got to live without the capacity to flick on the light switch or the electric stove or the gas stove.

“People misunderstand what is likely to occur when they are affected by the disasters.”


Mr McGowan warns that the Government’s emphasis on cash handouts after disasters is part of the problem.

“Some of the more recent concentrations on hardship payments and those things have actually started to increase the learned helplessness that many feel during these issues,” he said.

Just 14 per cent of compensations payouts after the Brisbane floods was spent fortifying homes against similar disaster in the future.

Given the number of natural and man-made disasters that strike areas of the globe on a yearly basis, there’s a strong likelihood that one day it may happen to you, too.

Hopefully the disaster will be limited, but even in those cases the government is often overwhelmed. If you think about the possibility of a larger scale emergency, for example a cyber-attack that cripples our power grid as former DHS Secretary Napolitano suggested will happen in the future, there is simply no possible way for first responders to assist everyone who will need help.

Consider that FEMA has stockpiled at least 140 million emergency food rations in their regional emergency response centers. If a large earth quake, Tsunami or rogue terrorist attack struck a population of 1 million people, those supplies would likely be gone within a month – and that’s a best case scenario because FEMA would have to tap regional distribution centers to acquire supplies from all over the country.

It took them 3 days to get water to the Super Dome, if that gives you any ideas of how disorganized emergency response will be.

Given that the United States has over 50 metropolitan areas with populations exceeding 1 million people, you can see how the situation would quickly become untenable if disaster struck just a single major city or region. If it were to go national, striking multiple cities simultaneously, we’d have complete and total pandemonium within a few days.

The only plausible solution, and one that FEMA and DHS fail to support in any significant manner, is personal preparedness. Every household in this country should be urged to develop a personal preparedness plan by stockpiling food rations, potable water, survival tools, and even precious metals like silver bars to help them cope for at least a few weeks should our power grid go down and traditional commerce exchange mechanisms become inoperable. Those who fail to do so will have to deal with the horrific consequences.

Americans have been given a false sense of security through the learned helplessness of government assistance programs and the belief that the billions of dollars being invested into emergency planning is somehow going to provide the necessary supplies they’ll need if crisis strikes.

It’s a recipe for disaster.

We’re not immune from a massive destabilizing event. In fact, we’re likely more vulnerable now than ever before.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

Our City Water Supplies Aren’t As Secure As You May Think

Security around national water reservoirs may not be as safe as we thought:

In a time where people talk all the time about droughts, 21 year old Josh Seater has cost the city of Portland Oregon 8 million gallons of drinking water.

After a night on the town, a heavily intoxicated Seater began urinating a water reservoir.  “I didn’t know it was a water supply, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it, I thought it was a sewage plant”.

The cost of Josh’s drunken behavior has cost the Portland Water Bureau $36,000, as the 8 million gallons have had to be completely drained away.

The incident caught on CCTV at around 1.30am on Thursday morning has outraged locals, especially in light of the fact that no criminal convictions have yet been bought against Seater, although there is the possibility of some further action down the line.

Source: News Flavor

While TSA gaterapes grannies in diapers at our local airports and steams ahead on expanding enhanced pat-downs and searches to all public venues including train stations, sporting events and malls, the real security holes are completely ignored.

Considering that hundreds of thousands of undocumented aliens invade our Southern border unabated every year, the majority of our national power grid is four decades old and susceptible to long-term region-wide outages from ex-planetary and man-made threats, foreign nations hack our defense networks on a regular basis, and financial terrorists have manipulated our economy to near complete collapse, it makes one wonder what, exactly, the purpose is for the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on our so-called national security infrastructure over the course of the last ten years.

We are of the opinion that if a twenty one year old college drunkard is capable of breaching the security perimeter of an entire city’s drinking water and subsequently relieving himself, then the security for which Americans are being forced to sacrifice their liberty is a complete fraud.

Given that reservoir water has already been chlorinated and is awaiting direct use by residents of a city, how difficult would it be for an organization intent on killing Americans to bypass CCTV cameras and poison the water supply without anyone knowing until it is too late?

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

They Will Smell Your Food From Miles Away

When it hits the fan and people resort to violence and theft in order to meet their most basic needs, you’ll have plenty of food stockpiled in your pantry. The problem, of course, is that those who have not had anything to eat for days will have a heightened sense of smell. Their only task on a daily basis will be to find food by whatever means necessary. When you start cooking, they’ll start looking. Think ‘Walking Dead’ and how zombies quickly mass at the smell of human flesh. Sure, you may be armed to the teeth and perfectly capable of defending yourself from marauders, but why take the risk? Tess Pennington of Ready Nutrition provides a primer for this highly serious security concern and shares some tips on how you can stay off the aroma grid in a post-collapse environment.

 

Sustainable in the City: 7 Ways to Mask Food Aromas When the SHTF
By Tess Pennington

Scenario: It’s been 20 days since the blackout and 3 days since you have eaten. All the store shelves have been cleared out and there is no sign of recovery. The lucky ones already made their way out of the city, but there are some who decided to stay in the neighborhood. After your daily dumpster diving for food and supplies, you are walking past an apartment complex and smell a delicious aroma. Could it be the smell of stew making its way out of the window of the abandoned apartment complex? At this point, you have nothing to lose and your sole thought is on survival. It’s either you or them so what would you do?

Our Smells Will Give Us Away

A fear of many preppers during the beginning stages of a true SHTF event is how our smells, as well as the aromas from foods we prepare could attract unwanted visitors. Cooking food can be smelled in best conditions up to a half mile or so. Further, those who have gone without food for days on end will have a heightened sense of smell and will use this to their advantage. After all, this is what we do when we hunt, we use our senses to track down food. Animals can also be a security risk. For one, their range of smell is further and could make their way to your residence in hopes of getting any leftovers. This is a very real security issue and one that we must prepare for. Using your outdoor cooking sources such as a Sun Oven, Rocket Stove, outdoor grill or oven could add insult to injury and endanger you due to the food aromas.

As nice as it is to have a fully stocked food pantry, in the beginning of a massive disaster (economic collapse, nuclear or EMP attack, pandemic, massive grid failure, etc.), we must carefully choose the types of foods to eat in order to conceal our whereabouts. Generally speaking, most people have a three day supply of food in their home. After that is when the crazy begins. Remember, you want to use or preserve all the contents in your refrigerator and freezer before you begin using your food stores. Once it is time to use your larder, be thoughtful about which foods you consume.

Densely Populated Areas Will Be Most At Risk

In this type of event, basic resources such as food, water and disaster supplies will be near to extinct if you are living in a large metropolitan area. Those who live in densely populated areas, apartment complexes or sprawling neighborhoods will be challenged with bugging in and trying to not emit smells of food.

If you decided to hunker down and bug in place ensure that you have all supplies stored and ready to go. Plan to keep a very low profile and to stay indoors. Further, invest in black out curtains to conceal any light that may emit from your home. Never underestimate the desperation of the unprepared; they will want what you have. Take steps now to learn how to conceal aromas and learn which ways you can prepare food indoors to protect you location.

To maintain a level of discretion, you may want to look into these tips:

  1. Cook indoors. Finding clean burning fuels such as those found in sternos. Now isn’t the time to break out the outdoor grill.
  2.  Cook on the down low. Plan to prepare and cook food in the early morning or late at night when a majority of people are sleeping.
  3. Stock up on MRE’s. These are self-contained meals that will not require long preparation times.
  4. Have meals with quick prep times. Prepare meals ahead and can them for quick preparation such as beans, soups and stews. This will cut down on fuel and keep the smell of food down to a minimum.
  5. Go easy on the spices. As much as we love to add spices to our meals, they will bring added aromas to your food and inevitably could be your worst enemy.
  6. Eat foods that are already prepared and are shelf stable. Shelf stable foods is another solution to cut down on strong aromas.
  7. Use a thermal cookerThis is an insulated crock pot that will allow you use minimal fuel to heat the food and also help insulate the aromas that the food gives off.

In the aftermath of disasters, the main objective of the unprepared is to find food and water. Dumpster diving, rummaging through homes and foraging will become a norm for those trying to meet their survival need. During this time, you must be discreet in your food preparations until the recovery period or the die off begins.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

Keeping your guns Dry and SAFE on the Cheap

Tip from John in New Hampshire

Hello MD , my name is John from the Beautiful state of New Hampshire. I wanted to share a tip for you and your readers that I have been using in my gun safe(or a closet) for years, Quite Cheap and works wonderfully!! Up here we get quite humid summers and cold winters and I wanted to keep my guns/ammo in my safe dry/safe from humidity. We all know those little white packets that say “Silica Gel-Do Not Eat” that we find packaged in our electronics and other items we buy…(often see them in the bottom of the box).

After researching this wonderful little chemical item I discovered its amazing moisture grabbing qualities!! It literally pulls moisture right out of the air and “locks it up”. I thought to myself “What a great thing for my gun safe”…It was difficult to find cheaply though, there are many products for gun safes, but they were too pricey for me to justify, and some were electric powered safe de-humidifiers, not what us thrifty ‘off the gridders’ would want…

Then I discovered a Cat Litter-type product called ‘MIMI-LITTER’ , yes mimi-litter ! It is a 4 lb bag of Silica-Gel. I found it at Wal-Mart, in the Pet section for about $4.38 per bag-(Great for the Cats too, Locks up odors as well and lasts 10 days with our 2 indoor Cats). I simply cut up some of my girlfriends nylon stockings, (No, she was not wearing them at the time!) and tied a knot in them, filled with 3 cups of mimi-litter, then tied off the top and hung them in my gun safe. I put 1 of them on the floor and hung 2 of them from the top shelf. It works wonderfully!

My safe is in a room that is not heated, and in the winter I will sometimes spend some time with my beloved toys, and notice the condensation that can form on the guns when the safe door is open, when I do expose that room to heat in the winter months. I was always concerned when I had to lock the safe when I was done. So, after using this Litter method, I have not had any issues that I previously had! It absorbs all the moisture and my guns are fine…4 years now without an issue.!

I am also currently trying this on a larger scale (bigger bags) in my damp/musty basement and am happy to report it is better than it was last year. If you are very thrifty you can re-use/re-energize the product as well. Simply place it in a shallow baking pan, bake at 200* for 10 minutes and it is dried sufficiently to re-use. I don’t generally bother doing that though, because it is cheap enough to make many, many bags out of the 4lb sack and a few pairs of nylons! I also put this litter in my ‘ammo-paks’ that I make with my Food-Saver, simply throw in a handful and vacuum-seal…works great! I’m sure there are 100′s of other uses your readers will think of as well.

Here is the website I found listed on the back of the bag. Sorry, it is made in China, but if it keeps my valuables safe, I’m ok with it, here; www.silica-gel.com.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: thesurvivalistblog

Transistor Radio Repair

I recommend the G.E. transistor radios. The technology was improved slightly with the SupeRadio series, which was made for G.E. in Japan starting in the 1970s. These used a perfected superheterodyne circuit and large speakers for full, rich sound. When paired with an inductive antenna enhancer (such as a Terk, Select-A-Tenna, or Kaito brand) to boost the built-in ferrite rod AM antenna, you have a great AM and FM DXing radio with quite good monaural sound.

I was impressed by this guy’s threads on basic, old, transistor radio “revival”.

His simple, well-illustrated threads at Instructables are written for the novice radio tinkerer.

First, instructions for a GE P780B.  (I have one of these, they’re built like tanks and are worth seeking out.)

Second, an American made, Zenith portable. The Zeniths from the 1950s to 1970s are very well made and have audio and DX qualities that place modern portables to shame.

Some other links to check out:

http://www.vintage-radio.com


http://www.transistor.org


 Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.