November 8, 2024

Prepared Christian Review of: Lights Out, by David Crawford

Lights Out was originally written chapter by chapter and posted to the “Patriot Fiction” section of a popular preparedness forum. The story begins with an event that completely shuts down all electronics and follows the main character, his family, friends and neighborhood.

I have read a few books that deal with this or similar themes and I think this one is the closest to what I think would really happen. Many stories in this genre depict complete societal meltdown quickly after the “event”. In Lights Out, things do melt down, but more slowly as people realize that life as they knew it, is gone.

I identified with the main character; a man who has faults and weaknesses but who stands up and fights for what he believes. This makes him a reluctant leader in his neighborhood. The neighborhood has some internal struggles but bands together overall to provide the essential needs for survival for their entire neighborhood.

It’s not a how-to manual per se but there is helpful information in this book if you pay attention to how the characters cope with the new post-grid world.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It is the best piece of “patriot fiction” or novel in this genre I have read. I give it five stars.

 
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What Would You DO? EMP at Work

While at work the power goes out. You check your cell phone and ,oddly, that isn’t working either. You make your way outside and the normal noises have been replaced with quiet, except someone screaming in the distance. Nothing is working; not the bank sign that usually has the time and temp on it, not the street light, nothing.
 
 
So, what would you do?

(Check the comments section to see my and anyone else’s thoughts as well as add your own.)

For more information on EMP’s see the article I wrote called EMP’s, Solar Flares and CME’s. 

 
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Preparedness Tip: Keeping Food Cold Without Electricity

In the event of a power outage, here are a some things you can do to help keep your food cold, if not frozen;

  • During times when there is power, the fuller your fridge or freezer is, the longer the temperature will stay cold and the less the motor will have to run to keep it cold.
  •  If your freezer isn’t full, you can add frozen containers to fill the empty space. Any container will do, but 2-liter bottles are shaped well for stacking. (In writing this, I have a chest freezer in mind, but it should work for a fridge based freezer as well.)
  • When there is a loss of power, a full freezer will keep food frozen for approximately two days, a half full freezer for a day and a fridge for roughly four hours, if they remain closed.
  • If there is a power loss another good idea is to write down the contents of the fridge and freezer and post it on the outside. When someone is hungry, they can browse the list with the door closed, keeping the cold where it belongs.
  • If you have a generator, you can connect the fridge and freezer to it and run the generator once or twice a day, for an hour or so and that should be enough to keep things cold.
  • If the outage is going to be longer in duration, it is important to keep meat, poultry, fish and eggs refrigerated at 40 Fahrenheit and frozen things at 0 Fahrenheit. These would be good things to cook and eat first.
  • If you live in an area with snow, it’s not a good idea to place frozen food directly in the snow. The temperature isn’t controlled and things could thaw and refreeze. One possible solution might be to take a clean 30 gallon garbage can and bury it in snow, then place the food in it. If you bury it with snow nearly to the top and place the lid on it, this should keep things cold but probably not frozen, depending on the temperature outside.

If you have any other tips please add them to the comment section.
 
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Our Endangered Electrical Infrastructure

Our Endangered Electrical Infrastructure

Every year hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of people go without power for a variety of reasons. It can sometimes be from storm damage, as was the case in 2003, during the worst blackout in U.S. history; power lines were taken down by trees, which led to a cascading failure. This left an estimated 55 million people without power, as well as an estimated 6 billion dollar business loss. It can also be caused from routine operation of changing out a piece of faulty equipment, which led to a blackout, leaving 7 million people in the dark.

Why is there such a propensity for failure? There are multiple reasons. Much of our electric grid is fifty years old or older, running on parts with a thirty to thirty five year life expectancy. There are power plants that cost millions of dollars to build and no one inside America even builds them anymore. Another reason is, there are interlinked dependencies that no one seems to understand. In both of the blackouts that I linked above, there was a failure that shouldn’t have bled into others, but did.

Another reason is our insatiable appetite for electricity and the things it powers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m far from an eco-hippie, but there is a ton of juice being used to power “fluff”, even when it is not on. It seems like every year there are rolling brownouts due to supply not meeting demand.

The article U.S. Electric Grid Is Reaching the End Game goes into great detail on the problems of our failing infrastructure. If you’re interested in more information, it is worth the read.
 
 
What are the dangers?

As I mentioned above, weather is a cause; in fact it’s probably the biggest cause. I wrote an article on another threat called EMP’s, Solar Flares and CME’s. I explain what these events are and how much of a danger I think they actually are. There are always things getting old and breaking down, as commented on in Recent Blackout Highlights Nation’s Aging Electricity Grid and in Aging Gas Pipes at Risk of Erupting Nationwide.

Another threat I think is very real is from other countries hacking into our grid. China and Russia hack into US power grid This doesn’t have to do with our electrical grid, but most recently Foreign hackers targeted U.S. water plant in apparent malicious cyber attack.
 
 
What Can We Do?

We can take responsibility for what we use and how much we use it. I’m not saying unplug everything that isn’t in use, though for some items that might not be a bad idea. Turning off lights that aren’t in use, or turning the PC off if it’s not going to be used for an extended period can’t hurt. Don’t tell me about the hibernate feature; I’m pretty sure the devil invented that right after software user agreements and hold music.

We can also provide some of our own electricity at whatever level we can afford. If that’s a full scale solar panel system, wind turbine or a portable generator to provide off grid electricity, so be it. I can’t afford to do a full scale solar panel system, but I have thought about getting a small panel and battery to learn the ropes and scale up slowly.

If you have any other ideas that we can do, please post them in the comments.

 
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Prepared Christian Review of: Allen Company Shooting Glasses

When I began shooting, I bought ear muffs and the cheapest clear safety goggles I could find. I had seen other shooters using the tinted glasses and didn’t think I would like the yellow or red tint. That was until I went shooting with a friend who let me try his pair of yellow tinted glasses on. I could not believe how much they made things pop out. The tint did take a little bit to get used to, but it was worth it. I purchased the Allen Company Adult Blade 4 Lens Style Combo Case (Clear, Red, Yellow, Smoke). If you’re looking for eye protection, I recommend these. I have seen other more expensive shooting eye protection and they often only come in the one tint. I like the ability to change the lenses out, which is fairly easy and straight forward.

What Would You DO? Unemployed neighbors can’t afford food

The economy is much worse than it is now. The Dow has all but crashed and the unemployment rate is over 20%. You’re fortunate to still have your job, but you know a family down the road is struggling. Both parents have been unemployed for a couple of months. The man is too proud to ask for help but his wife mentions in passing that she is afraid and doesn’t know what they’ll do for groceries next week.

Disclaimer: I am not asking the following question for you to decide if you’ll be charitable or not. I’m asking it to get you thinking about how you might discreetly be charitable, if you so choose.

With the unemployment rate as bad as it is right now, there could very well be more than one family in your neighborhood who is going hungry. If you share overtly, there may be many more who request your help. I touch on this type of thinking in the article I called Being Gray.

So, what would you do?

(Check the comments section to see my and anyone else’s thoughts as well as add your own.)

 
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Preparedness Tip: Biannual Inspections

Here are some things that should be checked biannually and daylight savings is a convenient reminder.

• Smoke detectors. The batteries are most likely still good, so use them in a remote or some other non-life saving item. Put new ones in the smoke detectors.

•All Kits; change out any seasonal clothing, rotate food if needed.

•Flash lights, if you keep the batteries in the flashlights then makes sure they haven’t started to corrode and make sure the flashlight still works. Another way to keep the batteries near the flashlight but not inside it is to put them in a plastic bag and secure the bag to the flashlight with a rubber-band.

• If you have a generator then this would be a good time to exercise it and do any routine maintenance.

Can you think of anything else that should be done twice a year that could be done at daylight savings time change? If so please add a comment!

 
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Duct Tape and Plastic?

I think many of us remember post 9-11 when word was put out about duct tape and plastic. We were to use this to seal our homes air tight in case of a biological or chemical event. I was among the many people who scoffed at this idea. That is until recently. I was doing some research on an article about sheltering in place and found the Frequently Asked Questions at Ready.Gov. I read a bit and made the comment to my wife that, “this is one of the occasions when we would bug out.” She said something along the lines of “What if someone can’t? What if their only option is to stay put?”

She hit the nail on the head. While sheltering in place during a chemical event is not my first option (or I am sure yours), what if the need arouse and it was the only option? This will be a quick article and will add another tool to the tool belt that I pray we never need to use.

Feel free to look at the Ready.Gov Frequently Asked Questions as I’ll just be hitting the high points. One possible reason that you would need to shelter in place is due to either an accidental or purposefully released chemical with the plume nearby or heading toward your area. For incidents such as this the DHS recommends having plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal off a room to further limit the airflow from outside and give added protection.
 
 
What should you use?

DHS doesn’t have any brand preference, but recommends duct tape that is 10mil thick and plastic sheeting at is 4-6mil thick.
 
 
Which Room?

DHS recommends the bathroom as it often only has one door and no windows and gives access to, well the bathroom. Might not be a solid plan for an entire family, so pick a room that has the least amount of access to the outside from doors, windows, fans and vents.
 
 
What Should You Do With It?

First turn off the heat or air conditioning. This will further limit the amount of outside air that gets in. DHS recommends having pre-cut sheets of plastic that measure 6” bigger than the area you’re trying to cover. As you can see in this picture, completely cover all doors, windows, fans and vents.


 
 
How long can a family stay in a sealed room? Will we run out of air to breathe?

DHS recommends that individuals allow ten square feet of floor space per person in order to provide sufficient air to prevent carbon dioxide build up for up to 5 hours assuming a normal breathing rate while resting.

Many chemical releases would be diluted within a few hours, so the direction to shelter-in-place would likely be made for a short time period while a chemical cloud dissipates.
 
 
Final thoughts:

I still don’t think this plan is a great one and I’ll only use it as a last resort, but now I know what to do and have the room picked out should we be forced to use this option.

 
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Review of: The Big Berkey Water Purifier

Big Berkey Stainless Steel Water Filtration System with 2 Black Filter Elements

My wife and I have read reports of prescription drugs being found in drinking water. One of the tax return purchases we made this year was a water purification system. I have also heard some concerning things about fluoride in water. I don’t know if they are true but sodium fluoride, which is used in some municipalities to treat water, is one component used in rat poison. We decided to get a purification system that would take prescription drugs, fluoride and any of the other junk that is in our water out.

Side note: Fluoride might be fine topically as it is tooth paste, but I can’t see the benefit of ingesting it.

After plenty of research I settled on the Big Berkey. One of the complaints I have heard about the Berkey systems is the price. While true, there is a higher upfront cost, the filters last a LOT longer than some other popular pitcher type purifiers. Here is a water filter comparison chart. It shows the Berkey costing just 1.9 cents per gallon. The next closest is 9.6 cents per gallon.
 
 
Pros

•The Big Berkey can take four filters, but we opted to just put two in, mostly due to cost. Four would have increased the purification rate and extended the amount of water the entire system could purify before needing to replace the filters.

•The system is nice to look at; I mean who doesn’t like polished stainless steel? Mine is pictured below.

•Set up was fairly easy. If memory serves, there is an extra step or two to be done for the fluoride filters but nothing that requires rocket science.

•The biggest pro to me is knowing that we have pure water; no smells, no prescription drugs, no chlorine and no fluoride.
 
 
Cons

•The Big Berkey is a little slow. The fuller it is the faster it filters because more filter space is being utilized.

•There is another filter needed for each of the black filters if you want the fluoride removed. At least you have the option if you want it.

•Remembering to refill it..oh wait, that’s just me.

My Take:

I like the Big Berkey and happily give it 4 starts. I would give it 5 if the black filters removed fluoride.

 
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What Would You DO? Boil Water Advisory

You’re getting ready for work and the water stops running. You check the kitchen sink and it isn’t running either. You finish getting ready and head to work. You later learn that there was a water main break and the city is implementing a boil water advisory until further notice. A few of your coworkers that live near you have decided they are going to go to the grocery store during their lunch break to buy some bottled water and paper plates.

So, what would you do?

(Check the comments section to see my and anyone else’s thoughts as well as add your own.)

 
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