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One person has been killed, and over 1,000 residents in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture have been evacuated, as of Friday (Feb 28).Japan was battling its largest wildfire in more than three decades on Saturday (Mar 1), one of several blazes that have killed one person and forced the evacuation of more than a thousand. Flames are estimated to have spread over about 1,200ha in the forest of Ofunato in the northern region of Iwate since fire broke out on Wednesday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. "We're still examining the size of the affected area, but it is the...

Emergency crews in western Canada were still trying to reach some 18,000 people stranded by landslides and struggling to find food among bare grocery store shelves after devastating flooding. With communities in the region braced for more torrential rain in already inundated areas next week , the premier of British Columbia province declared an emergency and gave an emotional address in a press conference on Thursday. Appearing to fight back tears, John Horgan said: “The positive I’m going to take out of this is that it had shown British Columbians coming together supporting each other....

Correcting the record is important since assigning the wrong reasons for Texas’s electric blackouts will lead to the wrong solutions.hen the lights went out in Texas earlier this year, corporate media and the left swiftly developed a narrative and stuck to it: Texas failed because it didn’t regulate enough and it wasn’t part of the national grid.This storyline also claimed a lack of electricity from wind and solar had nothing to do with the disaster that claimed almost 60 lives. Instead, the blackouts were the failure of normally reliable thermal power—natural gas, coal, and nuclear—due to a reluctance to spend...

Thanks to experience with numerous hurricanes, we were prepared for the Texas power outage and no one slept in the cold at our house. When you are prepared, three days is not that bad.I have lived along the Gulf Coast my entire life, mostly in the Houston Area. I lived and worked in Louisiana when Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Gustav slammed into South Louisiana and have learned from my successes and failures and those of my friends.After moving back home to Texas and a long period of relatively quiet storm activity, Hurricane Harvey was a test of different beast until...

It has long been a cultural phenomenon that when people are confined to their homes due to dramatic weather events, babies start springing forth nine months later. Nearly half the worldÂ’s population is confined to their homes with two primary tasks: 1. Do not catch nor spread COVID-19. 2. DonÂ’t go nuts from boredom or cabin fever.In trying to accomplish No. 2, people are playing more board and card games. Others are catching up on sleep and preparing more homecooked meals. These are very good things.Husbands and wives are also finding themselves with plenty of time for other activities, and...

The spectre of one's mortality that a global pandemic raises can be a needed and sobering opportunity to reconsider and reorder our lives, if we're granted them longer. The spectre of one’s mortality that a global health and economic crisis raises can be a needed and sobering opportunity to reconsider and reorder our lives, if we’re granted them longer.The coronavirus pandemic is a social stress test exposing many Americans’ lack of responsibility for our lives, our willingness to hold other people’s lives hostage to our own, and our national unpreparedness to manage danger. What are some long-term positive steps this...

A woman was dead after a bluff collapsed at Grandview Surf Beach in Encinitas Friday afternoon, authorities said. Discarded beach chairs and sun hats could be seen near the portion of cliff that officials say sloughed off around 3 p.m. beneath a staircase giving access from the 1700 block of Neptune Avenue. In addition to the fatality, four others were hurt. Two people were in critical condition, one of whom had to be airlifted for treatment, according to Encinitas Fire Chief Mike Stein. Another two people suffered minor injuries. One of them was treated and released at the scene, while...

FOOD -- Ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits, vegetables. -- Canned juices, milk, soup -- Sugar, salt, pepper -- High energy foods such as peanut butter, jelly, crackers, granola bars, trail mix; foods that will not increase thirst. -- Vitamins -- Foods for infants, elderly, persons with special dietary needs -- Comfort/stress foods: cookies, hard candy, sweetened cereals, lollipops, instant coffee, tea bags. -- Pet food, at least one ounce per animal pound per day. -- Avoid foods like rice, pasta and dry beans that require a great deal of water to prepare. Remember to restock your food once a year. FIRST...

ARMY CALLING FOR ‘WORKERS’ TO RESPOND TO FUTURE “DISASTER STRICKEN AREAS OF THE US” KENNEWICK, Wash.- A tip was sent to me by a reader via email Saturday documenting how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now soliciting civilian workers for “maintenance” positions ahead of what appears to be an upcoming and potentially ‘imminent event’ of some type. Shockingly as listed in the solicitation numbered “NCFL156545791382984S” which is posted at USAJobs.gov the Army Corps of Engineers is literally calling upon skilled individuals amongst the civilian population in search of potential prospects rather than using already active Army personnel. The...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday denied Hawaii’s request for a major disaster declaration after Tropical Storm Iselle. Iselle made landfall over the Big Island’s isolated and rural Puna region nearly three weeks ago, knocking down trees and power lines. FEMA denied the request because “it has been determined that the damage from this event was not of such severity and magnitude to go beyond the capabilities of the state, affected local governments and voluntary agencies,” the agency wrote to the state Thursday. …

October 22, 2013 NPR Reporter Probes Jay Carney: Will WH Provide Obamacare Updates Like They Would Natural Disasters? Noah Rothman On Tuesday, the White House announced that it was tapping former acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Jeff Zients to head the team overseeing the repairs on the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange website. NPR Reporter Mara Liasson probed White House Press Sec. Jay Carney about whether he would be providing regular updates on those repairs as they did for disasters like the Deep Horizon oil spill in 2010. “In the past when you had a natural...

Oklahoma had barely started clearing the rubble from a monstrous tornado two weeks ago when another rash of twisters plowed through this ill-fated swath of Tornado Alley. At least 16 people are dead across the state after a vicious storm tore through the area Friday evening, Oklahoma City Fire Chief Keith Bryant said Monday morning. That number may continue to rise. Authorities will resume their search Monday for six people still missing, including four who sought shelter in storm drains, Bryant said. [Snip] A trio of storm chasers who devoted their lives to hunting powerful storms died in the middle...

Everything had to come together just perfectly to create the killer tornado in Moore, Okla.: wind speed, moisture in the air, temperature and timing. And when they did, the awesome energy released over that city dwarfed the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima. On Tuesday, the National Weather Service gave it the top-of-the-scale rating of EF5 for wind speed and breadth, and severity of damage. Wind speeds were estimated at between 200 and 210 mph. The death count is 24 so far, including at least nine children. The United States averages about one EF5 a year, but this...

From the society’s wealthiest and most powerful class to rural off-the-grid types, people are preparing for the worst, and sparing no expense on elaborate underground shelters, buying years’ worth of non-perishable foods and stockpiling fuel and ammunition. Some have embraced the term “preppers,” although precisely what they are preparing for varies. “We realized that we were totally unprepared should something happen,” said Jack Jobe, who was prompted to prep for a natural disaster after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Jobe, who will be featured on an upcoming episode of the NatGeo’s “Doomsday Preppers,” has invested about $3,000 in a safe...

A city in ruins: Stunning photo taken from kite that captures devastation from 1906 earthquake in San Francisco This rarely seen image of the city of San Fransisco lying in ruins after the devastating earthquake of 1906 was captured by an ingenious photographer using a camera attached kites. The panoramic shot, which is of outstanding quality considering the basic equipment available, shows the full scale of the disaster which claimed the lives of over 3,000, injured 225,000 and caused $400,000,000 worth of property damage. Commercial photographer George Lawrence, who used home-made large format cameras, was well known at the time...

The Entire State Of Texas Has been Declared A Natural Disaster Robert Johnson Jun. 30, 2011, 7:15 AM More than 200 Texan counties have been designated drought disasters by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and all remaining counties now qualify for federal aid. KCBD in Lubbock reports that 213 counties have lost at least 30 percent of their pasture or crops to wildfires and drought. The natural disaster designation allows farmers and ranchers to qualify for low-rate emergency loans. South Plains farmer Scott Harmon told KCBD, "This is a disaster. This is a train wreck. We've never seen anything like...

Thirty-five million Americans as homeless refugees: That would be a disaster proportionate to the horrific -- and worsening -- situation in Pakistan. This time, that forlorn country isn't threatened by Islamist terror, but by Mother Nature. Two weeks of flooding, with more rain on the way, have made refugees of 20 million Pakistanis. Try to grasp that number. Twenty million people, overwhelmingly poor, have lost their homes, their slight "wealth" and their livelihoods. Thousands have died. And international aid groups estimate that 3.5 million children are at mortal risk from diseases spread by polluted water and poor sanitation. Think cholera,...

Huge hillside collapses, covers Formosa Freeway RESCUE MISSION?: While more than 300m of the busy freeway has been covered with earth, rescue workers are unsure if any vehicles are trapped under the debris By Shelley Huang STAFF REPORTER Monday, Apr 26, 2010, Page 1 A landslide covers Freeway No. 3 close to Keelung yesterday. PHOTO: REUTERS A huge landslide buried more than 300m of Freeway No. 3 near Maling Keng (瑪陵坑) in Keelung yesterday afternoon, about 3km from the northern end of the 429km long Formosa Freeway. As of press time, rescue teams were still digging and it was unclear...

More than 90 people are feared dead and tens of thousands are homeless after a magnitude-6.3 earthquake rocked the mountainous Abruzzo region of Italy today. The temblor struck at 3:32 a.m. local time (9:32 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Sunday) 60 miles (95 kilometers) northeast of Rome, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The New York Times is reporting that it killed 92 people and left the homes of as many as 50,000 others in ruins. “Some towns in the area have been virtually destroyed in their entirety,” said Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of Parliament, according to...

There has been a number of post about preparing yourself for what could be a dramatic economic and societal 'crash'. And I was wondering how many of you have just in the past year started 'preping'? How many have don it for years? How far are you into it? I read a great post somewhere that there where three types of survivalist they discribed them something like: Type 1: The Prep Survivalist- Regular people possible owns one or to guns strictly for home/person defense. And has prepared for himself and famliy to get by small disasters hurricanes, earthquakes,ice storms, tornados,...