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Good to have a couple of filled 5 gal. gas containers for the home generator or car.
DC TO BE DARK FOR DAYS
Does this mean Capitol Hill doesn't have a redundant enery generation system?
Many of these seem as though redundant systems at homes & businesses as well as home generators with some home fuel storage would have been helpful.
I was watching a news network this morning where the backdrop was a large tree was blocking the street in a residential area. I can tell you that my in my neighborhood that tree would not have been there any longer than it took to fire up a chainsaw, even if I had to do it myself.
This article above doesn't say anything about it; but, a "state of emergency" in many states means the suspension of CCW.
Will this impact on the areas East of the Mississippi River convince some that Prepping is really nothing more than contigency planning and a good idea?
Government buildings, (Federal "vital services" anyway), do have redundant power sources, as do most medical facilities that have life support systems, but the peasants at large are not worth the notice of the ruling class, same as it has always been.
While I always have an ax or 2, and chains and pulleys and come-a-longs, jacks, as well as usually a peavey or Can'thook, (I only carry a chainsaw when heading to the woods and it doesn't fit in my truckbed toolbox) most people are lucky to have a pocket knife in the car or on their person.
For me, all those fallen trees would be a blessing in disquise as that wood would be simple to collect for the woodstove
Every time there is a disaster, flood, fires, hurricanes, "Land Hurricanes" earthquakes whatever, there are always a bunch of people who suddenly get excited about prepping or self sustainable living, then they find out how much work it is, and conveniently forget about it until the next time.
I get very tired of hearing news stories about all the "desperate people with no food or elecricity or water" lined up at the one gas station with a generator.
If the house is standing, even if a wall is gone, you still have shelter. If your home is undamaged but no power, you can at least cook on an outdoor grill. If you don't have water stored, you still have water in your hot water tank, just because your plasma tv doesn't work doesn't necessarily mean the world has ended, but these folks usually have no food or stored water in the house, no idea of how to take care of themselves, and sit around whining to TV cameras while the wait for the government to rescue them.
Makes me sick, but it is survival of the fittest. If you don't take care of yourself, don't expect someone else to do it for you.
I do feel sympathy for their situation, but look to places like Joplin Missouri or Gulfport Mississippi and see how they handled their crises. Those are the folks I would be happy to send assistance to because they put themselves back together after their disasters with a minimum of belly aching about "The Trailer houses FEMA gave us aren't nice enough".
There are multiple major fires going on in my state right now, one is over 100,000 acres and growing, but there are plans in place, shelters are set up, secure areas to move animals too, aid stations are all in place.
Fires happen every year here, we handle it just as Florida handles Hurricanes. It is part of where we live so we are prepared.
It is easy to feel sorry for those folks hurt by any disaster, and I do, but my sympathy stops when they have done nothing to take care of themselves and expect someone to do it for them.
I don't want to kick somebody when they are down, but I had a little giggle at this too. They laugh at people in the South because we don't know how to drive in snow. These people don't even know how to get over a little thunder storm. This storm was a little worse than 60 mph winds but we get storms of 60 mph or more several times during the year. It usually takes just a few minutes to get the trees out of the road. The electricity can take longer.
I was amazed that the news was reporting this like it was a major event.
Something that amazes me even more is the lack of respect the people moving here from the North have of lightning. Lightning can travel 20 miles or more. If you hear thunder, get inside. Stay off the telephone, the computer and anything electrical. Unplug small appliances and anything electrical that is not necessary and they may not get fried. Go to a place in your home that doesn't have a tree that could fall on it. Hopefully that will be either a basement or a room that has many walls between you and the outside. Better yet keep all trees far enough from your home that they cannot fall on it.
And then there are those places along the Mississippi that flood often and people keep moving back to the same spot. Such as New Orleans. You live in a bowl; get out because bowls collect water.
Let's learn from this. The weather is hot and humid; there aren't any lights. Given the population of D.C. we have potential for a real riot. We can certainly test more than one hypothesis so let's look at what we have.
Will they riot and loot?
Will they engage in pitched battle?
Will the police disengage if they are losing?
Will the military become over extended given what they need to protect.
But here's the big one, the stuff of so many novels. Will they attack wealthy areas? D.C. is a large slum with a few wealthy enclaves, e.g. Georgetown. That will give us some good answers about what we may expect in a collapse. I doubt that there will be any impact on financial markets but keep watching. How will Obama allocate resources among the various states? He has offered help to Virginia and Maryland according to a news article on a link but West Virginia was conspicuous by it's absense. The article may be incorrect but let's keep watching. He knows that he can't carry hard-hit West Virginia in the coming election. Will he use this event fror retribution? This could be very important information.
I don't believe that the mobs will leave the city; it's their territory. Besides, D.C. has the lowest per capita car ownership in the country.
Now is the time for us to watch as disinterested observers.
I don't want to kick somebody when they are down, but I had a little giggle at this too. They laugh at people in the South because we don't know how to drive in snow. These people don't even know how to get over a little thunder storm. This storm was a little worse than 60 mph winds but we get storms of 60 mph or more several times during the year. It usually takes just a few minutes to get the trees out of the road. The electricity can take longer.
I was amazed that the news was reporting this like it was a major event.
Something that amazes me even more is the lack of respect the people moving here from the North have of lightning. Lightning can travel 20 miles or more. If you hear thunder, get inside. Stay off the telephone, the computer and anything electrical. Unplug small appliances and anything electrical that is not necessary and they may not get fried. Go to a place in your home that doesn't have a tree that could fall on it. Hopefully that will be either a basement or a room that has many walls between you and the outside. Better yet keep all trees far enough from your home that they cannot fall on it.
And then there are those places along the Mississippi that flood often and people keep moving back to the same spot. Such as New Orleans. You live in a bowl; get out because bowls collect water.
Maryland and that like is NOT the North, and up heya' we laff at them too when it comes to driving in snow....... And around heya' in snow we say "Here hold this Beer and watch this!"
Silver Tips, I might guess you have no idea what happens out East when things go wrong (think weather) For example ice storms only come in mild winter weather, but once the power is off everyone calls into some radio staion to beach and whine about it. They LOOSE FOOD!
I could never get that idea figured. There is tons of ice free for the taking just outside and people loose food.
When this happens I either help folks out, usually the elderly and or I make things for any work crews to eat/drink and take it to them, or i am out working, and when not I am havin a party!
I have had parties in bad storms and even kayaked in the roads for grins..... I usually have a 12 volt car radio free somewheres and a battery is there to play music. I run oil lamps in winter for heating anyway, so I end up with it all just like any other time, ALMOST, excepting this past winter which wasn't even a winter.
I just heard on the weather channel that 14 people are dead. How did they die. Lightning, trees, heart attack?? The Colorado fires have made us not get anything but sound bites about this storm.
Isn't it sad to have to question whether a state will get help from the federal government because of that state's politics. I saw that happen more than once in the North Carolina mountains. Then I heard that so much amount of property has to be destroyed before the federal government kicks in. So it looks to me like those that don't really need it could end up getting help and those that do need it could go wanting. Our state had to help the people in the mountains after a flash flood where really inexpensive homes were destroyed. These people had lost everything they had but did not qualify because they didn't have enough in the first place. I think some rules need to be changed from a certain amount of money to a certain number of homes and businesses destroyed.
My daughter and her family were in Pennsylvania for ball games but she said where she was it was not too bad. She came home to Virginia to apples being blown off her tree and a trash can in the back yard that is normally beside the garage.
Glad to know Maryland is back in the South. My granddaughter in Northern Virginia tells me she is not Southern. You never know where that line is drawn anymore. Maybe it should just fade away. But as for the "making fun" goes on the snow; I think I was pretty much right. We live about seven miles from the South Carolina border and get very little snow. My daughter told me she knew she was a Virginian when she went to Walmart and it was snowing when she got out of the car and she went inside to shop anyway. I might have gone in to shop, but it would not have been for long.
I am sorry for the loss of life and I am sorry that many are having so much trouble; but you really need to stop throwing off on Southerners every chance you get. The South is just as good and I would venture to say that where some parts of the country are concerned, we are better than you are.
When I saw the thieves in New Orleans during Katrina my first thought was; better be careful who you move close to because in case of danger, those are the people you will need to depend on. Are the people in D.C. allowed to have guns. You don't go messing around someone's home in North Carolina unless you have a reason to be there and stealing is not a good reason.
And by the way, we had a thunder storm warning of 60 mph winds, hail, lightning, today. We went from the upper 90's or 100 and something to 77 degrees in just a few minutes and I am hearing rumbling right now. So good night John Boy.
Overall, no big deal. I "missed" the storm, as I was in an emergency room with my 86 year old father. Wouldn't have known there was a storm until driving home if not for my father's cardiac monitor needing to be reset when the hospital's backup generator came on.
It took a little bit longer for me to get home because it was very dark and I had difficulty seeing the downed electric wires until I was almost on top of them. It would have been a lot easier in the daylight.
It took about a day for everyone to routinely stop when they reached a non-functioning traffic signal. (I initially sailed through a couple of these without thinking. ) Everyone seems to be cooperating, no signs of anger or frustration.
I noticed yesterday afternoon that some of the neighbors across the street were able to string an electric cord across the street to obtain electricity from the neighbors on my side of the street. I cursed myself for not thinking to offer to do the same. Next time, I will.
My father is at home without full electricity. His large back up generator did not work but he agreed to allow his young neighbor to hook up a small portable generator that my father had in his shed in return for allowing the neighbor to tie into my father's electricity. My father also allowed his elderly neighbor to tie in to the generator. Unfortunately, that meant my father had no lights or central A/C. My father grew up in FL and TX during the Great Depression which surely influenced his generosity.
It was WAY too hot in the house for an 86 year old, so my sister found a window unit, even though my father insisted he was o.k. I told my father if he turned the unit off, I was calling the Department of Social Services and they would remove him from his home. So far, he has not touched the dial.
I checked the NOAA site this morning. The heat index reached 117 degrees on the 29th and 107 degrees yesterday. Surprisingly, no one is b*******. It's all good.
Sorry folks, but as a survivor of Hurricanes Betsy, Camile and Katrina, as well as a number of smaller storms, what they experienced is not a 'land hurricane'.
Hurricanes are a composite. There are storms winds, flood waters, and tornadoes. My opinion One of the main danger from a hurricane is not only what the hurricane brings, but what it pushes.
Betsy came on shore with winds of 125 mph, but it was a wet hurricane. She is famous for her loop. She crossed Florida east of Daytona Beach, made a loop, crossed Forida again, then hit New Orleans.
Betsy drove a storm surge (i.e. tidal wave) into Lake Pontchartrain, and pushed water over the levees flooding New Orleans. In '65 they were not yet accurately measuring storm surge, so we don't know how high the wave was. It also dropped a lot of water flooding not only New Orleans, but the surrounding parishes. I was in high school and remember wading in water over my knees. After Betsy, the Corp of Engineers began to try to build levees that couldn't be topped. (HA)
Camile pushed a storm surge 22.6 feet high and came ashore just east of New Orleans in Mississippi with sustained winds of 210 mph. It scoured the coast. The final count was l34 deaths; 27 missing; 8,931 injured. When we went to the little city of Waveland, MS after the storm, the only thing left of the house was the concrete steps and battered remains of the azeales that surrounded the house. We never found the house - not even debris. The barn had a high water mark across the hay loft. The house was about 1 mile from the coast.
Of course, we all know about Katrina. An estimated 1,836 people died in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods. The levees were not topped, they simply collapsed. There were a total of 53 levee breaches. We don't know for sure what the storm surge was. They did take a measurement of 14 feet before the tidal guages were destroyed. In some areas, the flood waters reached 12 miles inland. Although the recorded wind maximum was 125 mph, the hurricane's winds extended 120 miles from the eye of the hurricane. Tornadoes spun off of Katrina damaged the area. There were 2 in Covington, just south of my home. Although we didn't see any in our area, we did cut down a number of large trees that were twisted and broken. The only thing I know with that kind of force is a small tornado.
Katrina convinced me that I am simply too old for this stuff. As soon as my mother stablizes, we are moving inland.
My father is at home without full electricity. His large back up generator did not work but he agreed to allow his young neighbor to hook up a small portable generator that my father had in his shed in return for allowing the neighbor to tie into my father's electricity. I checked the NOAA site this morning. The heat index reached 117 degrees on the 29th and 107 degrees yesterday. Surprisingly, no one is b*******. It's all good.
I mentioned generator failure on the heat wave thread and emphasized the need for backup. This man was lucky that he could get air conditioning. This is a "teachable" event.
My big interest here is predicting future events by examining what's happening now. I do recall reading in the Sixties that the worst temperature for fomenting riots was 92. Apparently that's the worst for putting people in really surly moods. Right now it's so hot that people have no energy for crime.
During the Sixties rioting became popular. A riot in one city would often trigger riots in other cities. But the Katrina problems didn't do it. That event wasn't a riot but it involved a descent into savagery. It was worse than a riot in that respect as people were making independent decisions to commit criminal acts. Incidents of mob mentality occurred but they were spotty.
During the Sixties well-trained Soviet agents were here to encourage people This did occur; Boris Yeltsin released the information after the Reds fell. But let's wait and watch while the power is off. Infamy often erupts without warning.
I've been preparing for a societal breakdown more than anything else apart from financial problems. I believe that it will be temporary; it will likely just fizzle out when the food runs out and people have nothing other than eating on their minds. Truly starving people are of no concern; they're physically incapable of any strenuous activity.
I'm glad I'm here. It's preferable to watch this from the standpoint of a researcher observing what's occurring in a Petri dish. I do know that this event will reconfirm again that it's location, location, location.
NCN, I didn't mean to get under yer skin any, but I kinda doubt you have any ideer what snow really is.
That's a little bit......
Once in Md there was a storm called 'Storm of the Century' That was some little more snow too. I was there at the time dwelling in a tee pee. At the moment of the storm I was plowin in Burkittsville, and a Firefighter popped open the door of my plow truck and commanded me to plow, as a store called Deva was on fire.
The Fire fighter was funny too, sayin' he would do the plowin if only he knew how. LOL
It's best to take me with few grains of salt since I am know to sort of spin yarns around heya'.
I am not worth getting upset over either. mac
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) Everyone seems to be cooperating, no signs of anger or frustration. 
Not a hurricane
