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I use Drudge Report as my home page on the computer. A moment ago I pulled up the server and the center column of what is going on in the world today looks like a rundown of our thread topics.
Japan a wasteland
Tsunami distruction 60 miles inland
Nuke plant meltdown
150,000 evacuated
250,000 in shelters
food being hoarded
1800 dead in one city
total dead unknown
Just goes to show...
No matter how hard you try, some things you just can't prepare for. When your # comes up, you're going down.
All the preparedness in the world wouldn't help against a 30 foot wall of water. This is really a nightmare scenario. I like to think i can control or mitigate most bad things, but this is a reality check. Some things you just can't do anything about. It really boggles the mind when you think of how many people have lost their lives in this.
It all reminds me how really insignificant we are in the cosmic order of things. We may be on top of the food chain now, but nature has a way of correcting that in the blink of an eye.
Oh yes there is I lived through the 64 Alaskan earthquake that was 3 times as powerful. I currently live in a flood plain on a fault line (the land is cheap). I have punched a road up a rock out cropping and have needed things as mobile as I can make them and have two boats. You have warning of sunamis and I can make many trips up the hill before it hits. I used screws not nails when building my house and it will not shake apart.Quote:
Originally Posted by r0ckhamm3r
I guess I really don't know what to say, the power of the earthquake and Tsunami, according to some reports I was watching last night.....Moved the whole island 8ft to the west.
Now if that isn't a Holy C*** moment, I don't know what is.
Bottom line is try to live on your own hook, prepare for what ever you can, but in the long run there are a lot of thinks that you can't really control, so don't worry about it.
I would think just the opposite...screws have no shear strength so I would think that an earthquake would break a house held with screws long before it would a house made with nails.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alaskan Survivalist
It all depends on the screw. Wooden boats are screwed together not nailed. Nails don't have near the holding strenght.Quote:
Originally Posted by Camp10
Nails bend,,, Screws break,,,, Hurricane straps MUST be nailed for that very reason.... same with Joist hangers,,
I hope you're correct, AS. Truly. Depending on the origination of the tsunami you could have minutes or hours. Hopefully, if a quake does hit your house will move as one unit instead of back and forth against itself. Let's just hope you don't have to test any of it.
I have seen what happens to this area by sunami before. The mechanics of it in my location are this. Cook inlet is hundreds of miles long but fairly shallow and tapers down like a funnel that I live at the end of. Perfect conditions for one to be lifted high but most likely would run out of steam before it got here unless extremely powerful. In 64 flooding was the problem and mud washed up an area about 10 miles away. I do not have to wait until I hear it on the radio to think a sunami will be generated. I do check immediately to find epecenter when I get big shakers. I do live on a fault line so sometimes even small quakes can feel massive if they are close. No one that lives through a massive earth quake takes it lightly and I don't. To Justin, yes I used strapping and brackets and the screws that shear are when people use sheetrock screws. I used decking screws. The house is built over code in many ways. I have 10 inch slabs in my basement. All 2x6 framing is in perfect alignment going through to the roof that is set on 16 inch centers as well. Had I known the world was about to fall apart when I built it I would have made it bullet proof too. Winds are big problem here too and it has with stood many storms that blew my nieghbors roofs off.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
Alaska has 4000 earthquakes each year. That's more than the other 49 states combined. The big difference is we have little development to get damaged. I hold my breath when the swaying begins until I feel the first jolt. That's when I know how much to worry. I've been through so many of them I can usually judge how far away they are also. Earth Quake protocal was taught in school just like the cold war nuclear stuff. It is part of our lives here.
1964 03 28 - Prince William Sound, Alaska - M 9.2 Fatalities 128
1965 02 04 - Rat Islands, Alaska - M 8.7
1965 03 30 - Rat Islands, Alaska - M 7.3
1966 08 07 - Rat Islands, Alaska - M 7.0
1972 07 30 - Sitka, Alaska - M 7.6
1975 02 02 - Near Islands, Alaska - M 7.6
1979 02 28 - Mt. St. Elias, Alaska - M 7.5
1986 05 07 - Andreanof Islands, Alaska - M 7.9
1987 11 30 - Gulf of Alaska - M 7.8
1988 03 06 - Gulf of Alaska - M 7.7
1996 06 10 - Andreanof Islands, Alaska - M 7.9
2002 02 06 - near Knik, Alaska - M 5.3
2002 10 23 - Denali, Alaska - M 6.7
2002 11 03 - Denali Fault, Alaska - M 7.9
2003 02 19 - Unimak Island Region, Alaska - M 6.6
2003 03 17 - Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 7.1
2003 06 23 - Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands - M 6.9
2003 11 17 - Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 7.8
2004 06 28 - Southeastern Alaska - M 6.8
2005 06 14 - Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 6.8
2006 07 27 - Southern Alaska - M 4.8
2007 08 02 - Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 6.7
2007 08 15 - Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 6.5
2007 12 19 - Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 7.2
2007 12 26 - Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 6.4
2008 04 16 - Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 6.6
2008 05 02 - Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska - M 6.6
2009 01 24 - Southern Alaska - M 5.8
I can tell you one thing. I'll fight any effort to build a nuclear power plant here. I'd rather sit in the dark than glow in the dark!
I was running numbers earlier and found that according to the UN 60% of the world population lives within 25 miles of a seacoast. This quake sent water 60 miles into the interior in some places.
There is also a nuke reactor plant within 25 miles of most of the major urban areas of the east coast. Chicago is ringed with them, 'cept for the side on Lake Michigan.
My own abode is 200 miles from the nearest nuke plant and sits at 1200ft above sea level 1000 miles inland. I thought of all that before I located here. I still have to worry about big winds, falling trees, New Madrid fault, sesquach and alien abduction. Not a thing you can do if the aliens or sesquach gets after you, you're a gone'r.
They are keeping the announced death count very low. Several coastal villages, with populations in the thousands, are completely gone.
We may see our first case of a complete nuklear core meltdown in a densely populated area. One is considered completely lost already and the other two are failing fast.
Even though this is all bad, really bad, the Japanese people will get through this and yes with some help from us and a few other countries. They are a prep type of people and are somewhat disciplined when it comes to this type of disaster. Even the kids in school each have one of these back bags and they even have hard hats and a fire hood issued to them.....
Here is what every Japanese Citizen and even visitors are GIVEN by the Japanese gov't. You have seen these being carried by Japanese people in the news clips that have played the past few days. These are free to anyone, just have to go pick up the qty you need at their aid stations. that is before and after a disaster. :nuke:
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m...urvivalkit.jpg
Survival supplies in a knapsack
This grab-and-run, flame-resistant polyester knapsack contains many of the items you would need for basic survival. The photo shows 27 of them: bag for carrying drinking water, canned dried biscuits, canned bread, mineral water, flashlight, batteries, candles, matches, no-slip gloves, cotton towel, plastic bags, tissue papers, can opener, band aids, cotton gauzes, triangular bandage, bandages, cotton swabs, scissors, small forceps, tweezers, small plastic tarpaulin, rope, anti-dust mask, a whistle to call for help, a light with tiny built-in electric generator (just shake), and solid fuel.
This is the most unique item however....
http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/m...lunderwear.jpg
Compressed underwear
The T-shirt and briefs have been compressed to a small 110 × 70 × 26 mm. Peel them open and they are ready to wear.
I'm concerned about a domino effect that is not being mentioned. They are so close together if the one goes the area will be evacuated and who is going to work in that radiation to keep the one next to it from melting down?
AS, Japan where the Tsunami hit, they had less than 1/2 hour to get out of dodge before the large Tsunami hit after the confusion of the quake. Not a whole lot of time when things are very rough and confused, yet, many of the Japanese were able to make it to high ground with their Gov't supplied individual kits.
Now that is a handy government program, very responsible of them.
I have not heard anything about traffic jams before the sunami or looting. I am indeed impressed with the Japenese. The kit is just more reason to admire these people. I have also noticed that there are few young men in the refugee centers, I'm assuming they are out helping others. They meet thier challlenges head on!Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioGrizzLapp