survivalism

Four years since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, there are still nearly 3,000 mobile homes and trailers across the Gulf Coast housing victims of that disaster.

In Louisiana, there are 2,100 families living in trailers, most of them homeowners struggling to rebuild their homes, according to figures released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Mississippi has 781 families in trailers.

The numbers are down considerably from the 134,000 temporary trailers and mobile homes that dotted the Gulf Coast immediately after Katrina slammed the area in August 2005, leading to nearly 1,800 dead and thousands more homeless. Some trailer dwellers are also victims of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which hit Louisiana last summer.

The federal government has made it a priority to vacate the temporary trailers, particularly after formaldehyde and toxics were found in the trailers. This month, FEMA and HUD announced programs to help extradite residents from the trailers, including $50 million in housing vouchers.

Slow-moving federal housing funds, elderly and disabled residents unable to navigate the system, and a lack of affordable rental units have kept them from completely emptying, said Crystal Utley of the Mississippi Center for Justice, which provides legal advice to disaster victims. Escalating insurance rates in the affected areas have also made it difficult, she said.

Source/Full Story: USATODAY.com

Sightings of dead fish again are being reported by citizens as well as biologists of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Department of Environmental Quality. The number of rivers the reports have come from is small, but "significant numbers of fish with lesions" have been noted, according to the game and fisheries agency.

The discovery of dead or suffering fish mirrors those of past years, but scientists recently found a link between aeromonas salmonicida – a bacterium found in diseased river fish – and lesions and/or deaths of experimentally infected laboratory fish.

The source of the bacterium and how it is transmitted are keeping the state biologists busy. This has been an ongoing riddle, and no one has been able to pinpoint the source of the problem. Most of the affected fish thus far have been smallmouth bass and sunfish, and with warming water temperatures the fish kills are not likely to disappear.

The North Fork of the Shenandoah River in Shenandoah County (from the New Market area downstream to beyond Woodstock) again is one of the troubled waterways; so is the upper portion of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River in Rockingham County (primarily upstream of Elkton). Add also the lower sections of the North, Middle and South rivers in Augusta and Rockingham counties and the upper James River near Buchanan in Botetourt County.

The public is asked to report the location of sick and dying fish by calling the DEQ’s Harrisonburg office at 540/574-7800 or by making a toll-free call if you’re in Virginia at 800/5925482. Reports can also be made by e-mail; send them to fishreports@deq.virginia.gov.

Source/Full Story: Washington Times

It’s an idea that most of us would rather not face — that within the next century, life as we know it could come to an end. Our civilization could crumble, leaving only traces of modern human existence behind.

It seems outlandish, extreme — even impossible. But according to cutting edge scientific research, it is a very real possibility. And unless we make drastic changes now, it could very well happen.

Experts have a stark warning: that unless we change course, the "perfect storm" of population growth, dwindling resources and climate change has the potential to converge in the next century with catastrophic results.

Watch "Earth 2100," a two-hour television event, Tuesday, June 2, at 9 p.m. ET.

In order to plan for the worst, we must anticipate it. In that spirit, guided by some of the world’s experts, ABC News’ "Earth 2100," hosted by Bob Woodruff, will journey through the next century and explore what might be our worst-case scenario.

But no one can predict the future, so how do we address the possibilities that lie ahead? Our solution is Lucy, a fictional character devised by the producers at ABC to guide us through the twists and turns of what the next 100 years could look like. It is through her eyes and experiences that we can truly imagine the experts’ worst-case scenario — and be inspired to make changes for the better.

Source/Full Story: abcnews.go.com

Six months ago, Jim Wiseman didn’t even have a spare nutrition bar in his kitchen cabinet.

Now, the 54-year-old businessman and father of five has a backup generator, a water filter, a grain mill and a 4-foot-tall pile of emergency food tucked in his home in the expensive San Diego suburb of La Jolla.

Wiseman isn’t alone. Emergency supply retailers and military surplus stores nationwide have seen business boom in the past few months as an increasing number of Americans spooked by the economy rush to stock up on gear that was once the domain of hardcore survivalists.

These people snapping up everything from water purification tablets to thermal blankets shatter the survivalist stereotype: they are mostly urban professionals with mortgages, SUVs, solid jobs and a twinge of embarrassment about their newfound hobby.

From teachers to real estate agents, these budding emergency gurus say the dismal economy has made them prepare for financial collapse as if it were an oncoming Category 5 hurricane. They worry about rampant inflation, runs on banks, bare grocery shelves and widespread power failures that could make taps run dry.

For Wiseman, a fire protection contractor, that’s meant spending roughly $20,000 since September on survival gear—and trying to persuade others to do the same.

"The UPS guy drops things off and he sees my 4-by-8-by-6-foot pile of food and I say ‘What are you doing to prepare, buddy?’" he said. "Because there won’t be a thing left on any shelf of any supermarket in the country if people’s confidence wavers."

Source/Full Story: breitbart.com

Russian survivalists call this speculative catastrophe the SHTF-day. Leaving aside atomic bomb shelters that were built everywhere in the USSR some twenty years ago, ’survivance’ as a trend became popular in Russia in the early 2000s, when Russian scientist Valentin Ponomarenko published his ‘Problem 2033.’

This popular and quite-often quoted book is no less than an inventory of the resources of our planet (most of the book is graphics and tables). The author makes a conclusion that by 2033, the resources will end, and people will be busy resolving the problem of overpopulation by killing each other by all convenient means. The verdict of this tract is simple – earth cannot bear more than 2 billion people, the rest are needless.

Several years later, another Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky published his ‘Subway 2033,’ which strangely enough repeats the magic date, and is completely dedicated to the problem of survival in the system of Moscow’s subway stations after the world is destroyed in a global nuclear conflict.

All these apocalyptic prognoses would have been in vain if not for the economic disaster we all are living in right now. Economic meltdown easily draws into survivalists’ ranks ordinary middle-class people. There are several websites where Russians exchange experiences and ‘strategic’ information about jobless rates in their regions, the availability of canned food, and how to officially buy and register Saiga-12 semi-automatic shotguns.

It looks like St. Petersburg runs ahead of the rest of the Russian population, because its citizens have a “genetic memory” of the WWII blockade of the city by German troops. Back then, the situation was so dramatically grave that sometimes it led to cannibalism, and people do not forget such horrors even if they are half a century old.

Survivalists learn how to live without electricity, gas, fuel, and other fruits of civilization. They learn shooting and hand-to hand combat skills. Many of them are either ex-military men, hunters or both, so they already know a thing or two about living on their own.

It is believed that up to 2% of Russian survivalists have already left big cities and settled down “deep in the woods” getting acquainted with the new uncivilized reality.

They are set to establish autonomous colonies capable of resisting in all directions.

Source/Full Story: RT

Source/Full Story: YouTube – Nasa Warns Of Super Solar Storm 2012

Seven children and seven adults died in a plane crash Sunday in Butte, Montana, according to the FAA.

The single-engine Pilatus PC 12 was headed to Bozeman, Montana, but was rerouted to Butte instead, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus.

The plane crashed 500 feet short of the runway at Bert Mooney Airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigation team to the scene, Kristi Dunks, an aerosafety investigator with the agency, told reporters in Butte late Sunday.

Dunks said the plane crashed at the Holy Cross Cemetery, just south of Runway 3 at the airport.

No one was injured on the ground, Sheriff John Walsh said.

Martha Guidoni told CNN that she and her husband witnessed the plane crash. She photographed one of the first images from the scene, which showed the cemetery in the foreground of a huge blaze.

Source:  CNN.com

Again, separation is absolutely crucial…

Source:  Kentucky.com

Ryan Robinson went from a healthy, 17-year-old soccer player at the peak of his form to another victim of a deadly drug-resistant strain of bacteria — all within the span of five days.

It’s something his stepfather still cannot fathom.

“It’s a surreal experience,” Michael Brown said Thursday, two days before Ryan’s Saturday funeral. “It’s not something you can plan for.”

Ryan died Tuesday. His rapid deterioration in health stemmed from MRSA, a strain of staph that is aggressive and typically harder to treat because it is resistant to commonly used antibiotics.

Until the beginning of this decade, MRSA, short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was largely confined to hospitals. But in the last few years, there has been an increase in cases of drug-resistant staph among the general public, including jails, the military and athletic teams.

Athletes are at risk because they “are more likely to be in a crowded condition,” said Dr. Kraig Humbaugh, an epidemiologist with the state Department for Public Health.

Athletes are also more likely to have abrasions, cuts and scrapes — the skin breaks that bacteria can enter — and they are more likely to come into contact with shared items such as towels, razors or practice jerseys, Humbaugh said.

Contrary to initial reports, Brown said Ryan did have some injuries.

“He had different scrapes and scratches on his legs, and he also had a large cut on his hand where he had been cleated in a game,” he said. “I’m not suggesting that that is the point of entry because we don’t know, obviously.”

The speed of Ryan’s deterioration is something that stunned the community and his classmates at West Jessamine High School, where he was a junior.

Brown said Ryan played soccer on March 5 and, other than a dry cough, there was no indication that the teen had any problem.

The next morning, Ryan awoke “throwing-up sick.” So Brown said Ryan’s mother, Patti Brown, took him to Lexington Clinic’s Jessamine Medical Center near Wal-Mart in Nicholasville.

“They diagnosed him with the flu” and gave Ryan something to curb his vomiting. They also gave him a prescription for Relenza, an inhaler for Type A flu, Brown said.

“They told us to bring him back in three to five days if he wasn’t feeling better,” he said.

On Saturday, Ryan appeared to be getting worse, so the Browns took him to St. Joseph-Jessamine RJ Corman Ambulatory Care Center, a facility that opened earlier this year off the U.S. 27 Bypass in Nicholasville.

“They put him on oxygen and started some IVs with broad-spectrum antibiotics,” Brown said. “After a couple of minutes they decided to intubate him (put a tube down his throat) because he was having such a hard time breathing.”

St. Joseph-Jessamine suspected Ryan might have pneumonia, so they transferred him to the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital in Lexington, where he was admitted to a pediatrics intensive care unit, Brown said.

There he was put on a respirator for his lungs and a life support system that did the work of his heart, Brown said. He said Ryan was not conscious from the time he left Nicholasville because he had been given a sedative so he would not fight the tube threaded down his throat.

“There was one point on Saturday that he responded to a request to squeeze a hand,” Brown recalled.

In his last hours, Ryan was surrounded by family. He died Tuesday afternoon, shortly after life support was turned off.

“One of the things the physician did say to us that I think is important for other families is that a flu immunization is something that would have been beneficial,” Brown said. As Brown understands it, flu weakened Ryan’s immune system and thus provided an opportunity for MRSA to attack more aggressively.

“We hope other parents get flu shots for their children,” Brown said.

Trying to fight MRSA

Doctors did not wish to comment specifically on Ryan’s case, citing confidentiality. But medical journals and Web sites in recent years have cited rare cases of a “staphylococcal necrotizing pneumonia” following an influenza illness. Such pneumonia destroys healthy lung tissue and can be fatal within 72 hours.

Full Story

Using phony documents and the identities of a dead man and a 5-year-old boy, a government investigator obtained U.S. passports in a test of post-9/11 security.

Despite efforts to boost passport security since the 2001 terror attacks, the investigator fooled passport and postal service employees on four separate applications, according to a new report.

The ruses are detailed in a report being issued this week by the Government Accountability Office. A draft summary of the findings was obtained by The Associated Press.

In one instance, the investigator used the Social Security number of a man who died in 1965, a fake New York birth certificate and fake Florida driver’s license. He received a passport four days later.

In another attempt, the investigator used a 5-year-old boy’s information but identified himself as 53 years old on the passport application. He received that passport seven days later.

In another test, the investigator used fake documents to get a genuine Washington D.C. identification card. He then used the card to apply for a passport and received it the same day.

In a fourth test, the investigator used a fake New York birth certificate and a fake West Virginia driver’s license and got the passport eight days later.

Source: WUSA9.com

Audio available at the Source: The Lew Rockwell Show

Greg Perry: Home Defense in the Depression

* Lew Rockwell interviews Greg Perry

More from Greg Perry:

He has an archive of LewRockwell.com articles.

He wrote Guns Galore! How to Buy and Sell Guns, Knives, and Ammo in Online Auctions Easily Without eBay!

He was previously interviewed in episode 80. Arm Yourself and Learn How To Shoot