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Friday, September 1, 2017

Hurricane Harvey: SCHOOLS SHOULD TEACH LIFE SAVING SKILLS instead of sexual depravity in the name of political correctness - Harvey's collateral damage: infectious diseases, mold, and more

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/hurricane-harvey-schools-should-teach.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
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There is an ongoing controversy over how leftist educators are indoctrinating children as young as six years old in human sexuality and all its variants, including details about intimate acts that past generations characterized as depraved.  All that is done in the name of inclusivity, so that children will not only learn to accept such behavior as normal, but will,  in the minds of leftist educators, embrace it too at some point.
 
There was a time when schools were meant to educate children, make them better citizens, better human beings.  These days they are used as centers of indoctrination for the cult of political correctness as defined by left wing educators and politicians.  Inclusivity, for example, now automatically excludes conservative views.  Tolerance is extolled, except for people with traditional values.   
 
And the latest environmental tragedy in Texas reminds us once again how schools have utterly failed to prepare individuals to save themselves.  We have watched hours of TV reporting on the tragedy affecting Houston and other localities submerged under water.   Although there is no denying the personal suffering of thousands of people, you may have felt curious about a few issues that the media chooses not to discuss.
 
There was too much blind trust on authorities, not enough independent thinking. 
Harvey was expected to be huge, that much we knew, and even worse than it actually turned out to be.  However, people chose to obey instructions that told them "to shelter in place" regardless of where they were.  The mayor of Houston said it would have been impossible to evacuate six million people.  However, it would have made good sense to evacuate a few thousand, particularly vulnerable folks such as people in nursing homes.
 
If you live on a third floor or higher, have plenty of food and supplies, and are well acquainted with survival skills, then it makes sense to shelter in place.  But if you live on a first or second floor, if you are fragile due to old age or a medical condition, if you are pregnant, if you have children with serious health issues, and if you don't have the money to purchase essential supplies for at least a couple of weeks, then it makes sense to evacuate ahead of time. 
 
There were many cases of people who were perfectly safe but had to be rescued because they ran out of food on the third day of the storm.  Even under normal conditions we should have enough food supplies for two weeks or more.  Not items that will spoil in case the power goes off, but canned food, crackers, peanut butter, health bars, and such.   And lots of drinking water.
 
People had not prepared a BUG OUT BAG
Time and again you would see people carrying nothing with them as they were being rescued.  Nothing!   A bug out bag is essential and should be ready at all times.  Some items can be left there permanently, such as extra clothes, while others should be on a list to include before departure, such as medications, pet food, health bars, important documentation, money, credit cards, and so on.  There are websites that specialize on bug out bags, and how to prepare for a disaster in general.  
 
Some people drowned or risked their lives because they did not know how to swim.
Swimming lessons should be mandatory for all able school children.   No one should lose his life because of the lack of such a basic skill.  But then educators are told to spend time teaching about kinky sex instead.
 
Warnings about water infections should have been given from the start. 
People wading in water should have been aware of the many germs lurking in that water, and how dangerous they are if you happen to have a scratch on your skin.
 
Texas had at least two weeks to prepare but there was no well organized plan to save pets and other animals.
Some loyal pet owners made sure that their pets went with them no matter what, but many others left them behind, to maybe drown or starve.  This is a situation that unfortunately repeats itself in every single disaster.
 
Washington Post:  Experts talk about the flood's collateral damage
 
Excerpts:   
 
Short term -  Water injuries
 
The majority of people who die during floods drown: About 75 percent of the fatalities are drownings, per the World Health Organization. Two feet of rapid floodwater will sweep away an SUV. Just six inches of water, if it moves quickly enough, can knock over an adult, according to the National Weather Service.
 
Floodwaters can also draw out unwelcome wild animals. Images of stinging fire ants clumped together as large floating rafts set social media abuzz on Monday. Snakes, too, are a concern.   Storm activity definitely increases the potential for snakebite as the snakes get flooded out and seek higher ground.
 
Short term: Infectious diseases
 
A flood contains more than rain. Sewage systems spill their guts. And the water can dredge up things more disturbing, if less infectious, than human waste. In New Orleans in 2005, the flooding from Hurricane Katrina exhumed corpses, sending coffins afloat through neighborhoods.
 
It is not easy to predict the nasty microbes that will strike. But Hurricane Katrina, which hit land at the same time of the year as Harvey, could offer some lessons.   In September 2005, the CDC reported 30 cases of MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus bacterium, among a group of New Orleans evacuees sent to Dallas.
 
And Vibrio pathogens, bacteria popularly described as “flesh-eating," sickened two dozen people and killed six. There were also scattered reports of skin rashes, from infections and heat, as well as red marks blamed on biting mites.  Texas health officials are urging people to get tetanus booster shots to protect themselves against the disease, which enters the body through cuts. 
 
Continue reading






 
What about more exotic germs, such as the one that causes cholera? The conditions here could promote cholera but you’d have to have somebody infected with cholera coming into the area. 
 
Stress jeopardizes immune systems, and it is difficult to maintain food hygiene in disaster zones. Katrina unleashed gut diseases triggered by E. coli and a lack of safe food and potable water.
 
Add crowded conditions — officials are preparing a “mega-shelter” in the Dallas Convention Center to house 5,000 people — and evacuees are at higher risk of getting sick. During Katrina, there were respiratory infections among people in shelters, including an apparent uptick in tuberculosis.
 
 
Short term: Power outages
 
Severe weather frequently knocks over electrical lines — give fallen power lines a wide berth, the CDC advises, and report them to electric companies. Homeowners who rely on portable generators for temporary power should be aware of the danger of inhaling carbon monoxide.
 
A 2012 review identified 75 deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning during natural disasters between 1991 and 2009; backup generators were responsible for 83 percent of deaths. To avoid breathing the gas, operate the generators outdoors and 20 feet from doors or windows.
 
A lack of power means a lack of air conditioning or other ways to keep cool, further stressing people and putting those with health issues at greater risk given the season. Behavioral scientist Mary Hayden, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, notes in a forthcoming paper about Houston's capacity to withstand extreme heat that power outages often follow hurricanes.
 
About 3 million people in eight states were left without power after Hurricane Ike in 2008, and restoring the power grid took 16 days. Houston's average high in September is the low 90s for much of the month.
 
 
Short term: Chemical dangers
 
 
Texas is thick with chemical plants as well as natural gas and oil refineries. On Thursday, a tanker at one such factory caught fire after its refrigeration system failed. The chemical, called a liquid organic peroxide, is extremely flammable. The chemical plant company said it expected the other organic peroxide containers to catch fire as well.
 
Environmental experts are also monitoring several Superfund sites in flood-damaged areas. The EPA usually reinforces such sites before impending hurricanes hit. Despite this, past storms have spread contamination, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
 
Southeast of Houston, Wes Highfield, a researcher at Texas A&M University Galveston, said he saw children swimming in flooded retention pools downstream from the Brio Refinery Superfund site. "And that's not good," he told The Post.
 
 
 
Short term: Drug access
 
Those forced to flee flood zones can struggle to acquire medication. This is a risky scenario for people with chronic conditions. Insulin was particularly in demand in Houston, said Thomas Tighe, president and chief executive of the medical nonprofit Direct Relief. Diabetics “who don’t have insulin are going to go into crisis pretty rapidly.” During Hurricane Katrina, Tighe said, many evacuees came to hospitals not to treat mass trauma but to manage diabetes, hypertension and asthma.
 
In the 12 years since that storm, Direct Relief stockpiled medication in the Texas coast and other areas prone to hurricanes. Texas was a pressing concern, Tighe said, because it also has the lowest rates of health insurance in the country. The drug caches are kept in waterproof containers, though some, like inhalers and insulin, must be kept cold and transported to relief areas. The nonprofit was able to deliver medicine to Houston shelters while commercial supply lines were being developed.
 
Meanwhile, several consumer pharmacies remained open despite the storm. “Currently we have about 300 stores in the region that are operational,” said Phil Caruso, a spokesman for pharmacy chain Walgreens. Delivery trucks traveled slowly to the stores, restricted by traffic and road closures. Several of the pharmacies ran on generator power; Walgreens had dispatched a tanker to resupply pharmacies with fuel.
 
Demand for supplies had heightened, but Caruso said he was not aware of drug shortages. About 170 Walgreens stores, many in the city of Houston, remained closed. CVS Pharmacy also closed 180 stores of the nearly 770 in the area, a representative for the company said, but had sent a mobile pharmacy unit en route.
 
Both companies were monitoring the region to open or close locations. “This is a very fluid situation,” Caruso said.
 
Short and long term: Mosquitoes
 
Based on experience following Hurricane Katrina, there will be several competing effects on the population of mosquitoes and the prevalence of arboviruses, such as Zika, dengue and West Nile, that they transmit.
 
Mosquitoes need stagnant water to lay eggs. Winds and floods will wash away containers that would have been breeding pools, said Hayden, who studies weather and vector-borne disease. 
 
But once the floodwaters recede, mosquitoes will recover. In 2006, a year after Katrina, Tulane University public-health experts reported that cases of West Nile infection increased more than twofold in communities that had been in that hurricane's path. The study authors suggested that increased exposure was the culprit. Fleeing partially submerged buildings, people spent days outside waiting for rescue.
 
Without air conditioning or dry spaces, Texans may find themselves outdoors, too. There's going to be a need for insect repellent down there.
 
Long term: Mental health 
 
Hurricanes can damage mental health in long-term ways, Nature reported in 2015. A year after Hurricane Katrina, residents reported an increase in suicidal thoughts, increasing from 2 percent to 6 percent among the 815 people studied. Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression also worsened.
 
 
Long term: Mold
 
Mold is another hurricane holdover. Hayden, who assessed damage in Galveston after Hurricane Ike, said evacuees may not realize they could spend two or three weeks away from home. In a waterlogged, overheated home, mold can run rampant in that time.
 
The Washington Post reported that two months after Hurricane Katrina, CDC investigators found mold in the walls of half of 112 water-damaged homes. The worst symptoms from routine mold exposure — some amount of mold is in the air we breathe every day — are typically allergic reactions and are rarely fatal but can exacerbate other health problems.
 
Post-Katrina mold, however, was implicated in the deaths of four Southern University at New Orleans professors — all of whom worked in the same storm-damaged building. All died within a few months of one another. 
 

The economic impact of mold and water damage also can be severe. “That’s a whole consequence that people really don't consider,” Hayden said. “It’s devastating on all levels.”

 
Big picture: Preparedness planning
 
What comes into focus from disasters such as Harvey is a lack of disaster preparedness compared with pandemics such as the flu, according to Hotez. “We don’t realize that the Gulf Coast is America’s vulnerable underbelly of infectious disease,” he said, referring to a paper he wrote in 2014.
 
The hot and humid region combines high levels of poverty with major transportation hubs, with problems exacerbated by the effects of climate change.
 
“All of those forces,” he explained Monday, “combine to make the Gulf Coast especially susceptible to infectious and tropical disease.”

Source:



 
 
RELATED
 
 
VIDEO -  Dr Miriam Grossman: You're Teaching My Child What?   The Truth About Sex Education
 
 
 
Book by Dr. Miriam Grossman
 
If you think sex education is still about the birds and the bees, you're wrong. And it's not about science either.
 
If you're a parent with children in the public school system, you need to know what's really going on.
 
In You're Teaching My Child What? Dr. Miriam Grossman rips back the curtain on sex education today, exposing a sordid truth.
 
Instead of teaching our children the facts of life, sex educators are lying to them, ignoring medical fact in favor of politicized, and dangerous, propaganda that could ruin your child's life forever.
 
In You're Teaching My Child What? you'll learn what sex educators don't want you to know:
 
* Why the discredited founder of "sexology"—dead for half a century—has more influence on sex education than today's most eminent neurobiologists
* How information your child gets about common infections like herpes, warts, and Chlamydia is whitewashed
* When "safe sex" isn't safe: why condoms won't protect your teens from some of the most serious sexually transmitted diseases
* How sex educators try to normalize fringe behaviors—ignoring the health risks to your children
 
The sex education establishment would like to lull you into thinking that they know best—but the epidemic of sexually transmitted infections in young people today is testimony to a system that's gone mad.
 
 
 
 
 


SHTFPLAN's list of the 50 best prepper websites:

1. Survival Blog
2. American Preppers Network
3. The Survival Mom
4. SHTFPlan.com
5. Survival 4 Christians
6. Urban Survival
7. Backdoor Survival
8. Off Grid Survival
9. Modern Survival Online
10. The Survivalist Blog
11. The Suburban Prepper
12. The Great Northern Prepper
13. Prepper Website
14. The Survival Podcast
15. Doom And Bloom
16. Provident Living Today
17. Prepper.org
18. Prepared Christian
19. SHTFblog.com
20. Survival Cache
21. Modern Survival Blog
22. Rural Revolution
23. Preparedness Advice Blog
24. Prep-Blog.com
25. Survival And Prosperity
26. TEOTWAWKI Blog
27. The Neighbor Network
28. The Apartment Prepper
29. Armageddon Online
30. The Berkey Guy Blog
31. The Home For Survival
32. My Family Survival Plan
33. Prepography
33. Prepper Dashboard
34. Bacon And Eggs
35. SHTF School
36. Canadian Preppers Network
37. Maximum Survival
38. Survivor Jane
39. Prepping To Survive
40. SaltnPrepper
41. SGTReport
42. SHTF Wiki
43. Jewish Preppers
44. Survival Magazine
45. Survival Week
46. Prepper Forums
47. Survivalist Boards
48. Tactical Intelligence
49. The Prepared Ninja
50. Common Sense Homesteading

Source:
http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/rise-of-the-preppers-50-of-the-best-prepper-websites-and-blogs-on-the-internet_02012013


YOUR PET EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLAN AND SUPPLY LIST -
Be well prepared to take your pets along with you
Read more
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/09/your-pet-emergency-evacuation-plan-and.html

(Based on http://theprepperproject.com/)




 
 

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