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http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/17/us/western-states-wildfires/index.html
Wildfires have devastated hundreds of thousands of acres across the Northwest.
One of the States that was hit the hardest was Idaho with over a quarter million acres. In the southeast corner of the state, the fire has razed more than 265,000 acres in Owyhee County. In northwest Idaho, the fire affected around 21,000 acres including the Old Greer, Kamiah Gulch, Lawyer 6 and Adams Grade. Nearly 53,000 acres burning in Clearwater Complex. A 70 year old woman died in Kamiah when escaping the flames. Mandatory Evacuations and closures are in place.
The high temperatures combined with the draught has become a cocktail for disaster regarding wildfires.
It is worth noticing that many of these areas are often specifically selected by preppers and survivalists who believe that seclusion provides a greater degree of safety and is a strategically wise decision.
http://www.kxly.com/news/north-idaho-news/nearly-53000-acres-burning-in-clearwater-complex-fire-in-idaho/34747772
Important Lessons that must be learned
1) I’ve said it before many times and I’ve written about it in my second book, “Bugging Out & Relocating”: You can’t live in your Bug Out Location. The minute you live there it is no longer an alternative place of residence for when your main place of residence is compromised because such a place just became just that when you moved to live there. The “We moved to out BOL” mentality is critically flawed and it is in moments like these when it becomes obvious why such an attitude can be dangerous. Thinking you already live in an alternative place often means little or no thought is given to a true BOL and Bug Out plan.
2) Selective risk assessment. It often happens that people only focus on the things they do enjoy and overlook the ones they would notice if they were capable of a more objective analysis. Thinking that living away from cities means you’re safe from all dangers of society while overlooking more likely threats such as these means that risk threat analysis wasn’t very accurate or objective. Floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, draughts, all potential emergencies must be taken into account and estimated how likely they are of happening again.
3) If you must go, go.
Fire can move at incredibly fast speeds due to wind. Personal possessions sure aren’t worth dying for. If mandatory evacuations are in place its probably because of a good reason. Don’t hesitate or overestimate your capacity of fighting a fire and find safe shelter. Make sure you have a bug out plan in place, with the needed Go bags and a strategy around which the entire family is organized.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
2 comments:
Mobility is highly important.
A Honolulu , Hawaii newspaper had an interesting interview with Pierre Omidyar, the Ebay billionaire who has an interest in survivalism, esp re pandemic flu. From
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Mar/22/ln/hawaii903220357.html
"
While he's clearly enamored with the Island culture, he is also aware of the danger of living in the middle of an ocean. Omidyar worries that a pandemic could cut Hawai'i's lifelines and leave it with an 11-day supply of food.
To that end, he has made pivotal donations to local nonprofits dedicated to building sustainable local food supplies.
At the same time, he has stockpiled several months of food for his personal use at storage facilities on O'ahu, several former employees said.
Omidyar employs a group of former Secret Service agents and ex-State Department officials to serve as his private security team and to fly his private jet, a French-made Dassault Falcon 900EX, which he keeps parked in a private hangar at the Honolulu International Airport.
"I'd say we're probably more significantly prepared than the average family," Omidyar said. "We have property all over the world and we have property we can fly to."
In addition to his Kahala home and Nevada mansion, Omidyar owns a 640-acre ranch in Montana, a home in southern California and a residence on an island off the coast of France."
Of course, not all of us can keep a Dassault Falcon 900EX warmed up. The 900EX has a range of 5100 miles and three engines (nice to have if one engine goes out while one is over the ocean.) Note also that Kahala is the richest area of Oahu -- several miles from Honolulu airport on the other side of Diamond Head. Not only does that area have the armory of Hawaii's Department of Defense, it also has a lot of houses with 6 foot high perimeter walls and steel gates securing driveways. Plus Oahu has one of the highest concentrations of US military personnel in the USA. If the natives ever get restless, Pierre can just have his bodyguards land a Boston Whaler on the beach and be airborne in about 20 minutes. With a plane that can get him and his family to any spot on the planet within a day.
His real problem. . . . . The employees he has to land the whaler, the hangar and maintenance crews, the pilots and everyone he hires probably has loved ones there or where he is going. If the SHTF he better be quick or no one will be there to help, they will be with their lived ones. . . . .or asking for a ride.
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