Survival Scout Tips
Planned Power Outages: What You Need to Know
We’ve written a lot about the devastating outcomes of the recent California wildfires and the choking smoke those events created across many states. For example, there was a wildfire breakout in 2017 when trees hit PG&E power lines around the Napa area. It burned over 100,000 acres and 1,475 structures....
Living Through the Venezuelan Blackout: One Resident’s Account
Last week, we covered the devastating reality of life in Venezuela while the country suffered through the largest power outage in the country’s history (see that Survival Scout, Surviving Venezuela: Lessons From a Country in Chaos). Looters filled the streets, ATMs were down, and many citizens resorted to drinking polluted...
Surviving Venezuela: Lessons from a Country in Crisis
Imagine your power goes out indefinitely for a week. Maybe longer, with no end in sight. Now, imagine that happening to virtually everyone living in your country. While this may have been a mere nightmare in the past, this was the recent reality in Venezuela. Venezuela lost power around 5...
Learning from the Past: Haiti, Mexico City, and Alaska
American journalist Charles Kuralt once said, “It takes an earthquake to remind us that we walk on the crust of an unfinished earth.” The surface of our planet has 20 plates that are constantly moving--and inevitably, the resulting pressure from these shifting plates causes the crust to break. But when...
3 Major Nor'easters & What We Can Learn
If you live on the East Coast of the United States, you’re probably familiar with nor’easters. You know that contrary to what it might sound like, it’s not just a funny way of referring to people from the East Coast. A nor’easter is a storm that usually develops in the...
Lessons from the Northeast Blackout of 2003
Sometimes, the smallest of actions can create a ripple affecting an extremely large system. That’s exactly what happened in 2003 when the northeastern United States was hit with a major power outage. What became known as the Northeast Blackout of 2003 was the largest blackout in North American history to...
5 Hurricane Preparedness Lessons from History
Carolinas Face Flooding After Hurricane Florence Lumbers Through States (Photo by U.S. Air Force via Getty Images) As Hurricane Florence made landfall on the east coast of the United States, we’ve been reminded that hurricane preparedness is a must. On average, about five hurricanes strike the United States coastline every...
The Science Behind Solar Flares and the Grid
When you hear the term “natural disaster,” phenomenon such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes may be the first things to come to mind. However, natural disasters originating beyond our Earth’s atmosphere also have the potential to disrupt life as we know it. For example, a handful of solar flares over...
Rolling Brownouts Are Back as Emergency Plans Kick In
We call them natural disasters. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, etc. Mother nature cooks ‘em up and tosses ‘em at us. We either get out of the way or get sucked into their destruction. But wildfires? These are different. Some wildfires are natural disasters. When dry thunderstorms produce lightning without rain that...
Most-Read Preparedness Stories of 2018
While we’re only halfway through 2018, this volatile year has already seen significant developments that seriously affect folks like us who prepare. #1: FEMA Began on a Low Note – And Kept Repeating It The year started out with a bold proclamation from FEMA: “FEMA is broke. The system is...
Starfish Prime: The First Major, Observable Man-made EMP in History
Just 5 days after Independence Day in 1962, our military put on its own show in the sky across the Pacific. In a project code-named Starfish Prime part of Operation Fishbowl, the Atomic Energy Commission launched a thermonuclear warhead on the nose of a Thor rocket, detonating 250 miles above...
Update: Get the Latest EMP News
Interest and feedback on the topic of EMPs have pushed us to dig deeper. Even national, mainstream media is chattering about it. Let's dive in for the latest news about EMPs and preparedness. Plus, we'll share some great tips from readers like you, as well as answer some frequently asked...