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Page 1: American Survival Guide Magazine Doomsday Spring 2015

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0 71486 01319 8

FROM THE EDITORS OF AMERICAN SURVIVAL GUIDEDOOMSDAY • SPRING

U.S. $8.99 • DISPLAY UNTIL: 2/24/15

FROM THE EDITORS OF AM

ER

ICAN

SU

RVIV

AL

GU

IDE•

DOOMSDAY•SPRING

Engaged Media By Beckett

DDAY_COVER 11/21/14 3:10 AM Page US_C1

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Be Prepared! Get Informed!Throughout the years, there has been no short-

age of information from official sources on howto stay prepared for and avoid natural andman-made disasters, specifically the atomicbomb. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the CivilDefense Department issued dozens of differ-ent brochures and pamphlets designed toeducate the population about this new andpotentially deadly threat. Shown here arenot only a bevy of atomic-era brochures,but additional doomsday brochuresregarding natural disasters.

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CONTENTS8 EARTHQUAKEStaying Alive When the Earth Quakes

13 Stories of Survival: Gail Gase13 Stories of Survival: Xian Chapman14 The Great Alaskan Quake, 196415 The New Madrid Earthquakes, 1811-1216 Earthquake Survival Gear Guide

18 CHILL FACTORSurviving the Icy Grips of a Blizzard

22 Stories of Survival: Lauren Weinberg23 Stories of Survival: Boyd Severson24 The Great Blizzard of 199325 The Schoolhouse Blizzard26 Blizzard Survival Gear Guide

28 A PERFECT STORMSurviving the Terror of a Hurricane

33 The Saffir-Simpson Scale34 Stories of Survival: Hurricane Andrew34 Stories of Survival: Hurricane Mitch35 Stoires of Survival: Hurricane Katrina36 Hurricane Survival Gear Guide

38 MUSHROOM CLOUDSurviving a Nuclear Attack

47 The Atomic Bomb Over Hiroshima, 1945

48 TORNADOESSurviving the Terror of the Twisters

52 Stories of Survival: Michael Naruta53 Stories of Survival: Wilma Nelson54 The Tri-State Tornado of 192555 Joplin Tornado of 21156 Tornado Survival Gear Guide

58 FOUNTAINS OF FIRESurviving the Lava of a Volcano’s Eruption

62 Stories of Survival: The Moore Family63 Stories of Survival: August Cyparis64 Mount Saint Helens Eruption of 198065 Mount Ontake Eruption of 201466 Volcano Survival Gear Guide

68 FLYING LEADSurviving an Active Shooter Senario

71 Stories of Survival: Shari Thornberg72 Columbine High School, 199972 Aurora, Colorado, Shooting, 2012

74 GLOBAL SICKNESSHow to Survive a World-Wide Pandemic

82 Ebola Pandemic of 201483 Ultimate Pandemic Survival Kit

84 TOXIC TERRORHow to Survive a Deadly Chemical Attack

90 Stories of Survival: Tokyo Subway Attack, 199591 Stories of Survival: Halabja Massacre, 198892 Chemical Attack Survival Gear Guide

94 WAVES OF DEATHSurviving a Relentless Wall of Water: The Tsunami

98 Stories of Survival: Paul Landgraver99 Stories of Survival: Maria Belon100 Japanese Tsunami of 2011100 Valdivia Tsunami of 1960102 Tsunami Survival Gear Guide

104 PLANET KILLERSSurviving the Catastrophe of an Asteroid Impact

108 Asteroid Dangers, 1908-2029

110 BECOMING SELF-AWAREHow to Survive When the Machines Rise

116 CLOSE ENCOUNTERSHow to Survive an Alien Invasion

120 Stories of Survival121 Alien Invasion: Roswell, N.M., 1947122 Alien Invasion Survival Gear Guide

124 THE INVISIBLE JOLTSurviving the Devastation of an Electromagnetic Pulse

129 The Carrington Event, 1859129 Starfish Prime, 1962130 EMP Survival Gear Guide

DEPARTMENTS2 Preparation Literature6 Editorial7 Doomsday Clock

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EDITORIALEditor-in-Chief: Ryan Lee PriceManaging Editor: Kari Windes Senior Creative Director: Eric KnaggArt Director: Jesse Cao

CONTRIBUTORS Tim Ralston, Larry Schwartz, Tori Tellem, Jeff Zurschmeide

ADVERTISINGGabe Frimmel - Ad Sales Director(714) 200-1930 - [email protected] Clifford - Senior Account Executive(714) 312-6275Mark Pack - Senior Account Executive(714) 200-1939Gennifer Merriday - Ad Traffic Coordinator

DIRECT MARKETING GROUPJohn Bartulin (866) 866-5146 ext. 2746Paul Caca (866) 866-5146 ext. 4961Ryan Lauro (866) 866-5146 ext. 2756

OPERATIONSGus Alonzo: Newsstand Sales ManagerCelia Merriday: Newsstand AnalystMohit Patel: Newsstand and Production Analyst Alberto Chavez: Senior Logistics & Facilities ManagerJohn Cabral: Creative Graphic Designer

EDITORIAL, PRODUCTION & SALES OFFICE22840 Savi Ranch Parkway, #200Yorba Linda, CA 92887Ph: (800) 332-3330Fax: (800) 249-7761www.americansurvivalguidemag.comwww.facebook.com/americansurvivalguidemagazinewww.facebook.com/eembybeckett

DOOMSDAY © 2014 by Engaged Media by Beckett. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material from thisissue in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.

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SINGLE COPY SALES(800) 764-6278(239) 653-0225 Foreign [email protected]@beckett.com

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NEW PRODUCTS OR TO CONTRIBUTE A STORY OR [email protected]

ENGAGED MEDIA BY BECKETTNick Singh: Executive DirectorVikas Malhotra: Vice PresidentErin Masercola: Editorial Director

This magazine is purchased by the buyer with the understanding

that information presented is from various sources from which there

can be no warranty or responsibility by Engaged Media by Beckett

as to the legality, completeness or technical accuracy.

DOOMSDAYFROM THE EDITORS OF AMERICAN SURVIVAL GUIDE

“One of the illusions of life is thatthe present hour is not the critical,

decisive hour. Write it on yourheart that every day is the best day

in the year. No man has learnedanything rightly, until he knows

that every day is Doomsday.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

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COVER DESIGN: ERIC KNAGG

PHOTOGRAPHY: THINKSTOCK

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DOOMSDAY

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The apocalypse is as inevitableas the setting sun; at some point in the future,the Earth and all life on it, will come to an end.Eight or nine billion years from now, our sun willstart to get warmer, and it will begin to growlarger. It will slowly engulf Mercury, then Venus,then Earth, as it turns into a Red Giant. The mil-lions of years preceding this event, life on Earthwill be, to put it gently, uncomfortable. This isscientific fact.

The Earth was born of fire and it will die offire, and that will be the end of it. The end of itall, forever.

Geologists and archeologists have foundevidence of many prehistoric events thatspelled doom for life on earth: The Tamu Massifvolcano that caused the Jurassic extinction orthe deep-ocean anoxia (lack of oxygen) eventsin the Silurian Period nearly 2.3 million yearsago, for example.

But we don’t have to go very far into historyto find a relevant instance: In 1883, in the SundaStrait between Java and Sumatra, the islandvolcano of Krakatoa erupted, killing 36,500people and dumping so much ash into theatmosphere that it lowered the temperature ofthe earth by 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit, while con-cussion waves from the blast circled the globeseveral times. That was one volcano, eruptingone time. Imagine a hundred volcanos eruptinga hundred times, and it isn’t too difficult tounderstand how fragile this planet really is.

The cause of our demise won’t be limited tojust volcanoes, as there are countless otherdoomsday scenarios to consider: floods, earth-quakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis. The 1931China floods killed nearly 4,000,000 people inone of the greatest natural disasters inrecorded history. Fifty years earlier, the YellowRiver slipped its banks and wiped out nearly

2,000,000 people. In 1556, the Shaanxi earth-quake killed 830,000 people, and in 1976,655,000 people died in the Tangshan earth-quake. The Ancash earthquake in 1970 causedan avalanche that killed 20,000 people inPeru, while two years later, 4,000 people diedin the 1972 Iran blizzard. If you were to add upthe casualties of the top 50 deadliest earth-quakes in recorded history, they have claimed6.7 million lives.

But the apocalypse isn’t contained to thewhims of Mother Nature, as man is quite capa-ble of destroying the planet and all who inhabitit many times over. Currently, there are 17,300nuclear warheads on the planet, divided amongnine nations (including Pakistan and NorthKorea). Russia developed the “Emperor Bomb,”the largest single doomsday devise humanityhas ever concocted. A mere 16,000 is needed todestroy every square inch of land on the planet.

The Earth may not be destroyed in one giantfireball, but with a million silent whispers withtoxic gases or plagues of infectious diseases.Maybe Ebola can be a weapon, used like SmallPox was in during Pontiac’s Rebellion againstthe British in Pittsburg in 1736. VX gas, Saringas, and Mustard gas have all been used, Sarinmost recently during the Syrian civil war and inIraq against the Kurds in 1988.

Some claim humankind hasn’t the motiva-tion to destroy the planet, and Mother Naturedoesn’t possess the capabilities. Either way, ithas been proven time and again that we have nocontrol over what the future may hold, andmeanwhile, the sun is slowly getting larger, prov-ing that one thing is for sure: the end is inevitable.

The Four Horsemen

“I looked,and therebefore me

was a palehorse. Itsrider was

namedDeath,

and Hell followed

close behindhim.”

Revelations 6:8

[TOP]After the eruption ofKrakatau decimated

the island, the volcanogot busy rebuilding

itself. Called AnakKrakatau (meaning

“Child of Krakatoa”), itgrows approximately

20 inches a year.

Ryan Lee PriceEditor, American Survival Guide

of the Apocalypse

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DOOMSDAY

Earlier this year, the Science andSecurity Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scien-tists announced an ominous warning regardingour proximity to ultimate doom: “As always,new technologies hold the promise of doinggreat good, supplying new sources of cleanenergy, curing disease, and otherwise enhanc-ing our lives. From experience, however, we alsoknow that new technologies can be used todiminish humanity and destroy societies,” theboard wrote. “We can manage our technology,or become victims of it. The choice is ours, andthe Clock is ticking.”

The Atomic Age started in late 1945 afteratomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima andNagasaki and began an era of fear that grippedthe world. A group of 11 researchers in the Met-allurgical Laboratory of the University ofChicago met to address the moral and socialresponsibilities of scientists regarding the useof nuclear energy, its possible consequences

and potential impact on the planet. Callingthemselves the Chicago Atomic Scientists, theybegan publishing their discussions in mimeo-graph form in December 1945.

As threat of nuclear war increased, theChicago Atomic Scientists used a clock as ananalogy to represent the threat. The closerthe minute hand gets to midnight—it wasoriginally set at seven minutes to midnight in1947—the closer the world is to annihilation.Originally, the clock only represented anuclear threat, but in 2007, the Bulletin ofAtomic Scientists announced they wouldinclude climate change in their assessments.

One of the original founders of the Bulletinof Atomic Scientists explained in 1984: “TheBulletin’s clock is not a gauge to register theups and downs of the international powerstruggle; it is intended to reflect basic changesin the level of continuous danger in whichmankind lives in the nuclear age...”

DOOMSDAY CLOCK HIGHLIGHTSYEAR MINUTES LEFT REASON

1947 7 The initial setting of the Doomsday Clock.

1949 3 The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.

1953 2 The United States and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices.

1963 12 The United States and Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, limiting atmospheric nuclear testing.

1972 12 The United States and the Soviet Union sign the SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1974 9 India tests a nuclear device (Smiling Buddha), SALT II talks stall. Both the United States and the Soviet Union modernize MIRVs.

1981 4 Soviet war in Afghanistan toughens the U.S. nuclear posture. Reagan argues that the only way to end the Cold War is to win it.

1983 3 The clock is adjusted in December 1983, since the ongoing Afghanistan war heats the Cold War. U.S. Pershing II medium-range

ballistic missile and cruise missiles are deployed in Western Europe.

1990 10 Fall of the Berlin Wall, dissolution of Iron Curtain sealing off Eastern Europe, Cold War nearing an end.

1991 17 United States and Soviet Union sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the Soviet Union dissolves.

2007 5 North Korea’s test of a nuclear weapon and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

2012 5 Lack of global political action to address nuclear weapons stockpiles, the potential for regional nuclear conflict, nuclear power

safety, and global climate change.

THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK:

Five Minutes to Midnight

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8 EARTHQUAKE|ANATOMY & SURVIVAL

DOOMSDAY

You’re in the middle of an otherwise ordinary day, filled withordinary daily preoccupations: making coffee, getting your kids ready for school,being stuck in traffic, hoping you can make it home at a decent hour. Withoutwarning, there’s a sound like the sudden passing of a high-speed train — not quitean explosion, sharper than a roar or rumble, and then you’re thrown violently, firstone way and then another, slamming into furniture or walls or anything near.

The sound, the vibration, the wild uncontrolled motion keeps on for half aminute, a minute, an eternity, and then there’s a crashing, tearing noise and thingsaround you start collapsing, ripping into dusty shards of wood, masonry, andglass. Chunks of walls, the contents of shelves and cupboards, and razor-edgedpieces of your windows litter the floor. The tang of ozone and the musk of naturalgas begin to spread, and the initial shock turns to dread as you realize fire may benext. What happened?

You’ve just experienced an earthquake, one of nature’s most frighteningdemonstrations of power. And while most people associate earthquakes withcoastal areas (especially California and Japan), the truth is that earthquakes canoccur nearly anywhere, and almost always do so without warning. And as withmost other life-threatening catastrophes, it isn’t enough to survive the eventitself—you need a plan to survive the after-effects. In the case of earthquakes,these nearly always include more earthquakes, which can be devastating to anarea already damaged and weakened by the initial shock.

Why Does the Earth Quake?An earthquake occurs when two plates of the Earth’s crust, which have been

pressing against one another for years, decades, or centuries, suddenly reach thepoint at which the pressure can no longer be contained. The plates move sud-denly—either by slipping alongside each other, by sliding over and under, by buck-ling, or by simply fracturing—releasing astounding amounts of energy.

How much energy? An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richterscale, which is roughly the point at which humans can feel the motion, has anenergy yield equivalent to 2.7 metric tons of TNT. (And a short note on the Richterscale: each increase of one point on the Richter scale releases ten times as muchenergy as the lower of the two. So an earthquake of 4.0 releases ten times what a3.0 quake releases; a 5.0 releases 100 times what the 3.0, and a 6.0 releases1,000 times, or roughly the yield of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.)

EarthquakeSTAYING ALIVE WHEN YOUR WORLD QUAKES > Story by Scott Fisher

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Unlike the air blast of a nuclear explosion,however, much of the energy from an earth-quake is released into the ground, and thesheer mass of the earth absorbs a lot of theenergy. (Think of the difference between acompact car hitting a pedestrian versus acompact car hitting a cement truck.) But that

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doesn’t mean the damage isn’t serious. Therelease of energy in an earthquake causesshock waves, some of which travel through theground, others of which travel on the surface.While both are powerful, it’s the surface wavesthat cause the most damage, because theyimpart their energy into objects on the sur-face—such as homes, office buildings, roads,and other structures.

Unlike the single blast of an explosion(nuclear or otherwise), earthquakes nearlyalways come with a cluster of aftershocks—minor adjustments made by those plates inthe earth as a result of the initial point of frac-ture, called the epicenter. Like ice cracking onthe surface of a frozen pond, that first break

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puts a strain on other weak spots near the epi-center, and this strain, in the days and weeksfollowing the quake, can cause those weakspots to slip as well. Normally, aftershocks areless powerful than the initial quake, but thelargest can still reach about 80 percent of theoriginal release. Occasionally, an aftershockcan exceed the earthquake itself (as happenedin the 1987 Whittier quake near Los Angeles).And because those aftershocks hit an areathat’s already experienced potentially massivestructural damage from the initial quake, theycan occasionally be far more devastating thanthe first shock.

Make it Through the First QuakeThe first rule, as in any disaster, is “don’t

panic.” Because earthquakes happen withoutwarning signs, the fear response from the sud-den violent movement of the ground beneathyour feet can be terrifying. (How terrifying? Inthe 1971 Sylmar quake in Southern California,stories circulated about people who, awakenedfrom a deep sleep at about 6 a.m., leapt fromtheir beds and ran down the street naked—onlyto realize a block or so later.)

More practically, if you’re inside during aquake, stay close to an interior wall, preferablyunder some sturdy object (solid table or desk).Most important, stay away from objects thatcan fall on you—as I did, if inadvertently, in theFebruary, 1971 Sylmar quake (magnitude: 6.6),while I was in high school.

At about 6 a.m., I was awoken by what Ithought, in my half-asleep state, was a hydro-gen bomb: my bed shook, seeming to throw meback and forth while the world roared andthundered for about a minute. I thought I sawthe wall-mounted heater torn off the wall (itturned out not to be damaged). Because I wasstill in bed, I curled up into a ball in the center ofthe bed and pulled my two pillows and blan-kets over me to provide some cushion in theevent of debris.

After the shaking ended, I saw that a largecombat knife (even at that age I had an interest-ing collection of weapons) that I’d hung over mybed was no longer on the wall. I checked laterand found it had fallen between my bed and thewall. Which suggests a bonus survival tip: don’thang heavy, edged objects over the bed.

If you’re outside, stay clear of trees, poles,buildings (especially glass storefronts, as glassshattering during an earthquake can travelsome distance) and especially power lines. Myown experience with the 1989 Loma Prietaquake happened while I was in my front yard; Iquickly estimated the height of the nearestlight post and put myself a safe distance fromboth the post and from the glass that framedthe entry way of my house. It was unnerving tofeel the ground bounce and sway beneath me;it felt as though I was standing in a moving busdriving over a rutted dirt field. I rode it out, andwas fortunate that the glass did not break.

If you’re in your vehicle, pull over to a clearlocation and stop. Avoid bridges and under-passes—sadly, the Loma Prieta quake provedhow dangerous they can be in a major shaker. Ifa power line falls on your car, the Red Cross rec-ommends that you stay in the car until emer-gency personnel arrive to remove it. As contraryas that may sound to the nature of our reader-ship, the science behind it is clear: the tires ofyour car insulate you from any electrical currentthat makes contact with the car’s body, but ifyou step out of the car the current can flowthrough you to ground and electrocute you. Soprepare to survive by stopping as far as possi-ble from overhead wires.

Survive the Collateral DamageWe’ve already discussed electrical wires,

but gas lines and water mains often break in amajor earthquake. Much of the damage in the1906 San Francisco earthquake came aboutdue to fires that spread in the wake of thetremors; some estimates claim that 90 percentof the damage was due to post-quake fires.

Your job at this point, then, is to assessimmediate risks to yourself and your family.Which means that the first thing you do afterthe shaking stops: make sure you’re wearingsturdy shoes. If there is broken glass, wood ormasonry debris, or some other hazards, a pairof shoes can make the difference betweenbeing able to protect yourself or being a casu-alty. (If you’re a parent, your first instinct ofcourse will be to run and check on the kids, butslip on a pair of shoes first. I always keep atleast one pair of shoes by my bed, but then I’velived through three of the four major California

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“AT ABOUT 6 A.M., I WAS AWOKEN BY WHAT I THOUGHT, IN MY HALF-ASLEEP STATE, WAS A HYDROGEN BOMB…”

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earthquakes of the last 40 years. I recommendit, especially compared to the alternative.)

If you’re at home, it’s best at this point to dotwo simultaneous inventories: locate your fam-ily members while looking for damage that cankill or injure you. If you’re not at home, assessthe risks around you, again focusing on fire,electrical wires, broken glass and other debris.If you are inside a building, chances are goodthe power is out, but not necessarily: in the1987 Whittier quake, we had full electricity andcable TV, so we were able to monitor the statusof the city. However, in the 1971 and 1989

quakes, electricity was out for several days inour area and for longer in the places hit evenharder. We’ll discuss that more in the Gear sec-tion, later in this article.

Once you’ve located family and identifiedimmediate threats, it’s time to concentrate onsurviving the aftershocks. This starts with basictriage: is anyone injured? Are your gas or waterlines ruptured? Find and distribute the items inyour emergency kit and refer to your plan(again, we’ll go over both of these in the Gearsection). You should know exactly where to goto turn off the gas or water, and exactly whattools to use (it’s a 17mm open-ended wrench inmy house, and it’s in the third drawer of my toolchest — where is yours?)

Other threats may not be as obvious. BrianFalstaff rode out the initial Loma Prieta shaker,but while assessing damage to his Ben Lomondhome—less than a mile from the epicenter—henoticed that his chimney had major gaps, andthen realized that the upper eight to 10 feet of ithad actually been broken off from the base androtated 90 degrees. This meant that anotheraftershock might cause the chimney—remem-ber, eight to 10 feet of bricks—to fall throughthe roof, into the house.

So Brian looped a section of rope around theupper, detached section of the chimney, hookedthe other end to the trailer hitch on his truck,and—from a safe distance—pulled the chimneydown into the open space at the side of thehouse. One of Brian’s neighbors noticed himdoing this, and together they pulled down thesimilarly detached chimney on his house. Bymid-afternoon, they had worked with a numberof neighbors with similar problems, preventingfurther injuries and property damage.

But a final risk from a major earthquake canbe flood, especially if a reservoir is threatenedor damaged by the tremors. In the 1971 quake,damage was detected to the Van Norman Dam,an old earthenware dam that formed theretaining wall for a huge reservoir at the northend of the Valley (near the epicenter). Therewas serious concern that if the retaining wallwas breached, the Valley would be floodedwith huge damage to property and potentialloss of life. For this, you want to be sure tomonitor local news and first-responder com-munication.

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Gail CaseIf positioning yourself in a safe

place like a doorjamb or beside abed is not possible, then at leastchoose somewhere with softobjects, as did Gail Case in theOctober, 1987 Loma Prieta earth-quake (magnitude: 6.9). Gail hadbeen shopping in a SunnyvaleBabies ‘R Us at the moment theearthquake hit, and found herselfin the middle of the store. Theaisle to one side of her held cribs,changing tables, and shelves; tothe other side, large packages ofdisposable diapers. Gail quicklyreasoned that she stood a betterchance of survival with the softpacks of diapers than with hardwooden furniture, so she rode outthe quake being battered bypacks of Pampers.

Xian ChapmanThe most important thing to

know in an earthquake survivalsituation is to stay away fromwindows. Xian Chapman ofReseda, Calif., had been feelingthe effects of a winter case of theflu in January, 1994, so shedragged her pillow and blanketout to the couch in her livingroom to fall asleep watching TVinstead of in her bed. A few hoursbefore dawn, the San FernandoValley suffered an earthquakewith a magnitude of 6.7—shatter-ing her window and dropping allthe glass onto her bed. The sightof long shards of razor-sharpglass embedded into her mat-tress haunt her to this day.

PERSONAL ACCOUNT|EARTHQUAKE

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S T O R I E S O F S U R V I V A L

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DOOMSDAY

The highest magnitude of any earthquakemeasured on U.S. soil and the second largestever recorded (9.2), the Alaska quake of March27, 1964 killed 131 people—nine in the earth-quake itself and 122 in the resulting tsunami.Anchorage, located only about 120 miles fromthe epicenter, sustained the most damage andfive of the deaths, with damage to or outrightdestruction of buildings within a 30-block area.The three-minute shock destroyed manyschools, either through demolition in the initialquake or through landslide activity.

Landslides were responsible for much of thedamage. The Turnagain Heights area ofAnchorage experienced the worst of theselandslides, resulting in three fatalities; further-more, an area of approximately 130 acres suf-fered displacement, in which the ground breaksinto blocks that lift, collapse, tilt and separatefrom one another. In other areas, vertical dis-placements lifted blocks of ground as much as35 feet, or dropped as much as seven.

In the city of Seward, a 1,000-foot section ofthe waterfront slid into Resurrection Bay. As ifthe local tsunami wasn’t bad enough, the col-lapse of buildings and industry on the water-front caused burning oil to be poured into thebay, and the tsunami carried the flaming oil

across the surface of the water—followed bythe main tsunami 20 minutes later. Seward suf-fered 13 fatalities as a result.

Because of Alaska’s coastline, the tsunamithat resulted from this massive upheaval of theearth peaked in a wave recorded at more than200 feet high. 106 people on the Alaska coastdied from the tsunami; four campers on thebeach at Newport, Oregon lost their lives, as did13 Californians, while the property damage inAlaska, Oregon and California topped $95 mil-lion. The city of San Rafael, in San FranciscoBay rather than on the open ocean, sustained$600,000 in damage to the harbor and boats.(Amazingly, the estimated 10,000 people inSan Francisco who lined up to see the tidalwave suffered zero fatalities.)

The earthquake and tsunami deaths fromthe 1964 quake resulted in the establishment,in 1967, of the West Coast and Alaska TsunamiWarning Center in Palmer, Alas.(http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov) While the Cen-ter’s primary goal is to provide tsunami warn-ings to Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California,and British Columbia in Canada (which hadsuffered $10 million in damage, though no lossof life, in the 1964 quake), it also providesearthquake data to anyone interested.

The Great Alaska Quake, 1964

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Over the course of three months (December1811 to February 1812), the community of NewMadrid, Mo. was hit by three massive earth-quakes: one at 7.5 and two at 7.7. But what ismost significant about this earthquake (orcluster of earthquakes, if you will) is its loca-tion: more or less in the center of the continent,a long way from the coastlines and young-foldmountains normally associated with earth-quakes. The New Madrid quakes remain themost powerful earthquakes to affect the east-ern United States in recorded history.

At 2:15 a.m. local time, on the morning ofDecember 16, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake shookthe northeast Arkansas/Missouri area. Reportsof ground motion described as “most alarmingand frightening” came from as far away asNashville, Tennessee and Louisville, Kentucky;the shaking was sufficient to wake people inNew York, Washington, D.C., and Charleston, S.C.Houses were shaken, chimneys destroyed, andnear the epicenter, dirt and water were throwntens of feet into the air through liquefaction.

In New Bourbon, Mo., boatman John Brad-bury, who was moored to a small island, laterreported that “the perpendicular banks, bothabove us and below us, began to fall into theriver in such vast masses, as to nearly sink ourboat by the swell they occasioned.” Some five

hours later, an aftershock of 7.0 rocked the areaagain, and again the East Coast felt thetremors. By daylight, Bradbury had totted up 27separate shocks.

Then, at 9:15 on the morning of January 23,1812, a 7.3-magnitude quake again shook theNew Madrid area. For this event, the Ohio Riverwas iced over, so there was little river trafficand few people to record the event, but thosewho were present reported warping of theground, soil and rock being ejected, cracksand fissures forming, and landslides includingcaving in of stream and river banks.

The final event in this cluster struck at 3:45a.m. on February 7, 1812, a 7.5-magnitude quakethat occurred in several shocks. Contemporaryreports put the last of these shocks as equal tothe initial event the previous December; thetown of New Madrid was leveled, and housesas far away as St. Louis were damaged severely,typically losing chimneys from the swaying ofthe earth. The Mississippi River even bore wit-ness to the effect, with uplift along the faultresulting in the creation of temporary waterfallsat Kentucky Bend, and waves were observedtraveling upstream. Finally, the creation ofReelfoot Lake when streams, in what is nowLake County, Tenn., were obstructed by theseismic activity.

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The New Madrid Earthquakes, 1811-12

One of the worst earthquakes in U.S. history was the San Franciscoearthquake in 1906 as well as the devastating fires that followed.

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16 EARTHQUAKE|GEAR GUIDE

DOOMSDAY

Much of this gear is com-mon to any emergency, andare probably already set upfor your survival plan: food,water, light, communica-tion, protection from expo-sure. But there are a few lit-tle tips I’ve picked up fromdecades in California. Inorder of importance:

First-aid kit. Youshould at a minimum beprepared to dress smallwounds, both lacerationand punctures, as well asfractures and sprains. It’slike buying a motorcyclehelmet: you can get by witha $50 helmet if your head isonly worth $50. But your kitneeds to contain, as a bareminimum, disinfectant(alcohol, peroxide, handsanitizer), gauze for makingbandages, tape for sealingthem, self-adhering tapefor wrapping injured joints,tweezers, scissors, scalpel,and pain relief. If you canprint out instructions onbasic first aid techniques—how to make a butterfly

bandage, and so forth—keep that in the first-aid kit.

In addition, if you live inan area where a reservoirmight burst and flood yoursurroundings, groundwatermay be contaminated so ifyou use a well, be preparedto use disinfectant tablets(or better yet boil any wateryou draw). If your waterreserves are stored insealed bottles (5-gallonjugs or equivalent), youwon’t need this for drinkingwater, but it’s still a goodidea to keepdisinfectant/sanitizingchemicals on hand forother uses (washingclothes, dishes, and generalcleanup).

Battery-operatedradio (with spare batter-ies). Chances are yourpower will go out withinseconds of the first tremor,and a battery-poweredradio will let you followannouncements of theaftermath of the quake.Though power may not go

out: after the initial shockof the 1987 Whittier quake,we still had power and werewatching television whenthe first aftershock hit. Wewere treated to the eeriesensation of seeing theaftershock hit the newsstudio, located abouthalfway between the epi-center and our home. Wesaw the news castersscream and dive under thedesk as their set fell aparton camera, lights fallingand exploding as wallsswayed and collapsed. Ithought it must be akin tostanding on the deck of aship and watching a tor-pedo coming at me, know-ing it would hit but notknowing how much dam-age it would do when it gotthere. You should also con-sider a battery-operatedcell phone recharger, not

only to make calls tocommunicate withother family members,but for other reasonslisted below.

Flashlights(plus spare bat-

teries), matches,candles and

camp stove.Never light amatch untilyou’re certainyou do nothave a gas

leak! But if you’ve

done your triage from theprevious section, youshould know that you’resafe. One tip, especially ifyou have children: arrangefor everyone in your house-hold to have a keychain-style mini-flashlight, with aswitch that allows it to stayon until turned off, andhang these from lanyards.We’re big fans of the Pho-ton Micro-Light (availablefor around $10 fromsources such as the KnifeCenter of the Internet; startyour search atKnifeCenter.com/knifecen-ter/lights/ and look for KeyRing Flashlights), and try tohave one on each keychain,plus extras in the emer-gency kit to put on lanyards.The first advantage is that amini-light on a lanyard putsa pool of light right whereyou need it: in front of yourfeet, so you can look out fordebris, steps, or other dan-gers—and of course, so youcan see your family mem-bers in the dark and dam-aged house. And second,many of these lights areavailable in multiple colors;if you color-code the lights,you’ll know who is comingdown the hall or around theside of the house.

A diagram of whereto turn off water, gas,and electricity to thehouse (that is, yourmaster breaker box).Broken water mains cancause serious problems aswater either underminesthe foundation of yourhouse or damages thestructure itself. You shoulddefinitely have some piperepair tape on hand, madeto seal leaks and breaks inwet situations, for all kinds

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of home emergencies. TheFernco Pow-r-Wrap brand(Fernco.com/plumbing/pow-r-repair/pow-r-wrap)can be used under water,according to the instruc-tions; I used it on a splitpipe after a hard winterfreeze and it’s effective andpermanent when installedproperly. This product isepoxy-impregnated tapepackaged in a kit thatincludes the epoxy catalystand plastic gloves for get-ting a tight seal with thetape. It sets in a few min-utes and can make the dif-ference between anuncomfortable mess andpotentially terminal waterdamage on walls, floorsand foundation. Andremember, in an after-shock, weakened walls,floors and foundation maywell mean injuries thatcould be prevented.

Again, if you have chil-dren: be sure to have someform of entertainment thatdoes not involve electricity.In the 1989 Loma Prietaquake, our oldest daughter(about two at the time)wasn’t too afraid of theearth’s shaking and shud-dering, but as her mom andI sat by the battery-pow-ered radio listening to theearly reports of collapsedbridges and freeway over-passes, our daughter gotbored and kept bringing usentertainment: video cas-settes, records (remember,it was 1989 and vinyl wasstill a thing). Books, cardgames, and othertraditional activ-ities will keepthem enter-tained safelywhile you con-

centrate on tracking theexternal situation, securingthe house and protectingyour family.

Probably the mostimportant thing, especiallyif you have children: knowwhere the safety gear is,and make sure they under-stand its importance. Werecently had our grandchil-dren staying with us for amonth, and like all six-year-olds, Jack loved playingwith our flashlights in thebackyard at dusk. Early inthe visit, I impressed on himthe importance of keepingthe flashlight in the sameplace, and made a “teach-able moment” to get him tounderstand: we put his sis-ter and grandmother in thekitchen, then after I showedJack how to count drawersto where the flashlight isstored, I turned off all thelights. Jack counted thedrawers, opened the rightone, and took out the flash-light, to the cheers of his

sister and grandmother.Jack enjoyed the attention,but the pride of accom-plishment of having foundthe emergency light madethe point that it has to bewhere it’s supposed to be.

An emergency scan-ner, or at least an app foryour smartphone that actsas an emergency scanner,for listening to your localpolice, fire and rescue orga-nization’s communications.This can provide you farmore information aboutlocal conditions than theradio news, because youcan listen in directly onfirst-responder radio trans-missions.

I use a free app forAndroid called ScannerRadio, which has a numberof settings including theability to program in notifi-cations so that if somethingnew occurs, my phone willlet me know. (It’s also use-

ful when youhear sirens in

your neigh-borhood and

want to knowwhether or not

the event they’re

responding to is a risk toyou or your family.) Ofcourse, this all assumesthat the cell towers aren’ttaken out by the earth-quake; portable handheldscanners are available forabout $100 or slightly less,and don’t rely on cell sig-nals or wifi which can bedisrupted by a major earth-quake event.

All this, of course, is ontop of what you no doubthave stockpiled for ageneric emergency: water,food, camping gear, andany protection you feel isnecessary for the situation.Experience shows that inearthquakes, it’s generallythe better part of humannature that comes to thesurface, and neighbors helpeach other recover and pro-tect themselves, as demon-strated my friends whoeliminated the risk of fallingchimneys. But either way,preparing for some of thespecific risks presented byearthquakes (and theirunpredictable aftershocks)can help you and yourscome out in one piece … ifnot unshaken.

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Chill Factor

18 BLIZZARD|ANATOMY & SURVIVAL

DOOMSDAY

Wind whips around you, shooting ice and snow into your face. You’recolder than you’ve ever been, colder than you imagined was possible. The wind finds anyvulnerable place in your clothing and fills it with snow. You can’t see the horizon, you can’tsee five feet in front of you: it’s a perfect whiteout. If you stand still for more than a second,you can reach down and feel your boots already covered in powder, with more accumulat-ing every second. If you take too long to get inside, you may find yourself buried alive.

Once the winds die down, if you were lucky enough to find shelter, you can get to a sec-ond (or third) floor window and look out on a changed landscape. Streets, cars, evenhouses are totally covered in a still, white blanket. Everything is completely still, andthere’s no telling how many people are outside, trapped under the snow.

What is a Blizzard?A blizzard: A powerful, often devastating, natural phenomenon, it is a severe snow-

storm with strong, sustained winds. It can last for hours or days. A peculiarly Americanphenomenon (or at least an American word), the blizzard is made possible by the inter-mingling of cold, dry air from Canada, warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, and coldmoist air from the West Coast. When all three air currents meet, the conditions are right forheavy wind and snow.

Some of these storms, the ones called “ground blizzards,” don’t even require that it besnowing. If there’s snow on the ground and the winds are high enough, snow will whip intothe air and have a similar effect.

While blizzard-like events can and do happen in other places on the globe (history’sdeadliest was in Iran in 1972), the U.S. is particularly prone to them. Blizzards occur mostoften in the Great Plains states, coastal states in the north east, and states surroundingthe Great Lakes.

The damage that blizzards can cause is vast, as these storms combine all the dangersof snowstorms with the violence of hurricanes. Livestock and other animals are vulnerable.Cars and even houses can be completely buried beneath huge snow drifts. If roofs aren’tripped off by the terrible winds, then they can collapse under the weight of the snow. Andof course, once the winds die down, all of that snow is now stuck on the ground. Depend-ing on what time of year the blizzard struck, it may be on the ground for a long time, block-ing roads and restricting travel. If the blizzard struck at an unseasonable time of year, asthey sometimes do, crops may not have been fully harvested and end up destroyed.

SURVIVING THE ICY GRIPS OF A BLIZZARD > Story by Graham Towers

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Human life is also greatly endangered byblizzards. In a condition called “whiteout,” thereis so much ambient snow being blown throughthe air that a person can totally lose sight of thehorizon and general visibility can be reduced topractically nothing (to be considered a blizzard,visibility is no more than a quarter of a mile.)There is no shortage of stories of people whosought shelter in whiteout conditions, as closeas a few dozen yards away in areas they knewwell—like their own backyards—only to becomedisoriented and lose their way.

Due to the chilling effect of the high winds(which can often reach hurricane-levelspeeds), frostbite and hypothermia can occurmuch more quickly than in normal snowstormconditions.

Blizzards can range in size from the local allthe way to country spanning. The Storm of theCentury stretched all the way from Canada toCuba. By the end of the 1972 blizzard in Iran, asection of the country the size of Wisconsin hadbeen totally blanketed in up to 26 feet of snow.These were largely rural areas that wereaffected the most, with entire villages buriedand no high ground to get to. All told, 4,000people died, making it the world’s deadliestblizzard by nearly a factor of 10.

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Surviving a BlizzardLike any disaster, the best way to survive a

blizzard is to be prepared for it. Even if you’reoutside and the blizzard strikes without warn-ing, knowing a few basic rules can save your life.

If the blizzard hits when you’re at home (oryou’re close enough to safely get back to yourhome), you can run your heater or build a fire aslong as any heat source can safely vent to theoutside. Death by carbon monoxide poisoningis highly preventable with proper practices andmonitoring.

Stay fed, keeping in mind that your foodsupply may need to last up to four days. Evenonce the storm has dissipated, the roads likelywill be impassable for some time, particularly inareas where blizzards are rare. Drinking water isalso important: it’s easy to get dehydratedwhen the cold temperatures fool one’s bodyinto not feeling thirsty. Complicating mattersfurther, it’s easy for pipes to freeze and burstwhen the temperature drops precipitously. TheFederal Emergency Management Agency rec-ommends keeping your faucets at a steadydrip, as even a tiny amount of moving water canhelp prevent pipes from freezing.

Just as it’s easier to weather a blizzard athome when there’s an adequate supply ofemergency supplies, being trapped in your caris made much safer by taking a few precau-tions. In addition to a standard emergency kit(and a few road flares), people in areas wheresnow is common should keep a small supply ofnon-perishable food, bottles of water, andwarm clothes. A fully charged cell phone andkeeping at least a half tank of gas at all timesare some other common-sense measures thatare too often neglected.

In terms of procedure, should the blizzardstrike when you’re in your car and too far fromshelter to safely get indoors, pull to the side ofthe road and flip on your hazards—your situa-tion is bad enough without getting rear-endedby somebody who’s driving blind. Never leaveyour car during a blizzard; it’s much easier tofind a car or truck on a road than it is to locateone lone person walking through a snowstorm.

If you have a brightly colored piece of clothor plastic, you should tie it to the top of yourantenna or place it in a window for greater visi-bility. If you decide to run your car, do so only for

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10 minutes every hour, and ensuring that thetailpipe is clear and a window is cracked (again,it is essential to be careful about that carbonmonoxide.) The National Oceanic and Atmos-pheric Administration recommends leaving thecar’s interior dome lights on at night. These willhelp rescuers find your vehicle even if the car’sheadlights have been covered by the risingsnow. Plus, the dome lights will drain the car’sbattery much more slowly than keeping theheadlights on all night.

Even though one naturally has less mobilitywhen trapped in a car, it is recommended thatyou should exercise and change position regu-larly for warmth and to keep blood circulating.And, of course, staying calm is the best thingyou can do, both for your over-taxed body andyour state of mind. You’re less likely to makepotentially life-endangering mistakes if you’recool and calm.

Once the snow has stopped falling, get outof car and raise the hood for increased visibilityand wait for rescue. People have survived morethan a week trapped in their cars in the snow.Historically, when families have been trappedtogether in the car, it’s almost always the bravesoul who leaves the car to find help that per-ishes, while the rest of the family is eventuallydiscovered and rescued.

Of course, there’s a world of differencebetween being stuck in a blizzard in the com-fort of your home or car and being stuck out inthe elements with just the clothes on yourback. In this situation, time is the most impor-tant factor. Even if it’s not super-cold out, thewind chill can lower your body temperaturealmost as quickly as if you were in an ice bath.Thus, your number one priority is getting somekind of shelter from the wind. If you’re luckyenough to be near trees or any other tall, semi-broad structure, this is where you’ll want toregroup and likely where you’ll build your lean-to or a snow cave.

Any shelter is better than none, but someshelters are better than others. The likelihood

that someone trapped in a blizzard has theopportunity and ability to build an emergencysnow cave while the wind rages is slim. How-ever, should you find yourself trapped in theelements and you’re foresighted enough tohave brought along a camp shovel, a snow cavemight be your only option, particularly if thereare no visible trees, boulders, or other naturalwind breaks.

Ernest Wilkinson, author of Snow Caves forFun and Survival, long ago stopped taking tentswith him when he would go camping in the Col-orado mountains in the dead of winter. Withjust a shovel, he’d build his snow caves, learningalong the way that the conventional wisdom(finding a snow bank and bending down anddigging into it from the side) was a waste oftime and effort. Rather, he suggests diggingdown into a snow bank that’s at least four feetdeep before tunneling horizontally. This littlehole should already provide some relief fromthe worst of the wind. Once the hole is dug,then it’s time to tunnel horizontally.

Engineers have known for thousands ofyears how strong domes can be, and youremergency snow cave is no exception. Therounded roof will be able to sustain far moreweight than a flat roof, which over time will sagand collapse. Once the cave is large enough foryour body, the most important thing is remain-ing dry, or, if you’re wet already, getting dry. Any-one who’s read Jack London’s, To Build a Fire,remembers that being wet is what kills in thecold. A small emergency candle should provideadequate warmth in a small cave, though if youfind yourself becoming dizzy or drowsy youmust vent your cave. Lighting any kind of sub-stantial fire or camp stove inside the cave is arecipe for disaster: you’ll likely succumb to theeffects of poisoning long before the heat canaffect the integrity of the cave.

Lastly, don’t forget to mark your cave some-how, both for rescuers to be able to find youand also to prevent anybody from trampling inyour cave.

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“PEOPLEHAVESURVIVEDMORETHAN AWEEKTRAPPEDIN THEIRCARS INTHESNOW.”

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Lauren Weinberg

Lauren Weinberg is a good example of howshelter is the single most factor in surviving ablizzard. She spent nine days trapped in her carin the Flagstaff, Arizona area during the winterof 2011. During her ordeal, the nightly tempera-ture reached near zero. She survived despitenot having any blankets or heavy coat. Whenshe was discovered by employees of the U.S.Forest Service, she was covering her legs withher car’s floor mats.

For sustenance, she had nothing but twocandy bars. For water, she took snow in fromthe outside and waited for it to melt on thedashboard before drinking it. That simple act iswhat saved her life, and, other than not losinghope, was arguably her only good decision. Eat-ing snow is always the worst option, as it lowersthe body temperature dramatically. When notin a car or other shelter, melting snow with indi-rect body heat is the best option. For example,a snow-filled water bottle in a coat pocket is agood idea, a snow-filled water bottle placeddirectly against the skin is a bad idea.

Weinberg’s story also demonstrates theimportance of even rudimentary preparedness.She managed to survive with no creature com-forts, but the danger and discomfort of herordeal would have been considerably lessenedif she’d had a jacket (or even better, a sleepingbag) in her trunk.

Bob McDonald, one of the workers who res-cued Weinberg, stated, “I could not even beginto predict how she could (survive)…” Police offi-cer James Holmes said, “You can say survivalskills or a miracle, either way.” Weinberg’s storyis not one of planning and cunning overcominga freak disaster. It’s one of extraordinary luck.Before she left (during her university’s finalsweek), she failed to tell anyone where she wasgoing and indeed, had no destination in mind,planning on just going for an aimless drive.Authorities traced her via her purchases at con-venience stores, but were unable to ascertainwhere she’d gone after.

There are plenty of lessons in Weinberg’sstory, the most important one being to staywith whatever shelter is available no matterwhat. Starvation and dehydration will almostcertainly not be what kills someone; it willalways be exposure. The other lesson is thateven the most basic precautions can be life-savers. Had Weinberg sent so much as a textmessage to a friend or family member, her ninenights alone in the cold could have beenreduced to one.

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S T O R I E S O F S U R V I V A L

“I COULD NOT EVEN BEGINTO PREDICT HOW SHECOULD (SURVIVE)… YOUCAN SAY SURVIVALSKILLS OR A MIRACLE,EITHER WAY.”

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Boyd Severson

Boyd Severson’s story is proof that even anexperienced outdoorsman in a familiar areacan make a series of small mistakes that addup to a life-threatening situation. It was abeautiful September day in 2007, seeminglyperfect weather for a nice hike up MummyMountain in gorgeous Rocky MountainNational Park in Colorado.

Despite being unable to find a partner, hedecided to make a go of it anyway. However, hevery prudently sent messages to a friend as hewent along, though once the weather gotrougher, his phone and his Blackberry refusedto connect.

Severson reached the summit early in theafternoon, and from there he was able to seebad weather moving in. He began his descent,realizing too late that he’d gone the wrongdirection. Visibility decreased as the weatherworsened and he tried to head back to findwhere he’d deviated from his path. Darknessfell, the snow increased and soon he foundhimself in a whiteout.

With such limited visibility, the best shelterhe could find was a small crevice among a fewlarge boulders. It was here that he spent a longnight. Of his experience, he says, “When mywater bottles froze solid before 10 p.m., I knewnot to fall asleep.”

The wind chill brought the temperaturedown to 60 degrees below freezing. Seversonclaims he never believed he was going to die,though he was worried about developing frost-bite. To maximize warmth, he put on everypiece of clothing he’d brought, including cover-ing his neck and ankles with Ace bandages. Hesays, “I generally carry too much clothing andemergency gear, but this time I wished I’d hadeven more.” For warmth and to keep his bloodcirculating, he flexed his muscles.

A search had begun the night before whenhe’d failed to return from his day hike. Rescuedogs, helicopters, and ground searchers weremobilized. After day broke, Severson stayedput, as he knew a search would be underway.As the day wore on, though, he decided tobegin moving, knowing that “There was no way

I was going to spend another night out.” Even-tually he encountered rescuers on a trail andwas saved. Severson’s two mistakes were goingsolo (which is never the best-case scenario butstill something that experienced hikers do everyday) and getting lost, which he blames on hisreliance on his Blackberry instead of his GPSdevice. Once it was clear he was spending thenight outdoors, however, Severson mitigatedhis mistakes with solid survival procedures:finding shelter and preventing frostbite by exer-cising his muscle groups.

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DOOMSDAY

The Great Blizzard of 1993

The Great Blizzard of 1993, more commonly known as “The Storm ofthe Century,” was a super-storm that ravaged the East Coast of the UnitedStates. In every metric, this storm was extreme: its size and intensity wereunheard of. The cyclonic storm that formed in the Gulf of Mexico reachedall the way up to Canada during its peak. This storm had something foreverybody: it created tornadoes, churned up the seas and induced flood-ing, blanketed half the country in snow, and shut down highways from theSoutheast to Canada.

Southeastern states where snow was almost a foreign concept (espe-cially in mid-March, when the storm struck) reported shocking amountsof snow. Alabama, Georgia, and Florida all received unprecedentedamounts of snow, along with hurricane-force winds that cost billions indamages and left dozens dead in Florida alone.

The storm was almost unimaginably widespread: a total of 26 stateswere affected, as well as Cuba and Canada. An enormous swath of thecountry stretching from Texas all the way to Pennsylvania suffered theterrifying phenomenon called “thundersnow,” electrical storms where theprecipitation is snow instead of rain. White-out conditions were reportedacross half the country for the three days that the storm lasted.

From Atlanta all the way up to Canada, every single airport was shutdown for at least some time, stranding countless travelers.

Regions that were totally unused to snow found themselves sub-merged under giant drifts. Roofs and decks collapsed under the weight ofthe snow, the total weight of which was estimated to be between 5.4 and27 billion metric tons.

While other storms in individual regions had been more severe, theSoutheastern states hadn’t experienced anything remotely similar sincethe Great Blizzard of 1899 nearly a hundred years previous. These statessaw record levels of snowfall and record temperature lows: Birmingham,Alabama recorded a low of two degrees Fahrenheit, unheard of for mid-March, when the storm struck.

It was one of the deadliest storms of the century, killing a total of 318people. Some were crushed by collapsing roofs, some drowned at sea inextraordinarily rough conditions. Amazingly, the U.S. Coast Guard rescueda total of 235 people at sea. The storm caused the ocean to surge danger-ously, Gulf waters flooding into Florida homes. Many people drowned inthe storm, more than in Hurricanes Andrew and Hugo combined. Eighteenthousand homes in Florida alone were affected, either damaged or out-right annihilated.

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The Schoolhouse Blizzard

One of the most tragic blizzards to ever strike America was the School-house Blizzard, also known as the Children’s Blizzard. It hit the plainsstates, particularly Nebraska and South Dakota, on January 12th, 1888.

This storm gets its grim name from the fact that many of the victimswere children who got lost in the whiteouts on their way home fromschool. The weeks leading up to the blizzard had seen snowstorms andbitter cold visited on the Midwest. The day the blizzard struck, though, hadbeen unusually warm. As a result, people were out and about, taking careof business that’d been suspended during the recent cold snap. Studentswent to school with either light jackets or no coats at all.

The blizzard descended while children were in school and adults wereat work. Many of those who perished were trying to make their way home.In the town of Plainview, Neb., a teacher found herself out of heating fuelin her little, one-room schoolhouse. The teacher, Lois Royce, decided tolead her three students to her boarding house which was closer than afootball field away. Conditions were so poor, and visibility so bad, thatthey got lost, and all three students tragically froze to death. Royce wasthe only survivor, though her feet developed frostbite and had to beamputated.

Seymour Dopp, a teacher in Pawnee City, Neb., kept his 17 studentsovernight in the schoolhouse, using stockpiled fuel to warm the buildingthrough the duration of the blizzard. The next morning, all his studentswere still safe and sound. Dopp returned home, only to discover his owndaughter had suffered frostbite on her one-block journey home. Herteacher, like many others, had released the students in a panic, hopingthey’d find their way home before the storm grew too severe.

There were only a few instances reported of people who ventured outinto the cold and survived. The most celebrated case was that of MinnieFreeman, a teacher who led her 17 students a half-mile through the bliz-zard to her boarding house. The story goes that, with holes being blown inthe roof and the front door repeatedly being blown open, she decided thatspending the night in the schoolhouse would be disastrous. She tied herstudents together with rope (this was later disputed by one of the stu-dents) and led them single-file through the storm to safety.

Freeman was celebrated across the country, and it’s claimed some 80hopeful suitors mailed her letters bearing marriage proposals.

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“THIS STORM GETS ITS GRIM NAMEFROM THE FACT THAT MANY OF THEVICTIMS WERE CHILDREN WHO GOTLOST IN THE WHITEOUTS ON THEIRWAY HOME FROM SCHOOL.”

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Snow ShoesIf you have to be mobile outside during a blizzard, you’llwant to have these on your feet. They won’t make you anywarmer, but they’ll sure get you where you’re going faster.MSR Ascent snowshoes cost a pretty penny (more than$200), but they’re highly reviewed and solidly built. OMCGear.com

Goretex Bivy Coverand Carry SackAnother Military-issue stand-by, thisfour-piece Bivy sack can be used inthe summer or winter, keeping youtoasty all the way down to negative20 Fahrenheit. Be careful orderingonline, though, some people whopaid full price for new apparentlyreceived used gear, if Amazonreviews are to be believed. REI.com

ACR PLB-375ResQLink+ PersonalLocating BeaconHit a button and a distress signalbearing your GPS coordinates is sentto Search and Rescue services. Abuilt-in strobe makes it easier forrescuers to find you. You hope younever need it, but if you find yourselftrapped in a blizzard, you can stayput in whatever shelter you can findwith the peace of mind that you’llsoon be found. ACRartex.com

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The North FaceSteep SaikuThis glove means business. It’sbulk means you won’t be ableto do fine-motor projects(good luck lighting a matchwhile wearing these badboys), but that bulk alsomeans you won’t need a fire,at least not to keep your handswarm. Heavily insulated andlined with Gore-Tex, it’s wellworth its $180 price tag. BackCountry.com

UCO StormproofMatch KitDon’t even mess with flintand steel Boy Scout-stylefire-starters. These storm-proof matches, sometimescalled Hurricane matches,are what you want if youneed to start a fire in lessthan ideal conditions. Youcan dunk the matches inwater and then light themon the included strikers thevery next second. IndustrialRev.com

E-Tool Entrenching ShovelEveryone who’s been in a camping store has seen the rinky-dink folding shovels thatyou can pick for a few bucks. Odds are if you’ve used one of those cheaper shovels,you’ve had them bend or outright snap. The E-Tool Entrenching Shovel is not one ofthose. For starters, it folds up tighter and is far stronger than its brethren. Like the namesays, this is the tool issued by the U.S. military. If you ever find yourself forced to build asnow cave quickly, you’ll be glad you paid the 50 bucks or so that this beast costs. AmesTrueTemper.com

Nalgene Bottle SleeveStaying hydrated in a blizzard is notthe first concern on most people’sminds, and thus it is easy to forgethow important it is. While this bottlesleeve is designed to keep watercold, if you need to melt snow forwater, the sleeve will insulate thebottle so you can warm it with yourbody heat without having to worryabout an uninsulated bottle loweringyour core temperature. REI.com

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I love storms and I love to be outside, but when I watchedthe formation of Hurricane Katrina from my television, far away in Cal-ifornia, it was one of the rare times that I felt glad to be in front of myTV. The news meteorologists talked about the various levels of hurri-canes on the Saffir-Simpson scale, and how each greater level meantmore devastation. As the huge storm moved on a trajectory toLouisiana, newscasters showed pictures of long stretches of highwaysfilled bumper to bumper with cars full of people trying to get out. Therain was falling and pictures showed boarded-up stores and treesswaying deeply in the increasing wind. Despite the very dire warnings,some people chose to not get out. After all, there have been other“false alarms” where the hurricane dwindled away, or changed course.

For those who chose to stay, or who had no choice but to stay, thehigh winds and heavy rains took down electrical lines, destroyedbuildings, and moved through the area like a giant 175 mph eraser. Ifyou survived the days of horror, your misery had just begun. Your homecould be underwater, and there would be nothing to go back to.Destroyed. Help was slow in coming, and “law and order” was non-existent. Welcome to post-hurricane chaos.

A Perfect StormSURVIVING THE TERROR OF A HURRICANE > Story by Christopher Nyerges

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Anatomy of a HurricaneWhat exactly is a hurricane? For one thing,

there is no other storm on earth quite like a hur-ricane. From a satellite, the hurricane is a pow-erful and tightly coiled weather system.According to meteorologists, it is the mostpowerful of the tropical cyclones, which is ageneral term for all of the circulating weathersystems over tropical waters.

There is the tropical depression, which willhave maximum sustained winds up to 38 mph(or less). Then there is the tropical storm, a bitstronger, with maximum sustained winds of 39to 73 mph. Then there is the hurricane. This isan intense system with maximum sustainedwinds of 74 mph or higher.

The most vulnerable area for the creation ofhurricanes in the ocean is the area between lati-tudes 8 degrees and 20 degrees north andsouth. High humidity, light winds, and a warmsea surface temperature set the stage for thecreation of the hurricane. As the storm develops,the Coriolis effect causes the winds to rotatecounterclockwise (in the Northern Hemisphere),as the winds and thunderstorms increase.

Hurricanes are powered by the heat fromthe sea, and are steered along by easterly tradewinds and the temperate westerly winds, aswell as their own incredible energy that theycreate. Winds are howling at the core of thehurricane, and the seas are violent. As the hugesystem moves ashore, tornadoes, torrentialrains, and floods result.

The term “hurricane” (from an Arawak wordmeaning “storm”) is used for tropical storms inthe Atlantic and Eastern Pacific. In the westernPacific and China Sea, these storms are called“typhoons” (from the Cantonese word “tai-fung” meaning “great wind”). Down in Aus-tralia, these storms are called “cyclones.”

In order to further categorize hurricanes,these intense storms over 74 mph., consultingengineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologistRobert Simpson developed the “Saffir-Simp-son Scale” in the 1970s. Hurricanes are delin-eated into 5 categories, depending on strength.

• Category One means the winds are from 74 to95 mph, storm surges from 4 to 5 feet, andgenerally minimal damage.

• Category Two has winds from 96 to 110 mph,6 to 8 feet storm surges, and moderatedamage.

• Category Three has winds from 111 to 130mph., storm surges from 9 to 12 feet, andextensive damage.

• Category Four has winds from 131 to 155 mph,storm surges from 13 to 18 feet, and extremedamage.

• Category Five, the strongest, has a wind speedof more than 155, storm surges more than 18feet (no time for surfing!), and the damageis typically catastrophic. [see chart on page33]

How are People Affected?Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Katrina

were both Category Five. This means that entireswaths of cities and neighborhoods wereripped apart and left in rubble in an event thatlasted days. Thousands were left homeless,and many died.

Though a category one hurricane could beexperienced as a temporary inconvenience, itshould be clear that the hurricane is like noother storm. Like it or not, once the hurricane ison a collision path with you and your neighbor-hood and your city, normal life is disrupted, andsometimes totally ripped apart. The storm canbe two miles across and winds (in the highestcategory) can be 180 mph, something that sur-vivors describe as “unfathomable, indescrib-able.” All of the normal functioning of daily lifecomes to a halt as the hurricane roars throughthe terrain. That means you’re not going to yourjob, or to school, or to the farm.

The electricity will fail, and communicationwill become spotty. As people try to move tohigher ground, the roads and highways getcrowded, and some become unusable. Yourentire focus becomes securing your home incase you try to hole up there for the duration, ordoing whatever it takes to get out of Dodge Cityas rapidly as possibly. Oh, and then there areyoung children, and sick people, and they willneed assistance.

As the hurricane threatens, and moves overyour city, your life is reduced to bare essentials,and anything that isn’t absolutely necessarywill not be done. You are in survival mode.

“…ENTIRESWATHS OFCITIES ANDNEIGHBOR-

HOODS WERE RIPPED

APART ANDLEFT IN

RUBBLE INAN EVENT

THAT LASTEDDAYS.”

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What You Can Do to SurviveMany have survived lesser level hurricanes

simply by taking common sense precautions.We’ve had discussions with families whostocked up their home, closed and boardedeverything up, and stayed home for a week orso of a semi-frightening event. They experi-enced blackouts, and some damage to theirhome, some flooding in their vicinities, and theywere able to carry on when the storm passedwith limited impact to their daily lives.

But that is not always the case.The details of how you can survive a hurri-

cane, the skills needed, and the supplies youshould have will vary from case to case. Butlet’s start from the beginning: your home, andyour location.

One of the easy ways to more-or-less pre-dict the future is to study what has happened inthe past. United States hurricanes mostly occurin the Gulf coast, and some on the Atlanticseaboard. Get a map and look at the paths ofall the major hurricanes. You live right in apath? It’s not always possible to simply movesomewhere else. Millions of people live there,right in the path of hurricanes past and hurri-canes to come. So it is very important to realizethat some specific areas are ticking timebombs when it comes to hurricanes.

New Orleans, for example, is a city underwater—literally, not figuratively. Not everyonerealized that before Katrina, but the city wasonly kept dry by dikes that kept out a wall of upto nearly 20 feet of water. When Hurricane Kat-rina struck into New Orleans, in addition to theintense winds and the pounding rain, the dikesthat held back the ocean broke open, pouringwater into the Lower Ninth Ward.

Try to move to higher ground. If fact, thereare potential hazards wherever you live. And ifhurricanes are your concern, you should relo-cate to a higher ground. Get a topographicalmap of your area, and talk with local geogra-phers and real estate agents and do whateveryou can to find the best possible areas to residefor some natural protection from a hurricane.That may be hard, but in many cases, the lay ofthe land dictates the way a storm movesthrough the landscape. Location matters.

Next, there are numerous ways to beef upyour home to make it a few notches moreresistant to storms. There was a time where afull basement was built before the house wasbuilt. Yes, this cost more, and especially in theheat of summer, and during tornadoes, thisprovided some means of protection. That’s anidea that builders should serious considerreturning to as “normal.”

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In Your HomeIf you live in hurricane-prone zones, keep

abreast of news reports when hurricanes areforming. When the hurricane is on its way, yourjob is to begin squaring away things that needto be secured, closing up windows or boardingthem up, as appropriate.

Since a hurricane may very well mean evac-uation, you need to have an evacuation plan. Atwhat point do you decide to leave? Is your vehi-cle packed? Is it gassed up? What are youbringing along for the next few days or weeks?Do you have animals to attend to? Do you havea good idea of where to go? Have you beenthere before? Do you have a friend or relativesomewhere out of the hurricane path whereyou can go? Have you established networksamong your closest neighbors so you all helpeach other when things get serious?

If you live in some of the most vulnerablehurricane zones in the Gulf Coast, and you haveno desire to move elsewhere, you should doeverything you can to beef up your house withwhatever extra money you have. And sinceyou’ll probably want to stay in your home if youcan, you should constantly stock up on all thesupplies that you just won’t get if there’s a seri-ous hurricane that disrupts travel and normalcommerce.

Stay AfloatNot commonly seen on the list of items to

buy is the inflatable raft or canoe. Yet, after anarea is flooded, that’s the only way you’re goingto get around what was once your neighbor-hood. And rescues are only going to take placevia helicopter or boats.

If you live in a hurricane or tornado zone, youmay already take a lot of this for granted. Neigh-bors or relatives may have homes that have beendamaged or destroyed before, and you knowmany who have survived the disaster; in somecases, depending on your level of preparedness,the hurricane was a major or minor inconve-nience, and eventually, your life got back ontrack. In some cases, everything you knew wasdestroyed and you had to work hard to get backon your feet. Being prepared in advance meansthat you’ll be able to survive the emergency, andget back on your feet as soon as possible.

You need to be prepared with very basicsupplies in your home, and you should have abasement room or windowless shelter whereyou can hide out when the very worst of thestorm passes through.

Leave Home?A big part of surviving a hurricane is the

judgement call that you must make: Do I stay ordo I evacuate? Naturally, people would ratherstay home. But sometimes that just isn’t possi-ble. And if you wait a bit too long, getting outbecomes all that more difficult due to long traf-fic lines that are not moving, and pools of waterthat grow larger. In fact, as occurred in Hurri-cane Katrina, though 80 percent of the resi-dents of New Orleans managed to evacuate,that still left 20 percent of the residents in theirhomes—mostly elderly, infirm, or too poor toeven find a way to get out.

Part of making the decision to evacuateinvolves listening to what meteorologists andlocal officials are saying. In the case of Hurri-cane Katrina, there were many ordering peopleto evacuate, though the Mayor of New Orleansonly suggested that people leave. When MayorRay Nagin finally ordered people to evacuate, itwas a bit too late for many. Officials tried to useschool buses to evacuate residents, but driverswere short supply and as the heavy rainsincreased, there was quickly no way to get out.

The lesson is that it is far better to be incon-venienced by a weeklong evacuation than to bestuck in a disastrous situation.

Your evacuation plan should include havinga well-stocked car, and a pack in case you can-not get away by vehicle. Also consider a bicycleas a means of evacuation.

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“BEING PREPARED IN ADVANCE MEANS THAT YOU’LLBE ABLE TO SURVIVE THE EMERGENCY, AND GET BACK

ON YOUR FEET AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.”

THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE FOR HURRICANESFamous examples of the five categories of hurricanes.

CATEGORY WIND SPEEDS STORM SURGE HURRICANE

1 74-95 mph 4 to 5 feet Allison, 1995, No deathsFloyd, 1999, 69 deaths

2 96 – 110 mph 6 to 8 feet Bonnie, 1998, 3 deaths

3 111 – 130 mph 9 to 12 feet Fran, 1996, 34 deaths

4 131 – 155 mph 13-18 feet Andrew, 1992, 65 deathsLuis, 1995, 17 deaths

5 Greater than 155 mph Greater than 18 feet Hugo, 1989, 82 deathsMitch, 1998, over 11,000 deathsKatrina, 2005, 1,836 deaths

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HURRICANE|PERSONAL ACCOUNT

Hurricane Andrew

Hurricane Andrew was one of the strongesthurricanes in U.S. history. It developed in Augustof 1992, and the tropical storm’s windsincreased to 140 mph within two days of itsforming. The majority of the damage of Andrewwas due to the high winds. Of the 65 peoplekilled, most were killed by being crushed bydebris as their homes were ripped apart rightaround them. The cost of this storm was about$25 billion in 1992.

After the storm, there were still people whosurvived in the hardest hit area of Florida. Somestayed with their homes in an attempt torebuild and stave off looters. The NationalGuard told those who stayed that they wouldnot patrol the devastated areas at night, andthat those residents should evacuate.

Those who stayed were pictured in the newsreports cooking on little fires in their backyards,while holding their rifles and shotguns.

Hurricane Mitch

In October of 1998, heavy rains fell and con-tinued for days, and strong winds picked up. AsHurricane Mitch picked up, the members of theIsabel family climbed to the roof of their Hon-duran home. As the water continued to rise, theentire family—in fact, most of the villagers—were swept away. Laura Isabel, the mother,clung to a floating tree as debris was swirlingall around her. She eventually gathered buoy-ant trash and managed to make-shift a smallraft, which she floated on for six days. LauraIsabel was carried 50 miles out into the oceanon her raft.

Isabel managed to sleep a little on the raft,but not much. She said that she would dreamabout her husband and three children, and shesang and talked to them as if they were with her.

Finally, an airplane pilot spotted Isabel’s littleraft, and managed to get a helicopter to rescueher. Isabel was taken to a hospital near her vil-lage, which was devastated and changed forever.Isabel never saw her husband or children again.

S T O R I E S O F S U R V I V A L

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Hurricane Katrina, 2005

Hurricane Katrina was the most costly nat-ural disaster in U.S. history, with an estimated$108 billion in damages. Hurricane Katrina wasthe largest (up to 400 miles across), and thethird strongest, hurricane ever recorded tomake landfall in the United States.

Hurricane Katrina was first noticed onsatellite images on August 24, 2005, appearingas a tropical storm over the Bahamas. By thenext day, it reached hurricane level with windsof 74 miles per hour. Two days later, the stormhit Florida, where Governor Bush declared astate of emergency. Hurricane Katrina spentseven hours over Florida with its 80 mphwinds, and dumped up to a foot of rain in someareas. High winds and falling trees took outpower lines.

The hurricane moved west, increasingspeed and by August 27 became a Category 3 hurricane. Bythe next day, Katrina doubled in size, and moved northwesttowards Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama as a Category5 hurricane. President Bush declared a state of emergencyfor the areas in the storm’s path, and local officials eitherasked or ordered residents to depart.

The predicted landfall was New Orleans, and by the timeMayor Nagin ordered everyone to leave the city, 80 percentof the residents had already gotten out, and there were notenough drivers to drive the school buses, which was part ofNew Orlean’s emergency evacuation plan. Many peoplewere trapped.

Since New Orleans had been built on drained swamp-land, the various levees surrounding it were designed tokeep out the ocean water. But as Katrina came ashore, therainfall exceeded up to an inch an hour in places, and thestorm surges were nearly as tall as a four-story building.

Even though Katrina “weakened” to a Category 3 hurri-cane after midnight of August 29, there was still heavy rain,high waves, and 140 mph winds. By morning, the rain alonefilled all the canals that were intended to drain water fromNew Orleans. The storm surge in New Orleans was as highas 19 feet, washing water into New Orleans. Over in PassChristian, Miss., there was a storm surge of 27.8 feet, thehighest ever recorded on a U.S. coast. Water flooded inlandsix miles, carrying boats, washing out up to 31 oil rigs, andtaking out buildings, bridges, and highways.

By August 31, more than 80 percent of New Orleans wasunder water as the levees alongside the 17th Street Canal,and the London Avenue Canal were breached or blew out.Water poured into New Orleans.

Water rushed into the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans,one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. The city pumpscould not drain the water away fast enough, and many ofthe building that housed the pumps were damaged. Rescueworkers were no better off than the stranded survivors, andsome of the rescue workers used boats to rescue the tens ofthousands of people stranded.

More than 25,000 people were taken to the LouisianaSuperdome in New Orleans, a facility that was not designedto handle that many people. Rain poured through holes thatopened where the wind had blown off the roof, and suchthings as toilet paper, clean water, and medical supplieswere quickly used up or non-existant. Additionally, if youhad a pet, you were not allowed to bring it with you. TheSuperdome began to seem like a prison camp to those whowere holed up there.

Katrina tested the limits of emergency response to thelimit. Help was offered from all over, and in some casesthere was no practical way to take advantage of the earlyhelp offered. It is believed that 1,836 deaths resulted fromKatrina with 705 people still officially “missing.”

For example, Chief of Police for the City of Los Angeles,Chief Bratton, stated in a televised interview that he wantedto send some of his officers to help with the crime thatresulted as of Katrina. But he declined to even send any offi-cers into such an area because “if there is not even a placefor my officers to urinate and defecate, I will not send themthere.” Hurricane Katrina had rendered New Orleans into awild west, with people dead in the streets, infrastructuredemolished, criminal elements roaming freely, and no placeto keep clean or maintain hygienic standards.

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IN THE PAST|HURRICANE

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HURRICANE|GEAR GUIDE

Everyone has their own idea of whatshould be carried if you absolutelymust evacuate. John McCann wroteBuild the Perfect Survival Kit, whereinhe describes the endless possibilitiesof survival kits, and how you need todetermine the details of your own situ-ation. McCann has followed up with amore recent book, Bug-Out: Reality vs.Hype where he attempts to share thebrutal reality of “bugging out” versusstaying at home where you have every-thing you need.

Jason Deatherage, a survivalistenthusiast and paramedic in ruralCanada, has insight into what some-one should carry in an evacuation bag.

“If I were to be thrown on my owndevices for an unspecified amount oftime, I’d want to have an easily car-ried pack that could provide for my

material needs, and allow me to beas little a burden on others as possi-ble. In the case of a natural disaster, ifI were required to evacuate, I mightbe forced to travel on foot out of theaffected area, but even if I had theluxury of a vehicle, I’d still want to beable to carry my most essential gearwith me easily.

“To me, the benefit of being wellprepared is not just personal survival;such preparation allows me to reducemy own demands on what would beoverburdened emergency systemsand, perhaps even more importantly,allows me to help others instead ofscrambling to live at the last minute.The most important preparations youcan make, however, are to be as fit andhealthy as your situation allows, and topractice and plan well ahead of time

so that you have the skills to use what-ever equipment you have to hand.

“Plan also for extra people. You willhave yourself and your family, butwhat if you have visitors or pick uppeople along the way? Make sureeveryone in the family has what theyneed, plus a bit extra.

“With that said, here is what I’d liketo have with me in such a scenario. Mymain priority is to be able to behealthy, warm and well-rested if possi-ble, and have some basic items tobuild and repair anything else I mightneed. I can fit all of this into a 30-45liter pack, generally with room tospare, at a weight of around 25pounds. Many or all of these items canbe replaced with DIY or found items,so don’t feel that you have to have themost expensive ultralight stuff.”

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Pack ItemsThere are several companies that pro-

vide comprehensive emergency packs thatinclude a great many things. For example,emergency-storage.com has dozens of dif-ferent packs for a wide range of situationsand needs. When buying an emergency kit,consider including the following:

• Sil-nylon tarp, 10x12, with pre-attached small-diameter cordage. (Big enough to fold over forground sheet, or to cover a few people)

• Rain jacket (and pants if you like)• Warm shirt or jacket (fleece or wool)• Flashlight, preferably a quality headlamp and

extra batteries. • Smallest Thermarest pad one can afford • Smallest, warmest sleeping bag one can

afford, with a waterproof bivy sack. • A couple of mini-bic lighters and a ferro rod for

backup (practice firemaking now, not then)• Water bottle and metal cup with lid, prefer-

ably all nesting together.• Water filter or purification tablets (can boil in

the metal cup as well)• Wide brimmed hat• Bandanna or shemagh• Swiss army knife and quality, pliers-based

multitool with saw.• Small fixed blade such as a Mora Companion

(tastes may vary, take what ever your knifeaddiction will allow)

• Pistol and two or three magazines • Cash and ID• Charging gear for phone• Small sewing kit with several needles, strong

thread, buttons• Toothbrush• Maps of area• Deck of cards• Extra cordage• Food: freeze dried is lightest, but allows for

hot meals; lifeboat rations are the most calori-cally dense for their size but bland, energybars are handy; MREs are heavy and bulky.Choose according to your needs.

Medical KitThe contents of a medical kit will really be

dependent on your own knowledge and med-ical training, so adjust accordingly. I have foundin over a decade as a paramedic that thebiggest consideration in longer-term outdoorsmedical care is sustained small wound care,not massive trauma and gun shot wounds, soemphasize items that keep you clean and cov-ered. I’ll leave quantities up to you, as that willdepend on what you keep your kit in. Source:edisastersystems.com

Essential medications for you and your family• Small flashlight• EMT shears• Tweezers• Band aids (lots and lots)• Sterile saline irrigation bulbs• Alcohol wipes• Iodine tincture (can be used to purify water in

a pinch)• Triangular bandage (these can function as an

entire first aid kit themselves with a bit ofknowledge)

• Sterile non-stick gauze, roller gauze, and somenon sterile regular gauze

• Large gauze ABD pads• Tourniquet• Tape• Benadryl• Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Aspirin• Clove oil (for toothache)• Notebook and pen/pencil

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It’s 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, and you can’t wait toget your weekend started. The office staff is pretty much non-existent, so youdecide to bug out a few minutes early. You’re dreading that constantly ridicu-lous Los Angeles traffic as you make your way to the parking structure but theonly important thing on your mind is getting your weekend started with a coldone in your hands. Seems everyone has the same idea. The parking structure ishive of activity. You race for the road knowing all the back street shortcuts asyou begin to imagine the sun at your back with your feet in the sand. Yourweekend has finally begun, or at least that’s what you’re telling yourself.

As you inch further away from the office you hope you’ll never see again, ablinding light sears across the sky from behind you. It’s so bright it hurts youreyes even while looking away and with them tightly closed. For a few seconds,it’s brighter than the sun. Then an unspeakable crack of worlds colliding over-whelms you. It’s deafening. In less than 10 seconds, you’re hit with a thunder-ous shockwave followed by an intense heat. The mighty wind and fire inciner-ates everything as it approaches you.

Asphalt, rocks, trees, shards of glass, and just about everything above sur-face level has been hurled at you is thrust into the air and is consumed by agiant mushroom cloud. If you survive at all, you’re most likely injured andassuredly bewildered and confused. You do what everyone else in your generalvicinity does. You stumble from the remains of your vehicle, if you’re not com-pletely blown out of it, and try to make sense of what’s just happened. Withhundreds of fires around you and the sky now growing darker and darker, youbegin to wander aimlessly as shock sets in. Thankfully, you’re outside the ringof complete decimation and you’re left with a fighting chance.

MushroomSURVIVING A NUCLEAR ATTACK > Story by John Galletta

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Cloud

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A Terrorist’s BombA terrorist’s crude, but effective, 10 kiloton

Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU), ImprovisedNuclear Device, or “IND”, was just detonated onstreet level in a major metropolitan city at thesite of a major transportation hub. With theforce of 10,000 tons of dynamite, more than40,000 people are killed in an instant and morethan 100,000 injured. Inside the blast area arefour hospitals/medical facilities. They includeCedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los AngelesCounty – USC Medical Center, and UCLA Chil-dren’s Hospital and are some of L.A.’s largestmedical facilities. This will certainly affect thenumber of persons able to receive immediatemedical attention.

There are also 19 schools and educationfacilities, nine places of worship, and one firestation inside the blast radius. Dodger Stadiumand Sunset Boulevard are also in the outerfringes of the blast and are still well inside the

NUCLEAR ATTACK|ANATOMY & SURVIVAL

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area where injury can occur. The number is sureto grow as this was the result of the thermalblast only. Running abreast of the thermalblast, is what many fear.

Potential CasualtiesExtremely high doses of radiation in the

form of gamma, neutron, and x-rays will pro-duce even more casualties over a larger areawithin the next several minutes, hours andweeks. Alpha particles, which can be releasedat the time of burst, or delayed as fallout, areharmful if internalized but can easily beshielded by paper or dead layers of skin andcan be brushed away without harm. Beta parti-cles, which can be shielded by plastic or alu-minum, may cause skin burns and can also beharmful if ingested. Gamma rays destroy livingcells and are harmful when exposed to them.They can be shielded by lead and concrete.Neutrons, emitted only during the detonation,are 20 times more harmful than gamma rays

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and can pass through several feet of concrete.Although your body is equipped to naturallyrepair cells exposed to radiation, these mas-sively high amounts of radiation will overpowerthat healing process and destroy the cellsbefore repair can take place.

The Damage of a Nuclear BlastThe blast leaves a crater 100 feet deep and

more than 500 feet in diameter. The cityscapeas far out as two miles in all directions isabsolutely decimated. The surface of the earthat ground zero has essentially been scrapedclean and vaporized. Five hundred feet from theblast, the overpressure is 20 psi, which causesincredible death and the complete destructionof most buildings. What was on the surface hasbeen consumed by the intense fireball andmushroom cloud and spewed into the sky,reaching an altitude of at least 27,000 feet.

When the cloud begins to settle, it willdeposit radioactive particles, a phenomenoncalled “fallout,” over large portions of the cityand beyond. There are no bodies, vehicles orbuildings, just a gaping hole where the trainstation used to be. Just outside the three-mileradius and as far out as seven miles of theblast, there is still a great amount of carnage.The air pressure is 5 psi, enough to crush resi-dential homes. It’s in this area that you beginto see a bleak landscape never before seenoutside the movie theaters. Alien in nature,the sights alone are enough to evoke shockand disbelief.

Everything around is on fire. Signs of whatused to be a bustling city full of life are com-pletely non-existent. Although much of whatyou see is undiscernible, it’s clear that nothinghas survived nor is anything salvageable. Onthe fringes of this ring is where the walkingdead are. The term walking dead describes justthat. Zombie-like in appearance with horrificburns and traumatic injuries, these are the peo-ple that death hasn’t caught up with yet but iscertain to drop in for a visit momentarily. Justoutside the seven-mile perimeter, the probabil-ity of third degree burns is still 100 percent.There will be many whose death is imminent,severely burned, amputees, and in shock. Noth-ing can be done for them. If you’re lucky enoughto be outside the eight- to nine-mile radius and

up to 17 miles away, you may still experiencesevere blast effects.

Those inside fortified buildings and awayfrom windows and doors may survive the heatand blast effects. At a 1.5-psi overpressure,glass windows can be expected to break. Thoserushing to the windows to see what caused thebright light was will be met by the impendingblast (which travels faster than the pressurewave). Windows will explode, hurling shards ofglass and other items at speeds up to 600miles per hour and causing even more wide-spread carnage.

The successful detonation of the HEU INDhas occurred close to Union Station in down-town Los Angeles. It detonated at a time whenthe train station is at its busiest; Friday after-noon at around 4:30pm. Although relativelysmall by today’s standard, it still packs a wal-lop. It’s the same size as the bomb dropped onHiroshima, August 6th, 1945.

Being a surface detonation, the amount ofradioactive fallout will be much greater as theblast consumed everything on the ground andsucked it up into its giant mushroom cloud. Thejet black cloud, now full of irradiated particles isexpected to grow to an altitude of 27,000 feetor more and will cover the city like a blanket.With the trade winds blowing from the west atapproximately 6 miles per hour, the cloud will

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produce fallout as it begins to settle. It will raindown on potentially hundreds of miles of popu-lated areas from the blast site and the outerfringes where death and injury has alreadytaken place.

Just how did this happen? A group of radi-calized terrorists, perhaps a faction of Hamasor ISIS, has successfully smuggled the HEU inthrough the L.A. Harbor aboard the only pri-vately owned ferry systems allowed to dockthere. From the former Soviet Union throughGeorgia and then on to Iran or Iraq, this specialnuclear material, or “SNM,” traveled to SouthAmerica, into Costa Rica, and then to Mexico onthe same route that most of the drugs andother illegal contraband entering this countryroutinely travels. From Baja California, it istransported in the dead of night by panga boatinto United States waters. Piloted by a two-man crew and accompanied by a large ship-ment of marijuana, the panga boat arrives onthe quiet backside of Catalina Island.

A Source of DangerDubbed “smugglers’ paradise” in the 1950s,

Catalina Island sits just 26 miles from the LosAngeles coastline. Daily ferries can take youacross from three different locations in justunder two hours. Already on U.S. soil, making itinto L.A. Harbor is the most daunting part of thetrip for the smugglers. With more radiationdetection portals around the L.A. Port than onany other leg of the journey, this is nail-bitingtime. Unlike other more easily detectibleradioactive isotopes like Cesium 137 (Cs-137), aman-made isotope with both medical andindustrial uses, the HEU has a very smallradioactive signature or “activity.”

Virtually impossible to detect due to its lowradioactivity and 3 billion year half-life, (half-life is the amount of time required for a quan-tity to fall to half its value as measured at thebeginning of the time period), the HEU is trans-ported to the L.A. Harbor aboard that ferry. This

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characteristic is what makes it so hard for radi-ation detection equipment to detect. To be sureit gets across undetected, the terrorists takeextra measures and encase the material in leadpipe to shield it from possible detection andhide it in a scuba tank that has been modifiedto accommodate it.

At an undisclosed location, the other com-ponents are gathered, construction is carriedout, and the weapon is assembled. Their objec-tive is to kill about 4 million men, women, andchildren. No amount of planes crashing intohigh rise skyscrapers or truck bombs wouldaccomplish this so their plan is to carry out theslaughter with the use of a nuclear device. Theyarrived at that number by totaling the casual-ties in the many wars in the Middle East.Although crudely constructed, the weapon hasenough material to produce a larger device butbecause of its inefficient design, a greater yieldwill be averted.

Difficult to PlanThis attack has been in the planning stages

since well before 9/11. The only thing prevent-ing this attack from taking place sooner is thefact that the material needed for the device isextremely hard to get. There are really onlythree ways to acquire a nuclear weapon. Youcan steal a bomb. You could buy a bomb, or youcould build a bomb. The hardest part of makinga bomb is getting the highly enriched uraniumor plutonium. Many countries have these mate-rials and often they are poorly guarded. Proba-bly the best places to look are the countries ofthe former Soviet Union.

The easiest corridor from Russia is throughGeorgia, which is just a hop, skip, and a jumpfrom Iraq, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan.Over the years, there have been many reportedcases of theft of highly enriched uranium andplutonium. Every time there has been a blackmarket seizure and the material recovered, itcould be tracked back to Russia. But thesewere only the ones caught. How many actuallymade it through?

At the Luch Uranium Enrichment Facility inRussia, a worker there discovered that as longas the output of the material made was withina certain amount of the input, the supervisorsattributed that difference to normal loss. So

every day over a long period of time, he stolesmall quantities of the highly enriched uraniumor HEU. Since his salary couldn’t keep up withinflation, he wanted to use the HEU to buymuch-needed items for his family, like a refrig-erator and a stove. Over a period of time he hadamassed a kilogram and a half of 90 percentenriched, highly enriched uranium. He raised noalarms and not a single soul knew until he wascaught trying to sell the HEU to a group ofthieves that were in the business of sellingstolen car batteries.

Had special nuclear material been availableto the terrorists who carried out attacks in Lon-don, Madrid, Bali, Kenya, Riyadh, Buenos Aries,Mumbai, and here on U.S. soil, they certainlywould have used it. Many terrorist organizationshave sought the use of nuclear weapons tobring death, in great numbers, to the West. Justprior to 9/11, Osama Bin Laden met with twoPakistani scientists and discussed nuclearweapons. Certainly, it would have changed theoutcome to the World Trade Center attack.

Due to the current world climate, economicdownfall, and the destabilization of severalcountries that possess this material, many haveloosened control of the “magic material.” It’spossible that military members or those in theposition of safeguarding the materials for thosecountries in distress could profit from stealingand selling this material. We already knowthere are plenty of capable buyers. In almost allthe cases involving theft of this special nuclearmaterial, it was almost never known that thematerial was even missing until the items wereseized. It is estimated that there is approxi-mately 1,700 tons of highly enriched uranium inthe world today. It’s a staggering amount, anamount that can be used to make 50 to100,000 nuclear weapons.

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“THEIR OBJECTIVE IS TOKILL ABOUT 4 MILLION MEN,WOMEN, AND CHILDREN.”

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How a Nuclear Device WorksThe nuclear device delivers its destruction in

stages. First is the intense 200-meter diameterfireball. It delivers a burning heat to areas ofexposed skin and incinerates anything com-bustible. A fraction of a second later it’s fol-lowed by an immense shockwave moving atthe speed of sound, a wave comprised of ther-mal radiation (heat), nuclear radiation, and bal-listic debris due to surface or shallow sub-sur-face bursts. From the site of the blast, whichleaves the large crater, everything is instanta-neously vaporized. People are reduced to car-

bon ash in a split second. Just beyond,at approximately 1,530 yards, build-ings are completely demolished andthose that aren’t, sustain severe dam-age. Those inside buildings close tothe detonation are killed from theblast, which results in thebuildings’collapse.

Out to approximately 2.2 miles, anestimated lethal radiation dose of5,000 REM. REM is a unit of radia-tion dosage (such as from X rays)applied to humans. Derived from thephrase Roentgen equivalent man,(pronounced RONKEN). It will be 100percent fatal to anything inside thatcircle. That’s the equivalent of receiv-ing 2.5 million chest x-rays in lessthan a minute. Death will occuralmost instantly. Out to approxi-mately 4.2 miles, you can expect theradiation dose to be 1,000 REM. Thisdose will cause a 95 percent mortality

rate, even with immediate medical attention.Death will occur within a matter of hours to afew weeks. At approximately six miles from theblast site, the radiation level will have droppedto approximately 500 REM. Without immediatemedical attention, you can expect a mortalityrate of 50 to 90 percent from acute effects,alone. Death will occur within several hours to afew weeks.

To put these dose rates into perspective, Iused a dose calculator to calculate an averagedose based on where I live. I live in SouthernCalifornia at an altitude of 564 feet, and I’mapproximately 50 miles from the now-closed,San Onofre nuclear power plant. For that, I will

incur 28.01MREM or “millirem.” One millirem is1/1000 of a REM. Twenty-eight MREM is attrib-uted to cosmic radiation, a radiation that every-one gets by being out in the sun. Harmless untilyou get sunburned and 0.01 MREM for beingclose to San Onofre.

From food containing Carbon-14 and Potas-sium-40, I get 40 MREM and from the air Ibreathe, I get 228 MREM. I’ve traveled approxi-mately 60 jet hours in the last year, for which Ireceived 0.5 MREM per hour for a total of 30MREM. I’ve gone past luggage x-ray inspectionat the airport (0.002 MREM each time) about10 times, so there’s another .02 MREM. I have aporcelain crown, 0.07 MREM, a smoke detectorat my house, 0.008 MREM, and I’ve had onechest x-ray, which gets me 10 MREM for a grandtotal of 366.9 MREM over the entire year. That’sjust .366 of 1 REM. You would need 5,000,000MREM to equal 5,000 REM.

The state-recommended EPA dose limit toperform lifesaving is 25 REM. That’s only 25percent of 100 REM. Neither is a lethal doseand they’re a far cry from the radiation doseswe can expect from a detonation like this. It’salso the total dose a first responder can receiveover the period of a lifetime. Although notenough to kill, the only way you can exceed thisdose is if you are a willing volunteer. Thismeans you are made aware of the dose and thedangers of exceeding it, but continue to per-form lifesaving voluntarily.

The Effect of Nuclear RadiationSo exactly what effects do these high doses

of ionizing radiation have on you? The radiationwill begin to destroy the cells in the body thatdivide rapidly. These include blood, GI tract,reproductive and hair cells; additionally, radia-tion harms the DNA and RNA of surviving cells.For starters, you can expect to lose your hairquickly and in clumps with radiation exposureat 200 REM or higher. Since brain cells do notreproduce, they won’t be damaged directlyunless the exposure is 5,000 REM or greater.Like with the brain, radiation kills nerve cellsand small blood vessels around the heart,which can cause seizures and immediatedeath. Certain body parts are more specificallyaffected by exposure to different types of radi-ation sources.

“THAT’S THEEQUIVALENT OF

RECEIVING 2.5MILLION CHEST

X-RAYS INLESS THAN A

MINUTE. DEATHWILL OCCUR

ALMOSTINSTANTLY.”

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The thyroid gland is susceptible to radioac-tive iodine. In sufficient amounts, radioactiveiodine can destroy all or part of the thyroid. Bytaking potassium iodide, one can reduce theeffects of exposure; however, having themaround with you at all times might be a littlepresumptuous. When a person is exposed toaround 100 REM, the blood’s lymphocyte cellcount will be reduced, leaving the victim moresusceptible to infection. This is often referred toas mild radiation sickness. Early symptoms ofradiation sickness mimic those of flu and maygo unnoticed unless a blood count is done.

According to data from Hiroshima andNagasaki, symptoms may persist for up to 10years and may also have an increased long-term risk for leukemia and lymphoma. Intenseexposure to radioactive material at 1,000 to5,000 REM would do immediate damage tosmall blood vessels and most certainly causeheart failure and immediate death.

You can expect to get nauseous, have diar-rhea, and begin to vomit blood. Radiation dam-age to the intestinal tract lining will cause theseviolent effects. This is occurs when you’re expo-sure is 200 REM or more. Because reproductivetract cells divide rapidly, these areas of thebody can be damaged at REM levels as low as200. Long-term, some radiation sickness vic-tims may become sterile.

If you’re lucky enough to dodge the radiationeffects because you’re at least seven miles away,don’t count your lucky stars just yet. The thermalblast still has enough energy to cause thirddegree burns. Third degree burns extendthroughout the layers of skin, and are often pain-less because they destroy the pain nerves. Theywill cause scarring or disablement, and canrequire amputation. Without immediate medicalattention, death can occur due to shock, rapidblood loss, and easily susceptible infection.

Surviving a Nuclear BlastSurvival inside the critical rings is highly

unlikely, however, as in Hiroshima, it’s possible.Exposed and unshielded, the effects of the ther-mal blast and the severely high radiation doseswill cause certain death inside the critical areas.Your only real chances for survival, should yoube within the outer areas and are not injured, arefor you to take immediate action.

Since a detonation like this will occur with-out warning, your first action should be toimmediately drop to the ground in a prone posi-tion. Tightly cover your face with both hands.Do not move until the initial blast wave and anyreflected blast waves have passed. Shelter inplace if the building you’re in is safe to remainin. Otherwise, seek shelter in a fortified con-crete structure if possible. Stay indoors as longas you can, avoiding time spent around win-dows and doorways. Close and seal doors andwindows to retain the safer area. Use windowbarriers such as blinds, curtains or other cover-ings to improve protection.

Moving to the center of a building may bemore advantageous, provided the building isintact and is made of concrete. Make sure toturn off the HVAC, any fans and exhaust fans,combustion heaters. If you were outside andyou’re seeking shelter, decontaminate yourselfbefore you enter a shelter. Brush dust/falloutoff your clothing away from your eyes, nose andmouth. If you’re able to, rinse any exposed skin.If you’re in an unsafe area, make your way outwith as much protective clothing on as you canpossibly collect.

Cover your head and any exposed parts ofyour body. If no protective clothing such asTyvek suits or respirators exists, don as manylayers of clothing or material over whatever

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you’re wearing. Use a towel or rag to cover yourmouth and nose ensuring that you can stillbreathe slowly through it. A damp towel drapedover your head and mouth will help keep conta-minants to a minimum. Putting your feet intoplastic bags will help keep contaminants fromaffecting your feet. Evacuate upwind or cross-wind. Discard that layering and remove the pro-tective layers on your shoes before enteringanother shelter rolling them all outward andaway from you. Utilize the “COLDER” methodfor how to use and care for your clothing.

C — Keep clothing CleanO — Avoid OverheatingL — Wear clothing Loose and in LayersD — Keep clothing Dry E — Examine clothing for defects and wearR — Keep clothing Repaired

Stay hydrated as often as possible. Drinkonly from new, unopened containers. Do notdrink from any open areas such as drinkingfountains, ponds, or streams. Commercially

available water purifiers will eliminate bacteriaand debris but cannot eliminate radioactivematerial. The same holds true for food. Do noteat anything that comes from a container orwrapper that is already open. The landscapewill be treacherous to walk through, with themany hazards. You’ll have to navigate throughor around them so as to minimize injury. It willbe slow going. Do so carefully so as not to kickup and ingest the radioactive dust.

Basic survival skills are always good to have,however, in an incident such as this, many ofthose skills like trapping or snaring food, navi-gation methods using celestial aids, and purify-ing water may be useless. On the other hand,first aid, navigation, sheltering, hunting, andgathering, will come in handy.

Gear to TakeI always have a small kit bag with me in the

truck that contains a first aid kit, fire extin-guisher, a case of water, cell phone charger,jumper cables, a basic tool kit, rubber gloves,water purifier, a portable radio, rope, a gasmask and N-95 disposable respirators, a Tyveksuit, road flares, a flashlight with batteries,some glow-sticks, Fix-A-Flat, a fire starter, acandle, some granola bars and gum, a sleepingbag, and a Thermo Scientific Personal Radia-tion Detector – Extended Range (PRD-ER), andof course, extra clothes.

All of that fits quite nicely in a waterproof,airtight, Pelican Case, 20 x 29 x 15-inches. Yes,I’ve been accused of being paranoid, but eachtime I’ve rolled up on an incident, or have beenaway from home for longer than I intended, I’vehad what I needed to be comfortable or untilbetter help could arrive. I’m not paranoid. I’mprepared.

Although this nuclear scenario may seemfar-fetched, it was the first of many exercisescenarios played out in the largest, full-scaleexercise in the Department of Homeland Secu-rity’s history, the National Level Exercise 2010,or NLE2010. During the three-day, nation-wideexercise, local, state, and federal agencies par-ticipated in scenarios designed to test theresponse to nuclear and radiological threats inand around the Los Angeles area and in otherparts of the country, culminating with similarscenarios in Washington, D.C.

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The Atomic Bomb OverHiroshima, 1945

When the “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima,approximately 70,000 people were killed in an instantand tens of thousands injured. Back then, homes weremade of timber and most buildings were made from acombination of timber and stone. Anyone in the openair was incinerated or vaporized in an instant. Miracu-lously, many were able to survive. Thousands of peo-ple were injured or burned. Many were trapped in therubble. Just 900 feet from the bomb, two young girlsat a bank were sheltered from the worst of the explo-sion by the earthquake-proof building. When theystruggled outside, they found a vision of hell. Themorning sun was gone, blackened by the cloud andsmoke from the surrounding fires. It had been themorning commuting hour, 8:15 a.m. People walking thestreets were now dead, lining the streets in every direc-tion. For as far as they could see, everyone died imme-diately, naked and burned.

The two could do nothing but fall to the ground andcry. Somehow, they found the strength and courage toescape the danger and survive. A mile from the explo-sion’s hypocenter, a nurse was blown away from thewindow. Her body was bounced around like a ball. Likeso many others, she was badly lacerated by flyingglass, but survived. In another part of town, a youngboy, trapped in the fallen debris at his school was res-cued by a soldier who freed him from the wreckage.The soldier followed the river behind the school tosafety. As he carried the boy through the burning city,the boy heard a familiar voice. It was his father callingout his name. The little boy recognized it and the sol-dier carrying hime reunited him with his father.

Although the thought of a nuclear attack is on theminds of millions in the world, not much time is spentthinking about it actually happening. Everyone hopes itdoesn’t happen just as they hope an earthquake ortsunami never hits, but not many do much to preparefor it. It’s often viewed in the same way news of a sharkattack is. Some say, “I avoid the water, so it will neverhappen to me” while others say, “It will happen whenwe least expect it.”

President Kennedy said, “Every man, woman andchild living in the world today is living under a nuclearsword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest ofthreads, capable of being cut at any moment, by acci-dent, or miscalculation, or by madness. The weaponsof war must be abolished before they abolish us.”

IN THE PAST|NUCLEAR ATTACK

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“TORNADOES OCCUR MORE IN THE UNITED STATES THAN ANOTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.”

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Imagine it. A day like any other: outside it’s blue andsunny, nothing out of the ordinary. All of a sudden, clouds begin to formin the sky—puffy, white ones at first—but within minutes, darkly ominousclouds gather overhead and lightning begins flashing every few seconds.A tornado is about to hit and you have minutes, if you’re one of the luckyones, to prepare yourself. What do you do? Where do you go? How doyou stay safe?

Tornadoes are unstoppable forces that occur thousands of times ayear around the world. Difficult to prepare for, difficult to escape; thesedeadly twisters are responsible for billions of dollars worth of damagesand hundreds of deaths a year, often leaving behind apocalyptic after-maths. In one instance, a tornado obliterated a motel in Oklahoma, andpeople later found the motel’s sign in Arkansas. Tornadoes cause life-altering damages, and because no place in the country is safe from them(although there are areas more prone to tornadoes), it is important toknow the steps for survival.

How Does a Tornado Form?Each year it is estimated that more than a thousand tornadoes hit the

U.S., more than any other country. Tornadoes are aggressive, swirling fun-nels of air that connect from a cumulonimbus cloud to the surface of theEarth. These twisters come in various forms, including a landspout, multi-ple vortex and waterspout, although the most common type is a visiblecondensation funnel.

These tornadoes form from funnel clouds, typically during thunder-storms, but the clouds are not considered tornadoes until they physicallytouch the ground. The name “tornado” actually comes from the Spanishword tronada, which translates to ‘thunderstorm.’ The twisters are mea-sured by the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which focuses on the damage causedand ranks it from EF0-EF5.

Tornadoes occur more in the United States than another country in theworld; in fact, three out of every four tornadoes that occur globally arelocated in the U.S. The most active area is known as “Tornado Alley,”where more than 500 twisters occur every year. The borders for TornadoAlley are not clearly defined, but it is roughly made up of Texas, Okla-homa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Missouri,Arkansas and Louisiana. Texas reports more tornadoes than any other

Tornadoes

PHOTO BY THINKSTOCK

SURVIVING THE TERROR OF THE TWISTERS > Story by Jenna Handley

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state, but this is due to its large size. Per squaremile, Kansas and Oklahoma have the most.There is not a set “tornado season” and as longas conditions are right, a tornado can occuranytime of the year.

These deadly storms develop when thereare certain conditions in environment at thesame time—an abundance of warm, moist airto cause vertical movement of air, atmosphericinstability and a “trigger,” which can be a coldfront or converging winds that lift moist air.

One of the reasons Tornado Alley experi-ences so many tornadoes is its proximity to theGulf of Mexico. The warm, moist air from therecollides with the cool, dry air from the RockyMountains, which forms a supercell (the typeof thunderstorm that produces the twirlingupdraft of air that results in tornadoes).

Tornadoes carry immense power; some areable to pick up a house and move it down thestreet. Even less powerful ones are able todestroy cars, send debris flying and cut off vitalpower lines. The total number of deaths fromtornadoes typically varies year to year, depend-ing on the number of tornadoes and the sever-ity of them. According to the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, 126people were killed in 2008, yet in 2009, only 21people died from the twisters. In 2011, torna-does caused 553 deaths, but just 70 in 2012.

Beyond fatalities, tornadoes are the causeof severe injuries both before and after thestorms. People are susceptible to injury whilethey are working to rescue others, clean up themess or even move around an affected area.Power and gas lines can be damaged, whichleads to explosions or electrocutions. One tor-nado can cause millions of dollars worth of

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damages, which can put a lot of burden onpeople who have already been through a trau-matic experience.

How Can You Survive?Similar to other natural disasters, there is

very little warning before a tornado hits due tothe nature of their formation. The average lead-time for tornadoes is currently 13 minutes, whichdoesn’t offer much time to prepare. Due to theshort warning, the most important survival skillsfor tornado encounters is preparedness.

The best way to survive a tornado is to takerefuge in an underground tornado shelter. Tor-nadoes typically only affect what is aboveground, so as long as you are underground in asecure room with a sturdy door that is latchedshut, there is little chance of death or injury. Thesecond best option would be a basementbecause they are also underground, but few arespecially built to protect against tornadoes likethe shelters are.

If a basement is your only option, there areseveral additional steps that need to be takenin order to better ensure safety. Most impor-tantly, stay as far away from windows as possi-ble, if the basement has any. Hide under aheavy table and cover yourself with a mattressor sleeping bags to protect from heavy andsharp debris. If you are aware of any particu-larly heavy items on the floor above, try to avoidsitting under them. This is where a little extrapreparation could save a life—before a tornadoever hits, mark the spots in the basement thatwould be safest, so in an emergency, peoplewould know exactly where to go.

Taking shelter in a basement or under-ground refuge is fairly obvious; the real difficul-

ties begin when a building doesn’t haveeither. In these instances, your best betwould be to go to the lowest floor and get inthe smallest space available, whether thatbe a closet, bathroom, stairwell or hallway.Again, cover yourself with thick blankets or amattress and take cover under a table, ifpossible. The Federal Emergency Manage-ment Agency published a guide to buildinga safe room in your house, which is easilyaccessible online and can help you preparefor this type of situation. If you are in a carand the tornado is close—never attempt to

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outrun it. Tornadoes travel more than 60 mphand can easily pick up a car. The safest optionwould be to pull over at the nearest place thatoffers shelter, such as a gas station bathroom.

If you have the chance, put a bike helmet on.Many injuries or fatalities are caused by headtrauma, so its smart to eliminate this possibilitybefore the tornado is too close. Keep a helmetfor everybody in the designated shelter, andmake sure they are easy to access.

Similarly, if there is time, bring outside furni-ture into the home to prevent them from beingswept away or hurled into the house, whichwould create more damage. It is also smart topre-reinforce your windows. This will helpinside damage remain minimal, but don’t riskyour life to do this when a tornado is headedyour way. Most of the time house damage isunavoidable during a bad tornado, and oncewinds get above 100 mph, houses will begin tobreak down.

In an ideal situation, you would be able tostructurally secure your home during the build-ing stages in order to protect it from the heavywinds tornadoes bring, but few people havethis option. If you live in a tornado-prone area, itis likely that certain measures have been takento reinforce your home, especially for newerhouses. Modern building code protects homesfrom weaker tornadoes, around 90 mph winds,but when violent winds hit, it is likely that theywill start to buckle.

If possible, anyone renovating a homeshould be careful to have the roof firmly con-nected to the walls, and the walls firmly con-nected to the foundation, because this hasshown to withstand tornadoes much better.Easier home fixes would be to install impact-resistant windows and outside doors, andattach the doors with three hinges and a dead-bolt. In addition, cut down dead trees or treelimbs within close proximity to the house.Always stay on top of roof, gutter and wallmaintenance, as any small issue could becomea huge one when a tornado hits.

Even after a tornado has passed, there ischance for severe injury. Tornados tend to leavea path of destruction wherever they pass—thismeans stray electrical wires, sharp debris,floods, fires and other hazardous situations.Depending on how strong the twister was,

buildings could be collapsed and roads mightbe blocked. Leave your shelter carefully andmove around with caution. Pay close attentionto fallen power lines and wires in puddles. Inaddition, do not use a lighter or match in theeffected area in case of fuel or natural gasleaks. Under no circumstances should you enterdamaged buildings without the proper precau-tion or gear.

The best way to survive tornadoes, andother natural disasters, is to be prepared andpay attention. Many times before a tornadohits, a “watch” will be issued. This informs resi-dents of areas, sometimes up to 25,000square miles, that conditions arefavorable for a tornado. It doesn’tmean that a tornado will definitelyoccur; in fact, many times nothinghappens after a watch, but younever want to count on that. Keepan eye out on the weather duringtornado watches. Dark, low-hang-ing clouds indicate an impendingtornado, as does frequent lightningand hail. Often the power will cutout right before the tornado hitsbecause nearby power lines wereknocked over or damaged.

Never just rely on visual signals,however. In some parts of the coun-try, large trees or hilly landscapecan block an oncoming tornadofrom view, so always keep the TV orradio on for warnings. Tornadoes form andbegin destructing within minutes, so take a tor-nado watch as an opportunity to account foreveryone and prepare for the worst.

If one does form, a “warning” will be issued,which means a tornado is imminent. Of courseit doesn’t mean that it will strike exactly whereyou are, and if you’re one of the lucky ones, itwon’t; but don’t take that chance. The time togather padding and protective gear is not whena tornado warning has been announced. Therewill not be enough time to prepare at this point,and many people have been killed becausethey were trying to gather supplies after awarning, but didn’t make it to a safer location intime. Take the time to ready yourself before andonce a warning has been issued, take shelterimmediately.

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“THE BEST WAYTO SURVIVETORNADOES ANDOTHER NATURALDISASTERS, IS TOBE PREPARED AND PAY ATTENTION.”

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Michael Naruta

Michael Naruta recounted his experience dur-ing a particularly brutal tornado in 1953—theBeecher Tornado in Michigan, which resulted in116 fatalities and remains one of the top 10deadliest tornadoes in history. Back in the1950s, there was virtually no warning for thesedisasters—if you were lucky, you saw it comingfrom a distance with enough time to take shel-ter. Michael didn’t get a warning, and his storyshows how useful common household itemscan be during an emergency; in this case, atable, blankets and a flashlight—and why theyare still recommended as protection today,some 60 years later.

Michael was in his farmhouse with hismother and two brothers, Tom and Gordon,when the tornado hit. He, Gordon and their

mother were in the kitchen when the tornadoblasted through their house, and the three ofthem were lucky enough to get knocked downnext to their heavy kitchen table. As the tor-nado raged, the table created a small space ofprotection for them amid the collapsing walls.Without the table, the three of them wouldundoubtedly have been crushed.

Tom happened to be upstairs in his bedroomduring the storm, and he immediately hid underthe blankets on his bed. When the house col-lapsed, the tornado threw Tom and the bed intothe front yard, where even more debris was fly-ing wildly. Thanks to the blanket, Tom was notseriously injured, although any sharp piece ofdebris could have easily fatally wounded him.

Once the storm passed, Tom, who was out-side the collapsed home, began yelling for hisfamily, and was relieved to find out everyonewas alive; but Michael, his mother and Gordonwere still buried under the house with no wayto get free. Luckily, the mother was able tolocate a flashlight and shine it through cracksto signal to Tom where they were. Tom beganto dig an opening in the debris and was able toget it large enough for all three to slip through.

Michael’s mother was bleeding from herhead and neck from the flying glass and nailsthat struck her while she was shielding her chil-dren and Tom was cut on his hands and feetfrom digging through the rubble. Bad as theywere, their injuries were not fatal. Although thetornado was over and the family survived, theyfelt the aftereffects for quite some time. Theincident had destroyed their house, farm andlivestock, and it took decades for them to payoff the debts they acquired after rebuildingtheir lives from ground up.

Michael recalled how his mother madethem hide under their beds anytime a storm hit,and he has spent the rest of his life afraid ofsmall, enclosed spaces. He took his experienceand used it to his and other’s advantage; he’sstudied tornadoes and participated in Skywarn,a program that collects reports of localizedsevere weather to help forecasters issueweather watches and warnings. As Michaelstated, “It’s good to understand the phenome-non. It helps remove the fear.”

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Wilma Nelson

When it comes to natural disasters, somepeople get lucky and some people don’t, itdoes not always matter who is more prepared.One woman, 89-year-old Wilma Nelson hashad the terrible misfortune of experiencing,and almost dying in, two severe tornadoes inthe same town.

The first tornado hit in 1947 when she wasjust 23 years old. She was living in a duplex atthe time with a roommate, but was home alonethe night of the storm. Nelson recounts howshe could see a menacing cloud and worriedabout a hailstorm, but she was not aware thata deadly tornado was approaching because ofthe lack of advanced storm warning communi-cation back then.

When it did hit, it took her by surprise. AsNelson rode the storm out under her diningroom table, the tornado, the deadliest in Okla-homa’s history, essentially leveled her town ofWoodward and killed 116 people. The tornadoinfluenced the creation of the watch and warn-ing program, which saved Nelson’s life the sec-ond time around.

The second tornado was in 2012, and thistime Nelson was prepared. Her walk-in closetwas stocked with nonperishable foods, water,tissues, scissors, pliers, a whistle and flash-lights. The night of the second Woodward tor-nado, Nelson got into bed and, with her cellphone and glasses close by, listened to herweather radio. A tornado had been spottedabout seven miles away from Woodward andwas reportedly moving fast.

When the town’s sirens sounded, Nelsonquickly made her way to the closet and got thedoor shut right as the tornado hit her street.According to Nelson, it sounded like a bombwent off, and her roof was ripped away fromthe house. A wood panel fell on her head butshe remained as calm as she could. The doorwas blocked by debris after the tornadopassed, trapping her inside; but Nelson’s neigh-bors came looking for her right away and werecalling out her name. She shined one of herflashlights through the cracks so they couldlocate her and they quickly got her out of the

closet. Nelson was okay, but six fellow Wood-ward residents had been killed in the twister.

Despite having survived two tragedies andlosing her home, Nelson remains positive, “I’mjust pretty tough. I’ve just had to learn to bestrong. If life deals you lemons, you makelemonade, that’s my philosophy, and you dowhatever you have to do and you take it on thechin ... and if good things come, you rejoice.” Heradvice to others? “Get you a weather radio,because it saved my life.”

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54 TORNADO|IN THE PAST

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The Tri-State Tornado of 1925

The Tri-State Tornado, which trekked about200 miles in 3.5 hours (the longest recordedtornado in history) and ruined 13 counties inMissouri, Illinois and Indiana in 1925, remainsthe deadliest tornado in U.S. history. This FE5twister was among a larger tornado outbreakon March 18, 1925 across Tennessee, Kentucky,Indiana, Alabama and Kansas.

This outbreak was spurred by severe thun-derstorms all over the Midwest and the South,and there were some reports of hail and strongwinds. These supercell thunderstorms began inthe afternoon and quickly condensed into asquall line, or a line of thunderstorms that formalong a cold front and contain hail, heavy pre-cipitation, lightning, and can often producewaterspouts and tornadoes.

Although no one factor present in theatmosphere that fateful day accounts for theexceptionally long path and duration, the com-bination of a variety of elements may have con-tributed to its severity.

The tri-state tornado formed at about 12:40p.m. and was reported to be a relatively littlecondensation funnel in Missouri. Although thesize was small at first, the tri-state tornadoalone would cause 695 fatalities over the nextfew hours. As the tornado made its waythrough Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, itdestroyed 15,000 houses, caused $16.5 millionworth of damage ($1.4 billion by today’s stan-dards), killed at least 695 people and injured2,027. The entire town of Gorham, Illinois wasessentially obliterated. Almost every buildingwas flattened, railroad tracks were ripped fromthe ground and more than half of the town’spopulation was killed or injured.

In Murphysboro, a total of 234 people werekilled, which is the most deaths caused by atornado in a single town. The tornadodestroyed about 100 square blocks in the town,and an additional 70 were ruined from resultingfires. West Frankfort, a mining town in Illinois,experienced significant loss as well. When thetornado struck, most men were underground inthe mine, and therefore safe from the disaster.After the power in the mine went out they came

to the surface to see what had hap-pened, and found a destroyed town.With the men protected, almost all ofthe 148 deaths and 400 injuries werewomen and children.

The total tri-state death toll ismore than double the second mostdeadly tornado in the U.S. in 1840.Outside of fatalities and injuries, thetornado left thousands withouthomes and there were many reportsof fires and looting around theaffected areas. Nine schools weredestroyed during the disaster and 69students were killed.

There have been debates overwhether the destruction was causedby a single tornado or a family of tor-nadoes, and despite exhaustiveresearch there has been no clear con-clusion. Most scientists agree that,while there may have been multipletornadoes at the beginning and endof the long track, the majority of thewidespread damage was caused byone continuous tornado. P

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Joplin Tornado of 2011

Yet another disastrous tornado occurred inJoplin, Missouri occurred in 2011. Part of alarger tornado outbreak, this multiple-vortextornado struck the town on May 22, 2011 andhad an almost mile wide reach. The twistercaused 158 fatalities, an additional two indi-rect deaths, 1,150 injuries and $2.8 billionworth of damages. When it first hit ground, thetornado was at an EF0 intensity, but it pickedup steam as it traveled towards Joplin andeventually reached EF5.

The damage from the tornado in Joplin wascatastrophic. Three hundred-pound concreteparking stops fixed with rebar were thrownyards away, something that could only havehappened with winds that exceeded 200 mph,as one wind engineer was able to determine. St.John’s Regional Medical Center also sufferedheavy damage, so bad, in fact, that it wasdeemed structurally compromised after thestorm and was torn down. The building lostwindows, walls and part of its roof and six peo-ple were killed.

The tornado maintained its strength as itdestroyed buildings, a church and even JoplinHigh School, although luckily, the graduationceremony was that day and the students werethree miles away at a different venue.

The mile-wide tornado hit a Pizza Hut,where the manager had herded the fouremployees and 15 customers into the walk-infreezer. The door was unable to close, so themanager, Christopher Lucas, tied a bungeecable to the door and wrapped it around hisarm to keep it shut. The tornado was toostrong, however, and it sucked Lucas into thestorm, where he died. His efforts were not invain though, his selfless act managed to savethe lives of his employees and customers. Simi-lar scenes were happening around the town asthe tornado continued to forge its path, stack-ing cars and throwing around 100-pound man-hole covers. It weakened as it made its waysouth to neighboring communities, whereminor damage was reported.

A preliminary survey found that around 20percent of Joplin had been destroyed andabout 75 percent damaged, including 7,000houses. In an attempt to prevent such severe

damage in the future, Joplin officialsannounced that they would require all housesto have hurricane ties, or fasteners betweenhouses and the foundation. However theyrejected a proposal that would require concretebasements in new homes. Only 28 percent ofnew homes in Joplin had basements as of2009, and 54 percent of the fatalities occurredwithin residences.

Following the storm there was a disputeover its intensity. One engineering study foundthat there was no structural damage on parwith an EF5 rating, but the National WeatherService in Missouri reported that their team hadfound evidence, albeit a small amount, of EF5damage near the hospital, which they claimcould have been missed in the engineering sur-vey. This along with a variety of non-conven-tional damage indicators—the moving of theconcrete parking stops and manhole covers—led to a final rating of EF5.

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“THE TORNADO WAS TOO STRONG,HOWEVER, AND IT SUCKED LUCASINTO THE STORM, WHERE HE DIED.”

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56 TORNADO|GEAR GUIDE

DOOMSDAY

Stay in the LightFlashlights are crucial to have during a tornado.

Power lines are often destroyed in the stormsand cut off electricity to homes, which can be

disastrous at such a chaotic time. Specialtyflashlights, such as the one above, are perfect

in emergency situations because they arearmed with AM/FM radios and have alternate

power sources, so a lack of batteries in a houseduring a tornado won’t be a problem.

CampingSurvival.com

Head ProtectionOne of the main causes of deathduring tornadoes is head injury, soa simple bike helmet could pre-vent fatal head trauma. Once awarning has been issued, it wouldbe smart to put on a helmet just incase; better safe than sorry.SOSProducts.com

Prevent Window PainsDamage occurs when the strong winds getinto the house through a broken door, roofor window. Although these wouldn’t domuch for the more severe tornadoes, theycould offer a decent amount of protectionduring the lower-intensity ones. Theseacrylic sheets can fit into window framesand add extra fortification. HDSupplySolutions.com

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Sound SignalsIn the event that a house collapses and the occupants areburied under rubble, a whistle is a lifesaver. Without a phone,it’s hard to signal for help. As rescue workers move throughoutthe affected areas, a whistle could alert them immediatelywhere you are and possibly save hours of searching. Coleman.com

Keep InformedSimilar to the flashlight above, this

hand-crank-powered, multi-usetool is perfect in any emergency

situation. The mobile phonecharger with a universal adapter

provides enough power for a shortconversation, which could save

lives. Keep this crucial tool in yourdesignated tornado shelter,

whether it’s a closet or basement. FireSupplyDepot.com

Portable ArmorNot intended to replace a saferoom, tornado shields add an

extra layer of protection andare able to protect the wearer

from flying debris. This TuuliArmor Tornado shield wastested by firing a quarter-pound spike, a five-ouncesteel rod, and glass at the

shield at speeds of 200 to260 mph; nothing penetrated

the shield. They can be usedin a bathtub, closet, car, base-

ment and most places youwould hide for shelter.

TuuliArmor.com

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58 VOLCANO|ANATOMY & SURVIVAL

DOOMSDAY

PHOTO BY THINKSTOCK

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Ask most people what they think of when they imagine avolcano eruption and they’ll describe red-hot lava sluggishly flowing.We’ve all seen the film clips of lava in Hawaii doing just that. But as hardas it might be to believe, a river of molten rock is about the best possiblecase for a volcanic eruption. For the most part, you can see those coming,and they’re going to flow in a mostly predictable way. It’s the other kind oferuption that poses an extreme challenge for survival.

Fountains FireSURVIVING THE LAVA OF A VOLCANO’S ERUPTION > Story by Jeff Zurschmeide

There are about 1,500 active volcanoes inthe world, and 169 of them are in the UnitedStates. Most of the world’s active volcanoes arelocated along a big circle called the Pacific Rimof Fire. If you draw a line around the west coastof the Americas and out the Aleutian peninsulaand down through the east coasts of Japan andAsia all the way down to Australia and NewZealand, you’ve pretty much got it. Most of theislands in the Pacific Ocean have a volcaniccomponent to them, too. Other volcanoes arescattered around the world, including Etna andVesuvius in Sicily and Italy, Eyjafjallajökull inIceland, and some in the Caribbean.

of

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Every year, 50 to 70 volcanoes will erupt. Forthe most part, this is no big deal. They belchsome gas and ash into the sky, or send somelava along a well-defined channel, addingsome real estate to the local map. But occa-sionally, we get that other kind of eruption—theash and dust and mud kind. Volcanologistshave a lot of scientific terms for it, but the bot-tom line is that a mountain just explodes, rain-ing superheated rock and ash down on thecountryside for hundreds of miles in everydirection, while a combination flood and land-slide of superheated mud and rock scrapesabsolutely everything off the landscape.

This happened in Washington State on May18th, 1980, when Mount Saint Helens eruptedwith the force of 500 nuclear bombs. Peoplewere expecting an eruption, but no one pre-dicted that the top and side of the mountainwould simply explode. The initial shockwaveran at over 300 mph and flattened everythingin its path. Then came the pyroclastic flow—awave of mud and rock hundreds of feet thickand measuring hundreds of degrees Fahren-heit. A total of 57 people died that springmorning, including those who defied warningsto evacuate and some who were in areasauthorities believed safe.

But the people in the path of millions oftons of volcanic sputum were not the only oneswith a challenging survival situation on theirhands. The ash and dust from the explosion fellas far away as Minnesota. The entire PacificNorthwest was covered in a blanket of fine gritanywhere from an inch to a foot thick. If you diga hole in the right place, you can still find a layerof ashy clay a few inches down.

The survival challenge for anyone under theumbrella of a volcano, and anyone who livesdownwind of that volcano, is more subtle but noless dangerous. Plus, there’s a tremendous riskof property damage that you might not expect.

Yellowstone – The Big OneIf all that doom and gloom doesn’t have you

thinking in survival mode, consider this: MountSaint Helens was pretty small in the grandscheme of things. The great Yellowstone Crateris expected to blow at some point, and if it goesup the way some scientists expect it will, theresulting super-eruption could take out much

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K of North America entirely. The last time this

crater blew up, the volcano spewed out 100million cubic yards per second, which changedthe climate of North America and may havecaused the extinction of large numbers ofspecies on the continent.

Yellowstone doesn’t look as imposing as acone-shaped volcano mountain such as MountSaint Helens or Mount Fuji in Japan, but it’sactually much more significant. When you enterthe Yellowstone crater, it looks like you’re dri-ving into a big valley. Don’t be fooled by thesize, though—it’s still a volcanic crater. And theamusing tourist attractions like the Old Faithfulgeyser indicate that the volcano underneaththat crater is alive and fully active.

Scientists believe that if Yellowstone fullyerupts, the ejection could cover most of thewestern United States in ash, disrupting agri-culture and wildlife. Up to half of the UnitedStates could be rendered uninhabitable for anextended period of time. An eruption of thisscale would devastate the global economyand perhaps threaten civilization itself.

Surviving an Eruption EventYour first challenge is to survive the actual

eruption. The best way to do this is by beingelsewhere when it happens. This is generallypossible because at least in the United States,we keep a pretty close eye on our volcanoes.The mountains usually offer distinct signals toour scientists that indicate when an eruption islikely. When the situation goes critical, you’llget an advisory to leave the area. You shouldheed that advice and leave by the safest routepossible.

If you are caught by the explosion, you havea decision to make: shelter in place or run for it.If you believe you could be in the path of devas-tation, then obviously running is the rightchoice. No humans overtaken by a pyroclasticflow have ever been known to survive. Suchflows are too big, too fast, too hot, andabsolutely deadly.

But if you are not in the immediate vicinity oralong any likely path of flows, your best bet isto plan on sheltering in place. Seal up yourhouse as much as humanly possible. Seal upwindows, doors, fireplace flues, HVAC systemintakes and exhausts, attic hot air exhaust

Rules forSurvivingVolcanicAftermath > Husband your resources

carefully. You don’t

know how long your

stored provisions need

to last.

> Depending on social

conditions where you

are, you may want to be

rescued or to keep a low

profile until order is

restored. Be prepared

for either possibility.

> Any wind or distur-

bance will kick up ash

and dust. When you

must venture out, wear

good, all-covering

clothes and the best

respirator you have.

> Wash your air filters

and keep them clean. If

they get clogged and

you can’t breathe, your

other options won’t be

as good.

> Get ash and dust off

your house and car as

soon as you can use the

hose to clean up. Espe-

cially if rain is immi-

nent, the ash will hold

water and get heavy,

putting a burden on

roofs and gutters.

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basement vents. The sealing job doesn’t have to be fancy or

completely airtight. You’re just looking to mini-mize the amount of dust and ash that gets in.You can use garbage bags and duct tape, sheetplastic, tarps, even bedsheets. The critical thingis not to let the ash get into your house whereyou will breathe it into your lungs.

Once you have sealed your house, you canhunker down there until the ash stops falling.Throughout this process, normal lockdown sur-vival rules apply. You will need to rely on yourstored drinking water and food. Utilities arealso likely to be out for the duration.

TIP: Your standard home hot water heater holds30 to 50 gallons of drinkable water suitable for along-term lockdown situation.

Resist the temptation to go outside andcheck on things while the ash is flying. That justopens up the house to let ash in, and you’ll getash on you while you’re outside. But at thesame time, keep an eye on accumulations ofash through the windows, because a greatweight of material is likely to be landing on yourcars, your roof, your gutters, and so on. Whenthis is all over, you’ll have plenty of time to exer-cise your respirator while washing and sweep-ing the ash away.

Surviving the AftermathWhile the actual eruption might be terrify-

ing, the real challenge with surviving a majorvolcanic event happens after the mountainceases its destructive tear.

In the near term, a volcanic eruption pre-sents the same challenges as an earthquake,flood, or other natural disaster. Roads are likelyto be impassable, utilities out for extendedperiods, and store-bought food will be thin onthe ground.

Your first step here is to rely on your storedprovisions. This is why you carefully plannedand purchased the food and water you need tosurvive for several weeks. Standard rules apply:do not be conspicuous about how well you aredoing, maintain a regular schedule of rations,and quietly help out as you are able.

Volcanoes and Climate ChangeIn the event of a regional volcanic disaster in

North America, help should be on the way inshort order. Food will arrive and getting watersystems up and running will be a top priority.But in the event of a nationwide or interconti-nental disaster, things could look very different.

In recorded history, there are severalinstances of major eruptions that have actuallychanged the climate worldwide. What happensis that the ash and dust get into the upperatmosphere, blocking the sun and bringing on avolcanic winter that can last for years. Inrecorded history, we know that hundreds ofthousands have starved after a major eruption,and in prehistory, it is thought that a volcaniceruption nearly caused the extinction ofancient man.

In that case, your long-term survival skillshave to come into play. Many of the local live-stock are likely to be dead of bronchitis andmechanical pneumonia from the initial erup-tion, and those that are left may be strugglingto find suitable uncontaminated food.

Crops are likely to be meager or fail entirelyat a continental level if freezing temperaturespersist through a summer. When the normalgrowing season is disrupted, not just sowncrops are in trouble, but even the wild-growingfoods that a resourceful person knows how toexploit. In this case, you could find yourselfbecoming a refugee, or at least bringing yourprecious stock of cash, metals, trade goods,and skills into play to keep yourself fed, housed,and healthy.

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VOLCANIC ERUPTION SURVIVAL RULES> Keep your distance. If authorities are saying there’s a good chance a Volcano eruption is

imminent, the best thing to do is bug out early and beat the rush. You should already have

your escape plan established, and the supplies ready to hand when the time comes.

> As much as possible, follow directions. Scientists who study volcanoes have a pretty good

idea where the mess is going to go. If it’s likely that the volcano is going to blow right

across your bug-out path, it’s time to change that plan, pronto.

> Pack the proper clothing. Volcanic ash is alkaline and not good for you. Wear and pack

plenty of good-covering clothing to keep ash off of you.

> Bring along eye protection to help keep ash and dust out of your eyes, and pack some

saline solution to rinse ash out of your eyes.

> Don’t forget to breathe—pack good filtered respirators if possible, and painter’s masks,

surgical masks, or even just a couple bandanas to keep ash out of your lungs. Volcanic ash

in your lungs can easily kill you.

> If you must shelter in place, turn off all vents to the outside. That includes all windows,

doors, ventilation systems, and so on. Don’t forget the flue in the fireplace! You want to

keep all ash and fumes outside.

> Once the eruption hits, try to avoid driving, or if you must drive, try to add extra air filtering

capability to your car. Volcanic ash does nothing good for cars, and will be sucked right

into your engine.

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The Moore Family

One of the most famous stories of volcanicsurvival comes from the Mount Saint Helenseruption. The Moore family of Longview, Wash.had gone to a campsite about 15 miles north-west of the peak of the rumbling volcano withthe intention of getting a front row seat forsome spectacular natural fireworks. The fool-hardy plan nearly cost them their lives whenthe eruption turned out to be far greater thananyone could have anticipated.

The four members of the Moore family:father, mother, and two children under five,camped out overnight and awoke the next

morning to see the mountain going up, and thecloud of ash and dust approaching them atabout 300 mph. Within moments, they wereengulfed in a fog of unbreathable silt and poi-sonous gases.

The family described the sound of theexplosion as being similar to a troubled air-plane—a low, loud rumble. Then they felt thefirst pressure wave as the air was pushedtowards them by the force of the blast. TheMoores say that they could feel their bodiesbeing compressed by the shock wave.

Mr. Moore was frantically taking photos asthe cloud of dust grew around the mountain,until he realized that he had positioned hisfamily far too close to the cataclysmic explo-sion taking place just a few miles away. When

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he looked skyward, all he could see was black-ness. The time to run was long past, and thefamily car was a 2-mile hike away.

With no time to escape and only their camp-ing tent for protection, the Moores had to thinkfast—their childrens’ lives and their owndepended on their ability to protect themselvesfrom the millions of tons of debris headed theirway. The family decided to shelter in place at atiny cabin located nearby.

By the time the Moores made it into thecabin, trees were coming down and the blacksky was riven with lightning generated by theparticles of ash and soot. The lightning was theonly source of light making it through the cloud.

The cabin was not sealed, and ash was mak-ing its way into the structure, so the Mooresused their clothing and drinking water to createmakeshift breathing filters. By the time thecloud passed and the eruption subsided to sur-vivable levels on the next day, there was 6inches of ash and dust covering every surface.

The Moores attempted to hike out of thearea and back to civilization, but with everylandmark changed or obliterated, they spentanother night outdoors in the wilderness beforebeing spotted by rescue workers and evacuatedby helicopter.

Quick thinking and the chance proximity of asturdy shelter saved the Moore family fromwhat would otherwise have been certain death.There’s more luck than skill to this story, andthe lessons are clear. It is impossible to knowbeforehand what an eruption will do, and thebest place to be is far away.

August CyparisSometimes being in jail isn’t such a bad thing.

Back in 1902, a man named August Cyparisended up spending the night in jail on the islandof Martinique in the Caribbean. The story isvague, but it seems likely that Mr. Cyparis wasstuck in the clink for his involvement in adrunken fistfight.

But fortune often looks out for drunkardsand fools, because the cell where he washoused was protected by thick stonewalls in thebasement of the police station. He was alone inthis dank little prison, without a window of any

kind, and only a grate in the door to bring himfresh air. That miserable accommodation gavehim the protection he needed to survive whathappened on the following morning.

On the morning of May 8, Mount Peléeerupted spectacularly, destroying much of theisland with a cloud of dust and gas thatspewed forth at more than 400 mph. The tem-perature of the erupted material surpassed1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and almost theentire population of the island was burned todeath or suffocated in the firestorm that fol-lowed. Every building in the city of St. Pierre col-lapsed, and Cyparis’ cell was covered in rubble.

After four days in the cell, rescue crewsarrived and heard Cyparis shouting. He had suf-fered extensive burns and barely survived. Hetestified that all light vanished and extremelyhot air mixed with ash began flowing throughhis cell door. He tried to block the flow with hisclothes, and was burned over much of hisupper body by the hot air.

In later years, Cyparis made a living telling hisstory and showing the scars he sustained whilesurviving one of the most intense volcanic erup-tions in the history of the Caribbean.

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Mount Saint HelensEruption of 1980

The Pacific Northwest is home to many vol-canoes, laid out in a ragged line from NorthernCalifornia up through British Columbia andAlaska. About 7,700 years ago, Mount Mazamain what is now Southern Oregon exploded andcollapsed. The Native American tribes of theregion recall the event in their legends as a bat-tle between two giants. The eruption left theUnited States with one of its most spectacularformations: Crater Lake National Park. Withnowhere to go, snow and rain gradually filledthe volcano’s caldera, creating a pure and

beautiful lake. Scientists have measured watertemperatures and found that the water downby the floor of the crater is quite warm—a signthat Mazama is not dead, merely sleeping.

But as mentioned earlier, on the morning ofMay 18, 1980, Mount Saint Helens, another vol-cano in the Cascade chain exploded, killing 57.The run-up to that moment is instructive.

The mountain had been giving clear signsthat it was active for weeks and monthsbeforehand. The day prior to the eruption, an

earthquake measuring 5.1 on the traditionalRichter scale emanated from the mountain.Authorities had contacted everyone known tobe living on the mountain or in its likely flowpath to evacuate. One man, named Harry Tru-man, refused to leave his Spirit Lake Lodgehome and business. Truman and his lodge nowlie buried at least 200 feet under the new sur-face of the Earth. Other victims of the blastincluded David Johnston, a volcanologist withthe United States Geological Survey. Johnstonwas stationed on a ridge when the eruptioncame. His last words on the radio were “This isit” before he was consumed by the 300 mphblast wave and lost in the ash.

The mountain blew out its top andsides to the northeast, releasing thedevastating flows of mud and rock.Some late evacuees were not able todrive out faster than the mud flows,due to zero visibility in the dust cloud.

President Carter, surveying the dis-aster a few days later, compared thedestroyed area to the surface of themoon, stating that the moon lookedlike a golf course compared to the dev-astation around Mt. St. Helens.

For weeks afterward, residents upto hundreds of miles away had to wearrespirators and pay careful attentionto the air intakes on their vehicles, andall filtration systems. Water supplieswere compromised and authoritieshad their hands full meeting basicpublic utility needs.

Today, much of the area blightedby the volcano remains stark and bar-ren. Yet life began returning to themountain almost immediately. What ismore amazing is that the mountain is

rebuilding itself far faster than most scientistsexpected. A new mountain peak is growingdown in the caldera, and it is already over 100feet high just a little over 30 years later. It is fairto note that we have not heard the last fromMount Saint Helens, and residents of Seattlenow look towards Mount Rainier, while Port-land, Oregon residents look to Mount Hood.Both wonder when these mountains might roarto life and change their verdant cities to blastedwastelands.

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Mount Ontake Eruptionof 2014

Even with the advanced volcanic monitoringand warning systems, the Earth can still sur-prise us with an eruption. On September 29,2014, Mount Ontake in Japan suddenly erupted,killing 51 people. Over 250 hikers and touristswere on the mountain that day, some at reli-gious shrines or nature resorts.

The Mount Ontake event is known as a“phreatic” type of eruption. That means thatsuperheated steam and mud built up near thesurface of the mountain and suddenly blewout. Unlike deeper types of eruption, phreaticevents are extremely difficult to predict.

When the superhot steam pressure blewout part of the mountain, a pyroclastic flow ofash-based mud and gas exploded out of thenew vent. This material jets out at tempera-tures more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, andat speeds greater that 100 miles per hour—impossible to outrun.

Of the 51 people who died, most werecaught in the pyroclastic flow. Bodies werefound crushed by boulders flung out from theexplosion, or burned to death by the hot gasesand ash. These were the people closest to theeruption site. The victims were on foot andcould not move fast enough to outrun thedeadly effusion.

Yet about 200 people did manage to survivethe eruption on Mount Ontake, primarily by notbeing in the path of the eruption when it hap-pened. Those who survived testified to a sceneof biblical scale devastation. Witnessesreported that the sky was darkened and the airwas a thick miasma of smoke, floating ash, andchoking fumes. Hot rocks fell from the sky,ejected from the volcano’s new vent.

Rescue workers labored for days to accountfor the missing, and the death toll rose as themissing were discovered in the locations wherethe eruption overtook them. The search wassuspended and the remaining missing werepresumed dead when a serious storm madelandfall five days later.

The significance of this recent eruption onMount Ontake is that phreatic explosions maytake place at any time on or near a volcano.Volcanoes are often part of chains that arelinked by underground rivers of molten rock,and small earthquakes are an everyday occur-rence in these chains. When an earthquake toosmall for humans to feel changes the course ofunderground aquifers, water may come intocontact with heat and flash into steam, creat-ing the perfect conditions for a phreatic out-break. Notably, there was another phreaticeruption in the Philippines in 2013 that killedfive people.

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Historic VolcanicEruptionsand ClimateChangeMount Pinatubo in the

Philippine islands erupted

in 1991. Scientists estimate

that more than 20 million

tons of sulphur were dis-

persed into the atmos-

phere. The result was that

world average tempera-

tures dropped by 2 degrees

Celsius that year.

Prior eruptions in 1815

in the East Indies and in

1783 in Iceland also had

measurable climatic

impacts around the world.

In that year, summer was

a no-show in the Northern

hemisphere in those

years. Unseasonable

frosts and snows contin-

ued throughout both

years and up to 200,000

died of starvation due to

crop failure.

Going even farther

back, it is believed that an

Indonesian supereruption

about 75,000 years ago

ushered in a small ice age,

dropping global tempera-

tures for years and sharply

reducing human popula-

tions all over the globe.

All signs are clear: a

true supereruption could

bring on a global winter

that could last for years or

even decades. Crops could

fail everywhere on Earth,

leading to mass starva-

tion and the unrest that

would surely follow.

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Eye Protection Goggles are best here, something that will doas much as possible to keep the volcanic ash-dust out of your eyes. As mentioned above,this ash is super irritating to your eyes. Makesure you get a good pair for each person inyour household—and maybe a few spares.Ordinary swimming goggles from the sportinggoods store will work, or welding goggles withclear lenses. BarzOptics.com

Respirator This is a critical survivalitem in your kit. If youlive anywhere near avolcano, you need oneof these, properly fitted,for each member ofyour household. Vol-canic ash is irritating toany part of you thatcomes into contact, butespecially to your respi-ratory system and eyes. NorthernTool.com

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Water Filter In the event that water systems are down forsome time, you’ll want to filter any water youplan to drink. The particulate ash will be theworst, so think about getting more than onefilter because the filters may become clogged. Katadyn.com

Flare Gun If you did manage to survive, you’ll want to be found.When the airplanes are surveying the damage, you cansend up a signal. In most cases of people surviving whereothers did not, they survived because they were able toalert rescuers to their presence. OrionSignals.com

Sealers Plastic sheeting such as painter’sdrop cloths and ordinary garbagebags are perfect for sealing yourhouse against volcanic ash orother airborne pathogens. Getsome bungee cords and duct tapefor sealing off vents like your fire-place flue, hot air escape vents onthe roof, and the kitchen blowervent. Don’t forget those attic andcrawl space or basement vents. HomeDepot.com

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Flying LeadSURVIVING AN ACTIVE SHOOTER SCENARIO > Story by Tori Tellem

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! A killing spree hasbegun. It’s in a high school cafeteria and the freshman homecomingprince has opened fire on his classmates using a 40-caliber handgun.There’s no time to react; he is calmly shooting. Three studentsinstantly dropped to the floor from head wounds. Some students tryto run out of the cafeteria, tripping and falling over one another in thefrantic rush. Someone pulls the fire alarm and more chaos erupts asstudents rush from the building. Others hide in classrooms. Withinminutes, the police arrive and find the shooter dead of a self-inflictedgunshot wound.

In October 2014, the freshman homecoming prince at Marysville-Pilchuck High School just outside of Seattle did just that.

What is an Active Shooter Situation?The FBI classifies an active shooter as someone “actively engaged

in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populatedarea.” Some of the most common locations that make headlineshave been schools, workplaces, public gathering sites, and evenhouses of worship. And these types of incidents are on the rise.

The FBI has identified 160 active shooter cases in the U.S. takingplace between 2000 and 2013. In these incidents, 486 were killedand 557 were wounded. The shooters themselves are not part ofthose stats. Of those incidents, 64 were considered mass killings—three or more killed, according to a federal definition. The incidentsstudied happened in both small and large towns, urban and ruralareas, and in 40 of 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The highest casualty count happened during the movie theatershooting in Aurora, CO, in 2012—12 were killed and 58 were wounded.In 2007, the shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Uni-versity in Blacksburg, Va., saw 32 killed and 17 wounded. Mostrecently, the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut incidentin 2012 had 27 deaths, while 2 were wounded.

In all but two incidents the FBI tracked, there was a single shooter.In 64 incidents, the shooter committed suicide. And at least fiveshooters from four incidents remain at large.

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The FBI report A Study of Active Shooter Inci-dents in the United States Between 2000 and2013 noted, “the findings also reflect the damagethat can occur in a matter of minutes. In 64 inci-dents where the duration of the incident couldbe ascertained, 44 (69 percent) of 64 incidentsended in 5 minutes or less, with 23 ending in 2minutes or less. Even when law enforcementwas present or able to respond within minutes,civilians often had to make life and death deci-sions, and, therefore, should be engaged in train-ing and discussions on decisions they may face.”

Additionally, “The 15 incidents that occurredin open spaces resulted in 45 people killed,including 1 law enforcement officer, and 54people wounded (including 10 law enforce-ment officers).”

One pattern the FBI did not see? Similaritiesin shooter ages; ages have ranged from 17 to 72.Also, victims were “young and old, male andfemale, family members, and people of allraces, cultures, and religions.”

“Active shooter incidents happen for a rangeof reasons,” explained Jeff Zisner, president andCEO of AEGIS Security & Investigations(aegis.com), whose company offers securitytraining, including a workshop called TacticalResponse: How to Survive an Active Shooter.“There are, however, trends and pre-incidentindicators that typically lead to such an inci-dent and fall within several categories. Terror-ism-related active shooters: attempting toinstill fear for the purpose of political or ideo-logical gain. Victim: they were bullied—any kindof environment—domestic dispute, or someonethey know was a victim. And mental illness:Typically this in itself isn’t a pre-incident indica-tor that would result in someone becoming anactive shooter; however, mental illness withother environmental pressures may lower thecognitive barrier to someone justifying the act.”

How to SurviveOfficer Stephen Daniel of the Houston Police

Department told the Examiner out of Houstonback in 2012 that he doesn’t like to hear thatsurvivors of active shooters say they didn’t knowwhat to do. He noted a “survivor’s mindset” isrequired, and “society has progressed to thepoint where this is not an uncommon event. Wewant you to know what to do.”

The best thing to do is get the hell out of thearea as fast as possible,” said Matt Klier, ownerof Active Shooter Defense School(asdschool.com). “So if you work in a largeoffice building explore it, find all the alternativeexits and even use the staff maintenance exitsand elevators. Do this daily; learn your environ-ment prior to an incident.” Having an escaperoute in advance is key. If you’re at a mall,where are the nearest exits? If you’re in a hall-way, go to a room and lock the door.

“The first thing you should do is look for andget behind “hard cover”—hard cover is anythingthat will stop a bullet,” Klier continued. “Build-ings, concrete, walls, the axle or engine of a car.Stay behind it, get low, and move away if possi-ble. Avoid rooms without an exit.”

According to Pepperdine University’s emer-gency information on active shooters, “Devel-oping a survival mindset is first and foremost.Take time to understand your surroundings andenvironment before an emergency. If you heargunfire, “drop to the ground immediately, facedown, flat.” Also, move or crawl away from thegunfire, and stay down. The university also sug-gests tips like hiding behind furniture or findinga room that locks, and block the door withheavy furniture. Close the blinds and shut offthe lights, and definitely don’t look out a win-dow to see what’s going on.

The Department of Homeland Security sug-gests remembering three key words for sur-vival: run, hide, fight. By run, have an escaperoute. Also, don’t try to move any of thewounded. Evacuate, even if other people don’twant to go with you. In terms of hide, be out ofthe shooter’s view and stay quiet. This meansensuring your phone or other noisemakers areset to silent.

“If you’re caught in an open area such as ahallway or large room, do what we call run thewalls. Staying out of the center of the roomallows for some concealment and may allowyou to slip out unnoticed, get low, crouch,duck, hide behind desks, leap frogging fromone hiding spot to another,” explained Klier.“Do not stay still unless it is absolutely the onlyoption. If you hear shots on the east side, gowest! Do not panic, trust your instincts, andget out! Run then run some more until you’resure you are safe.”

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“…VICTIMSWERE ‘YOUNGAND OLD,MALE ANDFEMALE,FAMILYMEMBERS,AND PEOPLEOF ALLRACES, CULTURES,AND RELIGIONS.’”

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You’ve probably heard various suggestions,such as run in a zigzag or play dead. Zisner ofAEGIS noted, “Playing dead may or may notwork—especially out in the open. It’s alwaysadvisable to find cover/concealment thanbeing in the line the fire.” Added Klier, “Hittinga fast-moving target at a long range is verydifficult even for professional shooters, so yes,run, leap, hide, bounce, zigzag and get to coverthen repeat.”

Fight or Flight?Fighting with the shooter is a last resort,

such as if the shooter enters the room you’re in.Make plans with others on what to do prior tothis possibility. If the situation requires this, youwill want to try to seem larger than life and dis-play a lot of physical aggression, have impro-vised weapons, and throw things at theshooter. “Commit to your actions,” advised theDepartment of Homeland Security. “If you’re

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DOOMSDAY

close enough to rush the shooter while he isreloading, and of course strong enough, do it.There’s great video of the guy shooting throughthe White House fence and people rush himwhen he reloads. And yes, they were success-ful,” said Klier. “Bottom line: Going up against agun without a gun doesn’t have a high safetyrating…but it does have a success rating.”

In fact, the FBI study identified 21 of 160incidents “where unarmed citizens made theselfless and deeply personal choices to facethe danger of an active shooter,” and “In 11 ofthose 21 incidents, unarmed principals, teach-ers, other school staff and students confrontedthe shooters to end the threat. In 10 incidents,citizens, working or shopping when the shoot-ings began, successfully restrained shootersuntil police could arrive. And in six other inci-dents, armed off-duty police officers, citizens,and security guards risked their lives to suc-cessfully end the threat.”

Pretend to be Dead?About pretending to already be dead: The

situation depends. You may be able to staymotionless or pretend to be unconscious.“Playing dead may or may not work—especiallyout in the open,” Zisner explained, who alsoteaches a “Run, Hide, Fight” class. “It’s alwaysadvisable to find cover/concealment thanbeing in the line the fire.” Klier added, “Playingdead may be an option, but the last option, andI would only do it if I had another dead personto hide under.”

To help law enforcement or the 911 operator,if possible take note of the number of shooters,the location and what the shooter looks like,the type of weapons being used and how many,and how many victims their may be. Expect thefirst officers on scene to not help injured vic-tims; rescue teams and medical personnel willfollow in the next wave to do that. Put downany items in your hands, and raise your handsand spread your fingers, keeping them visible tolaw enforcement at all times.

If you aren’t injured, you may be asked tohelp move those who are to a more securelocation. And know that even if you’re OK, youmay be held by law enforcement until the situ-ation is deemed under control and all wit-nesses have been questioned.

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Shari Thornberg

On April 16, 2007, an active shooter incidenttook place in the dormitory at Virginia Polytech-nic Institute and State University in Blacksburg,Va. The shooter then chained the doors shut ina building and began shooting at the studentsand faculty inside. Thirty-two people werekilled and 17 were wounded. SophomoreKristina Anderson told the Star Exponent in2013 that she was in the back of her classroomwhen she heard gunshots through the wall,then suddenly the gunman burst into her class-room, firing.

“My first instinct was to get down on thefloor and my hands on my head. I looked back, Isaw his torso, magazines and two hands out. Iknew to cover my eyes. Once he started shoot-ing, it was very, very quick. He didn’t say any-thing, he didn’t stop; he literally went down therows of people. It was very methodical.” Shewas shot three times, including in the back. “Ijust knew to hold on and that it would all beover,” she said.

Shari Thornberg was a sur-vivor of the Sandy Hook Ele-mentary School shooting. Shetold USA Today in 2012, “Weheard ‘pop-pop-pop, pop-pop-pop,’ and I thought, ‘That’s aweird noise.’ I first thought itwas the janitor taking downrisers and setting up tables.”She then heard more shotsand screaming, and through the intercomheard the janitor yelling, “Put the gun down!Put the gun down!”

Thornberg and two coworkers locked thedoor of the teacher’s room, “and the three of usstruggled to get in a small closet. We justwaited in the closet, saying The Lord’s Prayerout loud over and over again, and praying for allstaff members and the children.” She describedit as “what seemed like forever.” The shootingincident lasted only about 10 minutes.

In fact, the Department of Homeland Secu-rity noted that active shooter incidents typicallyend after 10 to 15 minutes.

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ColumbineHigh School,1999

On April 20, 1999, EricDavis Harris and Dylan Ben-net Klebold killed 12 stu-dents and one teacher atColumbine High School inLittleton, Colo. They boththen committed suicidebefore law enforcemententered the school. School

safety and law enforcement response to activeshooters became a nationwide discussion.

That same year, Supervisory Special AgentDr. Greg Vecchi, the unit chief of the BehavioralScience Unit located in the FBI’s Training Divi-sion at the FBI Academy, Quantico, Va., toldthe Inside the FBI podcast, “School shootingsbefore Columbine in 1999 were handled by a‘contain and wait’ approach. And what thatmeant is that the police would build theirperimeter, have a perimeter, just kind of con-tain it and wait. With Columbine and thechanges in behavior that that brought, as faras a school shooter, that required what we callan ‘active shooter,’ or a very active response,because if you contain and wait, then peoplewill die because you’ve got the kids in therewith the guns. Then that was changed afterColumbine to active shooter, and that’s beenthe mentality that’s been used to actually go inafter the subject, or after the offender, to pre-vent further violence.”

Aurora, Colorado, Shooting, 2012

On July 20, 2012, James Eagan Holmes, with arifle, shotgun, and handgun, allegedly releasedtear gas in a theater at the Cinemark Century 16movie theaters in Aurora, Colo., during a screen-ing of The Dark Knight Rises, then startedshooting. Twelve people were killed, and 58were wounded. The shooter was wearing bodyarmor, and apprehended by police. They laterfound his apartment was booby-trapped withexplosives.

According to the Aurora Century 16 TheaterShooting After Action Report for the City ofAurora released in April 2014 by TriData Divi-sion, “Overall, police, fire, EMS, and all publicsafety agencies were able to overcome adverseconditions and get patients treated and trans-ported. No one died who could have beensaved.”

Additionally, “While there are things toimprove, as is always found in hindsight, theCity of Aurora should be proud of its responseto the largest civilian shooting in U.S. history,and the largest mass casualty incident inAurora’s history. To repeat the key point, theoutcome could not have been better in terms oflives saved and a rapid arrest.” Also to come outof the incident was “the need to clearly definethreat levels and to distinguish between a ‘hotzone’ with active shooters and a ‘warm zone’where there is concern, but no immediatethreat will be discussed further in the Fire/EMSand the Incident Command chapters.”

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C

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Sometimes the worst begins on the most regular of days.Imagine a family of four on a typical school day morning. They get dressed, eatbreakfast, watch for the school bus, and head off to work. But by mid-morning,mom isn’t feeling well. She has chills, muscle pain, and a sore throat. It’s theflu, it seems, which she finds strange, because she had her annual flu shot amonth ago. Yet many of her co-workers have been sick, too.

Mom goes home to rest, but by the end of the day she’s worsening. Within aweek, the entire family is sick. It’s then that things begin to spin out of control.Mom’s respiratory distress becomes severe, but she’s turned away by her doc-tor’s office, because they’re overloaded with flu patients and have no moreantiviral medication. In the Urgent Care waiting room, rows of people hack andwheeze. Some are sitting or lying on the floor. Rumors spread that this is bad—really bad—and that people are getting pneumonia and some are dying fromrespiratory complications. Not only those in high-risk populations, like theelderly and ill. Everyone is at risk.

Message boards, blogs, and forums permeate the internet, propagating awave of mass hysteria. Yet public health officials try to keep things under con-trol. Calmly, they describe the facts. It appears that a new influenza A virus hasemerged. Often called the “bird flu,” because it is carried by wild aquatic birdslike ducks and gulls, it’s what causes seasonal flu epidemics. But in this case,scientists haven’t seen this particular strain before, which means the humanpopulation hasn’t had previous exposure to the virus and virtually no one isimmune. Current flu shots won’t help. The virus is very contagious. Young,healthy people are at risk. Cases are popping up in various countries aroundthe world.

Of course, measures are being taken. Scientists are working diligently todevelop an effective vaccine, but no one can predict when it will be complete.Drug companies are making more antiviral medication. Travel restrictions andbans have been issued in order to contain the spread of the virus. Schools areclosing down one by one, both in order to protect students and staff, and alsoso the buildings can morph into makeshift clinics. In the meantime, citizens areasked not to panic.

Global SicknessHOW TO SURVIVE A WORLD-WIDE PANDEMIC > Story by Carrie Visintainer

A. This colorizedtransmission electronmicrograph (TEM)reveals some of theinternal structural ofthe Ebola virus.

B. Influenza A H7N9as viewed through anelectron microscope.Both filaments andspheres are observedin this photo.

C. This is a transmis-sion electron micro-graph (TEM) of theWest Nile virus (WNV).

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What Causes a Pandemic?This scenario describes a realistic example

of a flu pandemic, a rare global epidemic wherean infectious disease moves quickly, affectinghuge numbers of people in a short period oftime, spanning state lines and borders, crip-pling the economies of highly affected nations,and creating large scale serious illness. Unlikean outbreak, which we hear about regularly onthe news and find listed on the Centers for Dis-ease Control (CDC) website—diseases or nat-ural disasters that are contained to a certaincountry or region like the recent enterovirusD68 in the U.S. or the Washington Oso mud-slide—the global nature of a pandemic putsenormous strain on healthcare and government

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systems around the world, because mass ill-ness means a shortage of hospital beds, venti-lators and other life-saving equipment, sup-plies, and health care professionals.

Fear and panic are key factors in a pan-demic. So are the tricky properties of viruses.They are unpredictable, sometimes lying dor-mant for months or years without causing ill-ness. Or they unexpectedly mutate—changeform—into a new, unfamiliar version that scien-tists haven’t seen, meaning there’s no vaccine.Maybe the new version transmits in a new way,such as through the air instead of only throughbodily fluids, causing extra cause for alarm. Orthe virus doesn’t respond to medication. Per-haps it preys on the immune systems of per-

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fectly healthy people—the prime gene pool—instead of the sick and elderly. There are somany possibilities.

Because of this, the reality is that publichealth officials agree that a future pandemic—and the flu is a major concern—isn’t a matter ofif, it’s a matter of when. One must only lookback at history to see the reason for this predic-tion. Various examples come to mind. Forstarters, in 1918, the notoriously deadly H1N1 flupandemic infected 500 million people acrossthe world with incredible endurance, travelingeven to highly remote locations like the Arctic,attacking the immune systems of primarilyhealthy young adults. The U.S. death toll alonewas 675,000. Theories on how the pandemicbegan are varied; a couple of investigationspoint to Kansas. Another to China. British virol-ogist John Oxford speculated that the virusoriginated in a troop camp in France, harboredin birds and then mutating to pigs, which werekept at the camp; eventually transmitting andcausing aggressive illness in humans.

More recently, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic,commonly called the swine flu, comes to mind.Originally thought to be an outbreak confinedto Veracruz, Mexico, this strain never seenbefore in humans was detected in April 2009 ina 10-year-old patient in California. More caseswere diagnosed in California, and then beyond,and by June the World Health Organization haddeclared an official pandemic. According to theCDC, in a one-year time span, the pandemiccaused approximately 60.8 million infections,274,304 hospitalizations, and 12,469 deaths inthe U.S. alone.

Other DiseasesBut pandemics are not lim-

ited to only the flu. Consider,for example, human acquiredimmunodeficiency virus(HIV/AIDS). Although the originsof the virus can be traced back toKinshasa, the capital of the Democ-ratic Republic of the Congo, in the1920’s, the first cases weren’t reported until1981. HIV has been a particularly perplexingvirus for scientists to understand because it liesdormant in infected individuals without causingsymptoms, sometimes for many years. Beforepublic education campaigns were developedand HIV testing became widespread, peoplewere unknowingly spreading the virus widely,often through sexual contact or by sharing nee-dles during recreational drug use. This causedthe pandemic to grow to alarming proportions.As of 2006, the CDC reported more than 65million cases of the infection and 25 milliondeaths in the U.S. Currently, more than 35 mil-lion people are living with HIV around the world.

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“…THE NOTORIOUSLYDEADLY H1N1 FLU

PANDEMIC INFECTED500 MILLION PEOPLEACROSS THE WORLD

WITH INCREDIBLEENDURANCE…”

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Bio WarfareThe other important factor in speculating

about the potential for another pandemic isthat Mother Nature isn’t the only culprit. Biolog-ical agents, including bacteria and viruses, havebeen used in acts of biowarfare and bioterror-ism throughout history. These terms refer to thedeliberate release of a biological agent into theair, water, or food, with the intention of sicken-ing and killing large numbers of people. As farback as 450 B.C., Scythian archers, part of agroup that ruled a vast region around presentday Iran, concocted a mixture of decomposedbodies of venomous snakes, human blood, andmanure, and allowed it to putrefy. They dippedtheir arrows into this concoction that containedthe bacteria of gangrene and tetanus, amongother things, and then shot these arrows attheir enemies.

The first recoded “weaponized” biologicalagent in North America—smallpox—was usedduring the French and Indian Wars in the mid

1700s. The commander of British forces inNorth America formulated a plan to “reduce”the size of the Native American tribes that werehostile to the crown, so in late spring 1763,when there was an outbreak of smallpox in thegarrison of Fort Pitt, blankets and a handker-chief were used to collect the pus or driedscabs from the smallpox sores of the infectedBritish troops and were then ceremoniouslygiven to the Indians. Native American tribes inthe Ohio Valley suffered a smallpox epidemic.

And much more recently, there have beenacts of terror involving biological agents thatconcern officials. For example, in theRajneeshee bioterror act of 1984, salad bars in10 restaurants in Oregon were deliberatelycontaminated with salmonella by followers ofBhagwan Shree Rajneesh, sickening 751 peo-ple and hospitalizing 46. The anthrax attacksafter 9/11 also come to mind, as does the factthat ricin has been sent through the mail topolitical figures in the last year. Because ofevents like this, contamination of public foodand water systems, and the use of the postalsystem to disseminate pathogens, remain atop concern, and public health and biosecurityexperts are always asking the question,“Could this be done on an even larger scale?”They spend a lot of time in committees brain-storming possibilities. What if terrorists drop abomb containing smallpox into the middle ofa city? What if anthrax is released into the airin a subway station?

As a result, after 9/11 and the subsequentanthrax attacks, the CDC pooled its resourcesand went to work developing a list of the bio-logical agents that are potential threats in anact of bioterrorism. They put them into cate-gories based certain factors: their ability to beeasily disseminated, cause public fear andpanic, result in widespread illness and death,and ultimately cripple the infrastructure andeconomy of a society. Category A agents—those that pose the greatest threat—includeanthrax, smallpox, tularemia, botulism, pneu-monic plague, and the viral hemorrhagic fevers,which includes Ebola. To make matters worse,acts of bioterror create not only a public healthemergency, but a biosecurity issue that requiresan even deeper level of resources, investigation,and surveillance.

“WHAT IF TERRORISTS DROP ABOMB CONTAINING SMALLPOX

INTO THE MIDDLE OF A CITY?”

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How to PrepareIn looking back at historical events, the good

news is that we’ve learned a lot from what’salready happened—both through MotherNature and through deliberate acts—whichhave helped take steps toward preparing forthe future. Strides have been made. For exam-ple, scientists understand the HIV/AIDS virusmore clearly, and drugs have been developedwhich treat symptoms, improve quality of life,and increase life span for infected individuals.

In addition, screening for HIV has becomethe norm in U.S. culture, and communitiesaround the country have dedicated time andenergy to raising awareness; educating peopleabout how to prevent infection and transmis-sion of the disease by practicing “safe sex,”such as using condoms.

In terms of the flu and the potential foranother pandemic, the CDC has come up with

simple ways to prevent infection and transmis-sion. Four everyday recommendations that peo-ple can implement include getting an annual fluvaccine, covering your cough, washing handsoften, and taking antiviral drugs if you becomeill and your doctor recommends them.

Hospital preparedness for large-scale ill-ness has also been a major focus. Post 9/11, theBush administration and future leaders haveallocated increased funds to helping healthcaresystems. This has meant purchasing more hos-pital beds and equipment, developing commit-tees that discuss evidence-based protocolsand procedures, and creating coalitions; part-nerships between neighboring hospitals.Healthcare systems are required to practicemandatory drills, in which hospital communica-tions staff announce a disaster, and volunteerpatients arrive at the hospital and may be sus-pected of having been infected with smallpoxor anthrax or Ebola. The front line doctors,

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nurses, and staff respond as if it were a real sit-uation, containing the contagious patients andinitiating a series of steps of decontamination;ultimately preparing for a real situation.

And science continues to leap forward aswell. Partially with government funding, virolo-gists at major universities have been studyingbiological agents of concern, including emerg-ing viruses; gaining ground in understandingtheir properties and behavior. In addition, someresearchers are partnering with pharmaceuticalcompanies to create effective vaccines andantiviral drugs that can be stockpiled for use incase of emergency. They are constantly work-ing to predict what might be needed next.

With all that has been learned and withongoing efforts in place to improve currentemergency protocol—some of this gleanedfrom the mistakes that have been made in thecurrent Ebola crisis—the good news is thatmany experts believe we can survive a future

pandemic. In her recent book Scatter, Adapt,and Remember: How Humans Will Survive AMass Extinction, science writer, Annalee Newitz,captures this spirit of survival when she says,“The world has been almost completelydestroyed at least half a dozen times already inEarth’s 4.5-billion-year history, and every singletime there have been survivors.” Thus, if we’vedone it before, we can do it again. She citesexamples of how organisms in nature have sur-vived harsh conditions—from cyanobacteria togray whales—and how we can learn from them.In addition, she discusses how ancient tribes ofhumans, specifically Jews, learned to survivewar and oppressive conditions by dispersingand creating new communities.

On the ground in society, the CDC providescomprehensive plans for how specific groups—businesses, communities, parents, schools,travelers, and health care professionals—canprepare for a future pandemic. For example, afive-step practical plan is suggested for reduc-ing the flu in schools. Recommendationsinclude encouraging staff and students to stayat home when they’re sick; covering noses andmouths when sneezing or coughing; avoidingtouching your nose, mouth, and eyes to avoidthe spread of germs; washing hands often; anddisinfecting surfaces and objects.

Surviving a Global PandemicThere are important ways for individuals to

prepare, too. According to the Emergency Pre-paredness Center, an online resource focusedon practical solutions post-disaster, the bestway to survive a pandemic is to avoid gettingsick. Which means avoiding sick people. Thismay sound obvious, but preparation for “avoid-ing people and society” requires forethought,and it’s important to develop a comprehensiveplan—focusing on both skills and gear—that isappropriate and your family. Here are sometools to get started.

Building Self-SufficiencyIf the pandemic is prolonged, which is a

strong possibility (remember the 1918 flu), it’s agood idea to plan for societal shutdown. Sickpeople aren’t going to be at work, and thosewho aren’t sick may be at home caring for illfamily members. Many businesses may close.

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It’s important that you and your family are ableto live comfortably in your home, so that youcan implement your own form of social dis-tancing. Recommendations include:> Ideally, choose to live in a less populated or

rural area > Install alternative power sources in your

home, such as solar panels and shingles> Store several battery-operated lanterns> Consider having a propane heater (and tank)

on site> Store a radio with extra batteries in order to

listen to news updates> Don’t forget entertainment. If you’re stuck

inside your home for a long time, you’ll wantthings to do. Collect books, games, craft pro-jects, and other activities you and your familyenjoy. Especially with children, it will beimportant to make sure there is plenty to do.

Food and WaterIf grocery stores shut down, or if the water

supply becomes contaminated, you’ll want tomake sure you have sustenance. > Approach food stockpiling little by little until

you have about a month’s worth of foodstored. Each time you go to the grocery store,buy few extra items; preferably things you arealready used to eating. Store them in yourpantry. If you have children, engage them asyou choose what to buy.

> Plant a garden. Even small plots produce asignificant amount of food. Depending on thetime of year, you may be able to eat straightout of your garden. If you live in a place thatdoesn’t have a year-round growing season,learn how to can fruits and vegetables andthen add them to your stockpile for the winter.

> Learn basic cooking skills, and involve yourchildren.

> Stores water in your pantry. In addition, fillempty jugs with water and put them in thefridge and freezer. In addition, make sure youhave a reliable method for sterilizing tapwater, if this becomes necessary.

Medical ConsiderationsIn the case of a pandemic, hospitals will be

overloaded, and you won’t want to go nearthem, in order to avoid exposure. Plan inadvance for what you might need.

> Make sure you have a current medical historyon each family member

> Keep extra medications on hand for familymembers who suffer from chronic conditions.Don’t forget important toiletries like contactlens solution, toilet paper, and paper towels.

> Make sure you have a first aid kit thatincludes basic supplies for cuts, bruises, andminor injuries

> Take a CPR and First Aid class to build yourskill set

Preparing for the FluSince a flu pandemic is one of the greatest

threats, the Emergency Preparedness Centerlists the following steps to take, in case youget sick. > Build up a supply of over-the-counter med-

ications like ibuprofen, acetaminophen andcough suppressants.

> Stock up on energy drinks for rehydration andreplacing lost electrolytes.

> It’s also good to have a supply of rubbing alco-hol, disposable tissues, and a thermometer.

> If you are planning to travel, you can track flutrends at Google.org/flutrends/us/#US.

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Ebola Pandemic of 2014

There’s no question: The Ebola outbreak inWest Africa is on everyone’s minds, especiallybecause cases have begun to pop up in theU.S.; the result of health care workers becominginfected after treating sick patents. But whatdoes this mean for everyday people? Shouldwe be alarmed? The Centers for Disease Con-trol (CDC) offers the following informationabout the current epidemic.

What’s the history? Ebola was first identi-fied in 1976 in what is now the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo. Since then, outbreakshave appeared sporadically in Africa. The 2014epidemic is the largest in history, affecting mul-tiple countries in West Africa. Scientists believethat the fruit bat may be the host for the virus.

What is it? Also know at Ebola hemorrhagicfever, Ebola is a serious disease caused byinfection with a virus in the Filoviridae family.Scientists have discovered five types of theEbola virus, and four of these are known tocause disease in humans.

How is it transmitted? People can get Ebolaif they come into contact with the blood orbodily fluids, such as urine, saliva, sweat, feces,vomit, breast milk, or semen, of an infected per-son. It is important to note that a person mustbe symptomatic with Ebola in order to transmitthe virus to another person, and direct contactis necessary (i.e. the virus must enter throughbroken skin or through your eyes, nose, ormouth). Ebola can also be transmitted throughcontaminated needles or syringes, and throughinfected animals like fruit bats or primates.

How do you know if you have Ebola? Symp-toms appear two to 21 days after exposure andmay include fever, headache, diarrhea, vomit-ing, stomach pain, muscle pain, and unex-plained bruising or bleeding. It is important thata person seek treatment immediately upondiagnosis.

Is there a cure? Currently, there is no FDA-approved vaccine or antiviral medication avail-able to treat Ebola. Thus, when a personbecomes sick, health care practitioners treatthe symptoms. Recovery depends on the per-son’s immune system and the quality of care.

Are hospitals prepared? Texas Health Pres-byterian Hospital treated the first patient who

returned from West Africa with Ebola; a Liber-ian man who later died from the disease.Although mistakes were made and two healthcare workers became infected, experts believethat much has been learned. It’s difficult to facean unknown virus for the first time, and stepsare being taken toward better preparedness.For example, immediate steps have been takento offer additional training to hospital employ-ees on how to combat the virus, including safeprocedures for removing protective gear suchas gowns and gloves.

What can you do? The CDC recommendsfocusing on four priorities in order to protectyourself from becoming infected:

> Wash hands frequently with soap andwater, and use an alcohol-based handsanitizer.

> Do not touch the blood or bodily fluids(urine, saliva, feces, vomit, sweat orsemen) of a sick person.

> Don’t handle clothing, bedding, needles ormedical equipment that have come intocontact with a sick person’s blood or bod-ily fluids.

Do not touch the body of someone who hasdied from Ebola.

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Items in the Ultimate Pandemic Kit include:• Filter masks, 10-pack. Masks protect you from inhaling germs

and viruses. They are an excellent line of defense; not as protec-tive as a hazmat suit, but much better than no protection at all.

• Nitrile Ambi Textured Gloves, 100-pack. Gloves are essentialwhen touching a person who has been infected with a bacteriaor virus, and they also protect against germs that may be pre-sent on surfaces like countertops and handles.

• Biodegradable soap. Use this liquid soap to kill germs. It’s par-ticularly useful for cleaning surfaces and for hand washing.

• Survival Towels, two-pack. These towels are very compact andstored in sealed discs about the size of a half dollar. Unwrapped,the towels are 13 x 22 inches. Use the towels and biodegradablesoap for frequent hand washing.

• Adventure First Aid Kit. This kit contains all supplies necessaryto treat minor scrapes, cuts, and burns.

• Zippo Emergency Fire Starter. This combination of suppliesallows you to boil water rapidly in order to sterilize a piece ofgear, such as a utensil that a sick person used for eating. Water-proof matches in a sealed plastic tube are included, plus tinderand match striker surfaces on top and bottom. The Jet Boil Zipand gas can are self-contained.

Brownells sells a comprehensive pandemickit that provides essential gear. There are twooptions: the Essentials Pandemic Kit ($54.99)and the Ultimate Pandemic Kit ($119.99).Brownells.com

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You’re standing on the second floor of an enclosed shoppingmall, overlooking an atrium where hundreds of holiday shoppers standpressed together around a small stage in the center. A local blues band hasjust started its set, and you’re getting into the music. The second floor, likethe lower level, is crowded with families and tourists, but the sounds andlaughter give the mall an upbeat, vibrant atmosphere.

As the band finishes its first song, you hear a loud pop from somewherein the crowd to your right, followed immediately by another from across theatrium. You look, but don’t see anything out of the ordinary. The music con-tinues. But you hear someone coughing, hard.

And then it happens.Someone in the atrium below screams. It’s not just one person coughing

anymore—it’s 15 or 20, and then, without warning, it’s everyone. The crowdsurges and presses against you. You’re unable to move. Shouts echo throughthe mall. A cloud of thin, colorless vapor drifts along the second floor bal-cony and seeps through the railing onto the stage below.

You try to move through the crowd to get away, but your hands are shak-ing and your vision is blurry. You’re finding it very hard to breathe. You seebodies convulsing on the floor of the atrium, but your eyes seem unable tofocus. Something is very wrong.

In the next 30 seconds, you’ll either make it outside into clear air, or you’llend up like the others below.

What are Chemical Weapons?Chemical weapons are substances or devices that take advantage of the

toxicity of various chemical agents to harm or kill humans. Highly toxic com-pounds dispersed over a wide target area can result in significant casualties,far more than would be possible with conventional weapons. Chemicalweapons are therefore classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

Though frightening and highly lethal, chemicals aren’t practical asweapons unless they are deployed effectively. Most chemical agents are liq-uids at room temperature and must be inhaled into the lungs or make con-tact with skin to produce any effect. As a result, deployment requires heatingor agitating the chemical such that it transitions from a liquid to a gas.

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HOW TO SURVIVE A DEADLY CHEMICAL ATTACK > Story by Kyle Chezum

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Chemical agents can be deployed directlyonto a target by spraying, dropping, or dump-ing, or by placing exposed chemicals in an areaand allowing evaporation to draw the toxininto the air. Alternately, chemicals can besealed within various munitions, includingbombs, rockets, and artillery shells designed torelease the toxin upon detonation or impact.Chemicals in liquid form can be used to poisonwater and food.

Types of Chemical WeaponsNerve Agents: Colorless, odorless, and

tasteless, nerve agents are among the mostlethal chemical agents in existence. They canbe inhaled into the lungs in aerosol form or canpass through the skin or eyes to enter the body.There are a variety of nerve agents, but themost well-known is probably sarin.

Like all nerve agents, sarin attacks the cen-tral nervous system and causes muscle spasmsthat paralyze the lungs, making breathing diffi-cult or impossible. Half a milligram of sarin inliquid or vapor form will kill an average adult.Developed and used experimentally by theNazis prior to World War II, sarin did not seebattlefield deployment until much later, whenSaddam Hussein used it against Iranian troops

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and Kurdish rebels during the First Persian GulfWar. Sarin has been used against civilians aswell—on March 20, 1995, the cult Aum Shin-rikyo carried out a large sarin gas attack in theJapanese subway system that killed 13 andinjured thousands more.

Blistering Agents: These chemicals affectthe skin and lungs of victims, causing severe,burning pain and chemical burns. Death canoccur due to respiratory distress caused bydamage in airways.

Mustard gas, also called sulfur mustard, isperhaps the most infamous blistering agent. In1916, German scientists Wilhelm Lommel andWilhelm Stienkopf designed a process thatallowed the Imperial German Army to producemustard gas on a large scale. As a result, mus-tard gas saw frequent use in World War I. Itspainful and deadly effects earned it a fearsomereputation among Allied troops.

Choking Agents: Chemicals designed tokill via suffocation are called choking agents orpulmonary agents. These chemicals cause fluidto build up in the lungs and cause severe throatirritation, coughing, and other symptoms.

Chlorine gas is a highly toxic choking agent,and is known as the first modern chemicalweapon to be deployed effectively in combat

“HALF A MILLIGRAMOF SARIN IN

LIQUID ORVAPOR

FORM WILLKILL AN

AVERAGEADULT.”

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when it was used by the Nazis against theFrench at the Second Battle of Ypres in WorldWar I. The French suffered over 6,000 casual-ties from the gas. Phosgene, another chokingagent, was also used extensively during WorldWar I.

Blood Agents: Blood agents are derivedfrom cyanide or arsenic and affect the bodythrough absorption into the blood. Bloodagents block the transfer of oxygen and carbondioxide among cells, literally suffocating thebody to death at the cellular level. Hydrogencyanide and arsine gas are two weaponizedblood agents.

What to Watch For: Signs & Symptoms

Chemical weapons don’t behave like con-ventional weapons. A thin, barely-visible gasdrifting from the back of an unmarked truckseems at first less threatening than a squad ofsoldiers wielding assault rifles. But the endresult is far more dramatic and terrifying.

Chemicals can be insidious. In the 1995Tokyo sarin gas attacks, members of the AumShinrikyo cult brought plastic bags filled withliquid sarin into subway cars. The bags werewrapped in newspaper, then discreetly punc-tured and left sitting on the floor. Witnessessaw nothing out of the ordinary—just a fewfolded newspapers.

Most chemical attacks begin and end withinminutes. Recognizing that an attack is occur-ring is critical to your survival. The only way todetermine whether an attack is occurring is towatch for subtle physical signs and observe thepresence of symptoms in yourself or others.

Physical Evidence of a ChemicalAttack

During an attack, you may not see, hear,smell, or taste the chemical agent in the air.This is part of what makes chemical weaponsso difficult to defend against. Detecting achemical attack before it occurs or while it’shappening isn’t always straightforward. Watchfor the following.

> Any suspicious cloud of mist or vapor, partic-ularly if the cloud is yellowish or greenish incolor and appears heavier than steam.

> Thick vapor emanating from a suspicioussource, such as a vehicle, canister, package, orluggage.

> Any low-flying aircraft that appears to be“cropdusting” a populated area.

> Oily pools or a sheen of oily liquid on surfacesin the target area. This would typically beobserved immediately following certain typesof chemical attacks.

Symptoms of Chemical PoisoningBy far the most reliable and effective way to

confirm whether a chemical attack is occurringis to observe the symptoms of the victims. Themore familiar chemicals agents, like sarin, VX,chlorine, phosgene, and cyanide, share many ofthe same symptoms.

• Coughing• Difficulty breathing• Blurred vision• Burning in nose, throat, and eyes• Nausea and vomiting• Drooling• Headache• Dizziness

Exposure to nerve agents will also result insymptoms like the following:

• Weakness• Convulsions• Muscles spasms• Loss of consciousness• Paralysis

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Mustard gas is a bit different than the oth-ers. With mustard gas, symptoms do not typi-cally appear until two to four hours after expo-sure. The most familiar symptoms of mustardgas include the following.

• Painful irritation, itching, and blistering ofskin

• Irritation and swelling of eyes• Temporary blindness• Nausea and vomiting• Fever• Diarrhea• Weakness

How to Survive a Chemical AttackA chemical attack could occur in one of two

ways.Foreign or domestic terrorists could use

chemical weapons to carry out specific, iso-lated attacks against civilians in public places.Shopping malls, transit centers, large festivalsand gatherings, skyscrapers, and otherenclosed, crowded areas are prime targets for aterror attack. Recent events prove that such anattack is not at all improbable.

A foreign nation could resort to chemical war-fare as part of a larger, sustained military conflictagainst the United States. While much moredeadly and destructive, this scenario is less plau-sible than the threat of terrorist activity on U.S.soil. Nevertheless, the possibility of such anattack exists, and preparation is key to survival.

What’s the real risk of a chemical attackoccurring in the United States? Some expertscontend that the risk is disturbingly high. In thepast several decades, multiple chemicalattacks have been carried out by unstable gov-ernments and terrorist groups in various parts

of the world, notably the Middle East. Russiastockpiled chemical weapons during the ColdWar, as did the United States. It’s not at all diffi-cult to imagine some of these weapons fallinginto the hands of terrorist organizations orrogue nations, like North Korea.

An Isolated Terrorist AttackDepending on the chemical agent and how

it’s dispersed, survival may be more a matter ofluck than anything else—you’re either termi-nally exposed within a minute or two, or you’reprobably going to be fine. But this doesn’tmean there’s nothing you can do to prepare. Onthe contrary, this narrow window for survivalmakes advanced planning and awareness evenmore important.

Recognize that a chemical attack is occur-ring. This is very important. If you fail to assessthe situation and recognize what’s happening,you’re less likely to survive.

Don’t panic. When you panic, your breathingspeeds up, and breathing fast is the last thingyou want to do during a chemical attack. Rapidbreathing pulls in more of the surrounding air,increasing your exposure to the chemical agent.

Get out of the area. This is your first and onlyobjective. If the attack occurs indoors, go out-side immediately. Break a window if you must.Speed is critical. Depending on the methodused to deploy the chemical, fatal exposurecan happen within seconds. Your odds of sur-vival increase the faster you move. Once you’reoutside, head to high ground. Most chemicalvapors—like chlorine gas, sarin gas, and mus-tard gas, for example—are significantly heavierthan air and will travel downhill.

Cut off and dispose of clothing. Remove allclothing that may have come into contact withthe gas or liquid, but don’t pull your shirt off overyour head—this will allow the chemical to con-tact the skin of your face. Cut off all clothing anddispose of it by sealing it in plastic bags.

Wash your entire body thoroughly withsoap and water. This will remove any chemi-cals remaining in your body. Don’t skip thisstep. You won’t always be able to “see” thechemicals on your skin, and the longer the sub-stance is there, the greater your exposure willbe. A shower could mean the differencebetween life and death.

“SHOPPING MALLS, TRANSIT CENTERS,LARGE FESTIVALS AND GATHERINGS,

SKYSCRAPERS, AND OTHER ENCLOSED,CROWDED AREAS ARE PRIME TARGETS

FOR A TERROR ATTACK. ”

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Seek medical attention. Depending onthe agent to which you’ve been exposed,full symptoms may not set in for as longas several hours. It’s a good idea to get toa hospital or emergency room immedi-ately, even if you’re feeling fine after theattack. Be aware that in the event of alarge attack, local medical centers may beoverwhelmed with victims. Don’t let thisdeter you—if the symptoms do get worse,you’re better off collapsing in a hospitalparking lot than in your bedroom at home.If the attack is very small, with just a fewpeople affected, doctors and emergencyroom staff may not know what to look foror what treatment to provide, so be sureto tell them what happened.

Surviving Sustained Chemical Warfare

Surviving sustained chemical warfareis different than surviving a single isolatedchemical attack in a public place, and itrequires much more preparation. The degree towhich you are prepared in advance will deter-mine whether you live or die.

Vacate the area. As soon as an attackoccurs, grab your bug-out bag and gas maskand get to high ground. Don’t try to moveupwind or downwind from the point of attack—if you try to go upwind, you’ll pass right throughthe affected area, and going downwind willonly delay the inevitable. Instead, travel in a lineperpendicular to wind direction. This is usuallythe fastest way to get out of range.

If you can’t get out, seal yourself in. If you’reat home when the attack occurs and you’reunable to leave, immediately seal all doors,windows, chimneys, and vents with heavyplastic sheeting and duct tape. Turn off yourheater or air conditioner. Your goal is to stopairflow as much as possible until the chemicalagent has had time to dissipate or settle.

How long this takes will depend on thechemical. Sarin gas, for example, is highlyvolatile and dissipates rapidly in the air. Bycontrast, the nerve agent VX is much more sta-ble and can persist on the surface of an objectfor days or months after contact. Stay indoorsand move everyone to the second floor of thehouse, if possible. Do not hide in your base-

ment, as most chemical agents are heavierthan air and will pool in low areas.

Suit up. If you have a gas mask or a hazmatsuit, this is the time to use them. Put on yourgas mask first—your respiratory system is yourgreatest vulnerability in a chemical attack,regardless of the agent used. In addition to thehazmat suit, be sure to stock multiple pairs ofthick rubber gloves and boots.

Test the air using a chemical agent detector.These devices are relatively compact and nottoo difficult to obtain. Having one in your homecould be the difference between life and death.

Avoid standing water and don’t touch wet,slick, or oily surfaces. Chemical agents can clingto surfaces for very long periods of time. Asmentioned above, the chemical VX can stickaround for months before gradually evaporat-ing, which means any surface that appears wetor oily could be harboring the deadly agent longafter the air is clear.

Stay secure until help arrives or until yourchemical agent detector registers that the air isclear. Use your chemical agent detector to testthe air every hour until readings return to nor-mal. If you’ve secured yourself in your homeand you lack adequate protective gear, don’t gooutside until help arrives.

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Tokyo Subway Attack, 1995

On March 20th, 1995, Yasuo Hayashi boardedthe subway at Kita-Senju Station in Tokyo,Japan. He carried an umbrella, a newspaper,and three plastic bags filled with a thin, clearliquid. He had hidden the bags within the foldedpages of the newspaper prior to boarding. Aftertaking a seat, he set the newspaper and thethree concealed bags on the floor at his feetand waited in silence as the train started on itscourse, crowded with morning commuters.

As the train approached its second stop,Hayashi stood and deftly jammed the tip of hisumbrella into the wrapped bundle. He did thisseveral times, his movements careful and dis-creet. The train pulled up to Akihabara Station,the doors opened, and Hayashi stepped swiftlyout onto the platform. From there, he walked toground level where a car and driver waited forhim and disappeared into the city.

On the train, several minutes passed with-out event. But as the clear liquid soakedthrough the newspaper and puddled on thefloor, it began to evaporate into the air, gradu-ally drifting through the entire passenger car.Passengers began cough, vomit, and convulse.Other felt dizzy or weak and struggled to

breathe. At the next stop, a passenger kickedthe damp newspaper bundle out the door andonto the platform, where the toxin continued toevaporate and spread, but the damage hadbeen done. The train continued on through twomore stops as symptoms worsened among thepassengers, until finally someone pressed theemergency stop button.

The sickened commuters stumbled out ofthe train in a panic. Many collapsed on the plat-form. Transit staff and emergency medical pro-fessionals didn’t know what had happened orwhat aid to provide. The punctured plastic bagsremained where they had landed, untouched.No one knew what to do.

At the same time, similar attacks were inprogress on four other Tokyo subway cars. Theplastic bags contained the nerve agent sarin,one of the deadliest chemicals in existence.Each of the perpetrators used the samemethod to smuggle the substance aboard andrelease it—the bags were wrapped in newspa-per, placed on the floor, and punctured. In someof the other cars, the bags went undetected formuch longer, increasing the damage and delay-ing cleanup.

In all, 13 people died in the attack and asmany as 5,000 were injured.

The attack had been organized and carriedout by the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shin-rikyo, a secretive organization with millions ofdollars in cash and assets and more than a fewhighly regarded scientists among its members.The cult had produced the sarin from scratch.When Japanese police raided an Aum Shinrikyocompound following the attack, they found amassive stockpile of chemical ingredients. AumShinrikyo could have produced enough sarin tokill 4 million people. The motive for the subwayincident remains unclear, but it may have beenan experiment, a test in preparation for a muchlarger attack.

Chemical warfare is not a thing of the past.While the international community has almostuniversally banned chemical weapons, this hasnot stopped rogue regimes and terrorist groupsfrom employing such weapons to devastatingeffect. Unfortunately, the threat of a chemicalattack today is all too real.

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History ofChemicalWeapons

The history of chemical war-fare is largely a history ofrestraint and prohibition. Putsimply, no one likes chemicalweapons. Chemicals agentsare difficult to handle, control,and deploy, and their lethalityoften puts operators at risk ofexposure. The horror anddestruction of chemical war-fare makes chemicals anunsavory choice even for vio-lent dictators and aggressiveregimes.

In World War II, the Nazisrefrained from using chemicalweapons on the battlefieldagainst Allied troops out offear that the use of suchweapons would provoke areprisal in kind. The Allies like-wise did not use chemicalweapons against the Nazis forthe same reason. Neither sidewanted to go down that road.

At the Hague Conference in1899, world leaders met to dis-cuss and establish “laws ofwar” for international con-flicts. The attendees passed aproposal banning the use ofartillery shells filled with poi-sonous gasses, the first inter-national chemical weaponsban. More recently, in 1993, theinternational ChemicalWeapons Convention led to aworldwide ban on the devel-opment and deployment ofchemical weapons, and signa-tory nations agreed to destroytheir chemical stockpiles.

But despite efforts to ridthe world of these armaments,chemicals weapons haveplayed a role in many conflictsover the past hundred years.

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Halabja Massacre, 1988

From 1980 to 1988, Iraq and Iran wagedthe longest conventional war of the 20thcentury. Called the “Iran-Iraq War” or the“First Persian Gulf War,” the conflict beganwhen Iraq invaded Iran in an attempt toestablish itself as the dominant power inthe region. Saddam Hussein, president ofIraq, feared that the ongoing Iranian Revo-lution could spread across the borderbetween the two nations and lead to inter-nal uprisings in Iraq. As Iran wrestled withdomestic unrest, he saw an opportunity tostrike. The ensuing eight-year conflictwould claim the lives of more than265,000 soldiers and 100,000 to 280,000 civilians.

During the war, Iraq employed chemical weapons to devastatingeffect on multiple occasions. The CIA estimates that Iraqi chemicalweapons killed anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 Iranian troops. Butone specific attack—the Halabja Massacre—stands out both for itsdestructive scope and for the nature of its target.

To understand the Halabja Massacre, you must first understand thesituation in northern Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War. Saddam’s fears ofinternal turmoil were not unfounded. Within Iraq, ethnic Kurds had sidedwith Iran and established a resistance force to combat Saddam’s troopsin a region called Iraqi Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Iran had begun a suc-cessful offensive campaign into this region and had pledged to providesupplies and weapons to the Kurdish rebels. Saddam, who had alreadyput down Kurdish revolts in the area, knew that swift, decisive actionwas necessary to eliminate this threat.

On March 16, 1988, Iraqi aircraft dropped chemical bombs over resi-dential areas in the Kurdish city of Halabja. It’s not clear which specificchemicals the bombs contained, but CIA analysts believe sarin and VXwere the primary agents involved, along with mustard gas. The bombsunleashed clouds of lethal gas that swept through the city and leftpanic, illness, and death in their wake.

The full extent of the damage is impossible to measure. In the imme-diate aftermath, the attack left 3,200 to 5,000 people dead and 7,000to 10,000 others severely injured. The vast majority of those hurt andkilled were civilians, including many women and children. Health com-plications as a result of chemical exposure killed thousands more in theyears that followed.

While chemical weapons had already been used many times in thewar, the Halabja attack was different. At Halabja, Saddam attackedcivilians—citizens of Iraq—in order to quench a growing revolution. Theinternational community later labeled it an act of genocide. Today, theHalabja Massacre remains the largest chemical attack carried outagainst a civilian target and is considered the single most devastatingchemical attack in history, showing the full extent of the damage even alocalized chemical attack can cause. P

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Unless you plan to spend the rest of yourlife suited up in full hazmat gear and a gasmask, there’s no way to completely protectyourself from a surprise chemical attack inpublic. But there are a few critical items youshould keep in your home or bug-out bag toprotect yourself or your family in the event ofa large attack in your area.

Hazmat Suit(Level A)

Nerve agents and blister-ing agents can inflict

injury and death uponcontact with your skin. For

complete protection, ahazmat suit is essential.But not all hazmat suitsare created equal. In the

United States, varioushazmat suits are rankedaccording to the level ofprotection they provide.

Make sure you purchase aLevel A hazmat suit, asthese are the only suits

that can protect againstchemical vapors.

EnviroSafetyProducts.com

Plastic SheetingSurviving a chemical attack is aboutreducing or preventing exposure to theweaponized compound. As a result, asimple barrier will provide some protec-tion, and one of the best ways to estab-lish a barrier is with industrial-grade plas-tic sheeting held in place by duct tape.Keep a stock of plastic sheeting in yourhome and use it to seal windows, doors,and other opens in the event of an attack.HomeDepot.com

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Gas MaskThe most essential and recogniz-able protective item for defenseagainst chemical attacks is the gasmask. Make sure your gas maskuses a filter containing activatedcarbon. The mask itself shouldcover your entire face and head,creating a tight seal against yourskin. A gas mask won’t blockeverything—at best, it will helpkeep you alive a few hours longerthan if you didn’t have it. Even ifyou’re wearing a gas mask, get outof range of any chemical attackimmediately. BossSafety.com

Chemical Agent DetectorAlso called a CWA (Chemical Warfare Agent)

Detector or TIC (Toxic Industrial Chemical)Detector, a chemical agent detector is a small

device, often handheld, used to detect thepresence of nerve and blistering agents in the

air. There are many such detectors available.They work by pumping air through a glass

detector tube containing a chemical reagentthat changes color depending on the presence

and concentration of the gas in question. SmithsDetection.com

Nerve AgentAntidote(Atropine)Many chemical attacksinvolve nerve agents due totheir high toxicity andvolatility. Atropine, a sub-stance derived from deadlynightshade, can be admin-istered via injection into thethigh to help counterattackthe effects of nerve gas poi-soning. Atropine can bepurchased with a prescrip-tion or with authorizationfrom a physician. Anotherantidote, pralidoxime, isalso highly beneficial, but isnot available to the public. AceSurgical.com

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Imagine a wave as tall as a 10-story building that can approach land at 100miles per hour. It uproots and destroys every-thing it encounters from large trucks to entirebuildings. And then the wave recedes, pullingthe destruction back with it. More waves comeand then go back, between five minutes to anhour apart.

Tsunamis are difficult to predict becausethey can be caused by disasters across theocean. Entire towns can be demolished. Attimes, thousands of people drown or are killedwhen stricken by floating debris.

When the tsunami finally stops, missingloved ones, power outages, lack of clean waterand more cause mass confusion. The devasta-tion has only just begun.

What is a Tsunami?A tsunami—harbor wave, in Japanese—is a

wave that can reach a height of 100 feet. Some-times tsunamis aren’t large, breaking waves, butappear as a rapidly rising water level, which iswhy they are sometimes wrongly called tidalwaves. Small tsunamis happen almost dailydue to earthquakes and other disturbances, butare too far away from land to cause any dam-age. Wave trains, or the series of waves, can

travel as fast as 500 miles per hour deep in theocean but will only rise a few feet. In shallowwater, near the coast, the waves crash againstthe ocean floor, lowering the wave’s speed andraising its height. Waves recede and, if a reced-ing wave collides with an oncoming wave, thekinetic energy released forces the forward-mov-ing wave to mount higher.

Tsunamis can be caused by underwater vol-canic eruptions, underwater landslides, ice fallsand as a result of the impact from a meteoritefalling into the ocean. But the most commoncause of a tsunami is an undersea earthquake.When two tectonic plates push together, itcauses an earthquake that pushes energy upinto the ocean. This displaces water, and lots ofit, in different directions, one into the sea andone toward the coastline. By the time thesekiller waves reach land, they are tall and power-ful enough to sweep away entire villages.

About 80 percent of tsunamis occur withinthe Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire, a zone full ofvolcanic and seismic activity. This is not to saytsunamis that occur elsewhere aren’t danger-ous. History’s deadliest tsunami occurred in theIndian Ocean in 2004. Locations hit bytsunamis include Japan, Hawaii, Chile, Indone-sia and Portugal, to name a few.

Waves DeathSURVIVING A RELENTLESS WALL OF WATER: THE TSUNAMI > Story by Nikki Grey

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Hundreds of thousands of people are killedor injured in tsunamis. Victims— people andanimals—drown, are electrocuted or are killedby explosions or floating debris. Tsunamisdestroy cliffs and beaches, along with treesand vegetation. The rush of water ruins infra-structure of homes, businesses and bridgescosting as much as billions of dollars in dam-ages. Ships and large objects can be carriedmiles inland, adding to the destruction.

Coastal areas flood, causing problems withsewage and contaminating drinking water. Dis-eases such as malaria spread. Sea creaturescan die from pollution in the sea. If a tsunamihits a nuclear plant, as one did in March 2011 inJapan, radiation can become a danger, whichcan result in birth defects, cancer or deathyears after the tsunami occurred.

This is all not to mention the emotional andmental toll on those fortunate enough to sur-vive. Victims often suffer from Post TraumaticStress Disorder years after the tsunami, or eventheir entire lives.

How to Survive a TsunamiThe first way to prepare for a tsunami is to

know where tsunamis are likely or even possi-ble to occur. Coastal areas near fault lines ornear volcanoes are obvious places to consider,particularly if they are near the Pacific, buttsunamis have begun and then raged throughentire oceans. Earthquakes as far as Chile havecaused tsunamis in Hawaii.

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They can happen minutes, hours or even aday after the initial earthquake (depending onhow far away it was). And just because atsunami hasn’t happened in an area or isn’tpredicted to happen in an area, doesn’t mean itwon’t. A tsunami can hit any ocean shoreline.

It might start as a mere rumble, but a loud,roaring sound coming from the ocean couldalso indicate a tsunami. Survivors have com-pared the sound to that of a freight train.Another telling sign that a tsunami may becoming is a rapid fall or rise of ocean wavesnear the coast. A receding ocean may precede atsunami by five minutes or fewer, according toexperts. So, if you see a rapidly receding ocean,get out of there. Fast. (If you’re already on aboat in the ocean, going deeper to sea would besafer than trying to head toward the shore,where the waves increase in height.) Animalsalso tend to know when a tsunami is coming soif you see some leaving, coupled with othersigns, you should probably follow suit.

Evacuate immediately if you hear a tsunamiwarning. Do not try to get a closer look. Ever.You’re too close if you can see it.

Know that there will be chaos all aroundyou if a tsunami strikes. The ocean will roar.People will be running, screaming and evendying around you. Staying calm can save lives.

Head for the hills or a mountain, anywhereon higher ground (preferably 100 feet abovesea level) or travel two miles inland. If you can’tdo that fast enough, find a sturdy, concretebuilding with at least 10 stories, as that’s ashigh as waves can reach (but, if possible stayaway from buildings that are near waterbecause water can crack or harm walls). Go tothe highest floor or a rooftop. If you can’t dothat, climb a tall, sturdy tree and hold on. Stayaway from downed power lines or anythingcould electrocute or fall on you.

Physical fitness can only help here. Beingable to run fast or having the strength, speed,and agility needed to climb a tree, not to men-tion be able to fit on a branch, could save yourlife. If you aren’t able to evacuate quicklyenough, you can still survive if you’re a strongswimmer. (Not a strong swimmer? Takelessons.) You’ll want to know how to swim,with debris such as parts of houses, largetrucks or ships coming at you.

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Move with the current and keep your legsup, so they don’t get caught on something thatcan pull you underwater. Shed loose clothingor anything on you that could get caught onother items. Make use of anything you can useto float.

Continue to be on the alert after the wavesbegin. Just because you survive a first wave,second or even a third, doesn’t mean you’re inthe clear. Waves can keep coming for as long asan hour after the first. Wait until official word isgiven that it’s safe to return. Get away from thebeach and stay away from rivers and streamsbecause tsunamis can travel up those bodiesof waters as well.

Although those tips may help someone sur-vive during a tsunami, the best way to ensuresurvival is to prepare before the first wave strikes.

Tsunami WarningsThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration has its own network of radio sta-tions that broadcast continuous weather infor-mation directly from the nearest NationalWeather Service office. It’s called NOAA WeatherRadio All Hazards and it airs official WeatherService warnings, watches and forecasts aroundthe clock. So listen in, if you know of a recentearthquake or disaster. Sign up to receive earlyalert text messages from NOAA’s tsunami warn-ing center online at www.Tsunami.gov.

The National Tsunami Hazard MitigationProgram recommends knowing if your work,school, your children’s school, or any otherplace you and loved ones frequent are in atsunami hazard or evacuation zone. If they are,find out the location’s height above sea leveland distance from the coast (you can useGoogle Earth). This might affect evacuationplans. Find out what they are. Knowing whereyour children are supposed to be picked up inthe event of a tsunami is far safer than racing totheir school only to realize they’re gone andyou’ve put yourself in harm’s way needlessly.

Next, come up with your own evacuationplan. Map out routes to take you to safety,preferably at least two miles inland or 100 feetabove sea level. Think of alternative routes.Practice so you know them so well that no mat-ter what is going on, day or night, you can getthere. Make sure your family knows the evacua-tion plan. If you’re a tourist, learn about theplaces you are staying and visiting and planaccordingly. Learn the local tsunami protocol.

Have an emergency kit ready (more on spe-cific gear later). Basic supply kits should includeone gallon of water per person for three days; athree-day supply of non-perishable food; a bat-tery-powered radio with batteries; a flashlightand batteries; a whistle; a wrench or pliers; adust mask; a map; a cell phone with inverter orsolar chargers, and a manual can opener.

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Paul Landgraver

The Indian Ocean earthquake that occurredDecember 26, 2004 and resulting tsunamiskilled more than 200,000 people in more than10 countries including India, Indonesia, SriLanka and Thailand.

Paul Landgraver, a scuba diving instructorwho was in his early thirties at the time, sur-vived the tsunami in Thailand. The morning ofthe tsunami, the power flickered in his houseabout 400 feet from the beach. He looked out-side and saw people running up the street andshouting. He also noticed smoke and dust,along with brown water rolling toward hishouse. Landgraver didn’t think much of this,and attributed it to a “strange full-moon hightide,” he later wrote in an article about theevent published in Esquire magazine in August2005. He and his companion Karin wentupstairs to avoid getting wet. But the waterrose higher and higher, eventually caving theirfront door in and rushing upstairs.

Initially the scuba instructor tried to throw amattress out of the window to float on, but thewater was too fast, so he jumped. Karin andLandgraver were separated, and he was hit bysomething and pulled under water. He strug-gled to get back to the surface. He floated atabout 30 miles per hour, watching helplesslyas a man is impaled by a piece of wood. Land-graver swam and avoided debris and trees. Hispants were caught on something, so he rippedthem off. A refrigerator struck him and he waspulled toward a collapsing building, but hekept swimming.

Landgraver said he survived by acting like hewas “whitewater kayaking,” according to a storyin National Geographic Adventure, published in2009.

“I looked for smooth water, avoiding obsta-cles by swimming left or right as best I could. Itried to float as much as I could on the surface,”Landgraver, who in just four minutes was takenmore than a half-mile by the tsunami, said. Helater reunited with Karin, who also survived.Landgraver went on to found an organization ofdivers that helped people affected by thetsunami called Dive Aid.

Maria Belon

The 2012 movie, The Impossible, is based onMaria Belon and how she and her family sur-vived the same tsunami as Landgraver. Belonand her husband, Enrique Alvarez, were enjoy-ing Christmas vacation with their sons Lucas,10, Tomas, 8, and Simon, 5, at a resort in KhaoLak, Thailand. Belon was reading a novel by thepool, while her children played in the water,when she heard the tsunami coming.

“Suddenly we heard a horrible sound, likethe sound of thousands of big planes,” Belontold People magazine in an article that ran inJanuary 2013. “Seconds later, there was a blackwall in front of us. I thought it was death. Icouldn’t imagine it was water. It was a monster.The most horrible monster you can imagine.”

Soon after, the family was swept away bythe wave — Belon watched in terror as her hus-band and Tomas and Simon were hit first. Shecalled to them, but it was too late and theywere all taken under. Belon was under water fornearly three minutes before she emerged, badlyhurt with internal and external injuries. Sepa-rated from her family and terrified they weredead, Belon held on to a palm tree. She noticedLucas floating nearby and they held each otherin a tree until a Thai man helped them to safety.

Alvarez held his younger boys, until the wavecrashed him into a column on the ground floorof the hotel. He clung to a tree and cried for hisfamily, because he was sure everyone wasdead, until he heard Tomas shouting. He wentto his son and they held onto another tree, untilthey heard Simon calling out for help. Later,Alvarez left his sons with a few other survivorson the roof of a hotel and searched the hospi-tals, finding Belon and Lucas.

For more than a year after the tsunami, Belonwas treated for her injuries in hospitals in Singa-pore and in Spain, the family’s homeland. Belonhelped actress Naomi Watts depict her in TheImpossible, for which Belon’s family returned tothe resort that had since been rebuilt.

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“SECONDS LATER, THERE WAS A BLACK WALL INFRONT OF US. I THOUGHT IT WAS DEATH. I COULDN’T

IMAGINE IT WAS WATER. IT WAS A MONSTER.”

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Japanese Tsunami of 2011

The fourth largest earthquake since recordkeeping began occurred off the Pacific coast ofnorthern Japan on March 11, 2011. The 9.0 mag-nitude earthquake took place about 15 milesdeep into the ocean at 2:46 p.m., Japanesetime. About an hour later, it caused a tsunamiwith 30-feet high waves to hit the coast.

More than 19,000 people died and thou-sands more were evacuated. By the next day,six million homes—10 percent of Japan’shouseholds—had no electricity. One milliondidn’t have water. (Smaller waves of aboutseven to 11 feet reached Maui and the Big Islandin Hawaii; 3- to 4-foot waves hit Oregon, aswell. The northern port of Crescent City in Cali-fornia was destroyed by waves, however, and aman in Northern California was swept away tohis death by the waves.)

Thousands of Japanese rescue workersresponded to the crisis, along with relief work-ers from organizations such as the AmericanRed Cross. Many countries, including the U.S.,sent search-and-rescue teams. In the after-math of the tsunami, hundreds of thousands ofpeople were reported to be in shelters. Thou-sands were stranded in areas that were hit andwaiting for rescue workers to reach them. Thetsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichinuclear plant by disabling its cooling systems,causing reactors to melt. In a televised speech,Emperor Akihito addressed the country andurged people to “never give up hope, take careof themselves, and live strong for tomorrow.”Rare addresses such as these in Japan tend toonly happen in times of war or great crisis.

Months later, after continued nuclear powerplant issues, the head of the Nuclear RegulatoryCommission warned U.S. Congress of“extremely high” levels of radiation. Eventuallymore people living nearby were told to evacuate.

Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted in2013 that radioactive water from theFukushima Daiichi plant had leaked into thePacific Ocean. Cleanup of Fukushima continuesand is estimated to cost $50 billion. About 1.5million tons of debris is estimated to be floatingin the Pacific, although it is not believed to beradioactive.

Although there haven’t been cases of cancerlinked to the radiation, there are still healthconcerns for those affected. Rebuilding effortsnear the nuclear disaster are slow. Public infra-structure such as roads and railways havemostly been repaired since the disaster, morethan half of the original evacuees remain dis-placed, according to an editorial in The JapanTimes published in March 2014.

Valdivia Tsunami of 1960The largest earthquake in recorded history

happened in Chile and caused a Pacific-widetsunami in May 1960. It took lives off theChilean coast, in Hawaii, Japan and the Philip-pines. The 9.5-magnitude earthquake hit at 7:11p.m. May 22 of that year, near the city of Val-

“MORE THAN 19,000

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divia. About 15 minutes later, a tsunami, with80-foot waves, crashed into the coastline nearLebu and Puerto Aisen. Much of Queule, Chilewas washed away by the tsunami, although thearea was a mile away from the ocean.

The waves continued to rage in the sea,traveling thousands of miles to hit Hilo on theBig Island in Hawaii 15 hours later. Many resi-dents in the bay area did not evacuate theirhomes because previous tsunamis there haddone little damage. And the first waves wereonly a few feet tall. The later waves, however,grew to 35 feet, killing 61 people. The tsunamidestroyed more than 1,600 homes.

The shape of Hilo’s bay caused it to be hithardest by the tsunami. Other Hawaiian Islandswere only hit by waves ranging for three to 17feet tall. The damage cost $75 million inHawaii, according to the United States Geologi-

cal Survey. Crescent City, Calif. was also hit bywaves about 15.5 hours after the initial earth-quake, causing run-up, but no deaths. Damagewas caused to harbors in Los Angeles and LongBeach; for the most part, damage was done tosmall boats, with an overall cost an estimated$500,000.

About 22 hours after the earthquake, the1960 Chilean tsunami hit Honshu, Japan. Thewaves reached 18-feet high and killed 138 peo-ple, causing about $50 million in damage.About 32 people were killed or missing after thetsunami hit the Philippines. Southern Chile suf-fered $550 million in damage.

The 1960 earthquake in Chile and resultingtsunamis killed 2,000 people total; 3,000 peo-ple were injured; 2,000 became homeless.Chile continues to suffer from earthquakes, butnone have been as large as the one in 1960.

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Personal Floatation DevicePFDs, generally referred to as life vest orjackets, provide buoyancy—the force inpounds needed to keep a person’s head andchin above water. (Generally, adults need anextra seven to 12 pounds of buoyancy to stayafloat.) PFDs should fit snuggly. Many PFDsinclude extras such as a knife holder. PFDsare also available for dogs. RescueTech1.com

SubmersibleTwo-Way RadioHaving a radio to hear thenews and warningsbefore, during and after atsunami is essential. Ifyou get separated from aloved one and you eachhave one of these, you’llbe able to communicatein all the panic. And, ofcourse, ensure the radioremains functioning bypurchasing a weather-proof device. Uniden.com

It’s always a good idea to have a basicsurvival kit at hand in case a disasterstrikes, but if you live in or are visiting acoastal area, arm yourself with thesetools to make your chances of survivalthat much greater.

Dry BagYou might be wondering where you’re going to put allthis stuff while trying to escape a tsunami. A dry bag,that’s where. Typically made of nylon and waterproof,one of these is a must-have. Go ahead and put gloves, awhistle and other survival gear in there, while you’re at it. CascadeDesigns.com

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Water FilterFor survival, there isn’t much weneed more than water. After atsunami strikes, there’s oftenchaos and it can be days or evenweeks before help arrives.Depending on a few factors suchas temperature and activity, aperson can live three days with-out water. Water filters cancome in the form of micro-filters,survival straws or even UV-puri-fying water bottles. Katadyn.com

Dry SuitWatersport dry suits,unlike wetsuits, preventwater from entering,keeping you dry andwarm while immersedin water. If you have thechance to get one ofthese on before atsunami strikes, do so.The suit can also pro-tect the wearer frompolluted water andsharp edges of debris.WhitesDiving.com

Signal FlareSignal flares can shoot highenough in the sky to alert others toyour location. You might escape atsunami only to get strandedsomewhere, unable to leave safelyor you may be too injured to move.A flare can signal others you needhelp and possibly save your life.OrionSignals.com

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Planet

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Imagine this: NASA scientists have predicted an asteroid is going to drop fromthe sky onto Earth. It would be more than a mile wide, traveling at about 20,000 miles perhour. The impact would be comparable to 2 million atomic bombs. Hitting the ground wouldturn whole cities into craters. Hitting the ocean could cause a Tsunami wave hundreds offeet in height. The dust in the air would cause months of darkness. What exactly should youdo with information about a giant speeding rock careening toward Earth?

Basically, nothing. It’s probably just the plot of a movie.“There are millions of asteroids out there in orbits that do come close to Earth’s orbit, and

impacts have happened many times in Earth’s past, and it will happen again in the future.It’s just a matter of when,” Lindley Johnson, NASA’s asteroid expert and director of its Near-Earth Objects Program, explained to American Survival Guide.

Killers

SURVIVING THE CATASTROPHE OF AN ASTEROID IMPACT

> Story by Tori Tellem

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What is an Asteroid?Call it a speeding rock in space, or call it a

small planetary body and one without anatmosphere. Asteroids are usually found orbit-ing the sun in what’s called the Main AsteroidBelt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.According to NASA, asteroids are thought to be“primordial material prevented by Jupiter’sstrong gravity from accreting into a planet-sized body when the solar system was born 4.6billion year ago.” The first—and largest—aster-oid, Ceres, was discovered in 1801.

“An asteroid less than about 30 feet in size iscommonly called a meteoroid while still inspace before it hits Earth’s atmosphere, becom-ing a meteor that burns up on entry before it hitsthe surface,” explained Johnson. Asteroidimpact is what scientists consider a very lowprobability, but high-consequence event.

“Once a year, there’s a car-size asteroid thatdoes hit Earth’s atmosphere and makes a fire-

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ball spectacle of itself, then burns up beforereaching the surface. And every 2,000 years orso, an asteroid about football-field size does hitEarth and causes catastrophic damage to theimpact area. But it’s only about once in a mil-lion years that something large enough hitsEarth to threaten civilization.

NASA’s team sets out to find any asteroidthat might pose an impact hazard to Earth, andto know that information far enough in advanceto do something about it. Scientists detect anyasteroids in Earth-approaching orbits, “andthen we do what we call propagate the orbit,which is to predict the movement of thoseobjects well into the future,” Johnson said. “Infact, we’re pretty high precision now to 100years in the future of where that asteroid will bein relation to where the Earth is, and not onlythe Earth, but also for all the major bodies inthe solar system.”

The group has already found pretty muchthe entire population of large Earth-approach-ing objects out there, anything bigger thanthree-quarters of a mile across, even knowinghow big and small they are.

“As of today, we are tracking some 11,508near-Earth asteroids,” noted Johnson. “Anyasteroid that would be the size that wouldannihilate Earth, we have already found.” But healso noted that there are estimated to still betens of thousands of asteroids larger than afootball stadium that can come near Erath andare still undiscovered.

How You Can SurviveHere’s the thing: Earth is impacted by stuff

every day (like those meteor showers we rushto watch), and the planet also collects about100 tons of material a day, like sand and dustcoming in from space. And Mother Earth does apretty good job of protecting herself.

“The object is moving so fast, the mole-cules in the Earth’s atmosphere can’t really getout of the way so they build up pressure andcause friction on the object. Enough heat andfriction on a smaller object in the atmospherecause it to break up, explode, and disintegratebefore it hits the surface,” Johnson explained.“But a larger object coming at a high velocity,its internal strength is greater than what theatmosphere can handle, so it is able to make it

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all the way through the atmosphere beforethat pressure and heat build up to the pointthat it explodes.”

The way in which we’re most likely to sur-vive a true asteroid threat is based on the factthat scientists, once the object is found by tele-scopic surveys, can predict where it would hitthe Earth’s surface and would then be able toevacuate the area, similar to the preparation fora hurricane that’s heading for the coast. Butthere are high-tech procedures that could pre-vent this from happening while the asteroid isstill in space. It works like this: They find anobject that might be an impact threat manyyears—if not decades—before possible impactand put a force upon it that either increases itsspeed slightly or decreases its speed slightly.

“You only have to change the velocity of anobject maybe an inch per second many years inadvance and by the time that it gets to where itwould have impacted Earth, it’s in a completelydifferent place in its orbit,” explained Johnson.

Smaller objects, say 300 feet wide, can behit with a spacecraft at a relative velocity to it,like eight miles per second—the kind of velocityorbital trajectories have. This technique is calledkinetic impactor, and it will slow down theobject, and then several years later when itwould have impacted Earth, it will be in a differ-ent place of its orbit. Scientists could also utilizea spacecraft for something called gravity tractor,“where we hover in what we call a halo orbit infront of or behind the asteroid, and mutual grav-ity attraction between the spacecraft and theobject will eventually change its velocity andhave the same effect as the kinetic impactor.”

However, if there isn’t enough time for thesetechniques to have an effect, then to get aspacecraft to the object to be able to deflect itor disrupt it, a nuclear device could be used.

In December 2005, President Bush signedinto law the NASA Authorization Act (alsocalled the George E. Brown Jr. Near-EarthObject Survey Act), which stated, “the objec-tives of the George E. Brown, Jr. NEO SurveyProgram are to detect, track, catalogue, andcharacterize the physical characteristics ofNEOs equal to or larger than 140 meters indiameter with a perihelion distance of less than1.3 AU (Astronomical Units) from the sun,achieving 90 percent completion of the surveywithin 15 years after enactment of the NASAAuthorization Act of 2005.”

The study team “assessed a series ofapproaches that could be used to divert aNEO potentially on a collision course withEarth. Nuclear explosives, as well as non-nuclear options, were assessed,” and “nuclearstandoff explosions are assessed to be 10-100times more effective than the non-nuclearalternatives analyzed in this study. Othertechniques involving the surface or subsurfaceuse of nuclear explosives may be more effi-cient, but they run an increased risk of fractur-ing the target NEO.

“There’s certainly no reason to panic thatthe earth is going to be hit by an asteroid any-time in the near future,” Johnson explained. “Weare tracking objects that are in orbits thatapproach the Earth, but none have significantprobability of impacting the earth in the next100 years.”

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Asteroid Dangers, 1908-2029

There was a pause heard round theworld in 2004 when an asteroid about1,000 feet wide was spotted on anorbit that comes close enough toEarth that initially it was calculated tohave some probability of smashinginto us in April 2029—Friday the 13th,in fact. Its official designation was2004 MN4, although the discoverernamed it Apophis after the Egyptiangod of destruction. Back in 2005, PaulChodas, an orbit analyst with NASA’sNear-Earth Object office responded,“We weren’t too worried, but the oddswere disturbing.”

The object thought to wipe outEarth and dinosaurs 65 million yearsago was estimated to be about sixmiles in size, “but we certainly wouldknow of any object that size now, andthere are none that big that willimpact the Earth any time in the fore-seeable future nor thousands of yearsinto the future, as a matter of fact,”Johnson explained.

The Barringer Crater in the Arizonadesert is a recent example of impacton Earth, although by recent, it’s esti-mated to be 50,000 years old. The640-plus-foot-deep and mile-widecrater was caused by an approxi-mately 150-foot-wide, 300,000-tonasteroid. Something like that “hittingclose to a metropolitan area would doa lot of damage and there would be alot of casualties,” Johnson said.

In 1908, an asteroid about 100 feetin diameter blew up over a remotepart of Siberia, destroying more thanhalf a million acres of forest. And in1989, an asteroid about a quarter-milewide and cruising at 24,000 mphcame about 450,000 miles fromEarth. Scientists believed the asteroidand Earth had actually passedthrough the same point in space by adifference of just six hours.

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“…IT WAS CALCULATED TO HAVE SOMEPROBABILITY OF SMASHING INTO US INAPRIL 2029—FRIDAY THE 13TH, IN FACT.”

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Becoming Self-AwareHOW TO SURVIVE WHEN THE MACHINES RISE > Story by Joe Gurrola

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Technology is a beautiful thing. It makes our lives easier and it has helped us grow as aspecies. The life expectancy rate has increased by morethan 40 percent in the last 100 years due to our technologi-cal advances. The computer that runs the smartphone inyour pocket is a 1,000 times more powerful and a1,000,000 times cheaper than the most advanced com-puter at MIT in the year 1970, according to famous futuristand inventor, Ray Kurzweil.

But what happens when we get to the point where tech-nology, instead of increasing our life expectancy, begins todiminish it? The prospect of a reduced life span (or no lifespan at all) is just one possibility when talking about apotential Artificial Intelligence takeover. The disastrousresults of creating an artificially intelligent supercomputerthat we could not control would be devastating to the veryexistence of the human race.

Realistically, there are a few different outcomes that arebeing discussed by scientists and futurists. There is the pos-sibility that humans continue the trend of using technologyas an extension of the brain (like our smartphones), to thepoint that we retrofit ourselves with certain equipment thatchanges the way that we think and how we experience theworld. This would be a sort of transition from human to whatscientists and philosophers are calling transhumans. That is,a being that is built upon the biological structure of a human,but who does not possess the feelings or desires that we tra-ditionally associate with the human condition. Technologywould change human beings so much that transhumanswould be significantly different from human beings in termsof their ideals and abilities.

Another scenario that has been discussed by philosopherNick Bostrom, and which is the most common in pop culturerepresentations, is the possibility of humans building asupercomputer that decides that humankind is in some waya danger to its survival or in the way of reaching its maxi-mum potential. This sort of scenario has been the subject ofsuch films as The Matrix, by the Wachowski brothers and Ter-minator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Either of these events would take place on a global scaleand would, more likely than not, result in the exterminationof the human species. These types of Artificial Intelligencescenarios would pose an existential risk to humanity, onethat threatens not only to put a significant dent in thehuman population, but to exterminate humanity altogether.We would cease to exist.

“An existential risk is one that threatens the prematureextinction of Earth-originating intelligent life or the perma-

nent and drastic destruction of its potential for desirablefuture development” (Nick Bostrom, “Existential Risk As aGlobal Priority,” 2002).

As noted by Bostrom, humans have survived natural exis-tential risks for centuries—one example being the BlackPlague. But the plague was not something that was activelytrying to kill us. A conscious supercomputer that was bent ondestroying us would be a far more dangerous and a mostlikely unstoppable opponent. It would be smarter than all ofhumanity combined, and, given the amount of interconnec-tivity that will exist in the future, it would most likely knoweverything about anyone alive.

So, when would such a thing happen and more impor-tantly, how could we stop it?

The SingularityKurzweil has written extensively on the subject of Artifi-

cial Intelligence, specifically on the moment where ArtificialIntelligence surpasses all human intelligence combined. Thismoment is called The Singularity. Many philosophers andscientists believe that The Singularity will occur as early as2040. The Singularity is something that is difficult to seebeyond, as it is hard to conceive of a world where machineintelligence surpasses that of human intelligence. Philoso-phers have borrowed the term “Event Horizon” from physics,which is the moment just before an object is sucked into ablack hole, to describe how difficult it is to theorize at pre-sent about what the world would be like post-singularity.

The Singularity could mean lots of things for humanity. Itcould be the case that machine intelligence helps us answersome of the biggest problems of the universe, such as “Whyare we here?” and “What is the purpose of existence?” Thatis, we could use machines to our benefit and coexist with theintelligence that we will have created.

Fuzzy feelings about The Singularity aside, there couldbe a lot of trouble just over the event horizon.

Machine Takeover Machine takeover seems to be the more obvious problem

in terms of pop culture awareness of the dangers of ArtificialIntelligence, but how exactly would something like Skynet, inthe Terminator films, actually take place?

Well, it seems that we would have to look to the future, tothat moment where human intelligence is surpassed by Arti-ficial Intelligence. It is impossible to see beyond this previ-ously mentioned “event horizon,” but it is possible to theorizeabout cases where even the most innocent uses of AI couldpotentially lead to the extinction of the human species.

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Take a commonly used example of an artificially intelli-gent machine that is given the task of making paper clips.The machine could be making paper clips and realize thatthe most efficient way to make paper clips would be to uti-lize certain resources that humans might need, but becauseit is programmed to make paper clips in the most efficientway possible, it may utilize the necessary human resourcesanyway. Even worse, imagine that the machine realizes thatbeing turned off at night significantly decreases its produc-tion of paper clips and decides that it is going to stay on atnight instead. The machine would perceive the human desirefor it to be shut off as a threat to its end goal of paper clipproduction, and subsequently seek to destroy any possibilityof being turned off by destroying human beings.

Obviously, this is an exaggerated scenario, but it illus-trates the need for significant insight into how exactly theartificially intelligent machines of the future will function.Will these machines be able to understand the nuances ofhuman desires, or will they make the direct connectionbetween a programmed goal of efficiency and the ineffi-ciency of human beings in relation to their production?

Unless we put significant efforts into finding the rightway to program our artificially intelligent machines, it is likelythat we will lose control of our own destiny.

The second scenario of a machine takeover is the onewhere machines literally become aware that humanityposes a risk to the existence and persistence of the machineitself, and so it decides to destroy humanity in order toensure its own survival. This is pretty serious stuff, and if wewere ever to reach this point in our future it is unlikely thatwe would be able to survive.

This sort of scenario would most likely happen because ofa lack of planning in the structure of the programming givento an artificially intelligent machine. However, this could alsobe an unforeseen consequence of reaching the singularity. Itis possible at the moment the first superhuman computer iscreated that that AI could create other AI’s, which could thencalculate the danger humankind poses to its own existence,and thus seek to annihilate the inferior species.

The machine takeover scenario is one that human beingswould have virtually no (no pun intended) control over. Evensome computer viruses now have the ability to evade dele-tion, showing that they may have developed some sort of“cockroach like intelligence.” Imagine that same desire tosurvive in a computer with unlimited intelligence andresources—now that’s scary.

Transhumans The idea of Transhumanism comes from a philosophical

movement that took place during the early 19th century. Tran-shumans are essentially human beings that have become so

intertwined with technology that they will have far surpassedthe capability of human beings themselves. Another wordused in common language for this sort of being would be acyborg, which is an organism that contains both biologicaland technological materials as part of its person.

Why would Transhumanism be a problem? Well, thereare two realistic scenarios about why retrofitting ourselveswith technology would lead to some complications.

Technological Advancement to the Point of theLoss of the Human Condition

If someone were to ask us what makes us human therewould probably be a variety of answers, but probably whatmakes us human more than anything else is our conscious-ness, our desires, and the way we see the world. All of thosethings have the potential to change with the creation of atranshuman species. It is possible that we could alter our-selves to the point that we no longer think like human beings.We wouldn’t have the same desires, feelings, or goals—wewould be changed not only as individuals, but as a species.

The scary thing is, this is probably the most foreseeabledisaster related to Artificial Intelligence. We already carry oursmartphones in our pockets and use them to answer ques-tions and solve problems for us on a daily basis. Before the21st century, the concept of being able to use a pocket-sizeddevice to literally have access to the entire Internet (essen-tially providing its users a second brain) had not been real-ized. Now I can use my smartphone, and if you ask me a ques-tion and I don’t know the answer I can simply look it up andmost likely have the answer for you in less than 30 seconds.

Because of something called Moore’s Law, we know thatinformation technology grows exponentially. This law holdsnot only for the power of the technology itself, but also forthe decrease in its size as well as a significant drop in cost.So, using Moore’s Law, we can imagine that at some point inthe near future we will have machines that will be exponen-tially smaller, cheaper, and more powerful than the ones wehave now. To quote futurist Ray Kurzweil, “the machine thatfits in your pocket today will fit inside a blood cell 25 yearsfrom now.”

This exponential technological growth, coupled with ourever-increasing dependence on technology, could have seri-ous consequences in the future if we make the wrongchoices in how to use our technology to better ourselves.Just imagine what it would be like to have access to every-thing without having to interact with an external interface—imagine having the same technological and knowledgeseeking tools that you have in your computer or smartphoneinside of your mind. Our dependence on technology for com-munication is already having significant effects on our abilityto communicate with one another face to face. The way that

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generations are growing up now is significantly differentthan just two decades ago. Our conception of reality couldchange entirely if we had essentially all of the informationcompiled online inside of our minds. We may end up livingmore of our lives in there than we do in the outside world.

This kind of technological advancement could change allof those things that we say make us human: our desires,feelings, consciousness, and goals.

Subjugation of the Human Species by Transhumans

The second issue associated with the creation of a tran-shuman species is that transhumans would most likely befar superior to their predecessors, homo sapiens. Manyphilosophers believe that a creation of this new specieswould most likely lead to the Transhumanists essentiallyruling the inferior human beings. This possibility wouldessentially reduce human beings to the level of a chim-panzee in today’s terms. Chimpanzees, because they live ina human-dominated world, depend on human beings fortheir survival. Human beings would most likely be subju-gated and used to serve the needs and goals of the superiortranshuman species.

This possibility illustrates just how important preservingour humanity is. We typically think of an Artificial Intelligencetakeover as machines trying to destroy human beings, butwe rarely think of it as us destroying our humanity, and thusdestroying ourselves. If Transhumanism were ever tobecome a reality, then it is a very real possibility that human-ity as we now know it could become extinct.

How Can We Survive the Rise of the Machines?We may have to define survival when talking about the

potentialities of an Artificial Intelligence takeover. Since

there has never been a recorded event of this sort, there canonly be talk about the possibilities of what could happenand how we could survive. And even then, the discussionshould not be one about the survival of the individual, butrather one about the survival of the human species.

So then, maybe we need to redefine what it means tosurvive. As was mentioned earlier in the article, humanbeings have survived naturally occurring catastrophes likethe Bubonic plague, which wiped out a third of the humanpopulation—but human beings were the most intelligent lifeforms in that equation. That is, if there was a species thatcould have figured out a way to survive something like that itwould have been, in all probability, the most intelligent lifeform in the equation. But the paradigm shifts when we talkabout a potential AI takeover. Instead of it being a virusspreading, it would be a super-intelligent entity that we cre-ated intentionally trying to wipe us out of existence. That’sscary. Not only would we be physically powerless to stopsomething like a supercomputer, we’d also be exponentiallytrumped in the candlepower category. We would no longerbe the smartest beings in the equation.

In our pursuit of greatness, we often tend to overlook out-side factors that could be affected by our achievements. Werarely ask, what are the ethical implications of achieving acertain goal? Now, this question may not be a big deal if thegoal we’re talking about is paying off a loan or buying ahouse; in those scenarios, the goal can most likely beachieved with a marginal ethical cost. But when we’re talk-ing about the potentiality of creating an artificially intelligentsupercomputer, we better think long and hard about the eth-ical implications of our decisions and our goals.

CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, was recently quotedequating the creation of Artificial Intelligence with thereleasing of a demon in horror movies. Musk’s words were:

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“If I were to guess at what ourbiggest existential threat is, it’s proba-bly that… With artificial intelligence,we are summoning the demon. In allthose stories with the guy with thepentagram and the holy water, andhe’s sure he can control the demon. Itdoesn’t work out.”

Not surprisingly, Musk’s hyperbolewas not taken as far-fetched by manyexperts in the field of AI. The impor-tance of understanding the conse-quences of our innovations for ourspecies cannot be overstated. Evalua-tion into the good that will be attainedwith our technologies must be evalu-ated against any potential harm thatcould be caused because of it. Goingforward, the ethics of technologicalinnovation must be taken as a serious topic in the field of AI,especially in the face of the coming singularity.

What Makes Us Human?Another thing that we must do to ensure the survival of

humanity as we move deeper into the era of AI is rememberwhat makes us human and evaluate if our technologicaladvances are in line with the goals that we have as a species.Obviously, the survival of our species is key, but so also areour hopes, feelings, and consciousness. The preservation ofthe essence of human beings must be an essential aspect ofAI research going forward. The transition from a primarilybiological life form like a human being to a transhuman onewith different cognitive processes, goals, and feelings is anexistential risk to biological intelligent life. If human beingsare transformed to the point where they no longer match thecriteria for biological intelligent life, then the existential riskof AI will have been realized.

This is not to say that tinkering with our human bodieswould be all bad—we could potentially retrofit ourselves toattain longer lifespans and higher order thinking, while stillpreserving our emotions and other cognitive processes.

But it seems that part of what makes us human is ourcuriosity and our inability to provide answers to the ques-tions we have right away. Certain limitations and inabilitiesseem to be an intrinsic part of what it means to be human.As we strip more and more of these inabilities away, and aswe start to think differently, at some point would we ceaseto love like we love, and feel like we feel? It is certainly imag-inable that traditional forms of learning such as reading andface-to-face teaching could become obsolete with ourexpanded minds. And as the foundations of the way we

learn change, so probably will thethings we learn. What will it mean tobe human in a post-singularity world?

The question remains as to howmuch we can change ourselves beforewe begin to lose some of the intrinsicparts of who we are. This issue, like theethical issues of AI, needs to be takenseriously when discussing the survivalof the human species.

No matter how far our technologi-cal potential reaches, we must alwaysbe aware of the dangers posed by ourprogress. We have discussed how evena simple directive such as “make paperclips efficiently,” could have cata-strophic results for the human species.Making sure that our technologicaladvances do not surpass our under-

standing of the way they work is crucial to maintaining con-trol. We must be vigilant in taking all necessary precautionsto grow AI as safely as possible. Humankind has never expe-rienced a threat that has the potential of Artificial Intelli-gence. It’s important to keep that fact in our minds as wemove forward with innovation in this field, and as we movetowards the imminent singularity.

Preservation of HumanityNew technological advancements are being made every

day. The last phone I had was a flip phone with 3G. Now Ihave a smartphone, and I feel like I can do anything on it. Ieven feel smarter when I use it, and I noticed that the waymy brain works has changed. For example, I’m much morecomfortable with the app-based Windows 8.1 than I waswith Windows 7 after I began using a smartphone. My brainis changing as the technology I’m using changes. But thereare also negatives to this advancement.

Dependence on technology significantly increases thestrain on face-to-face interaction. Walking into a restaurantyou’ll notice way more people on their phones than youwould have 10 years ago. There’s less talking, and more tex-ting (and Snapchatting and Vining and Facebooking). Beaware of the world around you and the people around you.Don’t lose sight of what makes you human. It’s true thatwe’re changing with our technology, but we shouldn’t loseour ability to empathize or communicate. And if you’respending your time on the Internet, spend it reading some-thing worthwhile (like learning about the future of AI), sothat you continue to learn. Keeping up with technology istough nowadays, but it’s important to know what’s happen-ing to the world around you, and to humanity in general.

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We’ve seen it a dozen times in the movies—the space shiphanging in mid-air over the White House, or some other easily recogniz-able place. Then we see the aliens coming down to announce their inten-tions, or just starting the destruction without a word. Alien invasion is ago-to plot that has sustained science fiction for a century. The idea goesback to such gems as, War of the Worlds (the 1938 radio show adaptedfrom the H.G. Wells’ novel) and the cult favorite, The Adventures of Bucka-roo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. The movie, Independence Day, is amodern standard of the genre.

If you’re of a survival-oriented mindset, the interesting part of the Inde-pendence Day story begins where the movie ends. What happens next? Weleave our heroes standing victorious in a world where every city and theplanet’s infrastructure has been utterly destroyed and hundreds of millionsof people have just been killed. Their problems are just beginning. But toget to that clear-cut survival scenario, they first had to defeat the aliens.

What Do Aliens Want? The part that’s unpredictable is what the aliens will want with us when

they come. The notion of eating humans leaps to mind, but really, we’renot economical livestock. We take at least 15 years to grow to full size, andin that time we eat thousands of times our final body weight in high qual-ity food. Compare that to a pig, who goes from birth to 250 pounds in 6months on about 750 pounds of food. And that doesn’t even begin totouch the issue of whether any alien life form could even digest Earth-borne organisms.

So, if they don’t want to eat us, that leaves two more options, the firstbeing that the aliens want slaves. Here again, that’s a stretch. Think aboutit—you’ve got the technology to travel across the galaxy and visit Earth.What exactly do you need with a bunch of hungry, unhappy, rebelliousslaves to do that you can’t already do?

Close Encounters

HOW TO SURVIVE AN ALIEN INVASION > Story by Jeff Zurschmeide

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PHOTO BY THINKSTOCK

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The most likely scenario is that the alienswould simply want us gone so they can strip-mine the planet and use our home as rawmaterials. Just to get here, they’d have to bemuch more technologically advanced than weare, so they might view us the way we’d view anant colony living in the spot where we’vedecided to build our new garden shed: Nothingthere worth noticing.

In that case, we’ve really got a challenge onour hands. At least in the slavery or livestockscenarios, they’ll want some or most of us tostay alive—at least for a while. In the strip-min-ing scenario, we just have to hope theirweapons and defenses aren’t too advanced.

Surviving the InvasionIn the event of any alien attack, the farther

you are from the major population centers, thebetter your chances of surviving to repopulatethe Earth someday. We’ll break the survivalskills into two phases—surviving the invasion,and surviving the aftermath.

To survive a war against a much more tech-nologically advanced foe, your best bet is to

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escape and elude. If you choose to stand andfight, you’re pretty much on your own. For mostof us, it’s time to go to ground, bug-out, hideout, and keep a low profile for as long as it lasts.A single human doesn’t present a target verymuch different than any other comparablysized animal, and it’s unlikely the aliens willwaste time looking for individuals hiding out inthe mountains.

Remember that laying low includes keepingyour presence a secret from other humans, whowill likely be desperate for the same resourcesyou’re using. Don’t assume that we’re all on thesame team in the face of a crisis.

So, bring all your outdoor skills to bear inthis phase. Work on remaining unseen, anddon’t forget to minimize your heat signature.You may have to live rough for some time, per-haps through a winter, so be sure you knowhow to keep warm, find food and water, andstay healthy.

To survive, you’ll need the same gear youneed to survive human wars, includingweapons, shelter, stored food, medicines,tools, and clothing for all weather conditions.You will need to hunt or defend yourself, soconsider firearms and ammunition a priority,but if you can use a bow for some or all of that,they’re quieter.

The best situation is a well-concealed off-grid cabin far away from civilization, preferablya long way up a difficult road. In that cabin,you’ll want your firearms and well-equippedbow, a supply of shelf-stable food, a source ofclean water that does not depend on electric-ity to pump, some stored firewood, warmclothing, and a full set of tools. If you’re there along time, the tools may be among the mostimportant things.

You’ll want saws and an axe or two, plus asplitting maul, wedges, and a big sledge ham-mer if you need to augment your firewoodsupply. You’ll want hammers and nails, gar-dening implements, and all the tools of thehunter-gatherer.

TIP: You can buy or make a fruit harvester. That’sa set of thin hooks and a basket to catch thefruit, all on the end of a long stick – much moreeffective than shaking a tree!

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Potentially, a great deal of badness couldensue depending on how long it takes to fightoff the attackers. We can’t rely on our harmlessnative germs to kill off the invaders as in War ofthe Worlds, and really, the notion that we couldfigure out how to hack into the aliens’ computersystem and give their network a virus was neverrealistic. This could be a long, tough war. But ifyou’re well equipped and have the skills to gowith the equipment, staying alive until thealiens leave or die should be quite possible. Butthen what?

Surviving the AftermathThe true disaster of an alien invasion is

really the same as most other man-made ornatural disasters—assuming we win. If we lose,well, it’s been observed that humans are tastywith ketchup and fries.

So, imagine that you’re standing there sur-veying the wreckage of the invading warship,amid the smoking ruin of your city or town. Howdo you survive the day after Independence Day?

First, you can assume that if your town hasbeen demolished, every other town of that sizeor greater, worldwide, has probably receivedthe same treatment. Washington D.C., NewYork, London, Moscow, Beijing—all left insmoking ruins. In this case, the smaller thetown you live in, the better off you are. It is rea-sonable to expect that all infrastructure willhave been destroyed, including power, water,and communications, because that’s the firstthing that any technologically advancedattacker is going to eliminate.

So there you are, standing over the wreckageof the flying saucer, kicking that dead alien inthe head. Or, that part that looks kind of like ahead, anyway. It could be hard to tell. But thepoint is, you have survived the invasion and Bat-tlefield Earth. Congratulations. Now you have toget back to work. There’s a planet to rebuild.

The survival scenario now shifts dramati-cally. Where other people were a threat before,now a good team and a community representsyour best shot to jump-start the world. There’sa reason that just about everything in the worldyou can think of was built by teams of peopleworking together.

A larger group of people will have individu-als with specialized skills—doctors, engineers,

mechanics, and so on. All the skills you need toget utilities up and running again, evaluate dan-gers, and keep a guard up while you work. Peo-ple with useful skills will be highly prized in thisphase of recovery, so it will help if you havesomething to offer besides a hungry belly.

It may sound like a paradox: the loner sur-vives the war, while the team player survivesthe aftermath, but both those characteristicsare part of being a resourceful survivor. Tothrive, be willing to pitch in and help in any wayyou can, and be capable of learning new skillsto increase your value to the community.

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“TO SURVIVE A WAR AGAINST AMUCH MORE TECHNOLOGICALLYADVANCED FOE, YOUR BEST BET ISTO ESCAPE AND ELUDE.”

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Stories of alien abduction also go back toancient times, and tend to be similar innature. The person or persons are taken upinto the alien ship, where they are observedor tested. Few have reported the kind of grue-some experiments popularized in fiction.Obviously, all who have related these storieshave been returned unharmed—but ofcourse, any who did not return would neverbe able to testify to their experience.

In recent years, the case of Charles Hick-son and Calvin Parker is often recounted. Thetwo men were fishing in Mississippi whenthey say they were taken up in an oval-shaped aircraft by strange-looking alienswho communicated with them telepathically.

The two men were returned to Earth, andtold their story to the police. They were leftalone for a time, but their conversation wasrecorded and neither man gave any hint ofperpetrating a hoax. Indeed, they seriouslydiscussed what had happened to them.

A few years later, Betty and Barney Hillwere driving their car in New Hampshirewhen they encountered a UFO. Later, theyrealized that they had each lost several hoursof their memory, and when they regainedtheir senses they were 35 miles from theirlast remembered location. They believedthey had been abducted by the crew of theUFO. They claimed that their watches frozeand could not be restarted, and their shoesand clothing were scuffed. Both of the Hillswere interviewed under hypnosis and sus-tained their story.

In every case reported, humans who haveben abducted have been subject to fargreater power and technology than theycould resist. Survival seems to have beenentirely in the hands of the abductors, sosensible compliance seems to be the smartplay in these mysterious cases.

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Alien Invasion: Roswell, N.M., 1947

The best-known case of alien contact con-cerns the well-known events that are alleged tohave occurred near Roswell, NM. The artifactsand perhaps even bodies or survivors of anextraterrestrial crash landing are believed to bestored in a secure facility in Nevada known asArea 51. If that was an alien invasion, it wasn’tmuch of one, as the aliens either died or werecaptured and held by government forces using1947 technology.

But if you just look back further, there aremany accounts of mysterious flying ships dat-ing back to biblical times. People describedwhat they saw as best they could, in the termsthat they knew. That’s why when people readabout fiery chariots swinging low to carry peo-ple off to heaven, they wonder if this could be adescription of an alien encounter.

In the year 1290, William of Newburghwrote about a strange UFO that appearedover a monastery: “The abbot and monkswere at a meal, when a flat, round, shining, sil-very object flew over the abbey and causedthe utmost terror.”

Over 170 years later in 1461, the Duke ofBourgogne related the story that “an objectappeared in the sky over France… It was as longand wide as a half moon; it hung stationary forabout a quarter of an hour, clearly visible, thensuddenly spiraled, twisted and turned like aspring and rose into the heavens.” Then in 1479,a large “comet” was observed over the Arabpeninsula. The people who saw it stated thatthe object had windows.

These stories are not hard to find, and simi-lar observations have been reported periodi-cally right up to the present day.

What a Hostile Alien InvasionMight Really Look Like

As hard as it may be to believe, there are real historicalrecords of the same kind of invasion. Before you scoff, thisisn’t about flying saucers – in these cases the aliens camein sailing ships, some commanded by Christopher Colum-bus and others by Captain James Cook. But to the peoplethey encountered, the strange white-skinned people withtheir firearms and iron tools were as strange and advancedas galaxy-traveling space aliens would be to us.

The first situation was faced by the Arawak tribe on theisland of Hispaniola, now home to the Dominican Republicand Haiti. Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493 and usedhis advanced technology to subjugate the island. He tookslaves and plundered the world known by the Arawaks. Hebrought European diseases to which the Arawaks had nohistorical immunity— but it’s also thought that theArawaks may have transferred syphilis to the Europeans.On repeated trips to the Caribbean, Columbus demandedgold as tribute, plundering the islands to pay off his Span-ish financial backers. Further conquistadores spread outthroughout the new world, using the advanced technologyof firearms and ironwork to plunder the civilizations theyencountered.

On Hawaii, history took a different turn. The Hawaiianswere a warlike people, and when they determined the pur-poses of the English, they fought back effectively andturned Cook’s fleet away, preserving their independencefor a time.

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See In the DarkAliens are often described as comingfrom places much hotter than Earth.They may have extremely high bodytemperatures, and so would show upclearly through infrared binoculars. Amazon.com

Advanced CommunicationsYou’ll want to stay mostly passive with this tool, but youcan get news about conditions and tips on tactics to fightthe invaders by listening in. HamRadio.com

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Solar PowerEven if the entire infra-structure has beenreduced to a series ofsmoking craters, you’llstill be able to rely on thesun to charge your elec-tronics. Plus, solar is silentand will help you remainundiscovered. GoalZero.com

Water to DrinkIf you have to rely on riversand streams for your drink-ing water, you’ll want areusable filter to keep thatwater safe. BuyLifeStraw.com

Library LifesaverNo, seriously. This is not about

putting your status on post-apocalyptic Facebook. This is theplace to keep your library of how-to books on every topic from rais-ing livestock to electrical genera-

tors and basic math, biology,medicine and physics. It will be

critical for future generationsthat the accumulated knowledge

of the human race is not lost.Amazon.com

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The Invisible JoltSURVIVING THE DEVASTATION OF AN ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE > Story by Kyle Chezum

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You wake in the night and hear shoutingoutside. The room is thick with darkness—all the lights areoff. Something’s wrong. You assume it’s a power outage andgrab your smartphone to check the time, but it’s dead, too.That doesn’t make sense—the phone had a full charge ear-lier and is plugged into the wall. The shouting continues.Someone’s trying to call an ambulance. You get up and go tothe window, but you can’t see anything outside. The street-lights are black silhouettes against a blacker sky. Someonepounds on your front door, calling your name. You run to thedoor and open it. Your neighbor stands outside. “It’s hap-pened,” he says. “Cell phones and landlines are down, andnobody can get their car to start. A few flashlights are stillworking. Everything else is fried.”

You say nothing. There’s nothing to say. Like your neigh-bor, you’ve begun to understand what’s wrong. The worldyou knew is gone. No more lights, no more cars, no morephones, no more Internet, or radios, or refrigerators. Anyelectronic device more sophisticated than a simple flashlightis fried beyond repair, along with the entire power grid and allcommunication networks.

Your nation, maybe the world, has been hit by an Electro-magnetic Pulse (EMP).

What is an EMP?An Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) is a sudden burst of

electromagnetic radiation. These EMPs occur every day. Thesun produces electromagnetic bursts constantly, while elec-tronic circuitry can create small electromagnetic effects dur-ing standard operation. Most of these common EMP eventsgo unnoticed.

Massive pulses, though, can destroy sensitive electronicdevices, from computers and cell phones to the transform-ers that regulate our power grid. A large EMP could be cata-strophic, and preparation begins with understanding whatcauses such events.

EMPs arise from two primary sources.

Solar Coronal Mass Ejections (CME)A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a sudden eruption of

plasma from the surface of the sun. Also referred to as asolar storm, a CME sends charges particles hurtling throughspace. If a large enough “storm” were to hit Earth, the pulsewould induce massive electrical currents in electronic cables,causing transformers to short and plunging our electricalgrid into darkness.

Nuclear Detonation (NEMP / HEMP)A Nuclear EMP (NEMP) is an electromagnetic pulse cre-

ated by a nuclear detonation. When a nuclear warhead deto-nates close to the surface of the Earth, much of the EMPblast is absorbed into the ground. As a result, the actual EMPis negligible—if you’re close enough to notice the EMP, you’reprobably in range of the actual explosion.

But when a nuclear warhead detonates dozens or hun-dreds of miles above the Earth, high in the upper atmos-phere, the resulting pulse spreads outward at close to thespeed of light, with nothing to contain or interrupt it otherthan air molecules. This is called a high-altitude nuclear EMP(HEMP), and it’s what most scientists and military strate-gists refer to as an “EMP attack.”

The effects of a nuclear EMP are similar to those of asolar EMP, only more severe and more precise. While solarEMPs destroy large electrical systems like transformers, thegamma rays produced during nuclear fission create a sepa-rate pulse that is highly damaging to small circuitry, makinga nuclear EMP far more destructive, overall.

What Would Happen?Nobody knows the full extent of the damage a solar EMP

or nuclear EMP attack would cause, but experts hypothesizethat the outcome would be catastrophic.

In the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union sep-arately conducted multiple high-altitude nuclear tests. Theresulting EMP damage spanned hundreds of miles. If a simi-lar weapon were detonated today at a tactically optimallocation and height above the United States, there’s littledoubt the resulting pulse would knock out virtually all elec-tronic systems and devices in North America, effectivelyerasing modern civilization.

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How to Survive an EMPAs many as 250,000 to 500,000 deaths will occur

immediately following a large-scale EMP event as commer-cial airliners lose power and drop from the sky, medical lifesupport systems stop running, power plants and hydroelec-tric generators fail catastrophically, pacemakers give out,and other similar effects ripple across the nation. Assumingyou’re not one of these unlucky first casualties, your chancesof immediate survival are actually rather high.

EMPs don’t harm the human body. You won’t even knowan EMP has occurred until you try to turn on a light, start acar, or make a phone call. But experts predict that a suffi-ciently large EMP attack would result in tens of millions ofdeaths over the two or three years that follow. What you doin the first few days after the event will determine yourchances of surviving long-term.

Preparing to SurviveIn the immediate aftermath of an EMP, the steps you’ll

need to take to survive will vary depending on where you live,your health, inclement weather, resources in the area, andthe supplies and tools available to you. This guide can’taddress every possible factor that could influence your situa-tion, but if you want to survive, no matter where you are,preparation is critical.

In the first five minutes following the pulse, you’ll make acritical decision. This decision is the single most importantfactor that will affect your survival, and if you put off makingthis choice, you’ll end up paying for it.

You need to decide whether to“dig in” or “get out.”

Assuming you live in a moderately pop-ulated urban or suburban area, the reper-cussions of this decision will rule the nextdecade of your life. You can start adjustingyour living space to accommodate an off-the-grid lifestyle, or you can grab your bug-out bag and as much water as you cancarry and make a break for it. Whichoption is better? It depends.

Digging In: Your home is no doubtalready stocked with many essential itemsyou’ll need for survival—food, water, blan-kets, tools, medicine, room for storage,and so on. Your home provides shelter. Youprobably know your neighbors and variousmembers of your community, which mayadd a layer of security. In addition, gettingout of town only makes sense if you havesomewhere to go. You’re better off trying

In the case of an EMP caused by a solar coronal massejection (CME), the damage to small electronics would beless severe, but the event would nevertheless shut down ourpower grid and phone networks for as long as a year or morewhile critical repairs are made. A year without power wouldbe enough to bring our nation to its knees.

How Likely is an EMP Event?The threat of an EMP striking the United States is all too

real, and as electronic technology advances and we growmore and more dependent on it for daily life, our vulnerabil-ity increases.

When discussing the likelihood of an EMP event occurring,former head of U. S. Strategic Command General EugeneHabiger says, “It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.”

Advanced nations like Russia and China are more thancapable of producing and detonating high-altitude nuclearbombs. North Korea is believed to have successfully tested apowerful EMP weapon in 2009. The components required tocreate a small but effective EMP device are readily available,and the engineering proficiency needed for construction isbasic enough that small terrorist groups and lone-wolfextremists could feasibly build their own “EMP bombs.”While not nuclear in nature, these devices could still bringdown a large city or target points of tactical significance.

What about natural EMPs from the sun? At the moment,NASA is keeping an eye on solar activity with the goal of“forecasting” extreme solar weather. But experts suggest wewill have no more than two or three days of advance noticeshould the sun emit a cripplingly large burst—somethingthat could happen at any time.

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to secure yourself in your home than wandering with nothingbut a backpack through unfamiliar countryside.

Getting Out: Living off the grid long-term is almostimpossible without land and a supply of fresh water, and in aresource crisis, the last thing you want are neighbors. Yourgreatest threat to survival may well be the people aroundyou. Lack of electricity and communications will cripple lawenforcement—imagine an urban area with no security cam-eras, no burglar alarms, no phones, no tasers, no search-lights, no police cars patrolling the streets. Riots, looting, andgeneral anarchy will reign. Urban areas must import foodfrom elsewhere, and with all transportation shut down, star-vation will set in sooner in the cities than in rural areas.

Whether you decide to stay or go, you must make thechoice and commit to it within the first five to 10 minutes fol-lowing the pulse. If you waste hours or days trying to decideor end up changing your mind later, it will be too late to takethe specific tactical steps required for survival.

Assume the worst. You’ll lose nothing if you’re wrong,and you’ll gain valuable time and composure if you’re right.By assuming the worst, you give yourself permission to makedecisions you wouldn’t otherwise make, and you’ll be able tomake these decisions faster. Don’t wait around hopingthings will get better in a day or two. Allow yourself to entersurvival mode immediately.

Form alliances early—before disaster strikes. Alliesare important whether you’re planning to remain in yourcommunity or head for the hills. Establish a group of trust-worthy neighbors, friends, and family members, and makesure everyone knows the stakes. Your chances of survival arebetter when you’re part of a team, but everyone needs to beon the same page.

Start meeting and connecting with residents in yourneighborhood today. You need to know who’s trustworthyand who isn’t, and no matter how prepared you are, youwon’t have the time or presence of mind to accurately gaugethis in the wake of a disaster.

Develop a community response plan for your neighbor-hood. Discuss potential disaster scenarios and map out ablueprint for how you’ll work together to survive as a com-munity. Write it down. Rehearse it as a group. This is a greatway to determine what resources are available and who is onboard to help.

Digging In: Survival TechniquesIf you’ve chosen to stay put, to remain in familiar territory

with a community you trust, take the following immediatesteps to set yourself up for survival.

Collect as much water as possible. After the grid goesdown, you’ll still have running water, but it won’t last long. Ifyou’re at home when the pulse hits, start filling bottles,buckets, tubs, and other containers with water from the tapas fast as possible. Collect as much as you can. Don’t letanything else enter your mind until this is done. If you wait,you won’t get another chance.

Get to a grocery store. Grab all the cash you have, lockyour door behind you, and don’t stop to talk to anyone. Runto your local grocery store immediately. You want to getthere before everyone else does—preferably while everyoneelse is still thinking this is just a simple power outage.

Stock up on the following items.> Canned beans, canned vegetables, and canned fruit.> Dried foods like jerky, pasta, beans, and brown rice.> Peanut butter, nuts, and dried fruits and vegetables.

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> Canned meat, especially canned salmon, chicken, and turkey.> Canned soup, especially thick soups and chili.> Bottled water and sports drinks containing electrolytes.> Whole grain flour, oats, and salt.> Vitamin supplements and powdered “superfoods.”

Purchase everything with cash. If you’ve acted fastenough, chances are the stores are still open for businessand accepting cash. Take the shopping cart with you whenyou leave—you’ll need it to transport your goods back to yourhome or apartment.

Stock up on medical supplies. Your next stop is a localpharmacy or general goods store. Your goal is to obtain agood supply of standard medical supplies and medicines.> Bandages, gauze, and disinfectant.> Over the counter pain relievers and fever reducers.> Dish soap, hand soap, and hand sanitizer.> Chlorine for water purification and storage.> First aid kits, surgery kits, and syringes, if available.

Create a cooking area. If you have a large charcoal orwood barbecue at your home, you’re all set. If not, designatea sheltered space in your yard as a cooking area and dig ashallow fire pit. Your cooking space should be close to yourhouse, as this will allow you to take advantage of the fire forheating purposes.

Dig a latrine. Find a section of your yard located down-hill and away from your home. Dig a shallow trench about 4feet long, 6 inches deep, and 6 inches wide. Set aside a pileof loose topsoil to use to cover waste.

Establish a defensible position and a securitydetail. In cooperation with your neighbors and other com-munity allies, determine what area you will protect andestablish a plan to guard and defend it from criminals, van-dals, and vagrants. It may be best to choose a group of twoor three homes and create a single fortified position. Alter-nately, your neighborhood may be laid out in a way that cre-ates a natural defensible perimeter.

Locate and distribute weapons. Unfortunately, there’sno avoiding this step. Guns, ammunition, knives, clubs, bows,and other weapons will play an important role in your sur-vival over the coming years. As a group, take stock of avail-able weapons and ammo, and determine how to distributethem for optimal security. Carry a tactical knife on you at alltimes, and if you own a gun, don’t let it out of your sight.

Getting Out: Survival TechniquesIf escaping to a rural area or into the wilderness is your

plan, preparation is critical. This probably isn’t a feasiblestrategy if you’re not ready ahead of time. If you think yourchances of survival are better on your own, keep the follow-ing in mind.

Know your destination. Don’t run without a goal. Bringa map and compass and start out with a clear idea of whereyou plan to end up. Your destination should be somewhereclose to fresh water and natural food sources. If you don’tknow where in your area to find these things, you’re not pre-pared enough to get out.

Before disaster strikes, you should identify a bug-outlocation (BOL) within a one- to two-day walk from yourhome that can serve as your destination in the event of acatastrophe. Map out a way to get there and memorize it.Assume all roads will be blocked. Walk the route in advanceand note important landmarks.

Plan for delays. Identify two or three sites along theroute to your BOL that can provide temporary shelter duringyour journey. Rehearse the route, and keep the map andcompass handy in your bug-out bag in case your plans needto change on the way.

Dress in layers. You will know best how to dress for theconditions in and around your home and your BOL. Regard-less, dressing in layers is always advisable, as it allows you tobring multiple clothing items that you can wear or remove asthe weather demands.

Grab your bug-out bag or a backpack you can fill withfood, water, and supplies.

If you’ve prepared properly, you already know what youneed to bring with you, and your bug-out bag is fully stockedand ready to go. If not, fill a backpack with non-perishablehigh-energy food items, like granola bars, jerky, and peanutbutter. Take along a first aid kit and as much water as youcan carry. Knives, a gun, ammunition, and any otherweapons and tools you can fit are essential.

Hit the road. Get out as soon and as fast as possible.You won’t be the only one planning to vacate the city, and assoon as the reality of the situation hits everyone else, theroad is going to be full of desperate wanderers. You’re notsafe in the open. You need to make it your goal to reach yourBOL immediately.

EMP|ANATOMY & SURVIVAL

DOOMSDAY

“GUNS, AMMUNITION, KNIVES, CLUBS, BOWS, AND OTHER WEAPONS WILL PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN YOUR SURVIVAL OVER THE COMING YEARS.”

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History of EMPsNo truly catastrophic EMP event has

yet occurred, for the simple reason thatup until 50 or 60 years ago, such anevent couldn’t occur—our reliance onelectronic technology had not yetadvanced to the point where EMP dis-ruption would cause complete socialcollapse, as it would today. Neverthe-less, a number of historical incidentsserve as proof that EMPs in their variousforms are real and highly dangerous.

The CarringtonEvent (1859)

On September 1st, 1859, Britishastronomer Richard Carrington aimedhis telescope at the sun and sat downwith ink and paper to sketch what heobserved through the lens. Afterrecording a series of large sunspots, hesaw two massive points of white lightflare up rapidly and vanish. He hadnever seen anything like it.

Hours later, a massive geomagneticstorm tore through Earth’s atmos-phere, lighting up the night sky withimmense auroras visible as far southas Cuba and Jamaica. But this was justthe beginning.

At the time, the United States hadjust started to adopt electronic com-munication in the form of the tele-graph. Telegraph wires crisscrossedthe nation, connecting major cities, butbeyond this, electrical systems didn’tplay a large role in public infrastruc-ture. On the night of September 1st,telegraph operators throughout NorthAmerica watched, confused, as one ofthe most powerful EMPs in recordedhistory wreaked havoc on the tele-graph network. The pulse did morethan just disrupt communications.Electric sparks leapt from telegraphmachines, injuring workers. Telegraphpaper burst into flames. Metal contactpoints melted. Lines were inoperablefor hours. When operators discon-

nected the machines from their powersupplies, they found that they couldstill transmit, as the lines were pow-ered entirely by the induced currentfrom the EMP.

The storm came to be called theCarrington Event and stands as anunprecedented example of the effectsa powerful EMP can have on electroniccommunication systems. But the Car-rington Event wasn’t a fluke of history.Similar EMP disruptions have occurredin the decades since. In 1989, a solarcoronal mass ejection caused an EMPthat shut down Quebec’s entire powergrid for 12 hours and brought the regionto a complete standstill. During thesame event, the U.S. grid struggled butmanaged to stay mostly online, withthe exception of a few localized fail-ures. The 1989 event was about one-third the size of the Carrington Event.

On July 23rd, 2012, a CME eruptedfrom the sun and narrowly missedEarth, passing directly through ourplanet’s orbital path. The storm strucka satellite, and measurementsrevealed that the 2012 CME may havebeen larger than the Carrington Event.Daniel Baker, director of the Labora-tory for Atmospheric and SpacePhysics at the University of Colorado,said in a presentation in April 2014, “Ifit had hit Earth, we would still be pick-ing up the pieces.”

Starfish Prime (1962)More than 50 years ago, an early

nuclear weapon detonated 250 milesover the middle of the South PacificOcean produced an electromagneticpulse strong enough to knock outstreetlights and telephone communi-cations systems in Hawaii and NewZealand. About one-third of all satel-lites in low orbit failed, and somesources claim that the blast fried igni-tion systems in cars a 1,000 milesaway from the launch site.

The test was called Starfish Prime.Carried out by the United States onJuly 9th, 1962, the full power of theEMP couldn’t be measured—it wentoff the charts. As the pulse struckHawaii, the public learned for the firsttime that a nuclear bomb detonated inthe upper atmosphere could damageelectronic systems.

The Starfish Prime blast occurredat a height of 250 miles. A nuclearwarhead detonated at a similar heightover Kansas or Nebraska today wouldshut down the entire continentalUnited States, most of Canada, andparts of northern Mexico.

The Soviets conducted their ownhigh-altitude nuclear tests and sawsimilar unexpected results. During onesuch test, called “Project K #184,” theSoviets detonated a relatively smallnuclear warhead 180 miles above aremote region of Kazakhstan. Theresulting EMP took out 350 miles oftelephone lines and 620 miles ofburied power cables, and started mas-sive fires in a nearby powerplant. ARussian scientist later reported thatthe plant was completely destroyed.

Starfish Prime and Project K werecontrolled tests performed in remoteareas—back in 1962. Imagine the devas-tation that would result from an actualattack carried out with a modern EMPwarhead over a tactically significantregion where all aspects of daily life relyon advanced electronics.

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DOOMSDAY

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130 EMP|GEAR GUIDE

DOOMSDAY

Five Essentials for EMP SurvivalSurvival in a world gone dark won’t be

easy, but these five essential items will help.

BicycleYou’ll need transportation, and abike is going to be your bestoption. Most cars, trucks, trains,airplanes, and motorized boatsare going to be permanently outof commission. Find a bike that’slightweight, easy to disassembleand repair, and suited for off-roadtravel, and get accustomed to rid-ing it well before disaster strikes.SchwinnBikes.com

Faraday CageA Faraday cage is a metal enclo-sure designed to block electro-magnetic radiation. They’re easy tobuild using materials available atyour local hardware store, and youcan find step-by-step instructionsonline. Store essential electronicslike handheld radios, medicaldevices, GPS systems, and othersinside a Faraday cage to help pre-vent damage from an EMP.

Candles & LanternsLight is often taken for granted in the modernworld, but without electricity, this will be amajor concern. Stock up on candles, kerosenelanterns, matches, lighters, and wicking. Itwouldn’t be a bad idea to get a book on how tomake candles and keep it handy, as you’ll needto either find or make your own candles whenyour stockpile runs out. Coleman.com

Chlorine DioxideTabletsWater treatment systems won’t beoperational in the wake of an EMP,and there’s a good chance yourmunicipal water supply won’t lastlong. You’ll need to find water tosurvive, and any water you find willneed to be purified. Chlorine diox-ide tablets are great for this, andthey’re easy to store and transport.PotableAqua.com

Wood StoveA cast iron wood stove willmake cooking and heating

much safer, easier, and moreefficient in the aftermath of

an EMP. While it’s not some-thing you can carry with you

on the move, it’s a good ideato have one in your home or

bunker or wherever you planto dig in. Stock up on wood

and charcoal if you can. Amazon.com

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“I do not believe that civilization will bewiped out in a war fought with the

atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of thepeople of the Earth will be killed.”

—Albert Einstein

PH

OT

O B

Y T

HIN

KS

TO

CK

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