Letter Re: Reverse Osmosis Water Purification for Urbanites

Dear Jim,
Concerning Justin B.’s letter on reverse osmosis: Why go to all the trouble of using a reverse osmosis system and having to Jerry-rig a way to use it if the electrical system goes on the blink? Use a non-electric, non-water wasting, gravity-based water filtration system like the Big Berkey (30,000 gallons on one set of filters!) and get used to using it for your drinking water every day. It’s a great way to develop a habit and a mind set of preparedness.

Every time I fill my Berkey (once or twice a day) I think about my preps while I am filling/draining water. It is a constant reminder of the commitment I have made to myself and my family to do all I can to be prepared for whatever may come our way. Reverse osmosis filters waste 2 gallons of water for every 1 gallon filtered. That’s not exactly what you want to be doing in an emergency. A Berkey is fill it and forget it! No pumps, no waste, no mess! Replacement filters are easy and compact to store and take under two minutes to remove the old ones and put in the new ones. Part of surviving is the KISS principle. (Keep It Simple, Stupid.) I remind myself of this at every opportunity when I am tempted to get too gadgety or “Ooh, wouldn’t it be cool if…” starts to creep in. – Lee

Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Thanks to all of you for your patience as I dealt with some important family issues, several visiting SurvivalBlog real estate clients, and the opening of Idaho’s Deer and Elk season, all in the past two weeks. Sometimes there is no such thing as the slower-paced life at a higher altitude!

Well the financial news these days just keeps getting darker and for those of you who are actively searching for your retreat, just press on, you’ll make it. As we get back into reviewing actual retreat locales (next week) it’s important to have a solid standard operating procedure (SOP). to identify, review and finally purchase your retreat. Although JWR does an outstanding job outlining characteristics and tactics to find and purchase your retreat in his book Rawles on Retreats and Relocation, I want to bring another perspective from an agent ‘on scene’ and allow you to benefit from my experience watching clients from all over the nation go through what at times may be a physically and mentally exhausting experience.

First and foremost, the best advice for those of you that dream of being at your retreat in the hinterboonies one day is that the locale and property you have chosen to focus on after searching the web for countless hours is never what your mind has made it out to be. The second tidbit of advice I can pass along is that the one property that looks like a shack in the middle of a swamp will actually turn out to be the one you buy. It never fails, a client contacts me regarding the ‘ultimate retreat’ they saw on a web site and once I go visit the property for them it fails inspection miserably against the clients’ criteria.

Keep your expectations as low as possible and focus on the acronym W.A.L.L.S., which stands for: Water, Access, Location, Light and Security. Focus on building strong W.A.L.L.S. around you as you search your prospective locales. Obviously, you’ll need a never ending source of water, preferably gravity fed from a spring or shallow well. The access to the property must be manageable year round, remember, what you see in July will not be the road conditions in December! This is a mistake that is easy to make if you get tunnel vision during your search or have your dream property goggles on, be careful! The location of the locale and property should be well within your defined limits of travel time to whatever major metropolitan area you may have to work in until either you retire or TSHTF, as not all of us can quite our jobs and pack it into the hills! Be realistic about your views of the locale before you arrive for your first visit and be prepared to make radical changes to your shopping list as the days go by. You’ll need plenty of light, Sunlight that is, and Southern exposure in order to keep your garden happy. Last and actually least would be the security of the locale and the property. Why last? Well, if you lack any of the aforementioned, then what’s the point of a retreat? I’d rather live out a socioeconomic storm in a retreat that had less than desirable defensibility than to be on the North face of a tall ridge where I could not grow my garden, with a 400 foot well and snowmobile access only in the winter. Trust me, almost any property can be defended, it just might take more personnel and logistics to do so. Now that you understand the W.A.L.L.S. theory we can jump back to the basics of finding your retreat.

As most of you know my family and I fled the People’s Republic of Kalifornia about a year ago and after spending the past year with many clients on their search for Heaven on earth (it does not exist in case anyone wants to know). One of the first mistakes that most people do is fly right in and want to see a bunch approved retreat properties with the properties spread out over a 200 mile radius. Stop. This is a waste of your time and everyone else’s time. The correct process would be to do the reverse of the standard learning curve and run, walk, and then crawl around your retreat locale. Let me explain: First, go to the local book store and pick up a huge folding non laminated paper map of the locale your are interested in relocating to (in CONUS that would typically be a particular State or region) and simply mark your route on the map and allow yourself three full days (not including travel time to and from) to simply drive the entire region. Stop in each town for a look see, breath the fresh air and talk to the local farmer at the general store, that person is usually a wealth of knowledge.

On a side note, please dress appropriately! If you’re coming from a major population center and going into the boonies, do not wear what you think is casual, since “out there” it will be over dressed and the locals will not talk to you. If you take the time to really dress down, you’ll be respected and even though you’re from “down there”, you’ll have a good chance to gain allot of critical Intel from the local population. Do not show up to see property in shorts, tennis shoes or high heels. I’ve actually had several clients come to town on their search and even after I told them to wear long pants and bring hiking boots to be prepared to walk in thick brush and varied terrain, someone shows up in a skirt and tennis shoes, great for looking at condominiums while carrying your toy poodle, but not realistic for retreat shopping. The next thing you know your spouse is pouting in the car while you and your agent are out seeing the property and the trip just goes downhill from there. Pack accordingly for the climate and the general terrain of your locale!

Back on track. If, for instance, you were thinking of moving to the Libby, Montana region you’ll want to drive from Kalispell all the way through Northern Idaho to Spokane, Washington (200 miles) just to give yourself a good working knowledge of the terrain and climate of the region as well as familiarizing yourself with any large metropolitan cities that may be a threat someday. This would be the run phase of your operational SOPs.

Next, once you have the ‘big picture’ you’ll need to identify your main retreat locale, if the one you picked while surfing the web was deemed unworthy, and three alternative retreat locales. Then go to the walk phase. During this phase you may need to take an entire week of vacation so you can actually stay in each locale, walk the towns, talk to everyone you can meet and really seek that warm fuzzy feeling you will have when you have finally found your retreat. Take your tools (such as the Rawles on Retreats and Relocation book) and make checklists of the characteristics that are important to you outside of your retreats W.A.L.L.S. and once you spend an entire day or two in each locale you’ll be ready for phase three.

Finally, in the crawl phase you’ll be ready to actually spend considerable time viewing properties in your main and backup retreat locales. Remember that sometimes you’ll find the best property in locale # 2.. If so, by all means buy it, since you’ll be spending more time at your property than out in the general vicinity anyway. And a short drive is nice out here in the country!

To recap, you’ll need to take a minimum of three trips to your retreat region and locale before attempting to purchase. First, make a large overview and narrow your region into several locales. Then take another trip to narrow the locales into two actual towns that meet your characteristics and then and only then come back with your checkbook in hand. The amount of time spent should be anywhere from 10 to 14 days of actual ‘ground time’, not including your travel days. So you’ll need to plan on saving up your vacation time and using the weekends (or your days off) to your advantage.
God Bless, – T.S. in Idaho


JWR Adds: If possible, schedule one of your retreat scouting trips for the dead of winter. This is particularly important if you are looking for a retreat anywhere at higher elevations or in more northern latitudes. Elevation and solar exposure make a huge difference in comfortable living. There are also some localized climate variations to consider. (The “snow belt” factor.) Asking a seller or agent about how much snow to expect in January is one thing, but seeing it for yourself is another. Odds are that after your mid-winter trip you will revise your retreat shopping plans to concentrate on lower elevation properties, southern exposure, and ready winter access via regularly plowed roads. (OBTW, I have found that any property that is on a School Bus Route is a good thing, even if you home school your kids, since typically those are the roads that get the highest priority for snow plowing in winter.)

Odds ‘n Sods:

The US residential housing market implosion isn’t over yet. My recent web searches turned up some testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. In reading it, we learned that the majority of ARM rate “resets” in the US will occur in in the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008. And specifically, the peak for subprime resets will be in March of 2008, the peak in agency loan resets will be in September of 2008, and the peak in “jumbo” loan resets will not be until April of 2009. Buckle your seatbelts and be prepared for a long, bumpy, downhill ride.

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Courtesy of reader SJC: Centex Reports Loss as Housing Slump Intensifies

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Stephen in Iraq sent us this article that comes as no great surprise: Merrill Lynch Reports Loss on $8.4 Billion Writedown

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The folks at Front Sight have posted their 2008 schedule of courses on their web site. Click on Course Schedule in the left hand navigation bar. The Memsahib and I can both personally attest that their training is absolutely top notch, and indispensable! At least one member of each retreat group should attend both the Front Sight four day practical rifle and four day defensive handgun courses, and then come home to train others.

Note from JWR:

For those of you that have been waiting, I just got another case of 10 copies of the latest edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. This massive three pound, 870 page compendium is a must for every prepared family’s bookshelf. If you look around, you can sometimes find used copies of the latest (Ninth) edition at local used book stores, or through Internet vendors. If you can’t find a copy locally, new copies are available through our Catalog page.

Letter Re: Advice on Retirement Plans and Precious Metals IRAs

Helo Jim,
Just a note to let you know what a great job your doing with the blog. I have a question that as far as I know you have not addressed. Most of my individual retirement account (IRA) money is in a 403b at work. [A 403(b) is a tax deferred retirement plan for the employees of nonprofit organizations.] I had wanted to roll this over into a precious metals IRA. However I am not allowed to do this until I leave my current job. Is there anything you would advise that I can do to protect my 403b against the declining dollar besides cashing it out and taking the huge hit in penalties and taxes? Thanks, – Jeff in Ohio

JWR Replies: My first suggestion is that because in most cases (depending on your income) you can have both a 400 series (401/403) retirement plan and an IRA, that you go ahead and set up a gold IRA, even if the majority of your retirement funds are locked up in another plan. Just minimize your contributions to the 400 series, and maximize your contribution to your gold IRA.

Company retirement plans vary widely. Some have a narrow range of investing options, while others offer a plethora. Even if you are “trapped” in a 400 series retirement plan, then at least direct your funds that are there into low risk investments. Since the US stock market is presently over-valued and likely to decline rapidly, this not a good time to have your retirement fund weighted toward stocks or stock mutual funds. If you have the opportunity to direct your portfolio in to bonds, I would recommend doing so, at least for the next few years.

One option for folks that feel trapped in their current retirement plan is to work out an arrangement with their employer to resign and come back on board–typically after a brief vacation –as an independent contractor. This would allow you to roll your 403(b) directly into an IRA. Note, however, that you must carefully weigh the costs and benefits. If the only retirement benefit that your company provides is the 403b proceeds, then it is is probably a good idea. But if your company also provides a traditional retirement payment, then this would probably be unwise. (Since the benefits that you would earn for the rest of your life are potentially quite large.) Also, switching to independent contractor status will mean some income tax and FICA “contribution” changes and necessitate finding your own health insurance. Run all the numbers before making such a drastic change.

The many variations of IRAs go beyond the scope of this brief discussion, but be sure to research them, and find out what is best for your particular circumstances

Precious metals IRAs are available through Swiss America. I’ve had a gold IRA with them (through American Church Trust, and more recently through Goldstar Trust Company) since the late 1990s, and in the past six years it has performed very well. Since the bull market in precious metals is still in it early stages, I expect further gains in the years to come.

I generally recommend pre-1965 circulated silver coins for tangible (“at home”) holdings, but gold for precious metals IRAs. This is because the purchase premium (above the spot price) is considerably higher for silver American Eagles versus gold American Eagles.

Note: As stated in my Provisos Page, I’m not a registered investment counselor, and I don’t give compensated investing advice.

US Food Riots Much Closer Than You Think, by Robert Felix






(The following is re-posted with permission, from IceAgeNow.com)

Recently, I said “we’ll be fighting in the streets for food long before we’re buried in ice.” I say the same thing in my book Not by Fire but by Ice.
I just received an email from a reader that sums it up better than I did:

“I spent about thirty years working in commercial agribusiness. My main job was to purchase ingredients, mainly grain, for flour mills and animal feed mills. As a part of my job, I was forced to understand the US food supply system, its strengths and weaknesses.

Over the years, I became aware of some things that nearly all Americans are completely unaware of. I am going to make a list of statements and then you will see where I’m going.

— 1% of the US population grows all of the food for all Americans.

— Nearly all Americans know essentially nothing about where the food they eat every day comes from. How it gets from the ground to them. And they don’t want to know about it. It’s cheap, as close as their local store, and of high quality. So no worries.

— The bulk of the food we eat comes from grain. Although they raise a lot of fruits and vegetables in California, Arizona, Florida, Oregon and Washington, those things don’t compose the main part of the average diet. Half of what a meat animal is raised on is grain so when you eat meat you are really eating grain. And, of course, we eat grain directly as bread, bagels, doughnuts, pasta, etc. Milk (and milk products like cheese) comes from cows that eat grain. A lot of grain. And the grain they eat is not produced where the cows are located.

— The lion’s share of grain produced in the US is done in a concentrated part of the US Midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri is the center of this area). The grain is moved to the coasts (where 70% of the population live) by only two railroads.

— Nothing is stored for very long in a supermarket. One day grain travels (by rail) from Kansas to Seattle to a flour mill. The next day the flour mill makes the flour and sends it to a bakery. The next day the bakery makes it into bread (and other baked things) and the next day it is at the store where it is purchased that day.
Nobody stores anything. The grain is produced and stored in the Midwest and shipped daily in a single railroad pipeline to the rest of America where the people live.

— Up until the 1980s there was a system that stored a lot of grain in elevators around the country. At one time, a whole year’s harvest of grain was stored that way. But since taxpayers were paying to store it, certain urban politicians engineered the movement of that money from providing a safety net or backup for their own food supply in order to give the money to various other social welfare things. So now, nothing is stored. We produce what we consume each year and store practically none of it. There is no contingency plan. Now for my take on what this means for us and what it has to do with
the topic you are publicizing.

— If a drought such as has lingered over other parts of the US where little grain is grown were to move over the grain-producing states in the Midwest where few people live, it would seriously damage the food supply of the country and the apples of Washington, the lettuce of California, the grapefruit of Florida and the peanuts of Georgia won’t make up the difference because grain is the staff of life and most of it is grown in the Midwest.

— Americans are armed to the teeth. In Los Angeles people burned down their own neighborhoods to protest a court case.

— In order for riots to break out the whole food supply doesn’t have to be wiped out. It just has to be threatened sufficiently. When people realize their vulnerability and the fact that there is no short term solution to a severe enough drought in the Midwest they will have no clue as to what they should do. Other nations can’t make up the difference because no other nation has a surplus of grain in good times let alone in times when they are having droughts and floods also. It takes two or three months to raise grain, yet people have to eat usually at least once a day, usually more than that.

— So, basically, we have in place a recipe for a disaster that will dwarf any other localized disasters imaginable. The important thing to note is that there is no solution for this event. There is no contingency plan for this. People living in certain parts of the US will fare better than others (which is another story) but those who live in big cities, where most of the US population live, are done for.

Anyway, I have no agenda of my own concerning this. I just thought I’d share it with someone who appears to have an idea of what might likely cause this scenario to occur. The only people who know about this are those who are involved in the production and distribution of the food supply and there are very, very few of them number-wise. And most of them haven’t put two and two together yet, either.”

JWR Adds: Do you have plenty of stored wheat and a wheat grinder for your family? If not, then contact any of our advertisers that sell storage foods, pronto. These include: Freeze Dry Guy , JRH Enterprises, Ready Made Resources, Safecastle, and Best Prices Storable Foods. (Be sure to also store plenty of rice, beans, and honey.) Have you stored a good assortment of heirloom variety (non-hybrid) garden seed that is less than three years old? If not, then contact the Ark Institute or the Seed Savers Exchange.

Odds ‘n Sods:

I found Cathy Buckle’s most recent letter from Zimbabwe well worth reading. The ravages of hyperinflation are hard to appreciate except when seen first hand, as related by someone like Cathy.

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California Fire Battalion Chief – Whoever Did This Knew What They Were Doing

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Alphie mentioned that the October Backwoods Home Magazine e-newsletter is now available.

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The Black Swan’s lessons–The value of considering improbable possibilities

 

Notes from JWR:

Today we are pleased to welcome our newest advertiser, Turtle Tuff Shelter Systems, in Utah. Be sure to double click on the video link at the top of their Photo Gallery page. What an amazing shelter!

If you have a favorite quote, feel free to suggest it, via e-mail. Chances are that I’ll post it as a Quote of the Day. Thanks!

The high bid is now at $200 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for four items: a Baygen Freeplay Summit digitally-tuned AM/FM/Shortwave radio, and a Baygen Sherpa hand crank flashlight. These were kindly donated by Ready Made Resources, one of our most loyal advertisers. Also included in the auction lot is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and an autographed copy of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”. These four items have a combined value of more than $350. The auction ends on November 15th. Just e-mail us your bid.

Are Your Neighbors Contrapreneurs?

The American newspapers are presently full of stories about declining suburban home values and the galloping foreclosure rates, mainly in the coastal markets. (The erstwhile “hot” real estate markets have turned bitter cold.) As more and more foreclosures get dumped onto an already over-saturated “buyers market”, there is a strong likelihood that prices will spiral downward. Anyone that bought a “spec” house is now trying to get rid of it, even if means taking a loss. The downward pressure on house prices is likely to continue for several years in the coastal areas, and in few inland markets like Phoenix and Denver.

The folks that bought “spec” houses at the top of the market are what I call contrapreneurs. They are holding an investment with steadily declining value. Most of them, sadly, used borrowed money to do so. Thus, not only are they riding a down escalator, but they must continue to service their debt on a house with a negative cash flow. Strapped for cash, many overextended themselves, and they are defaulting in alarmingly large numbers. Just as I predicted, some of them are starting to abandon their houses without so much as a fare-the-well to their bankers. This is a downright ugly situation. If the US economy noses down into recession (as I anticipate), with corporate layoffs intensifying the mortgage default numbers, then this could very well go down in history as a housing market collapse.

You may have bought your house a decade ago, well before the big run-up in prices. If so, even if prices decline 50% (as some predict), you would probably still be ahead. But what about your 20-something next door neighbor that bought his house in the summer of Aught Six? Odds are that he bought his house with little money down, via an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), and at a peak of the market price. Now that prices are dropping, your neighbor is probably “upside down” in his mortgage. (Owing the bankers more than the current market value of the house.) It may be four to 12 years before the market pendulum begins to reverse and prices start to creep back upward. Don’t be surprised if you wake up some morning and find that your neighbor moved out in the middle of the night, unannounced. (What our friends in England charmingly call “a midnight flit.”)

The full implications of the housing market bust won’t be known for a few years–once we are closer to the bottom. I suspect that the psychological impact of that many people losing so many billions of dollars and in many cases the roof over their heads, will be devastating.It may be remembered in the same way as the stock market Crash of 1929. There will be a lot of “riches to rags” stories, and I suspect that this collective trauma will considerably affect the buying, investing, and saving habits of Americans for the first couple of generations in this new century.

One likely side effect of the correction of housing prices is that there will be a considerable lag in downward adjustment in property taxes. Local tax officials are always quick to raise taxes in a booming market, but they will probably drag their feet when it comes time to lower taxes.

Another side effect will come in the next couple of years, as savvy house renters start to hound their landlords, demanding lower rents. All they will have to do is threaten to move out–leaving their landlords with a negative cash flow and no prospect of matching the current rent. Some might consider this more ugliness, but it is actually one of the beauties of the free market. A truly free market eventually achieves price equilibrium. Nearly two years ago, I warned SurvivalBlog readers to jettison any urban or suburban rental houses that they might own. I hope that they heeded my advice.

As previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog, a small portion of rural foreclosures may represent a retreat buying opportunity. Monitor the market closely, either through a cooperative agent in your selected retreat area, and/or through Foreclosure.com. You may find yourself a bargain in the months to come.

Three Letter Re: The Recent San Diego, California Wildfires

Jim:
I have the rest of the day off due to the wildfires in the area so I am at home. The firefighting aircraft have been grounded due to wind until a couple of minutes ago. The evacuation zone is currently a 1/4 mile east of me. My northeastern and southeastern escape routes are currently out of the question. I figure that by the time I get told to Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.), the Northern route will be closed off or too crowded to take. Going South into Mexico is currently not an option due to the makeup of my G.O.O.D.kit ([which includes] military caliber firearms and ammo.) Probably will head to the beach area if I need to G.O.O.D.. I have a couple of friends in that area. I do not want to G.O.O.D. until the last minute due to security reasons. [For fear of looting of my household goods.]. One positive thing is that there were several small brush fires pretty close to me several months ago so the underbrush is already burned away. The fire department is spending too many resources arguing with the people who refused to evacuate to get them out of harm’s way and they are not able to allocate the resources to fight the fire.

I had my low profile small duration G.O.O.D. stuff loaded in my vehicle within 15 minutes. I had parts of the kit stored in multiple locations in my place and it took only 15 minutes to gather my stuff. Only things missing were my Baygen radio and toilet paper. (That’s what the liberal newspapers are for.) I was planning on getting a solar/hand crank radio and had put my hand crank radio into storage. My low profile kit is configured so that anyone looking into my vehicle will not know that I have gear in my vehicle, yet enough for me to live out of my vehicle for a few days.

I topped off my gas this morning before I went to work. Not surprised to find out that no one else at work had packed their essentials in case they are not able to make it back to their abode due to road closures. A lot of people were bugging out early from work due to the spreading fire so we decided to close down the company. I really didn’t care since I was already equipped to survive. Later,
– “Dan Fong”

JWR Adds: In case you are wondering, yes, the writer of this letter is my real life friend of 25+ years, upon whom the Dan Fong character in my novel “Patriots” was directly drawn. And yes, he really says “Oh maaan!”

 

Jim,
First, I must say after reading you for a while now almost every thing on television I see, or disaster, or shopping excursion my mind wanders to ” What would Jim say?” Thanks for your wisdom and guidance.

What if you have to abandon your fixed position? like the 500,000 – 1 Million good folks in Southern California?
Obviously one should have copies of all pertinent documents on an encrypted portable drive on their person and if possible all the family photos and originals of those docs not too far away in a briefcase ready to move at a moments notice. What about my arms collection and ammo ? a real house fire will cook a safe and ruin the guns. I have many coworkers and friends in the San Diego area are that are affected and may be homeless soon. please pray for them. If you live in an affected area please have you gear ready to go this time of year (October Santa Ana winds in so cal, hurricane season in the south, tornado season in the midwest, blizzard season in the north east and any earthquake area). ( as an aside, notice no stories yet of rapes at the football stadium or looting?)
…
I was at Hearst Castle this past weekend and we went on the tour that included the wine cellar. recently you suggested that if you were building a custom home, use non-local contractors.But if you were pouring a nice all concrete basement, I would suggest that you just tell the local guy that its a wine and root cellar/ pantry. Of course Hearst had real steel safe doors for locks and his was compartmentalized, his excuse that they told us on the tour was that if a basement fire broke out it could be contained. One could make an interior room of the cellar their armory / reloading room and then the outer part of the cellar their wine cellar and pantry. Anyway, this is food for thought.
…
Lastly, with Halloween season upon us, you may have noticed all the stores have all kinds of candies in bite size packaging for sale. For the last few years, I have bought several bags of my favorite chocolate bar and vacuum packed them and then kept them in my camping box (for camping treats as well as long lead time BOB food) and my BOB. Rotating them annually hasn’t been a problem if you keep it out of any heat. A real grinch could then give away the year old candy on 10/31.. or just eat it. if you wait until 11/1 your choices may be limited but you can get the candy for 1/2 price. if anything, trade barter or making the kids happy and its some quick energy.

Along these same lines, I was also at the beverage superstore lately and saw all the little 50 ml single serve ‘airline’ bottles. Me thinks a case or two of these of various hard liquors could be tucked away for future trade barter or medicinal purposes. Your thought?
Thanks, – Tim L.

JWR Replies: As a Baptist, I don’t personally stock any liquor for barter. But many folks see the wisdom of doing so. OBTW, if you do buy any liquor, one variety stock up on is the 190 Proof variety of Everclear grain alcohol, which also has medicinal purposes (for sterilizing instruments and for making tinctures) and can be used as lamp fuel.

Jim:
I write this to you as I communicate with my family still in the fire zones in San Diego. I am a former San Diego resident who happily relocated to the wet and soggy Pacific Northwest. I still have family and memories of the region. My step mother reports that she is on alert to bug out with minutes notice. She is sleeping tonight with a packed car in the driveway and in street clothes so she can go fast to G.O.O.D.. However, there are serious concerns and issues my family has expressed.

1) Main travel ways, arterials and so on are clogged. Fire and emergency vehicles going in, folks evacuating out. As a kid in San Diego, I watched some friends get seriously burned in their vehicle when they were trapped in a blow over, caused by them staying too late. Burning to near death in their car was horrific enough. Over 250,000 people ordered to evacuate. San Diego has an excellent highway system but when you have that many moving . . .
2) Many folks have been reluctant to leave. Family has stated that they are aware that looters and burglars have worked some mandatory evacuated neighborhoods to their benefit. If your house doesn’t burn, it could get robbed.
3) What people are packing for evacuation in their vehicle is insane. Everything but what they really need (documents, photos, family bible, etc.). I was listening to a cable news program tonight in which a producer admitted that she evacuated her house, taking important things like her Emmy [Award Statue]s. For the love of goddess!
4) Fire is a sadly common event and yet people in that area still have homes with shingle roofs and land that has not been disaster proofed (ice plant, sprinkler systems, etc.). Several years ago, my dad rejected a shake shingle roof system to replace the old one. He now has good ole terra cotta and stucco sides (gee, odd how the early settlers knew how to mitigate fire damage to their buildings).
5) Telling statement from a local television report: “ The mayor’s office put out a call the public to help provide for the evacuees at the Friars Road sports arena. The following items, which should be taken to the stadium’s “P” gate, are needed: tents, cots, water, blankets and prepared food.” Oddly enough, these residents knowingly live in fire and earthquake zones and yet they don’t have supplies. Worse yet, the city is unprepared for the numbers of evacuees. Makes the preps we do seems at that much more intelligent.

Anyway, some thoughts for the SurvivalBlog readers. My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected, my family and those fire fighters and cops going into these zones to put down the fires and help the people out.
– MP in Seattle (a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber)

Odds ‘n Sods:

Writing in The Daily Reckoning, Bill Bonner offers this snippet of investing Gloom and Doom: “Foreclosures in the yankee state [Massachusetts] are running three times last year’s level. And losses are working their way up the socioeconomic ladder. Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE:GS) Trust 2006-S3 is a sophisticated investment instrument containing 8,274 mortgages. One out of every six of those mortgages is in default – only 18 months after the thing was put together. When that many people stop paying, it wipes out the entire capital value of the derivative. And since speculators usually take leveraged positions, the losses can go much further.”

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To follow up on yesterday’s post about the imminent short supply of infrared chemical light sticks, I heard that Ready Made Resources does have some left in stock. (They have just been reclassified and will no longer be produced for the civilian market in the US, so stock up!)

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Larry W. forwarded this link: Staring Into Countrywide’s Abyss

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I just heard that CGW (one of our advertisers) is currently offering deep discounts on some Trijicon ACOG tritium-lit scopes and a few discontinued Microtech Amphibian knife models.

Notes from JWR:

I heard from my publisher that my wholesale cost for copies of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” has increased by more than $2 each. Unfortunately this means that I’m forced to raise my price by $2 each, to $24 per copy, postage paid. (See my updated Catalog page.) I will, however, continue to honor my “six pack sale” price of just $90 (which equates to just $15 per copy, postage paid), but only until the end of October. Note that immediate deliveries are limited to supplies on hand. Once those have been expended, there may be a delay for re-stocking until mid-November, when the last of the October six pack orders will be shipped. Orders will be shipped in the sequence that payments are received.

The high bid is now at $150 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for four items: a Baygen Freeplay Summit digitally-tuned AM/FM/Shortwave radio, and a Baygen Sherpa hand crank flashlight. These were kindly donated by Ready Made Resources, one of our most loyal advertisers. Also included in the auction lot is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and an autographed copy of my novel “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”. These four items have a combined value of more than $350. The auction ends on November 15th. Just e-mail us your bid.