Author Archives: staff-writer

Some Common Prepper Terms and Definitions

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72 hour kit – see Bug Out Bag

AR-15 – Is the civilian version of the military M-16 and M-4 rifle.

Bugging Out – leaving your current position and moving to a designated area or suitable location for your safety.

Bug Out Bag (aka BOB) – A bag used for moving from one place to another in an emergency that carries bare essentials to last you at least 72 hours. Mainly the bag focuses on grabbing it and going without having to “pack”. You have no time to pack, you just grab it and go. Common items include food bars, fire starters, first aid kit, water, maps, cash, firearms, emergency medicine, solar blanket, and copies of personal identification (photos of passports, drivers licenses, social security card etc).

BOL – Bug out Location, a preplanned position to retreat to (other than your home) if you had the need to escape danger or disaster.

BOV – Bug out Vehicle

EDC – Everyday carry, what a person caries on their person on a daily basis.

EMP – An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field. The resulting rapidly-changing electric fields and magnetic fields may couple with electrical/electronic systems to produce damaging current and voltage surges, destroying the majority of electronic devices.

CME – Coronal Mass Ejection. (Solar flares.) See EMP.

GO bag – see Bug Out Bag

JIC – Just In Case

“Junk” Silver – 1964 or earlier mint date circulated U.S. silver dimes, quarters, or half dollars with little or no numismatic value. These coin have a silver content of 90%.

M.A.G – Mutual Aid Group,  made up of individuals in a specific geographic area. These individuals meet for the purpose of discussing, sharing ideas and planning for emergencies in their area. Think of it as neighbors banning together to help each other out in a time of need.

MBR – Main Battle Rifle

Multi-tool – This is a combination survival knife, pliers and will usually have a wide assortment of tools built in. One example is theMulti-tool.

MRE – Meal Ready To Eat. This is a military ration. Its normal shelf life is several years. The contents are sealed in a tough plastic coating.

OPSEC = Operational Security

Peak Oil – the point in time when the maximum rate of petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production is expected to enter terminal decline, causing huge ripple effects in societies transportation, energy and manufacturing systems.

P.E.R.K – (Personal Emergency Relocation Kit) see Bug Out Bag

PSK – Personal Survival Kit

SHTF – Sh*t hits the Fan. – This means that some kind of event has happened. This is a term used in relation to your location. A SHTF situation is not normally world wide.

TEOTWAWKI – The End of the World as We Know it – a global shift in society. An Apocalyptic event.

WROL – (Without Rule of Law) A time when government bodies (police, military, etc) have either lost control, or no longer exist causing civil unrest and instability.

 

DHS Admits It Is Unprepared for EMP Threat

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In testimony delivered on September 12, Brandon Wales, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center, admitted that DHS remains unprepared for the possibility of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event or attack.

Wales testified that the nation’s power grid is more vulnerable now than it was a few years ago. Nevertheless, he could not provide Congress with an estimate for how much it would cost to combat such vulnerabilities.

An EMP attack could bring this country to a screeching halt by permanently disabling electronic devices. ATMs would stop dispensing money. Water and sewage systems would fail. Even planes and automobiles would stop working. Imagine living in the Dark Ages: This is what it would be like to live through an EMP attack.

More than seven years ago, DHS released its National Planning Scenarios. This document outlined plans to prepare for and respond to 15 different man-made and natural disasters. The list included the detonation of an improvised nuclear device and the use of a plague as a weapon. However, one potential threat was noticeably missing; an EMP event or attack.

The possibility of an EMP is arguably just as likely to occur as the detonation of an improvised nuclear device or the use of a contagious and deadly biological weapon. A rouge nation could effectively disable, damage, or destroy critical infrastructure with a short-range ballistic missile carrying an EMP device or nuclear warhead. Countries such as North Korea and Iran already possess ballistic missile capabilities. Other weapons, such as a radio-frequency device, could also cause an EMP that would disrupt critical systems.

Natural events could also plausibly result in an EMP. NASA and the National Academy of Sciences have argued that a “solar maximum” could occur between now and 2014. As the solar maximum approaches its peak, the sun could propel electromagnetic fluctuations into the earth’s atmosphere. These fluctuations would interact with our electrical systems and result in blackouts affecting 130 million people. Costs of such outages could range from $1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year alone.

To make matters worse, an outage could last for years, because we would need to completely rebuild our infrastructure. In this scenario, food and water delivery systems would be devastated. We could see massive human casualties on a scale that hardly seems imaginable.

The United States is vulnerable to an EMP that could occur at the hands of our enemies or via uncontrollable natural forces. DHS is ignoring the threat posed by an EMP at the risk of literally plunging us into darkness.

Steven Ballew is currently a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. For more information on interning at Heritage, please visit http://www.heritage.org/about/departments/ylp.cfm.

Posted in Protect America

DHS Admits It Is Unprepared for EMP Threat.

 

 

 

 

Great ShakeOut – Select Your ShakeOut Region – Register – Participate

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Great ShakeOut earthquake drills help people in homes, schools, and organizations improve preparedness and practice how to be safe during earthquakes. Most people participate in one of the Official ShakeOut Regions shown below. Now anyone in other states, provinces, or countries can also register to be included in the global participation total!

California
10/18/2012
As of today: 9 million
(2011: 8.6 million)
Nevada
10/18/2012
As of today: 510,000
(2011: Over 190,000)
Oregon
10/18/2012
As of today: 110,000
(2011: Over 23,000)
Washington
10/18/2012
As of today: 550,000
(First year)
Idaho
10/18/2012
As of today: 84,000
(2011: Over 86,000)
SouthEast
10/18/2012
As of today: 1 million
(First year)
Guam
10/18/2012
As of today: 51,000
(2011: Over 58,000)
Puerto Rico
10/18/2012
As of today: 360,000
(First year)
Arizona
10/18/2012
As of today: 35,000
(First year)
Alaska
10/18/2012
As of today: 50,000
(First year)
British Columbia
10/18/2012
As of today: 520,000
(2011: Over 530,000)
Southern Italy
10/18/2012
As of today: 14,000
(First year)
Central U.S.
2/7/2013
As of today: 32,000
(2012: 2.4 million)
Utah
4/17/2013
As of today: 4,000
(2012: Over 940,000)
New Zealand
9/26/2012
As of today: 1.3 million
(First year)
Japan
Various Dates
140,000
Global ShakeOut
10/18/2012
As of today: 260,000

The ShakeOut began in California and has also been organized in many other states and countries. Official ShakeOut Regions require significant local or regional coordination, typically by an emergency management agency or an alliance of many organizations. If you are interested in establishing a ShakeOut drill for your region please contact us. If your state, province, or country is not yet participating you can register as part of the global participation total.

via ShakeOut 

Bear Grylls scores extreme NBC reality show gig

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Bear Grylls scores extreme NBC reality show gigPhoto credit: Getty

Bear Grylls is ready for his next adventure.m. NBC has greenlit “Get Out Alive” — an “extreme adventure reality-competition series” headlined by Grylls, the network announced Oct. 8. The “Man vs. Wild” star’s new gig comes after he parted ways with Discovery earlier this year over a contract dispute. “Get Out Alive” will “test teams of two beyond their most extreme imaginations in the wild,” according to NBC.“‘Get Out Alive’ will be raw, tough and unrelenting, but it will also inspire and teach the essentials that one day may just save your life,“ Grylls said in a statement. “The goal is to empower people with the ultimate in both survival and teamwork, and that brings incredible reward. But first there must be some pain.”The show is slated to premiere in summer 2013. NBC has ordered eight episodes.

via Bear Grylls scores extreme NBC reality show gig.

 

Quick Tip | Add These To Your Bugout Bag

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Travel much?

If you do, then why not take advantage of the additional shampoo, soap, lotion, mouthwash, shower cap, sewing kit, etc… and save them. They make excellent short term cleaning solutions to add to your bugout bag.

They are light-weight, small and easy to carry. Plus, they don’t take up much room and best of all they are FREE! (or, if you don’t travel, you can just buy trial size products at your local drug store)

outdoor bathing

 

I like to put them into small sandwich size ziplock bags and keep them in my various bugout bags and car kits.

 

Know The Secret To Using Flint And Steel To Start A Fire?

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Iron Burning – Upon contact with the air, a shower of tiny iron particles spontaneously catch on fire.

Being prepared is the first step in survival.

Being prepared is the first step in survival.

Have you ever used a metal grinder or seen one in action on a piece of iron? Notice how thousands of glowing hot sparks fly off the wheel as it removes tiny bits of fresh iron off the chunk of iron being worked on. These tiny bits of iron are actually spontaneously catching on fire as they are exposed to the oxygen in the air.

If you can create a small enough particle of fresh iron, upon contact with oxygen in the air the iron particles increased surface area will oxidize faster than it can dissipate the heat formed during the reaction. The result: the particle of iron spontaneously becomes so hot that it glows as it oxidizes – and can be used to catch tinder on fire.

In a nutshell the process of using a flint and steel to start a fire works like this:

  • Find a piece of high carbon steel, which is about 98% iron and 2% carbon (a hard, relatively brittle steel)
  • Find a piece of flint or other hard sharp object such as quartz.
  • Strike a sharp edge of the flint a glancing blow with the high carbon steel. Doing this just right takes practice.
  • Very tiny particles of fresh iron fly out from the steel.
  • Upon contact with oxygen in the air, the surfaces of the iron particles spontaneously ignite and give off heat as they oxidize (rust).
  • Because the surface area of the iron particles is so large compared to their volume, the particles quickly heat up and glow red hot. They become sparks.
  • Catch the sparks in prepared tinder and use it to start a fire.

Advantages of Flint and Steel

Flint and steel has been used in starting fires for centuries. In the days before matches were invented, flint and steel offered the ability to start a fire without having to carry a hot coal wherever one traveled, and worrying about losing it or having it go cold.

Starting a fire using flint and steel takes a more expertise and preparation than simply striking a match, however many survival experts feel this disadvantage is overcome by the fact that a wet or damp flint and steel can still be used to start a fire, and that a flint and steel can start many thousands of fires without wearing out; both very important attributes when surviving in the wilderness.

Try carrying tens of thousands of matches in the wilderness or stockpiling thousands of matches in your disaster preparedness kit! Even if the shear weight and volume of your matches do not discourage you, you are also faced with the problem of keeping them viable from dampness or the ravages of time.

Flint and steel overcomes these problems and provides the survivor with means of starting a fire that is more reliable than matches – if he is skilled enough to use it.

source: How does flint and steel work? More specifically, what causes the sparks when you strike a piece of flint with steel? The answer may surprise you!