Tuesday, August 26, 2008

HURRICANES AND PREPS

The fedgov's original estimate of the path of Gustav is off the table. Two people that live on the gulf said it was coming in and now it looks like they were right all along. I think it is going in also. Two things are important here. One is that the fedgov system is broken, at least in speculation. The fedgov uses a practice known as trend analysis. That is why we are getting cooler weather and the fedgov says things should be warm. 2008 is turning out to be the coldest year we have had for a while, but the Al Gore fans at the fedgov turn a blind eye to that and swear we are in global warming. That explains why I wear a coat out on the porch in the morning. I must be wanting to experience the warming.

I have a report that Upper Michigan can expect a frost warning tonight or tomorrow night. A big cold front is moving down our way. This has been described as very good way to predict that the possible gulf hurricane will not go raging into the Florida coast. It will stay in the gulf and go playing bumper pool around the various coasts. So if you live up here North of the Mason-Dixon line you can get ready for some unseasonably cold days and if you live along the gulf coast you had better watch your ass.

The gulf coast is an unfriendly environment in the presence of bad weather. There ain't any place to run to and wait out a big storm. You can't get out of town and drive 20 or 30 miles and get into the hills. Hell, in Florida the highest elevation is under 20' above sea level. Scares me and I ain't afraid of anything! If a big monster hurricane hits, you are just there and you take what you are going to get. I don't like those odds too well. During hurricane season I really come to love the hills and hollers of southern Indiana. Damn few tornado's too. Those big winds like that flat ground where they can really unwind and do their thing.

The second important thing about being on the coast and preparing for a storm is survival. I can recall pictures and videos of people nailing plywood over their windows. They also load up on food, water, batteries and gasoline. Then they sit and watch and wait. They know more about what to look for than I do so I will leave it up to Mayberry to explain these things.

My idea of survival preps in the event of a possible hurricane landing in my vicinity is to know someone who lives in the hills somewhere and get my wheels a turning toward paying them a visit. I just don't think much of sitting around in the path of a hurricane.

PREPS

Another thing that is troubling me is the banking situation in this country, and in the world for that matter. These guys are in deep doo-doo and I am afraid that there is going to be hell to pay. Unemployment is up and going strong. Prices are up and going strong. Wages, adjusted for inflation, are down. The top executives and government contractors are making it just fine but the rest of the world has it's tit in a wringer. The Handmaiden watches other folks' shopping carts when she goes to the store and there ain't anyone buying beef. I know we aren't! Maybe a little hamburger if it is on sale but that is about the extent of it. We can still buy breakfast sausage at Aldi's for $1.50 a pound but it is $2.50 to $3.00 a pound elsewhere. Deer season is coming upon us and I intend to get mine and grind it up into sausage for my breakfast meat. I like meat and eggs in the morning.

The Handmaiden has started packaging Lambs Quarters and freezing them. Nice to think about unless the electricity goes out. But she is also buying canned vegetables for our stash. Peas and Spinach so far. It's commercially grown food and it is not organic but it is nutritious anyhow. I read an article about a survey in Missouri that said that canned food had as much nutrition as frozen food. You supposedly don't get robbed by buying canned food. And that is fine. I can eat canned food okay. But there was nothing in the tests that measured the toxins from the herbicides and pesticides. You be taking your chances with that stuff, just like always. But it is preps and it may help you to stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

6 comments:

jc said...

I'm a long time reader, first time commenter. I was just wondering if you could get some the Handmaiden or yourself to tell me how to put up Lamb's Quarters in the freezer. Does she blanch them first or just freeze them as is? Thanks and keep up the good work.

bb said...

>>Hell, in Florida the highest elevation is under 20' above sea level.

Highest elevation in Florida, 345'. I live in a low lying coastal county in Florida and our highest elevation is 110'.

Staying Alive said...

Hey bb,

My bad. I got on Florida-elevation on Google and it said Brighton Hill was the highest spot up by Pensacola at 345'. It's about 1/2 mile from the Alabama border. And that is good to know, as maybe Florida can act as somewhat of a barrier in case of ocean floods. Hah!

Michael

Mayberry said...

Awe, hurricanes ain't nothin' to worry 'bout unless they top catagory 2! Heh heh heh.

I see the bozos at NOAA adjusted their projected path to match everyone else's now... I think it'll swing a bit northward as the frontal system over the southeast moves off. Alabama, Mississippi, and Lousyana better get ready, it's their turn. It is a bit early yet for me to make a call with any confidence though. I will say that it's gonna enter the Gulf. Right over the biggest oil and gas producing region. Top off yer tanks, gas prices is fixin' to go up again......

bb said...

No problem Mike, Florida's my neck of the woods, lest till I bug out. If I can move some real estate I'm heading for the hill country.

gott_cha said...

The media only talks about Florida or Texas during hurricane seasons,...but We here in N.C. have had more major hurricane landfalls in the past 40 years than the other two states combined.
We have a long coastline that included a length of barrier island known as the "outer Banks". We avg. 1 hurricane every 2 seasons with landfall being in a 50 mile radius of my location near Wilmington N.C., down at Carolina/Kure Beach at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Our coastline sticks way out in the Atlantic with the Gulf Stream only 12 to 15 miles offshore this time of year. What that does is channel these large storms up the coast from Florida with help from the jet stream.
I guess we have been hit so many times that it isnt news anymore to most folks. I do wish safety and safe passage to any and all in the pathway of Gustav. Looks like it could go Cat 3 by monday. Ive ridden out a cat 3 before and will never be so foolish again.
Also looks like another storm brewing behind Gustav.