Category: Weather

Letter Re: Observations on Tropical Storm Isaac

“Fool me once, Fool me twice.” Yes, you would think after Hurricane Katrina that people would have learned their lesson about staying in low lying areas. However, resilient as most people are,  the one thing that many always do, no matter what is stay. Then being caught in an  impossible situation rely on the government for help. I am a hurricane veteran. At 59, and having lived 20 miles west of New Orleans all of my life, I have survived Betsy in ’65 right up and through Isaac. For Hurricane Besty, I was only a child but I remember the broken …


Letter Re: Heavy Rainfall — Now Hitting The Fan in The Philippines

Dear JWR: We have been hit with massive rain and flooding here in the metropolitan Manila area. We are getting at times more than 1 inch rain per hour. We have received more rain than Typhoon Ondoy already. On August 7 we got 477mm rain in 22 hours. About half the city is flooded and roads to my area are impassable. The gas stations are out of unleaded gas and only have 97 octane racing grade remaining as of last night. I hit up the supermarket last night and it was busier than Christmas. I expect food shortages soon and …


Letter Re: The Listening to Katrina Web Site

Jim: I’d like to recommend a great web site: Listening to Katrina. The author weaves his personal Katrina story together with fresh and different survivalist advice in a page-by-page format. He gives advice that I don’t believe I’d seen before. As a survivalist for years before the event, he explains the mistakes made and lessons learned. His section on protecting your wealth is outstanding. For example, if you had a regional disaster and needed to bug out/relocate within 60 seconds, would you have your resume, education certificates and references updated and ready to grab, so that you could start a …


Cold Weather Travel and Survival, by Sven J.

If you live in the American Redoubt or any of the Northern US, you deal with a lot of cold winter weather. But all of those folk living in warmer places, you need to take heed too, because cold weather can touch you too in a survival situation. In January 2010, Florida experienced temperatures in the mid-30 degrees Fahrenheit (F) range, cold enough to kill the unprepared individual.   I grew up in Alaska, and spent my childhood and teen years exploring the woods and the mountains, often far from any trails. Winter is actually the optimum time for travel …


Letter Re: Observations on Post-Tornado Cleanup

James, We have been volunteering at the remains of a home of a prepper here in Ohio for the past two weekends.  Their home was destroyed by a tornado.  I have some simple suggestions that you might incorporate into your future work.                 1.  Store / Organize photos and documents in Ziploc bags.  In this case, they had the preverbal box of pictures stored on the second floor of a three story 1860 brick home with brick interior walls located flood plain.  The tornado remove the upper story plus half of the second floor.  The box of pictures was found …


Preparedness Essentials, by F.M.H.

I found myself in a rather uncomfortable and vulnerable position. Hurricane Frederic hit Mobile, Alabama in September 1979. I thought it was going to be exciting. In fact several friends of mine had a party the night before Frederic made landfall. There was no preparation made on my part for this hurricane. I had no anxiety and could have cared less. At the time I didn’t even have a gun. I had barely a quarter of a tank of gas in my car. I did not have a battery operated radio or a flashlight. There was very little non-perishable food …


Letter Re: Coronal Mass Ejections and Their Consequences

Good Morning James, The recent coronal mass ejection (CME) began interacting with the terrestrial magnetosphere earlier today. Though initially that interaction was rather subdued a rapid fall-off in the proton particle counters is actually leading to some rather elevated readings over at the Rice.edu monitor site. Polar convection, density and velocity are all registering in the yellow band, while the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) magnitude, angle and the dynamic pressure are all passed up into the red zones. It is worth remembering that a CME consists of hot, charged particles (ionized hydrogen primarily) and as such the situation is similar …


The Adventures and Misadventures of the Newbie Texas Prepper, by Patty H.

Well I must say after prayer and a heart to heart with the Almighty and many undisputable news about our economy I have felt the need to start prepping.  Oh and where to start? Wow was I ever overwhelmed at the prospect of starting prepping for an economic collapse or other unfortunate event. First, telling the hubby. I got laughed at. Yes, I was down. But I found SurvivalBlog.com, where I got started with baby steps. So off to the grocery store I went. I started a little bit at a time, buying rice and canned items on sale.  Then …


Letter Re: Lessons From The Derecho Storms

Mr. Rawles: Today is Wednesday, July 4, 2012.  I am writing from a small town in central West Virginia and I would like to share some thoughts, observations, and lessons from the recent Derecho windstorm experienced by the mid-west and east of our great country.  As I sit here, we are in day six of total power outage caused by a freak storm that came with little or no warning.  Power may not be on for another four days.   I have been a long time reader of your blog and have lots of lists and plans but sadly my …


Letter Re: Eastern Thunderstorms and Power Outages

Good Morning Mr. Rawles, You probably already know about this, but there are several good quotes in this article about the massive scope of the damage from nothing more than a few lines of strong thunderstorms over two days rumbling through my neck of the woods. Folks were stranded in trains, stuck in traffic, crushed in their homes, and millions will be without grid power this coming week during a heat wave. Even central valleys in interior states can suffer damage similar to a large tropical cyclone, so folks shouldn’t get cocky and fail to prepare.  As an aside, I …


Lessons From Tropical Storm Debby

As Tropical Storm Debby stalled in the Gulf of Mexico off the Coast of Florida it was business as usual in our area. No one was much concerned about the storm as we have become complacent in Storms and Hurricanes in our area of North Florida. I live in a rural farming area 20 miles from Live Oak and 15 miles from the town of Mayo. The following are my observations.   Saturday June 23rd – constant rain all day – all roads passable   Sunday June 24th   – constant rain all day – all roads passable   Monday June …


A Taste of TEOTWAWKI, by Anne S.

I never realized how dark and eerie our house could be.  Even at night, there were usually two or three nightlights casting their brave glow to prevent midnight mishaps. But on this evening, there was no electricity to power this smallest of luxuries.  Another thing I noticed as I kept vigil over my sleeping loved ones by emergency candle light was the extreme, echoing silence.  There was no fan humming in my son’s room. There was no whir of the compressor cycling on and off in the refrigerator.  There was no air blowing through the central air unit of our …


Lessons Learned by J.S.P.

I will begin with a brief introduction. I have been an avid reader of SurvivalBlog for a few years. I have never found a better collection of tips, ideas, and information. Every time I view the blog I learn something new. I was born and raised in the south, spending most of my time outdoors or in church. I grew up hunting, fishing, camping, and learning the value of a hard days work. I had believed that growing up as I did would provide me advantages in disaster situations without really making any in-depth preparations other than the occasional power …


Letter Re: Sunspot 11476 Update

Hi James, At about 12:30 UTC this morning Sunspot 11476 flared at the M4.7 level thereafter remaining at an elevated emission state. As of just a few minutes ago it re-flared, peaking to M1.8. Last night’s read at Solen.info gave the area as 1100 SM and noted significant complexity at at least two points within the spot. This morning’s HMIB from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) platform has in the leading spot a section in which very high positive and negative magnetic gradients are immediately adjacent to each other with strong intermixing occurring. This is almost always a sign that …


Letter Re: Fruit Crop Losses in the Great Lakes Region

Mr. Rawles, There has been a substantial loss of several fruit crops in Michigan due to unseasonable weather (warm weather caused budding followed by freezing temperatures that killed the fruit blossoms) as reported by AccuWeather.   Michigan is third in apple production and produces a fifth of this country’s sweet cherries and three quarters of its tart cherries, and prices are expected to increase. SurvivalBlog readers should take advantage of sales and supplies as they find them and can or “put by” accordingly. – Home’s Cool Mom