WHAT IF ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE?

NONE OF US WANT TO IMAGINE WHAT LIFE MIGHT BE LIKE AFTER A WORLDWIDE CATASTROPHE.

NONE OF US WANT TO BELIEVE WE'LL SEE A DAY WHEN WE JUST MAY BE AMONG A HANDFUL OF SURVIVORS OF SOME TYPE OF GLOBAL HOLOCAUST.

GIVEN THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING, GLOBALLY, WE REALLY MUST THINK ABOUT IT. 

LET'S JUST GO AHEAD AND THINK ABOUT IT, BUT LET US DO SO WITHOUT FEAR! 

 FEAR ROBS US OF RATIONALE, KEEPS US FROM MAKING LOGICAL DECISIONS.  
FEAR LEADS TO PANIC, AND PANIC IS NEVER GOING TO ALLOW US TO FIND SOLUTIONS. 
THIS TOPIC TODAY IS NOT, NOR WILL ANYTHING EVER WRITTEN HERE IN THE TEA ROOM, DISCUSSED AS "FEAR-MONGERING". 
I AM BEYOND SICK OF HEARING THAT TERM.  
I HAVE FOUND IT MOST OFTEN USED BY THOSE ALREADY AFRAID OF MANY THINGS, OR BY THOSE WHO MAY NOT WISH THAT THE REST OF US CONSIDER SUCH POSSIBILITIES AND DEMAND SOLUTIONS.

I DO NOT TOLERATE FEAR.
IT IS NOT A PART OF MY LIFE, NOR SHOULD IT BE ALLOWED TO ACCESS HUMAN THOUGHT WHEN IT COMES TO LIFE-OR-DEATH SITUATIONS.
ANY MIND CAN BE CALMED.
IT'S MERELY AN ACT OF SELF-DISCIPLINE.

WE EITHER LEARN, OR WE PERISH, SIMPLE AS THAT.

LET US LEARN!

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU WATCH THE FOLLOWING FILM BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SO YOU WON'T MAKE SOME OF THE MISTAKES SHOWN IN THE FILM.  
{SEE FAIR USE DISCLAIMER BELOW] 

AMERICAN BLACKOUT 2013 - National Geographic
https://youtu.be/FYoXxVnTePA

WE ARE MORE VULNERABLE THAN MOST KNOW.
According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) latest (2014) report, all it would take to plunge the entire nation into darkness for more than a year would be to knock out a transformer manufacturer and just 9 of our 55,000 electrical substations on a really hot summer day. 

LOSS OF ELECTRICITY SHUTS DOWN ALMOST EVERYTHING.
If the world's power grid went down today from an EMP attack by any nation, from a strong earth-directed solar flare, or either nuclear war or an asteroid hit and left us with nothing much but the will to survive, COULD WE?

I asked this question before in WHAT TO DO IF THE DOCTOR HAS DIED. 
I feel the need to revisit it because these are perilous times.

REMEMBER, NO ELECTRICITY MEANS YOUR CREDIT CARDS AND BANK CARDS (DEBIT CARDS) ARE USELESS. 
BUT THAT'S BY NO MEANS ALL THAT WOULD BE AFFECTED SUDDENLY. 

EVEN IF WE LOST THE GRID WITHOUT SOME SORT OF NUCLEAR ATTACK OR GLOBAL CATASTROPHE, THINGS WOULD STILL BE "DICEY".

Most people would be unable to do their jobs without electricity and employment would collapse. 
High-rise buildings would be more severely affected due to loss of elevators. 

We wouldn't have the means to pump gasoline into our automobiles as we are used to doing.  

Pumping stations that deliver water to our homes would be useless. 

WHAT IF THE SITUATION, EVEN SUCH AS IS DEPICTED IN THE FILM, CONTINUED FOR MONTHS?

How many of us could do even the following necessary things:
~ Find and preserve non-animal foods.
~ Find and store fresh, untainted water, or filter and treat water to make it safe to drink.
~ Start a fire without matches or lighters.
~ Find, kill and prepare game animals, or even escaped non-toxic cattle, etc.
~ Cook food on an open fire.
~ Treat injuries, set broken bones, remove foreign objects from a human body and stop blood loss.
OR, deliver a baby, treat a child with strep throat, know what to do for an abscessed tooth, help a diabetic who is suddenly without insulin, perform a "simple" blood transfusion.
~ Identify and locate a safer place to survive in and secure that place against intruders, thieves, people desperate to have what little you may have.
~ Locate loved ones we may be separated from by a sudden disaster.

That is a VERY SHORT list of skills we would have to have if all society fell apart, if doctors and policemen were ALTOGETHER gone or just unavailable FOR WEEKS TO MONTHS.

WHAT IF NO ONE WAS LEFT TO RESCUE YOU?

Once our sources of electricity were gone, all frozen and refrigerated foods would quickly spoil.
What if no one was left to provide us with "groceries" anymore?

Right now, at this very moment, if something terrible happened and you and perhaps your family, or neighbors, or a few close friends were dependent on how well you could see them through.... HOW LONG WOULD YOU LIVE, DO YOU THINK?

HOW MUCH FOOD IS AVAILABLE IN YOUR HOME?

IS THERE A SAFE ALTERNATIVE WATER SUPPLY WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE OF YOUR HOME(THIS WOULD NEED TO COME FROM AN ARTESIAN SPRING OR UNCONTAMINATED UNDERGROUND SOURCE)?

FROM THOSE DAUNTING QUESTIONS TO THE BASE AND MUNDANE, LIKE HOW TO DISPOSE OF CORPSES AND HUMAN WASTE SO DISEASE DOESN'T SPREAD, WE REALLY NEED TO THINK ABOUT THIS, FIND WAYS TO ACQUIRE SUCH SKILLS, AND IMAGINE ALL HUMAN LIFE HAVING TO REVERT TO THE WAY OUR EARLIEST HUMAN ANCESTORS LIVED.

I AM NOT ADVOCATING BECOMING A "DEDICATED PREPPER", ALTHOUGH I ADMIRE MANY OF THOSE WHO ARE.
SOME, HOWEVER, HAVE CARRIED THINGS A BIT TOO FAR AND LIVE IN CONSTANT PARANOID STATES OF MIND.  

I AM JUST SAYING THAT THOSE WHO ARE PREPARED WITH THE NECESSARY SKILLS AND WHO HAVE WORKABLE, RATIONAL PLANS FOR SUCH EVENTS, WELL-LAID PLANS THAT ALLOW THEM TO FACE SUDDEN AND PERHAPS CATACLYSMIC ADVERSITY WITHOUT PARALYZING FEAR OR HOPELESS APATHY HAVE ANY CHANCE AT ALL OF SURVIVING LONG-TERM.

"BE PREPARED" IS A GOOD MOTTO.
"BE SKILLED ENOUGH TO SURVIVE" SEEMS A BETTER MOTTO.

I'VE WRITTEN A "SERIES" HERE BEFORE, ABOUT THE FOOD, WATER, AIR WE ALL LIVE WITH, SO I FEEL I SHOULD BREAK THIS DOWN INTO EASILY READABLE PARTS AS WELL, ADDRESS MAYBE TWO OR THREE ISSUES AT A TIME.   

OF COURSE, THE TWO BIGGEST ISSUES ARE WATER AND FOOD, IN THAT ORDER.
A HUMAN CAN GO WEEKS WITHOUT FOOD, BUT ONLY A FEW DAYS WITHOUT WATER.

FOOD CAN BE FOUND IN SOME VERY UNCONVENTIONAL PLACES, AND MUCH THAT CAN BE FOOD IS NOT CONSIDERED FOOD BY EVERYONE...LIKE MAGGOTS FOR EXAMPLE.  
FOOD IS "OUT THERE" IN MANY PLACES, AS LONG AS IT HASN'T BEEN CHEMICALLY OR RADIOLOGICALLY CONTAMINATED.  

CLEAN WATER WILL BE MUCH HARDER TO FIND ONCE THE TAPS RUN DRY, ESPECIALLY IF SURFACE WATER HAS BEEN RENDERED TOXIC.   

WATER IS NOT JUST FOR DRINKING!
POTABLE WATER IS NOT THE ONLY THING WE NEED TO BE CONCERNED WITH WHEN IT COMES TO WATER SUPPLY AFTER A CATASTROPHE.  

WATER IS VITAL IN COOLING NUCLEAR REACTORS.
AMERICA CURRENTLY HAS 106 OF THOSE RUNNING ALL ACROSS THE NATION. 

IN CASE OF AN ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE (EMP) EVENT, NO MODERN VEHICLES WILL REMAIN FUNCTIONAL.
KEEP THAT IN MIND.

None of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), or the Nuclear Regulatory tests of handling a PROLONGED blackout at a nuclear power plant has answered two critical questions:   

(1) “What happens when these nuclear power plants run out of diesel fuel needed to run the generators”, and   

(2) “What happens when some of these generators fail”?
NOT IF, BUT WHEN.

WE MUST CONSIDER THIS! 

OUR OWN GOVERNMENT HAS NOT SEEN FIT TO ADDRESS THIS, SO MAYBE WE CAN FORCE THAT ISSUE BY CONTACTING OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS AND SCREAM ABOUT THIS IN THE STREETS UNTIL THEY DO ADDRESS IT?

In the event of an EMP attack, can tanker trucks with diesel fuel get to all of the nuclear power plants in the US in time to refuel them before they stop running? 

Will tanker trucks even be running themselves in the aftermath of an EMP attack? 

And in the event of an EMP attack, it is not likely that any plant which runs low on fuel, or has a generator malfunction, will ever get any help to mitigate the crisis prior to a plethora of meltdowns occurring. 

Every nuclear power plant in the country has the potential to cause a Chernobyl or Fukushima type accident if our country is hit by an EMP attack.   

YES, EVERY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT HAS AN EMERGENCY BACKUP SYSTEM, POWERED BY DIESEL GENERATORS. 
SO, HOW DOES THAT WORK?  

"WHEN emergency power kicks in, an automatic shutdown of the nuclear power plant commences. The control rods are dropped into the core, while water is pumped by the diesel power generators into the reactor to reduce the heat and prevent a meltdown.

 Here is the catch in this process-- the spent fuel rods are encased in both a primary and secondary containment structure which is designed to withstand a core meltdown. However, should the pumps stop because either the generators fail or diesel fuel is not available, the fuel rods are subsequently uncovered and a Fukushima type of core meltdown commences immediately. 

According to NERC 'policy', nuclear power plants are required to have enough diesel fuel to run for a period of seven days. 
Some plants have thirty days of diesel.
WHAT IF THE POWER FAILURE GOES ON FOR MONTHS OR YEARS?

NERC and the US government are leaving the American people and its infrastructure totally unprotected from a total meltdown of nuclear power plants as a result of a prolonged power failure.  

The "Ultimate Cooling System" comprised of "Ultimate Heat Sinks" (UHS), are used to cool the reactor, which will, by the way, continue to produce heat long after it is turned off. 
During an accident, a UHS may need to supply 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of water PER MINUTE for emergency cooling. 

A long-term loss of outside electrical power will most certainly interrupt the circulation of this cooling water to the pools. 

A LONG-TERM LOSS OF TRANSPORTATION OF NECESSARY DIESEL TO THESE PLANTS AFTER THE GRID GOES MEANS NO COOLING, AND "BIG BOOMS".  

A NUCLEAR POWER GENERATOR'S TRANSFORMER ALONE TAKES APPROXIMATELY ONE YEAR TO REPLACE. 
THEY ARE MASSIVE IN SIZE.
THERE IS A THREE-YEAR BACKLOG FOR GETTING THESE REPLACEMENTS TODAY, RIGHT NOW. 

WILL THERE BE PEOPLE WHO SURVIVE WHO CAN MANAGE TO REPLACE ONE OF THESE?  
DO WE HAVE THOSE REPLACEMENTS HERE IN AMERICA? 
WHAT WOULD BE ABLE TO TRANSPORT SUCH A HUGE THING ALONG, SAY, DAMAGED HIGHWAYS OR DAMAGED RAILWAYS?

THERE ARE A LOT OF QUESTIONS THE FEDS JUST WON'T ANSWER, FOLKS! 
WE'RE LEFT HANGING WHEN WE ASK SUCH QUESTIONS...NO ANSWERS!

THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE, AND SO WE MUST CONVINCE THOSE "IN CHARGE" TO PROVIDE US THE ANSWERS WE NEED!

BECAUSE THIS TOPIC PRESENTED ITSELF TO ME ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT, I WILL HAVE TO WORK ON FOLLOWUP BLOGS, BUT I WILL DO SO.

I WILL FIRST ADDRESS THE TWO ISSUES OF GETTING AND PRESERVING WATER AND FOOD.  
THE SERIES WILL HAVE THE SAME TITLE BUT WITH 1, 2, 3, 4, ETC, FOLLOWING THE TITLE. 

I'M SURE YOU ARE ALL MORE THAN CAPABLE OF TAKING THIS AND FINDING YOUR OWN MEANS OF DEALING WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH A SITUATION. 

YOU DON'T NEED THE TEA ROOM TO POINT TO PLANS OF DEALING WITH SUCH A THING, BUT I HAVE NOTHING BUT TIME TO WRITE THESE BLOGS, SO I WRITE.  

THIS IS ALREADY A LOT TO THINK ABOUT. 

WHILE I COMPOSE THIS SERIES, PLEASE DO WATCH THE FILM, THINK ABOUT THIS, DISCUSS IT WITH THOSE YOU CARE ABOUT AND START FORMULATING SOLUTIONS, GATHERING KNOWLEDGE, 
LEARN TO APPLY THAT KNOWLEDGE SO YOU CAN BE A SURVIVOR.

FOR ME, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WOULD BE TO FIND THOSE I LOVE AND MAKE SURE THEY WERE SAFE.
WITH PHONES AND OTHER COMMUNICATION MEANS OUT, THIS WOULD BE DIFFICULT, BUT NOT ENTIRELY IMPOSSIBLE IF WE ALREADY HAVE A WAY DESIGNED TO LOCATE ONE ANOTHER. 
WE MUST LAY SUCH PLANS INDIVIDUALLY, BUT ALSO AS A FAMILY UNIT,

AS I SAID, NO ONE WANTS TO THINK ABOUT THIS, BUT IF WE JUST IGNORE IT, IT WILL NOT GO AWAY.

ALL THE BEST. 




FAIR USE: 
The material on this website is provided solely for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Infringement of copyright is not intended. The material is made available to help educate people about health related issues. It is believed that this constitutes a 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17, section 107 of the US Copyright Law. The material is distributed without profit to those who would like to use such material for research and educational purposes. 


FURTHER READING:  

~ Government Agency Warns If Just 9 Substations Are Destroyed, The Power Grid Could Be Down For 18 Months
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-19/government-agency-warns-if-9-substations-are-destroyed-power-grid-could-be-down-18-m

~ How it Works: Water for Nuclear
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/energy-and-water-use/water-energy-electricity-nuclear.html#.VTLFLtJViko

~ A LIST OF SOME CURRENTLY KNOWN ISSUES AT NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN THE U.S.
[PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE ARCHIVES LIST ONTHE LEFT AT THIS WEBSITE.]
http://www.ucsusa.org/search/site/NUCLEAR%20POWER%20GENERATORS#.VTLL19JViko