Code Name Insight: What's the Fiscal State of Your State?

Code Name Insight: What's the Fiscal State of Your State?: "What's the Fiscal State of Your State? If you live in one of several states--I'm looking at you Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and these others--and you rely on the state in any way (for your income, pension, medical care services, payments to your business, etc), well, things aren't looking so good.  These states are on the brink of bankruptcy (kind of, states can't actually file for bankruptcy but that doesn't mean they are financially solvent...they are basically out of money and in the hole so far no one in their right mind would loan them money/buy their bonds)."

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 91 Thru 100--You

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 91 Thru 100--You: "Prepping Challenges 91 Thru 100--You Sometimes you go through the previous 90 prepping challenges, you have a massive amount of food and water stockpiled and...you end up a refugee with only the clothes on your back.  Of all of the refugees I have known--from the previously very wealthy to the previously very poor--many ended up fleeing war-ravaged countries with basically what they could carry with them.  So this is perhaps the most important section as you are your most important secret weapon for surviving whatever disaster comes along."

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Code Name Insight: 25 Hurricane Dangers

Code Name Insight: 25 Hurricane Dangers: "25 Hurricane Dangers If you have been watching the news today (literally every station) you will have seen the non-stop reporting on Hurricane Irma which is hitting Florida as I type this.  All of this coverage provides a lot of 'lessons learned' about prepping for a major hurricane.  These are the many dangers that a hurricane can pose and what you need to prepare for if you live in a hurricane-prone area:"

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Code Name Insight - Prepping Challenges 81 Thru 90--Special Circumstances

Prepping Challenges 81 Thru 90--Special Circumstances

If you are young, rich, and healthy, prepping can be a pretty easy thing to do.  That isn't most people.  Many people have a bundle of circumstances that often make prepping difficult to virtually impossible.  Here's what to do if you are any of these special circumstances...

Read the full post at the Code Name Insight Blog

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 71 Thru 80--Protection

Prepping Challenges 71 Thru 80--Protection

You are responsible for protecting yourself and your family at all times.  While you can call the police for help, they usually don't arrive until after the fact.  And during a disaster, you will be lucky if you can even get through to 911 so it is up to you to develop some basic protection strategies.

Full Post: http://codenameinsight.blogspot.com/2017/09/prepping-challenges-71-thru-80.html

Post-Disaster Travel Safety Tips

The impetus for this post comes from my work life. A tale of warning, if you will.




Vehicle wake on a flooded road. Image credit: Reid Fiest / Global News

These events occurred after Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texas Gulf Coast and caused disastrous flooding in Houston, East Texas, and Southwestern Louisiana.

An employee worked at his regularly assigned location, in the Lafayette area, through the duration of the storm. His family, luckily, were safe from any of the hazards that plagued so many in the Houston area.

Once the storm passed, his crew rotation was finished, so he wanted to go home to be with his family. It was strongly recommended that he plot a northern route up I-49 with guidance from the Texas Dept. of Transportation and the Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Development websites to track road closures. He is assumed to have complied with that request, but appeared to mainly rely on WAZE, the crowd-sourced navigation app, to route his trip. (More on this later.) His route involved going south from Lake Charles to cross the Sabine River, then taking various roads north and west to go through Beaumont and then on through Conroe and into Spring, Tx, where he resides.

On one particular road, he found traffic was only able to go in one direction and the other side of the road was a boat lane. Yes, it was underwater and actually being used by boats.

He was able to make it through Beaumont, but eventually he arrived at a point on the road he was traveling that was underwater in both directions. I was notified that he had come to a section that his car could not pass through. (More on this later, too.) He then decided that according to what he could tell, he could take back roads and get to I-10 in Orange, Tx, then he should have a straight shot with open roads back to Lafayette.

That plan wound up not working either as he again encountered flooded roads that his car could not pass over, so he was stuck. In an evacuated Bridge City, Tx.

Luckily, he knew someone who lived in nearby Orange, Tx. who had not evacuated and was able to come pick him up. He was able to stay with this friend for the next day or so until waters went down and he could then make it back to Lafayette and on to Spring via a northerly route.

There are two take-aways I want to focus on from this experience, detailed below.

1. A crowd-sourced traffic/hazard/navigation app relies on having a crowd available at a specific location to report hazards and road closures. In this case, I suspect it showed no traffic issues because there was no one telling it that there were issues on the selected route.

2. When planning to take a potentially risky route through an area that is experiencing flooding, DO NOT attempt to take said route in a car! Unless it is lifted and riding on large tires, you most likely will not make it.

Some other points I would like to add is be prepared to sit tight when traveling in this kind of situation. Make sure to have water, food, medication, cash, a blanket, and anything else you might need in the event you are stranded and unable to travel further.

Please let me know your thoughts on this post and any suggestions for staying safe in this type of situation.

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenge 61 Thru 70--Vehicle

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenge 61 Thru 70--Vehicle: "Prepping Challenge 61 Thru 70--Vehicle And the disasters don't stop, last week was Hurricane Harvey, next up Hurricane Irma.  So there is more prepping to do..."

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Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 51 Thru 60--Money

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 51 Thru 60--Money: "Prepping Challenges 51 Thru 60--Money Having enough money in reserve to see you through a disaster can mean the difference between living in comfort while your home is rebuilt or living in a mold-infested, partially broken down home.  Between being able to prep the basics like food and water ahead of time and waiting for when (or even if) food handouts will be given in your neighborhood.  Being on sound financial footing as soon as possible is one of the best ways to be prepared for a disaster. "

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Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 41 Thru 50--Medical

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 41 Thru 50--Medical: "Prepping Challenges 41 Thru 50--Medical Among the most important prepping skills to have are those of the medical variety.  As you can see from reports on Hurricane Harvey, medical services are often few and far between right after a disaster."

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Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 31 Thru 40--Grab and Go

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 31 Thru 40--Grab and Go: "Prepping Challenges 31 Thru 40--Grab and Go In honor of Hurricane Harvey, today's challenges will be aptly termed 'grab and go'..."

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Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 21 Thru 30--Shelter

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 21 Thru 30--Shelter: "Prepping Challenges 21 Thru 30--Shelter Next up for your survival challenges...shelter."

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Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 11 Thru 20--Food

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 11 Thru 20--Food: "Prepping Challenges 11 Thru 20--Food Next in importance to water when it comes to survival is food.  These challenges will ensure that you have enough food to survive an emergency..."

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Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 1 Thru 10--Water

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 1 Thru 10--Water: "Prepping Challenges 1 Thru 10--Water This week's prepping challenges to get your ready for anything: having enough stored water to see you through an emergency."

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Code Name Insight: And Today's Disaster Is...Prepping 101

Code Name Insight: And Today's Disaster Is...Prepping 101: "And Today's Disaster Is...Prepping 101 Another day, another disaster.  Things are moving along quickly, from disaster to disaster, as we go from one day (a possible nuclear attack) to the next (a racist mob) to the next (a terror attack on Barcelona).  What do all of these things have in common?  Your need to be prepared for anything that could happen because quite literally, ANY disaster could happen to you from day to day so you need to be ready."

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My Arm-Chair Quarterbacking

With Hurricane Harvey having visited destruction on our neighbors, friends, and family to the west, I am going to share some posts from a blog I follow regarding safety and disaster preparation.

For most who are not already prepared for these types of events, it's a little too late, but I am doing this in the hopes that it will help people to prepare for the next event, because there always is a next event.

I will re-post each of these posts as individual posts here on my blog.

Here are a few of the terms used by this blogger, in case you are not sure what they are:

BoB - Bug Out Bag

EDC - Every Day Carry (bag)

WTSHTF - When The Shit Hits The Fan

SHTF - Shit Hits The Fan

TEOTWAWKI - The End Of The World As We Know It

Like the Boyscouts...Be Prepared!

Updated...

Below are links to the CNI Prepping Challenges Posts on OFTaS:

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 1 Thru 10--Water:

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 11 Thru 20--Food:

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 21 Thru 30--Shelter:

Code Name Insight: Prepping Challenges 31 Thru 40--Grab and Go:

7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction?

7 Signs We Are Heading for a Mass Extinction

So what I want to know is if this has been building up for a while (ref. Part about extinction of megafauna), and the climate change we are experiencing is not entirely the fault of human activity, how can we avert a Mass Extinction? I am all for conservation and preserving/repairing the environment where we can, I don't see how we can impact this natural process enough to change this trend.

CNI Blog: Links to "Subversive" ideas that are common sense!

These should be no-brainers, but since most of the country has been brainwashed into keeping up with the "Joneses", everyone just keeps on doing stupid stuff.


Code Name Insight: Link Round Up: The Subversive Edition:

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Do You Have an Evacuation Plan?

June 1st is just around the corner...we have already experienced our first named Atlantic storm...time to brush up on your evacuation plan. The link below has some general evacuation tips, plus links to other recommendations.

Code Name Insight: Your 5 Step Evacuation Plan:

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We generally have a go/no go decision based on the predicted storm path and storm intensity. If a storm looks to land anywhere east of our location and is not a monster storm, we plan to ride it out at home. I have a propane burner (practically who doesn't in South Louisiana?), a propane BBQ pit, a generator capable of running my freezer and refrigerator, plus some fans & lights, and a bunch of food, so we will be moderately comfortable. Keep lots of bottled water and non-perishable food items on hand. Experience dictates that if the power goes out, and it will, it takes up to at least a week to restore it. Also make sure to have a couple of weeks reserve of any maintenance medication that you need whether you ride it out or evacuate.

If the storm is passing nearby to the west of here or if it is a really big one, we evacuate. Our evacuation destination depends on where the storm is projected to make landfall. If it is going to Southwest Louisiana, then we can opt to bug out well enough ahead to travel to the Houston area or travel back east towards Alabama or Florida. If it gets really bad across the whole Gulf Coast, then directly north is the plan of action. It is also good to travel on alternate routes, since most people will be trying to use the main routes such as Interstates and likely to have them clogged up.

Be Safe. Be Prepared.

The Real Zombie Apocalypse?

Could this be the real Zombie Apocalypse?

Flesh-eating bacteria: New South Carolina mom in 'critical' fight - latimes.com:

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Code Name Insight: Challenge: Get your Bug Out Bag Together

I have been reading the CNI blog for a few months now and have been wondering what a BOB was. It comes up a lot in the posts.

Finally, I got to see what it is and what it should contain.

So, I figured that the three of you who read my blog might want to know also!

This list also can double as your hurricane kit for a quick evacuation.


Code Name Insight: Challenge: Get your Bug Out Bag Together:

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