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urban-wasteland

Metropolitan areas can change in an instant with a major catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of people could be gone just as quickly.

Society could be unraveled by any number of scenarios, and it could leave you stranded, without loved ones and desperate to secure food, water and shelter. Escape to the countryside or a remote location may not be feasible. Could you survive in an urban environment if the SHTF and everything you knew was gone?

Rudy Reyes, a veteran Recon Marine, lends his expertise and shows how to survive an urban environment, find resources inside a broken city, all while avoiding other survivors whose interests can’t be assumed to align with yours.

If a major disaster wipes out the power grid or kills people in mass, the desperation will set in right away, affecting you and all those who survive – people who you don’t know and can’t trust.

To avoid people attacking you to take any food or resources you might have, you must take precautions to approached people only on your terms, avoiding any chance encounters where you could be outmaneuvered.

Travel is dangerous, and everyone who crosses your path could pose a threat. Open movements invite trouble and may risk your life. Reyes enters a shutdown library to recover sewer maps to facilitate stealth movements underground and travel with greater security and speed.

Reyes also covers crossing barriers (including rivers that could be contaminated with waste water, harsh chemicals or poisons as a result of the disaster scenario) while avoiding unique dangers. In a great for TV moment, he uses a grappling hook to climb up a bridge without entering the waterway.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Without an Emergency Fund You Are One Missed Paycheck From Disaster

January 7, 2016

Without an Emergency Fund You Are One Missed Paycheck From Disaster

What would it mean to you if you had an unexpected trip to the emergency room? If your car required an expensive repair? What if your income was interrupted for a week, or two weeks, or even longer? Do you have an emergency fund built into your budget to see you through these everyday calamities, or are you only one missed paycheck from disaster?

According to a recent survey released by Bankrate, 63% of Americans do not have the emergency savings to take care of a crisis that costs $1000 or more. How do people handle unexpected expenses? According to the survey:

40% would use savings
23% would reduce other spending to cover the expense
15% would use credit cards
15% would borrow from friends or family

Many said they had no idea how they would cover an unexpected expense of this magnitude.

So what about you? Do you have an emergency fund? It’s really just one more prep that you should put aside for a rainy day.

An emergency fund is a vital prep

When your finances are tight, sometimes your first impulse is to spend every dime. Many people focus on things like paying off debts, stocking up on food and supplies, or paying more than the minimum payments on bills.

However, that may not be your best bet. Don’t get me wrong – paying off debt is absolutely vital, but most experts recommend establishing an emergency fund as the first step back to financial security. There are several reasons why this should be a priority for you:

What if you suddenly lost your job and it was 6-8 weeks before unemployment payments began to trickle in?
What if your child suffered a medical emergency and you needed to purchase an expensive medication?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Freak storm rips though Sydney with tornadoes, flooding, hail, 200kph winds (PHOTO, VIDEO)

December 16, 2015

Freak storm rips though Sydney with tornadoes, flooding, hail, 200kph winds (PHOTO, VIDEO)

A destructive storm has hit Sydney, Australia, bringing tornadoes, flooding, golf-sized hail stones, and up to 213 kilometer per hour winds, which caused serious damage, triggered evacuations, and trapped people indoors.

A Sydney suburb was labeled a disaster zone after a tornado ripped through its southern beaches with golf-sized hail stones and rattling winds that caused tremendous damage to the neighborhood.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Former Reagan Administration Official Warns That Financial Disaster Is Dead Ahead

November 5, 2015

Former Reagan Administration Official Warns That Financial Disaster Is Dead Ahead

Why won’t the American people listen to the warnings? David Stockman was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981, and he served as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1985. These days, he is running a website called “Contra Corner” which I highly recommend that you check out. Stockman believes that a global “debt super-cycle” that has been building for decades is now bursting, and he is convinced that the consequences for the U.S. and for the rest of the planet will be absolutely catastrophic. His findings are very consistent with what I have been writing about on The Economic Collapse Blog, and if Stockman is correct the times ahead of us are going to be exceedingly painful.

But right now, most people don’t seem to be in the mood to listen to these types of warnings. Even though there is a mountain of evidence that the global economy has already plunged into recession, U.S. stocks had a great month in October, and so most Americans seem to think that the crisis has passed.

Of course the truth is that the stock market is not an accurate barometer of the economy and it never has been. Back in 2008, almost everything else started to go downhill before stocks did, and the same thing is happening once again. In a recent article, Stockman explained that stocks are surging to absolutely ridiculous levels even though corporate earnings are actually way down…

At this point, 75% of S&P 500 companies have reported Q3 results, and earnings are coming in at $93.80 per share on an LTM basis. That happens to be 7.4% below the peak $106 per share reported last September, and means that the market today is valuing these shrinking profits at a spritely 22.49X PE ratio.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How the Perfect Prepper Plans Still Go Wrong

October 28, 2015

How the Perfect Prepper Plans Still Go Wrong

When a disaster strikes unexpectedly, there’s nearly always some kind of monkey wrench that causes your well-thought-out prepper plans to work less effectively than expected. When describing the situation, the person says sheepishly, “Normally we wouldn’t have had X circumstance going on when it happened, and our preps would have worked just fine.”

Or, in the words of Mike Tyson, “Everyone’s got a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth.”

But, variables.

That’s just the thing. There is nearly always going to be a variable that doesn’t fall neatly into your imagined scenario. Your ability to roll with that is the truest test of your preps. It is more valid than any number of planned practice runs.

Don’t get me wrong. Planned practice runs are great and are a valuable technique to enhance your level of preparedness. But be honest – you nearly always do a little something extra to prepare for a practice run. Perhaps you make an extra trip to the store. Maybe you just got a brand new prep that you want to test out, inspiring the practice run that is a perfect scenario for the use of that prep.

But…disasters do not wait for the perfect time and circumstances. They don’t always indicate their arrival and allow enough time for a trip to the store. (At least not a trip to the store during which everyone else in your geographic vicinity is competing for the same supplies.)

Realizing this can take your preparedness to the next level.

Here’s an example that happened to us this past weekend.

On Friday, I spent the afternoon canning. I did a huge batch of tomatoes, and anyone who has ever canned tomatoes can tell you exactly how messy that was. My poor white kitchen looked like a crime scene. I made dinner and stacked the pots, pans, and dishes in the sink.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Superyacht Getaway Subs And Luxury Bomb Shelters: The Elite Are The Most Paranoid Preppers Of All

October 23, 2015

Superyacht Getaway Subs And Luxury Bomb Shelters: The Elite Are The Most Paranoid Preppers Of All

When it comes to “prepping”, many among the elite take things to an entirely different level. As you will see below, the elite are willing to pay big money for cutting edge home security measures, luxury bomb shelters and superyacht getaway submarines. Some of the things that the elite are demanding for their own protection go beyond even what we would see in a James Bond film, and serving the prepping needs of the elite has become a multi-billion dollar business. Meanwhile, the media outlets that the elite own continue to mock the rest of us for getting prepared. All the time we see headlines like this one that appeared in a major American news source: “Preppers: Meet the paranoid Americans awaiting the apocalypse“. Well, if we are paranoid for setting aside some extra food and supplies for the future, what does that make the people that you will read about in this article?

The elite live in a world that is completely different from the world that you and I live in. In wealthy enclaves of major global cities such as London, elitists are willing to shell out massive amounts of money to ensure that everyone else is kept out. The following comes from an article that was just published a few hours ago by the London Evening Standard entitled “The paranoid world of London’s super-rich: DNA-laced security mist and superyacht getaway submarines“…

Business is booming because billionaires are a paranoid bunch. Take one who recently moved to Mayfair. ‘He wanted everything, from protection from cyber hacking through to physical intrusion and kidnapping,’ says Bond Gunning. ‘We ended up installing fingerprint-activated locks for family members and programmable keys for staff that limit the time they are allowed into the property and the rooms they are able to enter and exit.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Get Back Home Urban Survival Kit

October 22, 2015

The Get Back Home Urban Survival Kit

city URBAN SURVIVAL Most of you probably have a bug out bag – having a bug out bag is good insurance in the event you are forced to evacuate your home or retreat for some unforeseen reason. It seems most of us are ready to bug out, but few of us have considered the need to find our way back home if caught away during an emergency.

No doubt, many of you spend a lot of time away from home, with work, school and business sometimes taking you hundreds of miles away from home. Most of the time this isn’t an issue for me, but recently, I’ve had to make several business trips that have taken me out of state and far from home.

What would I do if disaster struck while I was several hundred miles from home? What would I do in the event of a terrorist attack, riot, earthquake or similar disaster. Could I get back home? What would I do if forced to stay in the area for several days or even weeks?

With any luck I’ll be able to drive out, but you never know – the roads could be blocked or impassable because of damage, the area could be quarantined or it could be too dangerous to move for several days.

As with anything related to survival, there are no guarantees and I doubt her father could make it under anything but the best of conditions considering his health. I just hope nothing bad happens with him in tow.

To increase our odds of making it back or surviving in the city if needed, I’ve put together a “Get Home Kit” that I take on extended trips. Sure I could have just taken my bug out bag, but it really isn’t the best solution and the gear for the most part, isn’t what I’d need in an urban setting.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How to communicate when the world goes silent

October 14, 2015

How to communicate when the world goes silent

So how would you communicate with your family or get help if communications go down? If you found yourself in the middle of a wide-scale disaster such as a hurricane or other catastrophe and you had no government coming to help for a while, how would you communicate with your family or others? What if the power grid went down?

You won’t be able to rely on your cell phone. There are alternatives, however. This is a pretty long article that goes into some good detail, but if you want the short answer, this is what you need.

I’ll go over the basics of some emergency communication methods but if you want more detail, check out Personal Emergency Communications: Staying in Touch Post-Disaster: Technology, Gear and Planning.

Short-term emergencies have shown the limitations of using cell phones to coordinate with each other. Even if the towers are operational, they can’t handle the added traffic of millions of people trying to get a hold of loved ones – or help. Ever had trouble calling your mother on the morning of Mother’s Day?

During many recent events, cell phone service wasn’t an option for many for days. The system became seriously overloaded on 9/11 so calls wouldn’t go through, 70% of the towers went down during Katrina and were down for days, and most areas haven’t been adequately improved across the US.

These won’t be isolated events. Don’t think that because you live in a large metropolitan area that you’re safer. A quick look at some of the things that went on during Hurricane Sandy in NY will show that the government has a lot to deal with in addition to just trying to get your cell phone service back up so even though that was a pretty short-term event, it caused a lot of problems.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Six Ways You Can Make More Money To Buy More Preps (Or Just Pay Off Your Bills)

October 14, 2015

Six Ways You Can Make More Money To Buy More Preps (Or Just Pay Off Your Bills)

I get thousands of emails each month (usually over 3,000 to be exact) and the one problem that I see mentioned over and over is a lack of money to prep, and while I try to keep the advice given on the blog to low-budget preps, it still takes some money to do it, after all it takes money to live, and by prepping you’re insuring that you live through and after a major disaster or social upheaval.

So to prep, even on the most basic level is going to cost some money for gear and food supplies, even if you just put together the most basic bug out bag you’ll need a few extra dollars. But let’s face it, if all you have is a bug out bag, then you’re not really very prepared, and as I’ve said before bugging out to the woods is one of the worst survival strategies under most circumstances.

So to get extra money for preps you either have to spend less on everything else or make more. We’ve covered many ways to save money on the blog already so today we are going to look at ways to help you make more money.

Wood working – if you’re handy with tools (you need to learn if you’re not) this can be a great money-maker. Pick a several products and learn to make them well and then start selling those products. Depending on the products you sell, you might only need to put a small ad in your local paper to have customers come to you, or your could set up a local swap meets / flea markets or even sell through local or regional retail outlets.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Is Glencore The Next Lehman? The World’s Largest Commodities Trading Company Is Toast

September 29, 2015

Is Glencore The Next Lehman? The World’s Largest Commodities Trading Company Is Toast

Are we about to witness the most important global financial event since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008? Glencore has been known as the largest commodities trading company on the entire planet, and at one time it was ranked as the 10th biggest company in the world. It is linked to trillions of dollars of derivatives trades globally, and if the firm were to implode it would be a financial disaster unlike anything that we have seen in Europe since the end of World War II. Unfortunately, all signs are pointing to an inescapable death spiral for Glencore at this point. The stock price was down nearly 30 percent on Monday, and overall Glencore stock has plunged nearly 80 percent since May. There are certainly other candidates for “the next Lehman” (Petrobras and Deutsche Bank being two perfect examples), but Glencore has definitely surged to the front of the pack. Right now many analysts are openly wondering if the firm will even be able to survive to the end of next month.

If you are not familiar with Glencore, the following is a pretty good summary of the commodity trading giant from Wikipedia…

Glencore plc is an Anglo–Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, with its registered office in Saint Helier, Jersey. The company was created through a merger of Glencore with Xstrata on 2 May 2013. As of 2014, it ranked tenth in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest companies. It is the world’s third-largest family business.

As Glencore International, the company was already one of the world’s leading integrated producers and marketers of commodities. It was the largest company in Switzerland and the world’s largest commodities trading company, with a 2010 global market share of 60 percent in the internationally tradeable zinc market, 50 percent in the internationally tradeable copper market, 9 percent in the internationally tradeable grain market and 3 percent in the internationally tradeable oil market.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Replacing Documents After a Disaster

September 20, 2015

Replacing Documents After a Disaster

We often talk about having a bugout bag that includes a folder with important documents, but despite your preparations and efforts to protect them, sometimes disaster strikes quickly and unexpectedly, and those documents are lost.

For example, the fires last week in Northern California moved so rapidly that some people fled from their homes without even a moment to put on their shoes. (See these videos for an idea of how dramatic the escapes were for many families.)

Although it’s not always the first thing people think of, in the event of a fire, flood, tornado, or other natural disaster, important documents can be lost or damaged beyond recognition.

The loss of vital documents can make it difficult to function in today’s society. Replacing documents is one of the first steps you’ll need to take. After a disaster, you’ll need identification, proof of citizenship, and proof of ownership before you can begin to rebuild your life.

Be Proactive Before a Disaster

Many of the major stressors after a disaster can be lessened by taking these vital steps before anything bad actually occurs.

1.) Photograph all important documents and store them securely in the cloud. (This report from Boston University provides tips on how to do so.)

2.) Keep photocopies of documents in a secure location away from your property. Consider procuring a safety deposit box for this purpose. (I have copies of all of our information at the home of a family member in another state.)

3.) Scan documents and save them on a password protected USB drive that you keep in a different location. This one is particularly secure and has an automatic cloud back-up.

Protect Important Documents

There are some steps you can take to protect documents from fire and flood damage, but these are not foolproof.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Pope Francis Calls For A New Global Political Authority To Save Humanity

June 19, 2015

Pope Francis Calls For A New Global Political Authority To Save Humanity

Pope Francis says that global warming is a fact and that a new global political authority is necessary in order to save humanity from utter disaster. The new encyclical that was scheduled to be released on Thursday has been leaked, and it is being reported that this new global political authority that Pope Francis envisions would be in charge of “the reduction of pollution and the development of poor countries and regions”. The funny thing is that this sounds very much in line with the new sustainable development agenda that is going to be launched at the United Nations in September. This radical new agenda is already being called “Agenda 21 on steroids” because it goes so much farther than Agenda 21 ever did. The new UN agenda does not just address the environment – it also addresses issues such as poverty, agriculture, education and gender equality. It is essentially a blueprint for governing the entire planet, and that sounds very much like what Pope Francis also wants. In fact, Pope Francis is going to give the speech that kicks off the UN conference in September where this new sustainable agenda will be launched. For some reason, this Pope has decided to make the fight against climate change the central pillar of his papacy, and he is working very hard to unite as much of humanity as possible to get behind that effort.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Sanitation in the City: What To Do When the Toilet Won’t Flush

May 27, 2015

Sanitation in the City: What To Do When the Toilet Won’t Flush

Did you ever stop to put some thought into the flushing power of your toilet?

It’s one of those things we in modern society take for granted. We use the restroom, then we flush, wash our hands, and forget it.

But during extreme scenarios, this isn’t always so easy. When researching my book,The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide, I spent a lot of time reading about water, sanitation, and waterborne illness. These issues are all closely linked, and it’s vital to find solutions.

If you’re on a septic system, you have a safe place for your waste to go during most types of disasters, assuming you have additional water on hand for flushing.

But, in the city, on a public sewer system, there exists the possibility that a situation could arise during which flushing is not an option. Do you remember during the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy when residents of high-rise apartment buildings couldn’t flush because the city water system was down? There were numerous reports that people were so desperate that they were defecating in the hallways. They quoted a resident of a senior apartment complex, Anna Hay, who said, “They can’t go upstairs to go to the bathrooms. Where are they going to go? They’re walking all around for a place to go. There’s nowhere to go in this area.” (source)

With some very small and inexpensive preparations, it doesn’t have to come down to that. Just having a portable toilet is not enough for good hygiene and safety. If you live in an urban area, going outside to do your business may not an option. You have to figure out a way to take care of this, indoors, while maintaining the health of your environment.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Resilience is The New Black

May 8, 2015

Resilience is The New Black

This is another essay from our friend Dr. Nelson Lebo III in New Zealand. Nelson is a certified expert in everything to do with resilience, especially how to build a home and a community designed to withstand disasters, be they natural or man-made, an earthquake or Baltimore. Aware that he may rub quite a few people the wrong way, he explains here why he has shifted from seeing what he does in the context of sustainability, to that of resilience. There’s something profoundly dark in that shift, but it’s not all bad.

Nelson Lebo III: Sustainability is so 2007. Those were the heady days before the Global Financial Crisis, before $2-plus/litre petrol here in New Zealand, before the failed Copenhagen Climate Summit, before the Christchurch earthquakes, before the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)…the list continues.

Since 2008, informed conversations on the economy, the environment, and energy have shifted from ‘sustainability’ to ‘resilience’. There are undoubtedly many reasons for this shift, but I’ll focus on just two: undeniable trends and a loss of faith. Let me explain.

Since 2008, most of the pre-existing trends in income inequality, extreme weather events and energy price volatility have ramped up. Sustainability is about halting and reversing these trends, but there is essentially no evidence of that type of progress, and in fact the data shows the opposite.

Plenty of quantitative data exists for the last seven years to document these accelerated trends, the most obvious is the continually widening gap between rich and poor everyone else. The second wave of commentary on the Baltimore riots (after the superficiality of the mainstream media) has been about the lack of economic activity and opportunity in many of the largely African-American neighbourhoods.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

We can’t have resilience without justice

February 7, 2015

We can’t have resilience without justice

Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. John Crawford III. Levar Jones.

Their deaths — and those of too many others — illuminate the ghastly toll of racism and impunity. It’s a toll we can measure in lives lost, and in communities seared by violence.

But here’s a casualty you might have missed: trust. When people feel unfairly targeted by the police, when good cops fear reprisal from angry communities, trust — the invisible thread that holds livable communities together — unravels.

If we are going to get real about resilience in an age of climate change and other large-scale disruptions, trust looms large.

Think about it. If people don’t trust the authorities, will they pay attention when it’s time to evacuate? Will first responders venture into communities of color to rescue the most vulnerable? Will people from different backgrounds and neighborhoods join hands to rebuild?

It’s not just about climate-related disaster, either. If an epidemic is raging, will sick people remain quarantined, or will they flee and infect others? (That’s what has happened during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, where people’s reasons to distrust the authorities could fill an encyclopedia.)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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