News for the Week 2023-08-14

The Prepared Support - August 14, 2023

News

Make a top-level comment for a new story/topic. Discussions about the topic should be in the replies to the top-level comment. That way things stay organized and every main comment as you scroll down is a different piece of news.

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Prepper Chat Night is this Friday evening, Aug 18, on Discord at 6PM Pacific / 9PM Eastern. Join our Discord now at this link so you’ll be ready when the event starts:

https://discord.gg/s6ahrRES?event=1132155197481824306

Prepper Chat Nights are on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month. It’s a video call where we mostly talk about our recent prepping experiences and lessons. The video part is optional, and some choose to skip that part for privacy reasons.

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Note: The Friday chats aren’t the only reason to join Discord. While the website remains the better place for guides, articles, and experience reports, Discord really shines for conversation or helping someone through an immediate situation. The two work well together, and I use both every day.

 

Highly sensitive employee data leaked from Northern Ireland police department. Apparently someone filled a spreadsheet with sensitive data, then used the “hide cells” feature so the sensitive parts couldn’t be seen. But of course someone else could just “unhide cells.”

Mastodon post that explained how the data was leaked

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66510136

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/psni-apologises-to-officers-and-civilian-staff-after-major-security-breach/a1823676448.html

Preparedness takeaways:

1) Anyone handling sensitive information needs training in information security.

2) Everyone handles their own sensitive information, so spend a little time on your own information security training.

3) The Prepared has a guide for this: https://theprepared.com/prepping-basics/guides/digital-security-101/

 

Some tentatively good news for anyone with chronic fatigue syndrome. A protein has been identified that may be part of the cause. This protein blocks mitochondrial energy production and is elevated in people with CFS. This could be the first step to developing a treatment.

https://www.science.org/content/article/protein-disrupts-cells-energy-centers-may-be-culprit-chronic-fatigue-syndrome

 

“””Severe thunderstorms in the United States have caused nearly 70 percent of the losses that insurance companies around the world have incurred this year from natural disasters, according to an Aug. 9 report by the Zurich-based reinsurer Swiss Re. And the weather is not likely to get better.
“We are very likely going to see 2023 be the costliest on record for thunderstorms in the United States,” said Steve Bowen, Gallagher Re’s chief science officer.”””

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/business/reinsurance-global-crises.html

Preparedness takeaway:

Further research into the effects of severe thunderstorms, the extent to which they’re getting worse, and what can be done about them.

 

It’s an uncomfortable time to be in the insurance business.

 

“It’s an uncomfortable time to be in the insurance business.”

Probably. I’m more concerned about the rest of us who are living in houses that might get zapped. Insurance data is a good source of information about emergencies in general because emergencies usually lead to insurance claims.

 

Fire evacuation in progress for 22k people in and around Yellowknife, capital city of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Residents have roughly one day to evacuate before the fire’s expected arrival.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-wildfire-emergency-update-august-16-1.6938756

 

Definitely going to be chaotic for the next few days . . . 

As Wildfire Nears, Entire Canadian City Is Ordered to Evacuate
Officials told residents to clear out of the Northwest Territories city of Yellowknife by Friday afternoon. Most were expected to flee south by road.

 

Interview with the mayor about evacuation in progress. They’ve planned for a small portion of people to remain behind to defend the city, including firefighters and utility operators.

 

30,000 households told to evacuate due to fires in British Columbia, Canada.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66562610

Note: This is separate from the 22k people evacuating Yellowknife in a different part of Canada.

Canada is having an amazingly bad fire season. Here’s a graph comparing total area burned this year to seven previous years.

 

Hurricane heading for southern California this weekend. Expect torrential rain, flooding, mudslides, and strong winds. If your home is at risk of flooding or if a multi-day power outage would be a big problem for you, this could be a good time to evacuate. Otherwise make sure you have a week of shelter-in-place supplies and clean up or tie down anything that could be blown by 100+ mph winds.

https://theprepared.com/emergencies/guides/how-prepare-survive-hurricanes/

 

Update on Hurricane Hilary, starting with video of a road turned into river rapids. Two years of rain will soon be dumped on southern California in just one day.

 

Santa Barbara area is really getting hit hard. the Plant Fire is at 5000+ acres which I hope Storm Hilary helps drown but not slide.  They had 3 earthquakes today – 5.1, 3.2 and 3.9 magnitude.  https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/earthquakes/earthquake-shakes-parts-of-southern-california/3209652

 

Earthquakes were in Ojai which were felt strongly where I am in Ventura County. We are mostly dealing with steady, heavy rain, with resultant flash flood warnings. Wind effects have been much less than anticipated.