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The Record Heat Waves

With the record heat waves and drought across the nation, the American Preppers Network hopes that you have been prepared.  Disasters of any type can and do happen anywhere, at anytime, and without warning.  We are now witnessing and will continue to witness a prime example of how one disaster can cause a chain reaction leading to other disasters.  Here are some potential disasters to be aware of as a result of the drought and heat waves.


1) Water shortages.  Water is the number 1 most important necessity to survival.  The average human can only survive 3 days without water, and even less in a heat wave.  I hope you've stored some.  If the water system shuts down or does not have enough, you could turn on the tap only to have a few drips.  If you run into a situation where there is not enough municipal water supply to your home, start looking for other sources of stored water.

• Your hot water tank may have 30 - 50 gallons of water stored. 
• The top supply tank to your toilette is typically clean water that you can use.
• Your plumbing in your house could have a few gallons.  Open a higher faucet in your house as in a shower, sink, or upstairs source to relieve pressure, then open a lower outside faucet to retrieve water from your plumbing system.

Don't short change yourself on water!  Make sure you have plenty for personal consumption.  If you stop sweating, that means you are dehydrated!   

Got Water?

2) Heat.  Heat poses many risks, including but not limited to:

• Heat Stroke.  Watch family members closely, especially the elderly, watch for slurred speech and disorientation.  When in doubt, call for help.  Time lost is brain lost.  Never leave pets or children in a vehicle, and keep them out of the direct sun.  Drink lots of water.
• Fire.  Fires are much more common in the heat.  Things dry out and become more flammable.  Keep dry brush and trash picked up.  Do not store fuel in or around your house, and keep well ventilated in a cool area out of the sun.  Keep grass cut short, especially if your city is rationing water and not allowing watering of lawns.  Do not store any flammables in the direct sun or in your attic.  
• Vehicle breakdowns. Avoid driving unless it's absolutely necessary, or drive at nite. Check your fluid levels and make sure your oil and coolant are topped off.  Bring extra oil and coolant with you in case you need it.  DO NOT top off your fuel tank!  Make sure your tires are property inflated and not over or under inflated.  Bring extra water with you in case you do break down.  Drive with the A/C off when going uphill.  Watch your vehicles tempature when climbing grades.  If your car starts to overheat when going uphill, pull over at a safe location to let it cool.  Check to make sure your thermostat is working before you make your trip.

3) Blackouts.   The nations grids are maxed out.  With everyone using A/C, expect rolling blackouts.  If you are in a blackout, you can wrap sleeping bags around your refrigerator or freezer to help insulate it.  To conserve power, only use what you absolutely need.  Keep lights turned off and keep your A/C set to the warmest temperature that you can safely stand.  Do you have a generator?  Be prepared to use it.  Do you have plenty of non-perishable food stored?  If there is an extended blackout, you may need it.  Stores and gas stations will be shut down in a blackout.  Do you have an emergency battery powered radio and flashlights?

4) Food Prices   Expect food prices to increase.  Especially meat.  Many ranchers are butchering all of there livestock as there is not enough food and water to care for them, this means shortages in the future.  Produce crops are drying up. Prices of corn, wheat and other grains will increase.  Even produce grown in unaffected areas may increase in price as well due to demand.  If the blackouts are too severe, stores, gas stations and truck stops may close down temporarily disrupting the supply chain and preventing food from making it to the stores.

Stay safe during this heat wave and dought.  This is a serious and potentially devastating national disaster.


If you have tips, ideas, news, videos or pictures that you wish to share regarding this heat wave you can submit your article to americanprepper@yahoo.com.  If your article is chosen we will post it on your states preppers network blog.  Top articles will get posted on APN.  The top article of the week will win a free flashlantern valued at $49.95 (made in the USA).  Articles must be submitted before 7/29.

Feel free to copy and repost this article in it's entirety.  Credit source as AmericanPreppersNetwork.com

Here are some free helpful pdf files to download

Fire and Heat Waves
- ARC - Are You Ready - Fire

- ARC - Are You Ready - Heat Wave

- ARC - Are You Ready - Wildfires

- Fact Sheet: Fires

- Fact Sheet: Fire Safe

- WildFires

Water
- ARC - Food and Water in Emergency

- Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water 

- How To Make A Solar Still (Plastic Cover)

- Purification Of Water On A Small Scale 

- Simple Solar Still For The Production Of Distilled Water

- Slow Sand Filters

- Water Purification

- Water Treatment

Fire Safety 

- Fighting Fire 

- Fire Safety

Get More Free Downloads here:
http://preppers.info/Free_Downloads.html

Induction Generator

Here I have a 208/220V; 440V, 5 horsepower 3-phase motor that I am experimenting with converting to an inductive generator, powered by my Changfa S195 Chinese 12 hp diesel engine. I'm learning here; I have never done this before. In both clips, the motor is wired for low (208/220) voltage. That means it is wired Wye-Wye (two sets of windings paralleled), whereas it would need to be wired Wye (both sets in series) for 440V. Does this mean I could produce 440 volts with this setup? Undoubtedly. Rectify that to DC and power the plate circuit of a tube linear amplifier without the big transformer normally required. Add a small transformer for the low voltage stuff, and this would make a good power supply for a legal-limit ham radio station.

So anyway, in the first clip I am using only one capacitor, and it is the only capacitor I could find in the microFarad range that was rated for high voltage AC. It has nowhere near enough capacitance; I think it was 0.75 uF or something like that. As you can see, it didn't work.
Digging around in cyberspace, I found reference to C-2C wiring for this specific purpose. Unfortunately the guy who was describing it didn't have a firm grasp of what he was describing, having simply followed someone else's directions. Thus, although it would seem that "2C" would imply double the capacitance of "C", the narrative did not leave me with a feeling of confidence that that was what he meant. Not disrespecting the guy or anything, just telling it like it is.
So I searched further and ascertained that, indeed, 2C means 2C and not merely C2. I found other stuff about it too, which gave me the confidence to actually spend a bit of money.
Basically, it works like this: imagine a delta-wound, 3-phase motor. There are of course 3 legs to which the power connects; L1, L2 and L3. L1 and L2 will be the output. C, the first capacitor, connects in parallel across L1-L2. 2C connects in parallel across L2-L3. Nothing connects across L3-L1.
2C can be either a single capacitor of double the value of C or, as you see here, two caps of the same value as C, connected in parallel.

So I went to everybody's least favorite online auction site and bought three identical, new, 55 uF 440V motor run capacitors. As you can see, this works; at least as far as producing voltage. Stay tuned, because next I plan to load it with some heating elements to see what it can do.
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Makeshift Generator

When the utilities were off for several days during the recent Alabama tornado event, I didn't have a real generator here. This is how I dealt with it and kept from losing the food in the refrigerator and freezer. Read more about it here.
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2 Policemen on leave after beating suspect.

Two police officers from Birmingham, Alabama are on paid leave while an investigation is conducted on an incident caught on video between them and a suspect on March 20th. According to the police report, the cops saw Daniel Travarious stealing and arrested him using "minimum force."

Rick Folbaum spoke to legal panelists Keith Sullivan and Kendall Coffey on whether or not this constitutes excessive force and violates the rights of the suspect.

For more from the Fox News Insider, check out http://www.foxnewsinsider.com.


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Alabama Preppers Roll Call - Please Check In

The American Preppers Network is conducting a network-wide roll call.  Whether you are a member or not please check in and let us know what you are doing to prepare.

This is a good opportunity to network with other preppers near you.

Alabama Preppers, to respond to the roll call please follow this link:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=216&t=9243

• Reply to the Roll Call and let us know what you have been doing to prepare.

If you are not yet a member of the forum you can register here for free:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/ucp.php?mode=register

The Civil Air Patrol flies the skies of West Alabama

Civil Air Patrol cadets take to the skies to conduct search and rescue exercises in West Alabama



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Marc Faber Says President Obama is a Prostitute

Referenced via The Daily Crux with transcription and commentary provided by Zero Hedge:

Earlier, Marc Faber appeared on Bloomberg TV, in what may go down in history as his most scandalous interview ever. When asked, in advance of the SOTU address, what he thinks of the president, Faber, who appears to have had enough with all the bullshit, propaganda, and lies, replies:

“I think he’s done a horrible job and I think that will continue, I think he is a dishonest person, and nothing has changed… Some politicians are more honest than others. I don’t think that I have a very high regard for politicians, I have a high regard for businessmen and for people who work, and not for people who abuse the system continuously. And in comparison to other politicians, I think he came in on a platform as a president that would want to change the government in Washington, and actually he’s made it worse… We foreigners, we just laugh at someone like Mr. Obama. I was very critical of Mr. Bush, but at least he had one line and he stuck to that line, and at least he set out to do a thing and he was relatively straight on the thing that he did. He may have been wrong, but at least he didn’t change his mind continuously, and didn’t prostitute himself.”

If nothing else, how many other people do you know who will compare, in front of a live Bloomberg audience, the president of the formerly greatest country in the world to a whore?

As for what Faber thinks the real state of the union address should be, he says:

“I think what should happen in the US is for the president to tell the US, you have to tighten your belts. ‘We have to go through hard times for 5 years to repair the damage that was committed over 20-25 years by the Federal Reserve, by the Treasury, by the politicians, and somebody has to tell the truth. But the politicians keep on fueling the illusion that you can spend yourself out of the misery, and that by printing money you will improve the economy, which is not the case.”

On the topic of the Fed and relative performance:

You don’t know. Maybe [Bernanke] will resign. After he sees the disaster he has created he may resign. Or he may be disposed, who knows. But all i want to say is in terms of investments we have a very interesting situation, because from the March lows, the EM universe has performed fantastically well, and industrial commodities have done fantastically well, and the US has underperformed everything. And now we have a change: the US may outperform, it may not go up, but may go down less than emerging markets.

On his latest opinion on Treasurys

In the long-run, for sure US Treasurys and most government bonds are a suicidal investment. But as a shorter-term timeframe, and I think for the next three months or so, I think we have a situation where stock markets have become very overbought, and emerging markets in January, most of them failed to make new highs above the November, December highs, and recently some of them have sold off very considerably, plus the Chinese market is giving you a signal that something is not right in the Chinese economy, because it is going down. For the next three months you have to shift out of the Emerging Markets, they may correct 20-30%, out of industrial commodities, on a relative basis. And I think the sentiment, just recently, was overly optimistic on the reflation trade, and overly negative about treasury bonds, so treasury bonds right now are oversold, and as of tonight I got the buy signal on US Treasurys. I think Treasury are the best place for the next 3 months, as is the US dollar. I think a correction is coming in the range of 10% in the S&P and 20-30% in the emerging markets.

On all the current batch of Davos participants:

I dont think the ‘thinkers’ are in Davos. I think it’s a group of liars, and people that go along with the system, and perpetuate fraud and abuse, and dubious practices in the financial system.

As for what he thinks of Keynesianism, and gold, well, we’ll just let you hear that for yourselves.

Author: Mac Slavo
Date: January 26th, 2011
Visit the Author's Website: http://www.SHTFplan.com/

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Top 10 Survival Downloads You Should Have

Author: Contributing Author

The following article has been generously contributed for your reading pleasure by Rourke at Modern Survival Online. We strongly urge our readers to take Rourke’s advice and download or print (or both) the following guides, which are available 100% free. Ideally, retain a paper copy if you have a survival folder, and save a copy to your reserve USB drive, which should be a component of your bug out survival bag or stored at your bug out location.

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There are tons of good downloads in the Survival Database Download section of this website. For this article – I have selected 10 that everyone should have either printed and put away, or placed on a USB drive – or better yet both.

So – let’s get to it:

#10. FM 4-25-11 First Aid (2002) - Military First Aid Manual.First aid information is a must – get training before you need it – use this manual for reference.

#9. Guide to Canning – Being able to preserve crops to be able to provide for yourself and your family long after the growing season is over is important. This guide will help with that.

#8. Rangers Handbook (2006) – Crammed with info on demolitions, booby traps, communications, patrolling, tactical movement, battle drills, combat intelligence and much more

#7. Where There is No Dentist - The author uses straightforward language and careful instructions to explain how to: examine patients; diagnose common dental problems; make and use dental equipment; use local anesthetics; place fillings; and remove teeth.

#6. NATO Emergency War Surgery – While this is certainly not a manual that would stand alone in most persons emergency/disaster library, it is an absolutely necessary resource if you expect to handle any type of trauma where immediate comprehensive medical care is not available.

#5. A Guide to Raised Bed Gardening – This is not an “all knowing” gardening book – however it provides a lot of information to the “urban gardener” before or after TSHTF. Best to get the experience and knowledge of gardening NOW rather than later.

#4. FM 3-06 Combined Arms Operations in Urban Terrain - Combat techniques covered in the manual which may be very valuable in a “Roadwarrior”-type world.

#3. 1881 Household Cyclopedia – A massive resource of information that much of it has been lost over the past 203 generations. From Angling to Knitting – its here.

#2. FM 21-76-1 Survival-Evasion-Recovery (1999) – Excellent manual geared towards the soldier that finds himself behind enemy lines

#1. FM 21-76 US Army Survival Manual - From Amazon.com: This manual has been written to help you acquire survival skills. It tells you how to travel, find water and food, shelter yourself from the weather and care for yourself if you become sick or injured. This information is first treated generally and then applied specifically to such special areas as the Arctic, the desert, the jungle and the ocean.1970 Military Issue Manual. General Introduction and Individual and Group Survival Orientation Navigation, Finding Water In All Parts of The Globe. How To Obtain Food, Start a Fire and much more!

Bugout cabin??

Well, there’s my list. Best of all – they are all 100% free. So, feel free to download them all.

Rourke

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Visit Modern Day Survival Online or subscribe to their RSS feed for daily updates.

Author: Contributing Author
Date: December 31st, 2010
Visit the Author's Website:
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Playing With Fire

by Detentus

Every year I read of at least two or three fires that destroyed homes, garages or barns in my area. All during the winter. And ALL preventable. Unfortunately I'll read of at least the same number this year:displaced families and in some cases, loss of life.

The main causes of these tragedies are too dry Christmas trees:left up for weeks before and after the holiday. Trees placed too close to heat sources like fireplaces and woodstoves or simply tossed outside too near the house, garage or barn. These trees should be either taken to a community collection center or have their branches removed and placed outside, like over the garden for mulch to be removed during spring.

Another cause of winter fires is the use of space heater, candles, and oil lamps: left unattended as the homowner retires for the night.
Make a nightly check to ensure that all heat sources like these and flammables are properly extinguished.
To read further and reply to this post follow the link below:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=372&t=7106&sid=575f7f567