Are We Prepared?

DebateUSA ^ | 8/18/03 | Jon Alvarez

[jonalvy44]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=CI2SU4JJR3G2MCRBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3291057

Researchers on Terror Warn Another Sept 11 Likely

Sun August 17, 2003 07:25 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States is highly likely to face another attack similar to September 11 within the next 12 months, a London-based research organization said on Sunday.

"America is the number one target for many terrorist groups," said Guy Dunn, author of a report by the World Markets Research Center (WMRC) assessing the risk of terror attacks in 186 countries around the globe.

[boris]

During the aftermath of the 1994 earthquake, I learned the Secret of Civilization: hot running water.

I can do without electricity, TV, computer.

By the third day I was like Neanderthal Man. A friend of mine who lives in Simi Valley (and had services) allowed me to drive 15 miles for a hot shower.

Heaven!

--Boris

[MD_Willington_1976]

Run...Run to the hills and hide, the power has gone out...I bet the next time the power goes out that this guy will be hiding in his crawlspace under his house with a shotgun in one hand and his last roll of toilet paer in the other screaming "you'll have to kill me to get my last roll of Charmin".

[MD_Willington_1976]

I agree with you..I have a freezer full of food, if a black out occured it would be neighbourhood BBQ time at my place...Last month we had about 20 neighbours over from the condo's we live in for a neighbourhood BBQ..

[MD_Willington_1976]

http://www.healthyharvest.com/product_info.php?products_id=690

Made of Mylar, the space age product that acutually can prevent you from loosing body heat.

-Perfect for emergency protection in all weather conditions

-Waterprood and windeproof

-Will not crack, mildew or shrink

-Reflects 90 percent of your body heat back to you

-Generous size 84" X 52"


cost $1.95

[MD_Willington_1976]

As we get more advance the more ignorant we become...we live in a day and age where pushing a button on a control console can wipe out a major city or small country, but what amazes me is the fact that most people do not posses the means of everyday survival without electricity. When the power goes out we have to live like our Grand or Great Grand parents did, i.e. no power, go to the well, use a wood stove, walk to your destination, ride a horse, or stay put etc.. they lived like that and we are proof that people can survive that way...

[jonalvy44]

Preparedness Tips For A Power Outage

Be prepared. Develop a family emergency plan now before disaster strikes. Be sure all family members know what to do. Decide where the family will meet if separated, where you will seek shelter, and what to take with you if you must evacuate.



Before a Power Outage


Make sure there are flashlights, a battery-powered radio and fresh batteries in an easily accessible area.


Periodically, check supplies of non-perishable foods, bottled water and medication. Try to keep a three-day supply on hand. Stock up if needed.


Check medications that require refrigeration to be sure you know if they will be affected by a prolonged interruption of power. Consult a doctor or pharmacist if you’re not sure. You may want to keep a small cooler handy to use for special medication.


Always have a first-aid kit with current supplies in a convenient location.


In winter, have an alternate source of heating available, along with extra fuel, such as wood for wood-burning stoves and fireplaces.


Remember that cordless phones won’t work when the power goes out. Have at least one cord phone or cell phone available for use during power outages.


Know how to manually operate your garage door. If power is lost, your garage door opener will not work.


Use surge suppressors to protect sensitive electronic equipment, such as computers. If you are home during a severe storm, you may want to unplug sensitive equipment.


Be prepared to cook outside on a grill or camp stove. Never bring a grill indoors. Without proper ventilation, grills can be deadly.







During a Power Outage:



· Monitor the status of power restoration activities on local radio stations.

· Avoid opening the refrigerator or freezer. Food will stay frozen in a fully loaded freezer for 36 to 48 hours if the doors remain closed. If the freezer is half full, the food will generally keep 24 hours.

· Keep candles away from furniture, draperies and other flammable materials. Also, keep children and pets away from open flames.

· Disconnect or turn off appliances that were on when the power outage occurred. Leave a light on so you will know when power is restored.

· Use space heaters only in well ventilated areas.

· Use a camp stove, fireplace or can of sterno for cooking. Don’t use charcoal or any other fuels in unventilated areas.

· If you leave your home while the power is out, double-check that all heat producing appliances, such as stoves, irons and curling irons are unplugged and candles are extinguished.

· If there is severe damage and it appears that the outage will last an extended period of time, consider moving to an alternate location.



If you use a generator use extreme caution and follow these safety guidelines.

· Consult a licensed electrician to select the right generator for your situation. Make sure the generator meets national and local electrical safety code requirements.

· Make sure the generator is in a well-ventilated area to reduce the risk of breathing harmful fumes. Your front or back porch works best. Never place it indoors!

· Never connect the generator’s electrical output to any home or building electrical circuits.

· If the generator is connected to a breaker panel or fuse box, turn off or disconnect the main breaker to the house while you are using the generator.

· Never plug a generator into a wall outlet.

· Plug appliances directly into the generator.

· Avoid contact with bare wires and terminals.

· Always use a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) in any damp or highly conductive areas.





General Food Safety Guidelines

Keep refrigerator doors closed. Refrigerated food should be safe for about 4 hours. Milk, dairy products, eggs, meats and all cooked foods spoil quickly. Discard these foods if the temperature in the refrigerator rises above 40 degrees for two hours or more.

When in doubt, throw the food out.

Keep the freezer doors closed. Food in a full, free-standing freezer will stay at freezing temperatures for about 48 hours without power, a half-full freezer will stay frozen about 24 hours. If a freezer is not full, move packages together to insulate them and keep them as cold as possible.

Frozen foods that have partially or completely thawed before power is restored may be refrozen safely if there are still ice crystals or the food’s temperature is 40 degrees or below.

Don’t taste food that has an odd color or smell. When in doubt, throw it out. Also, if it isn’t safe for you, it isn’t safe for your pet.


For additional food safety information, contact the USDA at 1-800-535-4555 or visit www.fsis.usda.gov

And don't forget boredom busters like books, a deck of cards and games. It can be a long wait till the power returns.

[Range Rover]

What is the big deal? Do we have to build the NE an entirely new grid state of the art, that will be cripplingly expensive for the entire country (read: tax base) just so the NE will never have an outage?

For you folks in "flyover" country, (and I ended up helping a few Iowa tourists last Thursday, there were plenty of you here)....there are TEN MILLION people in the NY Metro area...think about that for just a minute....TEN MILLION. It wasn't that there was no AC...most people were just plain STUCK. Either in an elevator, unable to get a train, unable to get a car out of a parking garage or IN a car in unmoveable gridlock.

There are three Nuke plants north of the city - Indian Point #1,2 and 3. The outage didn't start in New York but the falling dominos hit here in a flash. I helped ten people out of an elevator stuck between floors, I fetched water for a woman and her two infants and in general, got stuck here from 4:30 Thursday until 10am Friday. I surely would have been happier 80+ miles north where my house has a generator,much propane, a secure deep freezer, an insane number of batteries, candles, flashlights, blankets and 5 cords of split and seasoned red oak...trouble is that I couldn't GET there. I'm not complaining. So what....I couldn't get home. I made myself useful as a LOT of other people I saw did.

It probably takes something like this for the powers that be to re-think having the "grid" compartmentalized but it brings up something I listened to this past Saturday: a nearby town in CT has a dam and a few years ago, someone had the smarts to figure out how to have the power from that dam re-routed locally in case of an outage (and we have plenty of them in summer and winter in CT). Problem is that the local power company found it cheaper to buy power than to generate it themselves and THAT looks like the big takeaway from all of this. Three nuke plants north of NYC capable of keeping the whole city lit and all the while, the greens and certain elements of the Democratic party want them all shut down. Switch the lights off for a few days in NYC during a heat wave and ask them again.

For most people here, the outage was an inconvenience. I go through them all the time north of the city - been snowed-in without power for a week at a time here and there and have been quite comfortable.

Don't ride New Yorkers too hard about this. SOME of us are not the whiney libs you think ALL New Yorkers are. We pay taxes, work hard and have to put up with a lot of crap to live and work here (in my case, it's where the job is and I choose to).

DO YOU have to pay for a "new grid"? Well, considering that New York gets back something like $0.75 on every tax dollar and states like Arizona get back more than $1.50 for every tax dollar sent to Uncle Sam, who do YOU think is going to pay?

Love this city or hate it, the rest of the country depends on NYC and the work that goes on here. Think about it the next time you check a stock quote.

And just one other think in parting...I know plenty of people in NY that either came from elsewhere and/or have relatives in the Midwest, the Southwest, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas etc. Not everybody here is totally blind to the floods, earthquakes and tornados elsewhere...some of us have taken time to help out when the call is made.

[TERMINATTOR]

One thing conspicuiously missing is firearms. You may need to protect you and yours from theiving hordes of barbarians. The dogs may provide a nutritional supplement in a pinch, but I wouldn't count on them too much for security.

Molon Labe!

[Judith Anne]

Thanks for the interesting post. Yes, I know that not all New Yorkers are Hillarybots, and yes, I think it's a wonderful place--I have loved visiting. You were a significant force for good during the blackout because that's the kind of guy you are--and I commend you.

And yes--New York is VERY important to the health of the country. I agree. I wouldn't want to put down the contributions the whole east makes to the benefit of the country.

BUT--and this is MY point--NY is not in the business of giving charity to the rest of the country, and NY likes to think of itself as the pinnacle of the civilized west. There is a little bit of that pride of place in your post, in a mostly becoming way. So NY can make sure it has enough power at its own expense, all by itself. NY is NOT entitled to even a fraction of a cent of the hard-earned tax dollars of flyover country working class folks to build them a brand new system, just so they don't have to experience a blackout that is nothing more than an inconvenience to a person in my neck of the woods. Period.

And if it's so important to Wall Street, and all the businesses there, then let THEM pay for it. Not me. I am taxed half to death and I'm sick of it, and nobody in NY gives a hoot if rural Missouri has outages, we get to pay for that our own self.

Not to be unfriendly, just want to make my point.

[Atlas Sneezed]

You boiled bathwater?!

Sounds like excessive preccaution. Tell them not to drink any, and they will get plenty clean.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"Another suggestion for the house - blue polypropylene food-grade 55-gallon barrels for water. Less than $100 for the barrel and pump."

If you have room, just install a large electric water heater (no need to wire it up) in line with your service. It stays fresh, and is a reserve tank of 50-120 gallons of water for only a few bucks a gallon.

[jonalvy44]

Syracuse gun show is in Sept. and ironically, I'm looking to pick up an M1. Lovely pic.

[jonalvy44]

Are we prepared? What if this is true, and somehow everything is shut down on 9-11? How much of our lives are dependent on PCs?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003390423,00.html

Net virus set for 9/11 blitz


By JONATHAN WEINBERG

THE computer virus wreaking havoc across the Internet is set to destroy itself on September 10 — but not before spawning a DEADLIER new strain, experts believe.

That could be timed to create meltdown on September 11, shaking the world again on the anniversary of the terror blitz...