Preparedness: Tip for getting the wife on board

This is a pretty common question. Although I have received emails in the past from women asking how to get their husbands interested, in general it’s usually the other way around.
Babbling about zombies and the end of the world rarely impresses the lady of the house, but talking about ongoing world events, possible problems in your area and how that may affect your family tends to works pretty well.
Here’s an extra tip though: Check your bathroom for the brand of tampons or pads your wife or girlfriend uses and get yourself a couple extra large packs next time you’re stocking up on supplies.
A few years ago my wife was telling me she’d probably have to drop by the nearest drugstore because she needed to buy some. It was one of those late afternoons when you really wished you could just relax and stay home. You should have seen her face when I pulled a pack of those things from one of my boxes. It was as if I had just saved a dozen orphans from a burning building! It sure got me a bunch of extra brownie points but even better, it helped me make my point about being ready and having extra supplies of those things you’re just going to use anyway.
I was actually reminded of this by an ongoing situation in Argentina. Because of the tough importation bans, one of the many items that are becoming hard to come across are tampons. These are imported from Brazil and there’s a shortage of them across the country. It seems that better quality brands are the imported ones and that’s the ones most women seem to prefer. There’re locally produced brands as well but they aren’t as good and there’s not enough stock available of those either. It reminds me a bit of the TP shortage in Venezuela some time ago. Stock up folks! You won’t be trading any of these for bars of gold after some unrealistic end of the world scenario, but when there’s shortages, or when you simply run out at an inconvenient time, it’s nice to have them. Besides, these are products you’re going to use anyway, and you even end up saving money when buying in bulk. This is especially true when you also have to worry about inflation.
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”.

How likely is a Solar Superstorm or EMP Attack?

Hi Fernando, I have been following your blog for a few years now and
have both your books (and my 5 star reviews of each are among the top
rated on Amazon for them). Keep up the good work.

I have a question for you. I have been reading a few fiction books
lately that deal with CME/EMP situations, and while they make
excellent fiction, it's hard to find significant real world
information on both the likelihood and severity of these types of
events. The books, of course, say they are possible or even probable
events based on hard scientific facts...

I have read the EMP Commission's report, and it does indeed sound like
an EMP attack would be quite destructive. And yes there are countries
and terrorist organizations that could theoretically access nuclear
weapons to perform an EMP attack. But, I doubt it would be so easy to
deploy a weapon like this several hundred KMs over North America
undetected and unintercepted.

As for CME's, sure they have happened in the past but they seem to
have been quite localized and not terribly disruptive long-term (power
was restored to many in Quebec within hours of the event that struck
them in 1989). Of course bigger events are theoretically possible but
is something that wipes out all electricity on earth even remotely
probable? From what I've researched, the answer is no.

What do you think? Are these events at all worth spending time and
resources preparing for? Or should they remain squarely in Science
Fiction?

Much appreciated!
Craig
.......

Hello Craig,
Before addressing the rest of your email I wanted to thank you for the five star reviews in Amazon. They really do mean a lot to me and help me a great deal so thank you for taking the time to write them. It’s thanks to people like you that I can do this.
This is an interesting topic. I spent some time doing further research so as to understand better the real risk of an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) and CME (coronal mass ejection). According to what we’ve read from the media this last couple years, it seems that the sun is about to fry us all into the dark ages any minute now. All of sudden we are bombarded with alarmist articles. This is the first thing to notice: When the media goes non-stop about how the sky is falling, that usually means you have to keep digging.
This is probably one of the most professional, well balanced articles addressing this topic. The EMP threat: fact, fiction, and response. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1549/1
Turns out that many of the alarmist proponents have a financial motivation, either because of the extra budgets they would be getting or because their companies would be supplying the services to harden the grid.
So, how big of a risk is it? The short answer is that it’s a real possibility, but it has been very much exaggerated in my opinion.
A weaponized EMP attack is highly unlikely. It’s a complex type of attack that isn’t viable for guerilla and terrorist groups which as we’ve seen before use other means. I’d put an EMP attack practically at the bottom of my list of likely threats. The risk of a solar flare or CME is greater, but the chances of it being worse than the disasters we’re already used to is rare. The possibility of a solar flare throwing all of North America into a new dark age is practically non-existent, let alone the entire planet. An event of such magnitude is highly unlikely and even if a powerful coronal mass ejection hits Earth the hardening and contingency plan for such an event has already started. Can it happen? Yes. There is an estimated 12% chance of a similar event such as the Solar storm of 1859 occurring again between 2012 and 2022. Will it be as bad as recently advertised? No. How bad could it be? It could be a large scale disaster but the same could be said of tsunamis, war, the San Andreas Fault collapsing or the entire Yellowstone super volcano blowing up.
To answer your question I believe that yes, they are possible, have happened before, but we also know that even if it does happen it won’t be nearly as bad as seen in movies or novels. I did enjoy reading “One second After” but I think that as of right now, its safe to say that all of us have more urgent issues to be addressed, which are far more likely and far more dangerous.
What to do to prepare just in case? I believe the core preparedness we always talk about here would be crucial in such a worst case scenario. Should a large CME affect a large portion of the country, you’re looking at having enough supplies, food, medicine, fuel for cooking and heating, so as to last until services are restored. A month worth of food and supplies should be enough, but more sure can’t hurt.
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”.

Pocket EDC Update January 2015

Private Police Post-SHTF

I thought you might find this interesting – several neighborhoods in
greater Seattle are now paying for additional police patrols
(utilizing off-duty officers).
A-

Fed up with crime, Seattle residents hiring off-duty officers

By Cayle Thompson Published: Jan 1, 2015 at 4:18 PM PST Last Updated: Jan 2, 2015 at 9:23 AM PST

SEATTLE — Residents in North Seattle’s Whittier Heights neighborhood say they are tired of crime. So beginning with the new year, they are hiring additional help.
“The plan is to have more patrols,” said resident Brad Renton.
Renton is the director of the newly formed Whittier Heights Patrol Association, a state chartered non-profit he started in November after witnessing several crimes in his neighborhood.
“One of them was a strong armed robbery at the pet store,” Renton said. “It happened about eight feet from me.”
Renton says there are hotspots in the neighborhood, including nearby Baker Park, where has graffiti and signs warning against drug use.
As of January 1st, already vigilant neighbors will have reinforcement from off-duty Seattle Police officers, hired for after-hours work through Seattle Securities, Inc. Officers will wear their uniform, but patrol in unmarked cars.
Neighbors act as “subscribers,” paying a yearly $250 fee. One “subscription” covers one night of patrol. Renton says his goal is to have more than 300 subscribers. As of January 1st, neighbors have nearly a month covered.
Renton says patrols won’t happen every night. Instead, off-duty officers will target nights in which crimes are statistically more likely to happen.
“You’ll see them,” Renton assures. “They’ll be here. Their presence will be noted.”
SPD already patrols Whittier Heights and surrounding areas. In October, police busted a major North Seattle crime ring believed to be responsible for hundreds of burglaries, stolen mail, and identity theft.
But it followed a leaked memo from police, admitting their North Precinct is short staffed.
Seattle police say they have heard the concerns, and are working to address response times to property crime in areas like Whittier Heights, including hiring more officers.
Until then, Renton and his neighbors see the private patrols as an opportunity to step up and tell criminals to get out.
“We felt this was something we could do to keep our neighborhood intact and improve the quality of life,” Renton said. “This is a good place.”

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Fed-up-with-crime-Seattle-residents-hiring-off-duty-officers-287301091.html

 

Hi,
Interesting, it seems to be happening in other parts as well.

That’s very common in Argentina. I paid off-duty cops doing private security in my neighborhood for years. Of course, it is open for debate. On one hand, with his own time an off-duty officer can do whatever he wants. At the same time, you could ask why is he charging for something he’s already supposed to be doing, which is keeping the neighborhood safe. There’s a bit of a conflict of interest there. Either way, in my experience it was well worth paying a bit extra each month for the added security. The blocks that were guarded where safe, the one’s that weren’t, well, you can figure they weren’t as safe.
It’s interesting to see yet another similarity. Years ago it was easy to see how something like this would eventually happen and I have written about it many times. How as the infrastructure and public services start failing and suffering they slowly become “privatized”, increasing the gap between those that can pay for it and those that cant.
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”.

The Russia-China (and Latin America) Strategic Partnership

Its interesting to notice how they all seem to be getting along. China keeps making deals with countries in Latin America, recently made a $2.3 billion currency-swap deal with Argentina not long after announcing RT en Español (Russian TV in Spanish) . The China-Russia Alliance was done before the Ukraine crisis even started. I very much doubt Putin would have made such a move without China’s support. At the same time, you see the western media focusing on how bad the economic sanctions have hurt Russia, but then you have Russians, even a Russian blog reader that commented here, saying that things aren’t that bad and that they’ve seen a lot worse.

Russia Today, Argentina Tomorrow

With a Friend Like China, Who Needs the IMF?

The Russia-China (and Latin America) Strategic Partnership
FerFAL