Being Buoyant in Stormy Seas

Preparedness Delivers Peace Tornado and Hurricane Seasons are Around the Corner Depending on where you live, the weather forecast will be taking on new importance again soon.

Hurricanes, tornadoes, and strong storms with straight-line winds wil shred parts of America this year, as they do every year. One only needs to be in the crosshairs once or twice before you start to think that maybe there's a smarter way of dealing with mother nature.

Two years ago, after a couple of run-ins with tornadoes, I found the ideal prefabricated steel shelter to put underground beneath my new addition. It was strong, full-featured, and reasonably priced. I financed it into my home addition deal and we have had the most reassuring sense of well-being ever since.

In fact, after living with that peace of mind for a while, I decided I wanted to help bring that well being to others as well ... and I started working with my shelter builder to bring his best-in-class product into new markets. (We build the shelters to spec--these listings are just straightforward examples of what can be done--your project may be much smaller, cheaper, or even a lot larger--no problem--let us give you a quote.)

Backlog Season

This is the time of the year when people around the country start thinking seriously of building homes, additions, and even just putting in that much-needed storm shelter. Our builder has been doing his thing for almost a dozen years, with about 500 shelters installed all over the U.S., including many FEMA projects. His product is unsurpassed in safety and quality by anyone out there regardless of price.

If you're thinking this is the year you might finally get your own all-risk peace of mind, the time is now to get your homework done and get on our list. The list is growing as it always does this time of year.
Posted by JC Refuge at 1:12 PM Labels: Natural disaster preparedness, Shelters, Why prepare?

Are the Good Old Days Gone Forever? The future suddenly was put on hold. Weapon of Mass Hysteria

A good reminder for us that the dreaded "dirty bombs" that could one day soon be visited upon the west will not likely be nearly as dangerous as many seem to shriek.

Mar. 2, 2006 10:54

Around four years ago, a team of security professionals from a Washington think tank played a game of Let's Pretend. The group parked a yellow, 66-passenger school bus on Independence Avenue, on the National Capitol Mall, near an overhead rail line.

Congress was in session that morning; people were flocking to national monuments. The weather was also nice that day - sunny, warm, with low humidity - and there was a steady breeze blowing in from the southeast. All the necessary conditions were there.

The team from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) then imagined that their bus was packed with 4,000 pounds of TNT and a pound and a half of radioactive cesium-137. What would happen to Washington, DC, they wondered, if the bus went ka-boom?

Interestingly, most of the pretend casualties were caused by the regular old TNT and flying debris; the damage from the cesium was negligible by comparison. However, notes Phil Anderson, the man who headed the CSIS team, the fact that radiation was involved in the blast "had an enormous psychological impact on the public." The so-called dirty bomb proved to be a weapon of mass hysteria.

Radiation is "something unseen and mysterious for most people," says Ivan Oelrich, a nuclear physicist with the Federation of Atomic Scientists.

Even if the radiation levels are not particularly high, they will not return to their homes or places of business. Unfortunately, terrorists know this as well and while a nuclear weapon is beyond their grasp, radioactive materials are not. In fact, the modern world is filled with the stuff. ...

... Fortunately, even if al-Qaida or another terrorist group was to detonate a dirty bomb in a city and radioactive material would be dispersed over a wide area, it is unlikely that it would be enough to do any real harm.

"The so-called safety limits for radiation exposure are exceedingly conservative," explains Fred Singer, physicist and president of the Arlington-based Science and Environmental Policy Project. "You can exceed them by a factor of 10 or 100 and not suffer any damage."

In fact, a dangerous concentration of radiation would melt most containers - but try telling that to the public right after a non-conventional terrorist attack. Citizens would clamor for a very expensive clean-up, draining the public coffers; businesses would come to a halt.

So how does one overcome the fear?

"The answer is more education," Anderson insists.

So while others may be shrieking, you don't have to be freaking. Understand the threat and know your risks in a given attack before chucking your sanity in favor of bolting with the herd.
Posted by JC Refuge at 1:47 PM Labels: Radiological preparedness, War on terror

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Mountain House Food Dealin'

So where have I been of late?

Well, fair reader, I've actually been toiling away at some real work. This happens to be a time when some cool new crisis-preparedness products are coming online, so I've been getting in synch with some of that. I'm also marching forward in building a new shelter-business thrust that is nothing short of exciting.

But in addition, there are plenty of folks around the country starting to emerge from their winter slumbers, thinking about how to get ready for what the warmer weather will bring, and so it's a welcome obligation to be responding to their needs. Most significantly at this moment, I am scrambling to keep up with demand for a very special and unique discount program on Mountain House food. The discounts I'm offering up are significantly greater than what are reflected in my store (see: http://stores.ebay.com/REFUGE-offered-by-Safecastle-LLC_Mountain-House-Food_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ15QQftidZ2QQtZkm) and they are yours for the asking ... simply email me for details: email@example.com

I can't emphasize enough how significant this opportunity is--to include discounts AND FREE SHIPPING. Be advised, due to circumstances beyond my control, I can only offer this monster opportunity during the month of March.

By the way, for those who are unfamiliar with Mountain House--it is the premier freeze-dried food in the world. Campers, backpackers, outdoorspeople of all stripes swear by the easy to carry and prepare pouches of some absolutely delicious food.

For emergency preparedness, the #10 cans which store for 30-40 years (no, that's not a misprint), are the best insurance a household can have against lean times.
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