More Preparations Needed!

World Net Daily reported yesterday that President Obama has given the green light for protecting the government leadership communications in the event of an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack on our nation.

As we have seen lately, we are now being threatened by not only Iran and North Korea but also just a few days ago, Al Qaeda made statements that it would consider using a nuclear attack on the United States. Iran and North Korea are unstable and would use any excuse to declare war on our country.

This is reminiscent of the cold war threats by Russia and Cuba many years ago.

I do not think our homeland will be hit by a land based nuke, but it could still happen also. More than likely if it happens, it will be an airborne nuke with an EMP affect that would destabilize our country because of the lack of our power grids. This would disrupt all transportation and consequently delay or stop food deliveries to our local grocers.

The only hedge against such a catastrophe will be our gardens and our food storage and bartering with our neighbors for products we do not produce or have on hand.

In such an event, many items will become worth their weight in gold. For example, without toilet paper, what do you do? Tear up books and newspapers? I hope not! We have decided to stock up on at least a three-month supply of TP, just to be safe.

While we are talkiing about long power outages, if the power should go out for an extended time, you should first eat the meats, eggs and dairy items in the refrigerator. Then start cooking up and or drying and jerking the meats and other items in your freezer. You only have a few days window without power before botulism and salmonella take over these foods.

When in doubt about the safety of the food, throw it out. This being said, I understand that in extended survival situations some people have thoroughly cooked (translated - charring) decaying meat and have not gotten sick. I do not know if I could do this or not, and I have not read any thing definitive on this method of preserving rotting meats and vegetables. If the situation catches us in the winter, we are likely able to prolong the freshness of our foods by storing them outdoors in the cold, but,...if it is spring, summer or fall, we may want to not take any chances with getting deathly ill from being poisoned with bad food.

Remember, water will be more critical than food as we will need lots of it and without a good clean source of drinkable water, we might as well pass on eating as digestion requires water to process foods through our systems properly. I am guessing that vegetables high with vitamin C will become important to prevent scurvy from living on a diet of meats. We will also want to get plenty of sunshine to replace vitamin D in our bodies during the crisis period. This is provided the air around us is not contaminated with radiation from a local nuclear blast.

If a war does come here, may God bless us and our families!

If you were to sort out the possible targets in Washington State, I would say that the major targets would likely be first our ability to defend our state especially the largest of all our military bases, and next, the five or so major cities and metropolitan areas around the state including Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Vancouver-Portland. Disruption of our transportation systems such as major freeways and both our east-west and our north-south trains would likely also be a target. Next, our water purification systems and our electrical grids such as our dams, Hansford and major power line facilities would be targets. Gasoline refineries and their distribution networks as well as our underground gas lines and utilities would also be a target. Communications are a given, in that with no way to communicate, i.e. telephone and TV and radio, confusion would bring added chaos to the situation.

Now what are the chances that all of these would be targeted and successfully stopped? I would say that we can get a grip on reality that for all of this to take place would be extremely remote.

However, since we are not all likely to move to the country or to the mountains, the majority of us will have to deal with what is dealt to us… thus the need for preparedness.

Maybe it really is time to reconsider a fully stocked bunker or shelter at home again like we did in the early 60's. Of course, the last thing we need is our enemies changing our lifestyles, but all the more reason to incorporate preparedness into our daily living, for those "just in case scenarios". I vote that the least amount of disruption we do to our families the better, however we already know, the better we are prepared, the less all of us will be afraid or scared.

Personally, I would like to err on the side of preparation. I hope you do too...