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The following article fails to mention three important things.
1) The most dangerous effect of a disaster will be the failure and meltdown of the several nuclear power plants in the area affected. Power failure as a result of a major earthquake, or an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event caused by a major solar flare or by a deliberate terror attack, would fry the electric grid indefinitely. A major EMP event, by the way, is also not just a matter of if, but when. It's going to happen sometime. It will take us back to the stone age.
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| Map of nuclear power plants: http://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/u-s-nuclear-power-plants-safe-distance/ |
Never mind what an earthquake or an EMP event would do to society - considering the immediate lack of food, transportation, water, and other necessities. After all, everything runs on computers these days.
The worst part will be the meltdown of nuclear power plants as a result of long-term lack of electric power to run the machinery, contaminating large swaths of land and killing off the survivors. This, for some obscure reason, is never mentioned. Please see references for this nightmare scenario at the bottom of this page.
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| Fukushima on fire |
Japan, one of the best prepared countries in the world for earthquakes and tsunamis, saw their FUKUSHIMA nuclear plant go into meltdown. To this days, years after their disaster, they are still unable to take control of the situation, so they keep dumping heavily radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean.
And that was only one nuclear power plant. Imagine how the US and Canada would be completely overwhelmed to even protect one of the many nuclear power plants in the region. Nuclear waste storage areas such as the infamous Hanford, would simply spill their poison all over rivers, air and land.
The East Coast is not safe either. There are volcanoes in the Atlantic that are ticking bombs, such as El Hierro in the Canary Islands. An eruption could unleash a major tsunami that would engulf the US/Canada East Coast - and their nuclear power plants.
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| Katrina survivors |
2) Be skeptical of all estimates of government help plans and timelines. In this century alone we have witnessed at least two major failures to properly react to two manageable disasters: the Katrina and Sandy hurricanes. It took authorities many days, even weeks, to give basic assistance to survivors, and when they did, it was in grossly ineffective ways. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.
3) Aside from the usual list of necessities, a gun or two with plenty of ammunition would be very helpful to protect your family. In cases of protracted crises all social norms tend to break down. Bad people will behave badly, and good people will too, when hungry and scared. US and Canada demographics are changing constantly. You no longer know your neighbors.
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| Scene from film "2012" |
The Really Big One
An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion
of the coastal Northwest. The question is when.
By Kathryn Schultz, The New Yorker Magazine
Some key points:
- When the next very big earthquake hits, the northwest edge of the continent, from California to Canada and the continental shelf to the Cascades, will drop by as much as six feet and rebound thirty to a hundred feet to the west—losing, within minutes, all the elevation and compression it has gained over centuries.
- Some of that shift will take place beneath the ocean, displacing a colossal quantity of seawater.
- By the time the shaking has ceased and the tsunami has receded, the region will be unrecognizable.
- When the next full-margin rupture happens, that region will suffer the worst natural disaster in the history of North America.
Continue reading, and see links to related articles on the risk of nuclear power plant meltdowns
