Doomsday - back to the stone age

[pacu mom]

The recent devastating destruction from Hurricane Ian got me thinking. There is no place on this planet where we can be safe from all cataclysmic events. When I was a child in Southern California, we had earthquake drills (along with fire drills) at school...we had to get under our desks and cover our heads with our arms. We grew up fearing the BAD San Andreas Fault. A few years ago, our community was organized into neighborhood watch groups where we had lessons in emergency preparedness. This was done to secure grants for funds to shore up the hillside where the community water tanks are. There was a lesson on nuclear events - have plastic sheeting to seal off a room-- stuff like that.

I don't have to worry about a nuclear event in my immediate area, but there would be consequences from such an event, such as not getting any food or supplies in my area. I don't have to worry about hurricanes or a nuclear bomb going off around here. However, I did learn about Cascadia Subduction Zone which was discovered about 50 years ago. This writer wrote an article about Cascadia and won a Pulitzer Prize for her article:

The Earthquake That Will Devastate the Pacific Northwest

When the Cascadia fault line ruptures, it could be North America’s worst natural disaster in recorded history.

www.newyorker.com

In one of our emergency meetings, the speaker talking about Cascadia said, "not if, but when it happens". FEMA plans for Cascadia include flying in supplies to an airstrip 9 miles inland from us. I thought it was odd, since our little town 9 miles west of us, on the coast, has an airport. Oh, yeah, no airport after the earthquake and resulting tsunami which could be 20 - 100 ft tall. Yes, Cascadia is the BIG BAD ONE - infinitely bigger and badder than San Andreas. If we are fortunate enough to survive Cascadia, we will be homeless most likely with no electricity, water, food supplies coming in for 6 months or more. We will not be able to drive out of here with all the bridges down. All creature comforts gone. Whole house generator gone. ..back to sleeping bags, tent...bare bones primitive camping for 6 months or more. I still have a lot of work to do on my emergency stash, get the well down the hill activated with new pump and solar generator, one person said lots of firewood to heat and to cook with ...hmm - maybe we should get a mule.....


But, here's the kicker - I could store a six month emergency supply and lose it all to fire. (Yep, all the emergency firewood would be kindling for the killer fire) A few years ago, I tried to get a different homeowners insurance policy, but was turned down because of the area. Two years ago, the Slater Fire came close enough to us, that we were put on Level 2 evacuation status. The area 9 miles from us was evacuated for several days. The sky was red, and it rained down ash on everything for days.

Front yard






Every place on this planet has catastrophic potential threats of some kind. So knowing that no place is completely safe, I will continue to live here and enjoy the beauty while I can.









What potential threats could reek havoc in your area?

 

[Jexnell]

I too am in the Cascadia subduction zone as I live in Portland Oregon. Also I am sure Portland is the target of a least a handful of nukes if it came to that. Also the wildfire threat. Flooding threat as I only live maybe a city block away from the Willamette River.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Well now i do not feel so bad about my paper cut.

Hello; Jokes aside, I considered a lot of things after retiring and decided my childhood home town area was safer that lots of other places in terms of storms and other natural disasters. Not too severe winters. Not as hot in summer as other places. Tornadoes are rare and so on. Yet it is not truly safe. I do get your point.

Had an interesting thing happen going into a Kroger today. Outside the store a small bird flew into a glass window and fell onto a mum plant. I went over and carefully picked it up. I cupped it in my hands. At first it was knocked out, but still alive. I held it for some minutes, and it slowly started to come around. After a while it flew a short distance to a windowsill. It was a good place to be. When i came out it was gone. I think it was a migratory warbler.

 

[pacu mom]

I too am in the Cascadia subduction zone as I live in Portland Oregon. Also I am sure Portland is the target of a least a handful of nukes if it came to that. Also the wildfire threat. Flooding threat as I only live maybe a city block away from the Willamette River.

I think we are high enough that the tsunami won't reach us. I hope I'm not in town when Cascadia goes off. There will be only about 15 minutes to get to higher ground. One local prepper likes underground bunkers and ATVs to move around. How far can you go without gas to fuel the ATV? A mule is sounding better and better just joking. hard enough time taking care of my fish and cats. I certainly don't need a mule to deal with

 

[esoxlucius]

There are a section of people worldwide who take this sort of thing extremely seriously, I've seen documentaries on them. People look on them as being oddballs or cranks. I believe they call them "preppers".

They certainly aren't as oddball as people make out, in fact they're very much tuned in to what's happening. They have underground bunkers with stashes of supplies that would last for years, and they are very skilled in survival, many of them live off the grid.

They're just waiting for that one big disaster to hit, an earthquake, an asteroid, a supervolcano or another world war.

Thankfully, living in blighty, we don't have volcanoes or earthquakes to worry about. I'm not too concerned about a massive asteroid hit either, not in my lifetime anyway, fingers crossed! The one thing that does concern me though is the current escalating developments in the Ukraine.

As the war goes on, and Russia continue to get nowhere because of help from the west for the Ukraine, Putin is becoming more and more threatening. That word we never want to hear, "nuclear" is being mentioned more and more as the war goes on. The fall out from such weapons does scare me, a lot.

 

[pacu mom]

Our little town has had a few tsunamis come through. The 21' tsunami from the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake resulted in 12 deaths and $10 - $17 million in damages (figure varies with different news sources).

The small 8.1' tsunami from the Japan earthquake March 2011 did about $50 million in damages to our harbor taking out piers and docks and basically destroying everything. They closed off many streets to the low lying areas of the town. I managed to find a different road to get to the higher area overlooking the beach. It was amazing to see how far the water pulled back. Areas were exposed that were usually under water. (I did leave the area before the big wave came in.) Guess I'm a bit of a gawker.

 

[pacu mom]

There are a section of people worldwide who take this sort of thing extremely seriously, I've seen documentaries on them. People look on them as being oddballs or cranks. I believe they call them "preppers".

They certainly aren't as oddball as people make out, in fact they're very much tuned in to what's happening. They have underground bunkers with stashes of supplies that would last for years, and they are very skilled in survival, many of them live off the grid.

They're just waiting for that one big disaster to hit, an earthquake, an asteroid, a supervolcano or another world war.

Thankfully, living in blighty, we don't have volcanoes or earthquakes to worry about. I'm not too concerned about a massive asteroid hit either, not in my lifetime anyway, fingers crossed! The one thing that does concern me though is the current escalating developments in the Ukraine.

As the war goes on, and Russia continue to get nowhere because of help from the west for the Ukraine, Putin is becoming more and more threatening. That word we never want to hear, "nuclear" is being mentioned more and more as the war goes on. The fall out from such weapons does scare me, a lot.

The nuclear war threat scares me too. Even without a direct hit, the repercussions will be there with food and supply chains cut off.

 

[esoxlucius]

The nuclear war threat scares me too. Even without a direct hit, the repercussions will be there with food and supply chains cut off to people.

Yes, just because you're on the other side of the globe from a real disaster doesn't mean you're safe, the domino effect will eventually get to you too.

 

[Ogertron3000]

If it makes you all feel better you are probably more likely to die in a car crash on the way to work tomorrow..........

 

[esoxlucius]

If it makes you all feel better you are probably more likely to die in a car crash on the way to work tomorrow..........

Cheers for that, i'm going South Wales tomorrow, now I will have that thought etched into by mind all the way down. Lol.

But of course, statistically this is true, I suppose we're just a big bunch of worriers, lol.