Surviving Catastrohe--Plan B
John Atwood
July 01, 2009
I am not a survivalist. I don't have a bomb shelter in my back yard and don't plan to construct one any time soon. Although I do remember a few occasions during the Cold War when I thought it would have been nice if one was magically there. Those under 40 or so really don't have an appreciation of the tenseness of the Cold War from time to time. Normally, it was nothing you thought about much and went about your daily affairs but then something would crop up like the Cuban missile crisis or the Czech revolt in '68 or the building of the Berlin Wall right under our noses and those threats from the Communist took on a bite that got your attention. Dr. Strangelove rang too close to reality and made us realize that we were only 30 minutes away from an Armageddon. Like most folks though I went to bed at night worrying more about my bank balance than I did about a mushroom cloud. I can even recall when we had those anti-missile rockets located near all our major cities during the sixties. One battery of rockets was only about 50 miles from where we lived and you could see the facility from the highway. It has long since gone. They probably wouldn't have worked very well anyway. They were mostly designed to attack enemy aircraft more than missiles. But it was nice to think that something was there to at least give it a try.
Everyone can remember 9/11 because that was only a few years ago. Do you recall how devastating that was to our economy? For about 5 days there were no planes in the sky. That was pretty weird after so many years of looking at the sky and being able to see at least a few aircraft at any one time. The stock market was shut down and the banks for a couple of days. Folks were very nervous and scared. After all it was hard to get those images out of your mind watching people jump out of windows in the Twin Towers to their death to avoid the flames. I don't think we have a serious worry about the Russians or the Chinese launching a nuclear attack. But I do think with each passing year the odds of an Iran or N. Korea or an Al-Queda or Taliban type terrorist group could attack with nukes. Sadly I don't think that is hysteria but dealing with a likely reality. We don't seem to have the backbone to deal with the dissemination of those weapons on the front end so we will reap the pain on the back end. It would sure be possible for those enemies, and they are our enemies make no mistake about that, to mount a coordinated attack. They will be capable in a few years of launching missiles and then combining that with sea borne or truck borne weapons to strike some of our major cities and ports. Imagine the destruction of "only" 10-12 such devices that were detonated on the east and west coasts and selected cities inland like Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Denver and Pittsburgh. Our financial system would not collapse completely but would be quickly reduced to a shadow of itself. Even if the casualties were "only" 1 percent of our population that would be a few million. Travel would be restricted greatly and transportation of goods and services would be disrupted for a very long time. Especially if they spaced out their attack and had another couple of devices following a month later. The panic and upheaval would be dramatic. It would be the Lord of the Flies. It wouldn't last forever but it sure would last longer than a few weeks.
You and your loved ones need your plan B in the event such an episode would ever occur. It is not being paranoid or pessimistic but merely realisitc. Those weapons are out there and in the hands of people who wish us nothing but death and destruction. Not only that but they have said they will use them. Forget about all those batteries. A few would be great but they won't last long enough. You are better off with candles. In the affected areas power and water could be out of service for months, not days. Communications will be sporadic at best because of this. It takes power to communicate. Generators will need new fuel after only a few days and where will it come from? You would do well to have a remote area for your family, a lake house or ranch or even a vacant lot somewhere. You'll need water don't forget. You will need access to a lake or river or creek. A Boy Scout Field Manual would be worth its weight in gold as would the US Army Field Manual. You'll need guns for hunting game. Bows would be even better if you have them. You make your own plans but you folks younger than me should think about these things. I am not recommending that it become an obsession but a bit of prudent planning in advance is only rational. At a minimum have a plan were those you love will meet. You won't be able to call on your cell phone. If somethning bad does happen at least they will know where to meet. Hopefully, it will be like so many of the War Game Plans that the military does in anticipation of possible events that never occur.
Ben Franklin gave us so much. Some of the most common words in the electrical jargon of today were coined by him--battery, charge, and conductors were all his words and we still use them to this day. He was as great a scientist as he was a statesman which is often forgotten. He was even a member of the Royal Society in London which was the Nobel prize of its day. wwlw.olcranky.wordpress.com
Everyone can remember 9/11 because that was only a few years ago. Do you recall how devastating that was to our economy? For about 5 days there were no planes in the sky. That was pretty weird after so many years of looking at the sky and being able to see at least a few aircraft at any one time. The stock market was shut down and the banks for a couple of days. Folks were very nervous and scared. After all it was hard to get those images out of your mind watching people jump out of windows in the Twin Towers to their death to avoid the flames. I don't think we have a serious worry about the Russians or the Chinese launching a nuclear attack. But I do think with each passing year the odds of an Iran or N. Korea or an Al-Queda or Taliban type terrorist group could attack with nukes. Sadly I don't think that is hysteria but dealing with a likely reality. We don't seem to have the backbone to deal with the dissemination of those weapons on the front end so we will reap the pain on the back end. It would sure be possible for those enemies, and they are our enemies make no mistake about that, to mount a coordinated attack. They will be capable in a few years of launching missiles and then combining that with sea borne or truck borne weapons to strike some of our major cities and ports. Imagine the destruction of "only" 10-12 such devices that were detonated on the east and west coasts and selected cities inland like Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Denver and Pittsburgh. Our financial system would not collapse completely but would be quickly reduced to a shadow of itself. Even if the casualties were "only" 1 percent of our population that would be a few million. Travel would be restricted greatly and transportation of goods and services would be disrupted for a very long time. Especially if they spaced out their attack and had another couple of devices following a month later. The panic and upheaval would be dramatic. It would be the Lord of the Flies. It wouldn't last forever but it sure would last longer than a few weeks.
You and your loved ones need your plan B in the event such an episode would ever occur. It is not being paranoid or pessimistic but merely realisitc. Those weapons are out there and in the hands of people who wish us nothing but death and destruction. Not only that but they have said they will use them. Forget about all those batteries. A few would be great but they won't last long enough. You are better off with candles. In the affected areas power and water could be out of service for months, not days. Communications will be sporadic at best because of this. It takes power to communicate. Generators will need new fuel after only a few days and where will it come from? You would do well to have a remote area for your family, a lake house or ranch or even a vacant lot somewhere. You'll need water don't forget. You will need access to a lake or river or creek. A Boy Scout Field Manual would be worth its weight in gold as would the US Army Field Manual. You'll need guns for hunting game. Bows would be even better if you have them. You make your own plans but you folks younger than me should think about these things. I am not recommending that it become an obsession but a bit of prudent planning in advance is only rational. At a minimum have a plan were those you love will meet. You won't be able to call on your cell phone. If somethning bad does happen at least they will know where to meet. Hopefully, it will be like so many of the War Game Plans that the military does in anticipation of possible events that never occur.
Ben Franklin gave us so much. Some of the most common words in the electrical jargon of today were coined by him--battery, charge, and conductors were all his words and we still use them to this day. He was as great a scientist as he was a statesman which is often forgotten. He was even a member of the Royal Society in London which was the Nobel prize of its day. wwlw.olcranky.wordpress.com