Solar Event Takes Down Communications in Britain, 1859

Are you ready for the unexpected emergency?

Copyright, 2009, Terry Turner

The worst thing I can think of in the zone of personal responsibility is to fail to make preparations that you fully realize were strongly indicated and yet did not make preparations. It is even worse when you know you had all or part of the resources to make the preparations. In plain English, I have of late been urging friends and family to make, improve, or extend their preparations for emergencies of any type. These days the sources of emergencies seem to be multiplying. The problem is that few of us are ready for the most elementary disturbance in our life style.


We can expect possible disruptions of every description from the sources we generally think of as terrorists. We tend to think of foreign terrorists but, alas, we have various kinds of home grown terrorists as well.


Those of us who are mature can attest to global climate change (I certainly do not endorse the generally publicized ideas of global warming) but those of us who lived in the days of golden near perfect weather can now see changes that we knew were coming when we began to recede from the golden era of weather.... we are out of that wonderful zone and time frame and weather issues are on the rise to include tornadoes, cyclones, winds, flood, ice, drought, heat, and extensive "irregularity" in weather patters. Any notable local or national variation in these conditions could shut down a city or state, or even the nation, easily, and at least for a few days.

Bigger events, such a earthquakes and tsunamis can not be ignored. There are active volcano's bubbling away in several places including Alaska. Check the Internet for quake maps, you might be surprised at the number of smokers out there.

Civil unrest is disturbing to contemplate, but who can deny an angry mood running the country, a mood that can be tapped and directed like a blow torch or, perhaps worse, simply ignites and cannot be directed. Wide spread civil unrest could certainly keep you from your corner grocer, might cut off things like power and water, and cause other disturbances.

The there is the rising issue of solar flares. They have been a problem in the past and certainly are going to be a problem in the visible future. Solar flares can knock out electric transmission, cell phones, radio, television, and monitoring systems that could immediately disrupt water, transportation, sewage, and other delivery and processing systems. Think about where you live and how it would be without traffic lights, without cell phones, refrigeration and, for example, air conditioning.

Today the former minister Graham Stringer, Labor Party, said that Brits ought to take steps to get ready for a repetition of the solar storm of 1859. When that solar storm hit Earth it paralyzed much of the telegraph system throughout the world. Stringer urged the government to make plans to deal with a powerful solar flares that might disrupt the National (Electric) Grid in England. He noted that such a disturbance in the electric distribution would create severe water and food shortages. He motion in Commons stated ... such an event could now 'knock out the National Grid, which would lead to a loss of water supply, transport and food and therefore create a national emergency."

The potential for disruptions is almost endless. Power issues, local or national, can limit your access to cash disbursement machines, shut down the use of credit cards, and so forth. The time to be make ready for such disturbances is now.

One problem which we all face is that Americans expect things to work all the time. We expect the gas pump to fill us up, we expect the credit card processor to work, we are sure the cash disbursing teller machine will be full of loot; we expect the artificially flavored semi-poisonous high fructose corn syrup yogurt to be on the shelf --- good for us or not. And, thank God, in this country, all things have generally been constantly accesible to us.

But, remember, please, it only takes a small hiccup these days to disrupt things... due to the lack of diversity whole crops, world wide, can be wiped out in the blink of an eye. Delivery systems could be shut down by communication problems, by earthquake, by storm, by fuel and many other issues. It can't hurt to be prepared.

There are many resources on the Internet that discuss how to prepare for emergencies. The following link is an excellent place to begin:

http://www.hmscrown.com/life_tools/emergency_be_prepared.html

One of my favorite things for my emergency kit is heavy duty carpet or upholstery thread and large needles, both straight and curved. You can repair many things, like tennies, backpacks, coats, suspenders, tents, etc., with strong thread and a good needle. I find a fly fishing vest is a great resource to organize and keep such small items ready for my "go bag."

Be prepared for yourself and for your family and friends. You'll feel better knowing you are ready.

Photo credit: The Rainbow over Taos is my own, it appears in the fine art gallery here:
http://www.hmscrown.com/fine_art/HMS_Gallery/Taos_Rainbow.html
It is the best rainbow shot of my amateur career taken with a throw away digital which was given to me by my niece, Linda Jo Reeves, circa 2001.