Do you live near a nuclear reactor? You need to know.

When the Zombie Apocalypse hits and all the workers and technicians at your local nuclear power plant have abandoned there posts or are dead. Many reactors may simply melt down. While the people who build and run the power plants will tell you they are safe the fact is that No Nuclear Reactor has been designed with the idea that all the workers will simply be gone forever. Yes the reactors have lots of automatic pumps and generators and backup systems. But they will all fail one by one in time. Automatic fire suppression systems will fail. Fires will be started by lightning or looters. Looters may steal vital equipment like the fuel that runs the back up generators. One can spend hrs thinking of ways the reactors could be damaged.  If you are a serious Prepper you need to know the location of any reactors that are in your area.

A few links that will provide you with locations and info on nuclear reactors.

The NRC

Greenpease

Nukepills

New Strain Of Black Death Could Emerge Without Warning

The Black Death

 Some scientists say a new strain of the Black Death could emerge without warning. And while modern medicine would be of great help in the fight against such an outbreak, the ease with which people move around the globe could make it hard to fight.

Estimates vary for the number of people killed by the Black Death that ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351. But the number was certainly in the tens of millions; it is thought that as much as half of the entire European population at the time may have died.

Around 800 years before the Black Death hit Europe another plague swept through what was then the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire. Known as the Plague of Justinian. Again, estimates of the number of deaths vary, but they were likely also in the tens of millions, with one contemporary account estimating that as many as 100 million people may have died.

David Wagner, professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and the lead author of  a new scientific paper says.

“In my mind, pretty much all plague [Y. pestis] strains around the world are capable of causing human disease, and if conditions were right, would probably be capable of causing these large pandemics again," But Wagner also stated he doesn’t think that there’s much of a chance of that happening. “What’s changed is not the organism. What’s changed is humans and the human condition,” he says. “Hygiene has improved immensely … you don’t just have rats all over the place like you might have had during the time of the major pandemics.”  We also have antibiotics. “Plague is highly susceptible to simple modern antibiotics,”

So while the Black Death should probably not keep you up at night it is something that the world needs to keep an eye on.

Winter Car Survival Kit. We all need them.

Every year people freeze to death in their cars.

The last few days have seen winter storms in North America trap thousands of motorists in their vehicles for hours if not days.  Make sure you have your Car Survival Kit with you. You never know when you may need it.

What you put in your kit is up to you. Some ideas are.........

Water.
Snacks.
Warm hat gloves socks and jacket.
Blanket.
Candles and candle holder.
Flashlight.

I put this kit together in 5min.

Can or other small container for melting water.

You should plan to be able to spend at least 48hrs stuck in your car in sub zero temperatures without a working engine. You can not count on your engine in a survival situation as it may not work for a number of reasons. If you do have a working engine that's a fantastic bonus but be careful. Many people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning while sleeping in a car. Never sleep with the car running. Just turn it on to warm up then shut it off. Make sure the exhaust pipe is clear. Snow or other debris can build up around your vehicle trapping the exhaust fumes. Don't let drifting snow trap you. While snow is a great insulator and actually will make your vehicle warmer you don't want to be trapped. So open a door every hr or so and clear the snow away. And be careful with your candles. Don't sleep with your candle burning. Cars have lots of flammable fabric and plastic and can go up like a torch if you knock over your candle.

The few ideas I have discussed here are just a start. I recommend you have a much better kit than the one on this page. But anything is better than nothing.

California In Danger Of Running Out Of Water

California could burn in 2014

As the drought in California continues, many communities in the state could run out of water within the next 60 to 120 days, state officials have said. In some places wells are running dry while in others the reservoirs are nearly empty.

This is a reminder that everyone needs to be responsible for making sure they have a safe clean supply of emergency water on hand. You can only live about 3 days without water.

If people start to run out of water we could see civil unrest like protests and riots. And don't forget the fires. Firefighters rely on large quantities of water. If the water runs out the fires will just burn and spread.

  

Yellowstone supervolcano much bigger than thought. Should you worry?

According to a new study the hot molten rock beneath Yellowstone National Park is 2 ½ times larger than previously estimated, meaning the supervolcano has the potential to erupt with a force about 2,000 times the size of the Mount St. Helens.


Yellowstone has had three eruptions in the past 2.1 million years. If you look at its past history the supervolcano would seem to erupt about every 700,000 years. Give or take a few 10s of thousands of years. As the last eruption happened 640,000 years ago we are probably due for one in the next 50 or 60 thousand years. However with only three eruptions in the past 2.1 million years, basing any estimates of something possibly happening every 700,000 years or so is risky

Most experts do believe there will be another eruption, they just don't know when. However there are so many instruments and researchers monitoring the activity in Yellowstone that we would likely have at least a few weeks or possibly even years notice of a pending eruption. However some people point out that as Scientists have never witnessed the eruption of a supervolcano we don't really know if we would get any warning. It could just go off with a bang. 

So should you worry about Yellowstone? Probably not. But don't forget that Yellowstone is only one of many potential supervolcanoes in the world. Best to be prepared I always say.

Will Yellowstone erupt? Who can say.

Deadly human MERS virus infects camels

Can Camels give you MERS ?

Scientists have proved for the first time that the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus that has killed 71 people can also infect camels, strengthening suspicions the animals may be a source of the human outbreak.

Scientists say this is definitive proof that camels can be infected with MERS-CoV, but based on the current data they cannot conclude whether the humans were infected by the camels or vice versa.

Reports from China say 73-year-old woman died from a bird flu strain that has spread to people for 1st time

More Bird Flu In China

China's national disease centre confirmed the woman had been infected by the H10N8 bird flu strain. This is the first reported case of H10N8 in a human.

The World Health Organization Has called this Death “worrisome.”

 The department says the woman had severe pneumonia before dying Dec. 6. She also had direct contact with poultry.
 China's national disease centre says experts believe this is an isolated case and there's low risk of this strain infecting more people or spreading.

Apocalyptic Scale Of Philippine Typhoon Overwhelms.

Typhoon Haiyan

Typhoon Haiyan slammed the Philippines Friday, with estimated maximum sustained winds of 235 kph and gusts up to 275 kph.


With thousands dead and large parts of the country destroyed desperate people are looting malls, shops and homes of food, water and consumer goods.

Dead bloated bodies lay uncollected and uncounted in the streets and the survivors have no food, water and medicine.

A few Police guarded stores to prevent the looting but in most cases its hopeless.

We are getting reports of violence as civil order breaks down.

The federal debt ceiling and the end of the world

Flirting With Disaster

Again we are watching the Politicians in Washington take us all to the brink of a possible disaster. The United States government will soon be unable to pay all its bills -- causing what the Obama administration says will be a historic default on the federal debt. Without some action by Congress to raise the debt ceiling, the Treasury Department says default could happen any day after Oct. 17. Now I am 99% sure they will once again pull a rabbit out of the hat at the last second but you should ask yourself what if they don't?

The fact is no one can tell what the consequences would be if the United States was to default on its debt. Many so called experts have given us a variety of opinions ranging from it would not be that bad to its the end of the World.

I myself really cant say. However I don't think it would be good for most of us. So my advice is to stock up on supplies. Have some cash on hand. However cash is of little use if inflation renders it worthless. Gold would be better than cash but most of us cant afford to stockpile gold.

Think of things people would want and that could become scarce if the economy was to crash. Gasoline. Ammunition. Foods of all kinds.

BE PREPARED.

Making Light Without Electricity

This seems pretty cool. A man in Brazil figured out how to make light without electricity - and the cost is pennies.

All he did was use plastic bottles filled with water and a bit of bleach. Basically you fill a 2 Litre empty bottle with water and 2 capfuls of bleach to prevent algae. Drill a small hole in your roof, pop the bottle through, caulk the opening, stick something black over the cap (which is outside) and you're good to go. He uses black film canisters - which might be hard to get so I''m going to start collecting them now.

 Read the details and see photos at Alfredo Moser: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

Credits: Image from BBC News Magazine