Gaye Levy
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Disasters come in all flavors. If you are reading this blog, you probably know that but still, there is a huge contingent that thinks “it will never happen to me”. Think again.
Today, for the uninitiated who are considering the prepper lifestyle but have not committed, I have prepared a list of varying types of emergencies from natural, mother earth types, to the horrific, man-made types. Read through the list and you will understand why you need to adopt a family preparedness lifestyle.
Mother Earth: Natural Disasters and Destructive Weather
- Severe storms
- Floods
- Hurricanes
- Tsunamis
- Tornadoes
- Earthquakes
- Volcano eruptions
- Typhoons
- Tropical storms
- Heat waves
- Ice storms
- Forest fires
Disease and Medical Disasters
- Pandemics
- E-Coli
- Food poisoning
- Infectious diseases
- AIDS and other immune system disorders
- Personal sickness
Environmental Degradation & Crisis
- Water pollution
- Air pollution
- Tainted farmland
- Global warming, weather man-made or part of a natural cycle
Economic Collapse
- Depression or recession
- Massive unemployment
- Civil unrest and riots
- Monetary system failure
- Food shortage
- Home foreclosure
- Bank failure
Technology and Other Failures
- Power grid failures
- Nuclear plant melt-downs
- Refinery explosions and fires
Weapons of Mass Destruction and Worse
- Anthrax
- Dirty bomb
- Chemical or biological attack
- Terrorist attack
- Nuclear war
- World war
The Final Word
Yes, the list of scary and hopefully, some of these disasters, especially the last section, “Weapons of Mass Destruction” will never occur (or shall I say never occur again). But there are no guarantees. The best we can do is be prepared. With preparation we will still have fear – but we will also have the knowledge and the tools to do the very best we can to survive in the most dire of circumstances.
Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
Gaye
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Bargain Bin: Today I recap some of my own picks and reader favorites.
Lodge 12-Inch Pre-Seasoned Skillet: Who would of thought I would trade my fancy schmanzy Analon skillet for this old-fashioned basic?
Lodge Set of 2 Pan Scrapers: A must have for your cast iron skillet. Dirt cheap and worth twice the price.
Ove Gloves: Another must have. Be sure to get two – one for each hand. BTW, they wash up beautifully.
Movie: The Road: Or the book version. I prefer the quick fix but commenters have said the book is incredible.
Documentary – Collapse: This Nat Geo series will keep you awake thinking about it. This is a real call to action.
Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: Or the original, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
How to Live on Wheat: Excellent all around primer on all things wheat.
Mylar Bags and Oxygen Absorbers: Essential for long term food storage. I prefer the one gallon sized bags but YMMV.
Pepper Spray: This does not replace your shotgun but is small and easy to get to in a myriad of situations.
Kingston 8GB Digital DataTraveler: You can never have too many flash drives. This is an essential component for storing copies of important documents and reference manuals in your bug out bag. (And if you are lucky, you will have power to retrieve them.)
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17 Responses to “Disasters 101: A List for Those That Think It Will Never Happen”
An Excellent list from all. BUT, there is no attention getter. Anyone who reads this is going to think , “Oh, that will happen to everyone else, but not me”. If you don’t have a dramatic story that is going to effect me, why should I pay attention. That is why so many people don’t pay attention.
THANKS: you listed all the things that I want to happen to a lot of people I know and those that I know via news. I hope it happens to all very soon.
Darkwing – Are you being facetious or something else? I can be dense sometimes.
My list:
1. A New Messiah
2. A new Persian Empire
3. Active shooter at public venue/business
4. Active shooter at school/college campus
5. Addictive Entertainment
6. Advanced Technology disaster
7. Agenda 21
8. Airplane crash
9. Anarchy
10. Antibiotic resistant bacteria
11. Armageddon
12. Atmospheric River storm/severe flooding
13. Automotive accident
14. Avalanche
15. Aztlan/Reconquista Uprising
16. Bank closure/failure/mandated bank holiday
17. Bath Salt drug zombies
18. Becoming a refugee
19. Becoming lost in the megalopolis
20. Becoming lost in the wilderness
21. Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (fungi/pesticide/parasites) crop pollination failures
22. Biblical flood
23. Biblical plagues
24. Biological war/attack
25. Black hole appearance
26. Blackout
27. Blizzard
28. Boat wreck/ship wreck
29. Brownout
30. Carrington Event/Massive solar flare
31. Celestial object impact/near miss
32. Chemical war/attack
33. Civil war
34. Civilian disarmament
35. Cloning of dangerous plants/animals
36. Cloning of humans
37. Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)
38. Communication restrictions
39. Crime wave
40. Crop failures
41. Dam failure/collapse
42. Dangerous wildlife confrontation
43. Dark matter/anti-matter incident
44. Declining drinking water aquifer levels
45. Drinking water aquifer contamination/poisoning
46. Drought
47. Dust bowl
48. Earth Core Cooling
49. Earth orbit shift
50. Earthquake
51. Eco-system collapse
52. Electro Magnetic Pulse attack (EMP attack)
53. Electro Magnetic Pulse from coronal mass ejection or other solar activity
54. Encroachment of drinking water aquifers by seawater
55. Environmental disaster
56. Epidemic
57. Ethnic war
58. Evidence of extraterrestrials
59. Extraterrestrial biological contamination
60. Fire storm
61. Flash mob violence/criminal event
62. Flash flood
63. Food shortages/price increases
64. Forest fire/wild fire
65. Fuel shortages/price increases
66. Fungal infections of food staples crops
67. Gamma ray burst from neutron star collision
68. Global cooling/Ice Age
69. Global nuclear war
70. Global warming
71. Gold/PM recall
72. Gold/PM restrictions
73. Government Tyranny
74. Grand Alignment induced tectonic activity
75. Ground surface tilt/rise/subsidence from tectonics/magma movement
76. Gulf Stream shutdown/subsidence
77. Hail
78. Hazmat incident
79. Heat wave
80. Hostage situation
81. Hostile extraterrestrials
82. House/apartment/building fire
83. Hurricane
84. Hypercane
85. Ice Storm
86. Infrastructure collapse/failures
87. Invasion of the US
88. Invasive plant and animal species
89. Kidnapped
90. Lahar
91. Landslide/mudslide
92. Large scale JIT delivery failures
93. Limited nuclear war/attack
94. Limnic eruption
95. Local major accident (aircraft/auto/rail/building)
96. Local major crime
97. Local/regional gun grab
98. Lockdown at school/college campus
99. Lockdown at work/business
100. Loss of job
101. Magnetic pole shift
102. Major conventional war
103. Major economic depression
104. Major nuclear power plant incident
105. Martial Law
106. Massive tectonic activity
107. Maunder Minimum low sunspot cycle triggered ice age
108. Medical emergency
109. Mega Tsunami (La Palma, West Antarctic Ice Sheet)
110. Mega Volcano (Yellowstone Caldera)
111. Methane Hydrate release
112. National bankruptcy/default
113. Nationwide/global economic breakdown
114. Nemesis induced Oort Cloud meteorite rain
115. New colonial activity (Fr., Sp., Port., It., Germ., Japan, China, Russia, UK, Brazil, Ven.)
116. New, more restrictive assault weapons ban
117. New World Order (NWO)
118. Out of control bio-genetics/bio-technology
119. Out of control Nano-technology/robotics
120. Overpopulation
121. Ozone layer depletion
122. Pandemic/Syndemic pandemic
123. Peaceful extraterrestrials
124. Peak oil
125. Personal financial breakdown
126. Personal/family catastrophic illness
127. Pestilence
128. Political unrest/backlash
129. Pyroclastic flow
130. Racial war
131. Rainforest deforestation
132. Rampant inflation
133. Rapid Population Decline
134. Refugees
135. Regional climate change
136. Released/escaped dangerous zoo/circus animals
137. Religious war
138. Resource war
139. Rogue Military Activity
140. Rotational pole shift
141. Runaway GM food plant failure/cross contamination
142. Safe deposit box (non-bank) restrictions/closures
143. Sand/dust storms/Haboob
144. Sea level drop
145. Sea level rise
146. Second coming
147. Sentient computer(s) take over
148. Severe Lightning
149. Shipwrecked/marooned
150. Shortages of goods and services for a variety of reasons
151. Sinkholes
152. Slow rise flood
153. Social break down
154. Solar radiation increase/decrease
155. State bankruptcy/default
156. Strikes/boycotts/embargoes/price controls
157. Sub-atomic particle research accident
158. Sudden regional major population shift
159. Super-storm
160. Tailings pond dam failure/collapse
161. Terrorism of all types
162. The Anti-Christ
163. Tornado
164. Total gun ban/confiscation
165. Train wreck
166. Travel restrictions
167. Tsunami
168. UN Small Arms Treaty
169. UN/One World Government
170. US Coup
171. US revolution
172. Utilities failures
173. Vehicle breakdown/stranded
174. Volcano
175. Water shortages
176. Water system contamination/poisoning
177. Wealth redistribution (by currency exchange/tax rates)
178. Weapons restrictions
179. Weather Modification attack
180. Widespread civil unrest/riots
181. Wild animal rampage
182. World Population dramatic increase
183. Zombies/vampires/werewolves/other supernatural dangers (just kidding!)
Good list – thank you for taking the time to share it with my readers.
To add to your list, Betsy dying. Where will I now get my milk?
-Regional, national, and international communications failure.
You may wish to add what I consider a major and probable impact in a variety of categories. It’s precisely because so many different events could cause a communications failure and that a communications failure could disrupt so many critical services that this should be a line-item on the list:
This could be caused by natural or human activity (accident or intentional). Anything from a solar CME to a regional fiber-optic hub failure (in the event of a hub failure communications bandwidth might “simply” be severely restricted). Relatively high probability Outages could range from a few hours to months, while something like a less probable solar CME creating widespread outages for years, or tornadoes/hurricanes causing regional failures for months. Failures could impact both cell/mobile and landline phones; TV/radio whether cable, broadcast, or internet; the internet itself (which includes e-mail of course); shortwave radio propagation; postal delivery (US mail relies on a massive communications infrastructure to work); and other personal and business operations.It could also severely affect law enforcement, water, and food services.
The list of natural disasters lacks a certain umpff…
Mankind’s genes must go millions of years yet our civilization only goes back a few thousand.
That in itself is enough to suggest that much great threats face us. So when independent research points to the Earth frequently changing rotational direction, the following threats apparently face us:
MEGA tsunamis of 2km height
MEGA gales of 1000 to 2000mph winds
MEGA quakes that actually knocked Puma Punku around
Now THAT would knock mankind back into a stone age and it’s what i’m preparing for.
There are so many types of disasters and that is why it is so important that we are as prepared as possible to handle different types of disasters. What might be a disaster to one person might not be to another depending on their level of preparedness. Do not put of getting prepared. Make a plan and then take the steps that you need to make it happen.
You just never know what might happen. All you can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Great article Gaye. Some more things to consider.
That’s a good list and pretty well covers the gamut of “we hope it doesn’t but it might” events. I liked your listing of good to have items, as well. If you ever get time, you would enjoy reading “The Road.” The movie is very good but the book amplifies the movie.
I actually have the eBook on my reader – along with about 200 other unread books. On the other hand I go through one audio book a week so perhaps that is what I should do. The audio books are wonderful during my daily walk/run in the woods with Tucker The Dog.
— S.W.
I only saw the movie but it was worth viewing. Who has time for books?
Gaye,
Such a good post and such a good list! You cover it all. Living in Florida, we are in the hurricane season right now and I’ve been here when the hurricanes hit and it’s no joke. You need to be prepared. Also, right now in the National News there is some stuff about Major Flooding going on! The time to become an avid follower of your blog is NOW, not when disaster strikes. Thanks for the “heads up” and for the great resources listed.
Take Care,
Jupiter Jim
Love your web site. so much valuable info. I still have a ton to learn, but thanks to you I am entheused.