Have you been paying attention to the trail derailment fiasco in Ohio? I’d only heard about it maybe a week ago now, but it’s been going on since early February, and it sounds like no place I’d want to be right now, if ever. How about the Chinese spy balloons or whatever they are? Apparently, they’re not aliens, so that’s good news.
What got me to thinking about these types of disasters–as opposed to the normal ones, like earthquakes and tornadoes, I’m accustomed to preparing for–is a video by SouthernPrepper1 (not sure which one it is now) where he suggested that an EMP device could’ve been attached to balloon. A balloon would be an easy way to slip such a device in under the defense radar so to speak, though I’m sure there are other ways. [Note: This is why I’m no looking harder into EMP preparedness devices.]
Initially, I didn’t think much of the balloon saga as I figured China and the U.S. have been doing these sorts of covert spy actions for years, if not decades. But, like I said, using a balloon to do more than merely spy is a concern, and not something I’d considered.
Couple the trail derailments, which apparently happen more than we realize, with the electrical substation attacks across the country, and I’m beginning to wonder if I’m preparing for the right concerns. I mean, sure, natural disasters happen, and I’m positive that economic collapse is still around the corner, even if that corner is still somehow years away, but there’s a lot more that can and does regularly happen all across the country.
For instance, the other day I watched this video by a YouTuber I pay attention to regarding the Ohio train disaster where he discusses a sewage treatment plant that spilled sewage into the nearby river due to flooding. Guess what? That river supplies multiple wellheads for drinking water! (I’ll start it at the pertinent spot in the video):
Like he said in the video, the authorities didn’t put out ANY sort of warning that the water could be contaminated; they didn’t even issue a boil water order, though I doubt that would’ve done much good in this case. He also briefly mentioned that other pollutants, such as industrial spills, occur all the time, too. My guess is that residents are rarely warned or even notified when these types of things occur. Maybe that’s because there was truly no need to warn them, but how many times have the authorities later been proven wrong after an initial assessment? Enough to make me suspicious.
Although he didn’t mention it in the video, there are many tens of thousands of damns, large and small, all across the country, a huge fraction of which aren’t in the best of shape, and if they fail due to excessive rainfall or snowmelt, then they could pose dangers far beyond contaminated drinking water.
Anyway, all of this got me to thinking: What other types of “unusual” disasters could occur that may be relatively possible?
Well, how about an algae bloom? They’re common in coastal regions, and can affect drinking water [links to a PDF file at EPA.gov].
Apparently, pea soup fog is a thing. It’s not much of a problem anymore due to the banning of coal as a heat source in major cities, but the phenomena is still possible with regards to other contaminants. Seems like one more great reason to get out of cities.
What about a more modern concern, such as a nuclear event? I don’t mean a nuclear bomb going off, but an accident at a nuclear power plant? I doubt the folks who ran Fukushima really believed that it would fail, yet it did. But that’s not what really concerns me. Personally, I wonder how safe our nuclear waste storage truly is. Here’s a good video detailing the problems:
Around the 3:28 mark of the video, the presenter states that “every bit of nuclear waste in existence is in temporary storage facilities to be used until a long-term storage solution can be built.” If you keep watching a bit longer, he points out that the pools of water (where the spent fuel rods are stored for the first decade or so after use) need pumps and power to continually cool the water so that it doesn’t evaporate, thereby exposing the rods and, you guessed it, emitting deadly radiation. Even the concrete caskets the rods are later encased in “does not consider earthquakes, cannot withstand tsunamis, and would not work without humans.”
I have no interest in debating the pros or cons of nuclear energy right now, but just imagine what might happen to the environment (and nearby humans) should something catastrophic happen to ANY of the 92 nuclear reactors around the United States alone? And what happens to these plants if an EMP destroyed a portion of our power grid? I’d be surprised if these plant’s backup generators are hardened against EMP, and then there’s the fuel needed to constantly run the generators, staff to keep things operating properly, and a hundred other concerns I haven’t thought about in this scenario.
I realize that problems with nuclear reactors are, thus far, few are far between, but they’re certainly possible. And with the way we tend push problems down the road, I don’t see this ending well should a true catastrophe befall any reactor, let alone our country. If you live near a reactor, like I do, be prepared to evacuate.
What about acts of domestic terrorism, cyberattacks, bioterror, and dirty bombs? They’re certainly a possibility, though surely not something I’m constantly on the lookout for. [I’m suddenly wondering just how bad my browser history must look like to the NSA computers right now, lol.]
You get the idea. No doubt, there are possible concerns all around us, including–and perhaps most pressing of all–a multitude of manmade disasters. The truth is, some disasters we can see coming and, thus, prepare for; others we can’t. In either case, being generally unprepared is never helps the situation.
Keep preparing. Keep your head on a swivel. And keep positive, because there’s always tomorrow. Probably.
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