November for the Pacific Northwest has pretty much been one of the worst months ever. From record rain, record snow and record cold, those of us in BC/Washington/Oregon have also endured two new phenomena in both water advisories and oh so fun hurricane winds that do not complement temperate rainforest living.
For those of you enjoying the balmy temperatures out east and perhaps the chance to bask in the glory of westcoast weather gone bad for a change, I urge a cautionary bit of advice.
About 7 weeks ago, I watched the city of Vancouver and GVRD (pop. 3 million) run out of water in about 2 hours. Record rainfall coninued to make the water undrinkable for 2 weeks until a cold snap hit and the rain became record snowfall - effectively shutting down the city and surrounding areas inclusive of massive power outages.
A few weeks later, the snow was replaced with more rain packaged into storms with hurricane strength winds. This past weekend, close to 2 million people were left without power along the coast, cars and houses smashed by uprooted trees and luckily only a handful of fatalities have been reported.
Due to the outages, Seattle is now struggling with a carbon monoxide poisoning epidemic -perhaps the largest in US history- as people try to heat their homes with bbqs while many others are practically living out of their vehicles as this is their only source of heat. Gas stations are closed due to power outages or lack of fuel and line ups can be hours long. Some guy was trying to sell gas at $25/gallon and only getting $15!
Our 'new weather', is causing massive disruptions of basic services the likes of which will be visited again and again in a post-peak society and from what I've experienced firsthand in these past few weeks, I am left with the sobering conclusion that North Americans are vastly unprepared.
JHK readers will of course be nodding their heads in recognition, however, I do not think that even Jim can envision what may truly lie ahead when North Americans in large urban centers do not have water, electricity and gasoline for an extended period of time.
In other words, picture Katrina on a continental scale with no national guard to save the day.
Unless politicians on both sides of the 49th start preparing the populace with open and honest dialogue re: conservation, preparation and mitigation strategies... I'm afraid we may face TOTAL CIVIL WAR
I think what you're afraid of could be better described as anarchy rather than civil war.
I agree that what has unfolded on the west coast has been a wake up call when it comes to emergency preparedness (the eastern blackout in 2003 revealed similar vulnerabilities), and I agree that if people were deprived of the necessities for a prolonged priod of time, then anarchy would result. People need to be far, far better prepared to face interruptions in the supply of basic necessities, whether due to natural disasters, blackouts, peak oil/gas, financial crisis etc. While one cannot plan for every continency, some basic planning is not very difficult or even very expensive and can make a big difference.
GAIA Host Collective
For those of you enjoying the balmy temperatures out east and perhaps the chance to bask in the glory of westcoast weather gone bad for a change, I urge a cautionary bit of advice.
About 7 weeks ago, I watched the city of Vancouver and GVRD (pop. 3 million) run out of water in about 2 hours. Record rainfall coninued to make the water undrinkable for 2 weeks until a cold snap hit and the rain became record snowfall - effectively shutting down the city and surrounding areas inclusive of massive power outages.
A few weeks later, the snow was replaced with more rain packaged into storms with hurricane strength winds. This past weekend, close to 2 million people were left without power along the coast, cars and houses smashed by uprooted trees and luckily only a handful of fatalities have been reported.
Due to the outages, Seattle is now struggling with a carbon monoxide poisoning epidemic -perhaps the largest in US history- as people try to heat their homes with bbqs while many others are practically living out of their vehicles as this is their only source of heat. Gas stations are closed due to power outages or lack of fuel and line ups can be hours long. Some guy was trying to sell gas at $25/gallon and only getting $15!
Our 'new weather', is causing massive disruptions of basic services the likes of which will be visited again and again in a post-peak society and from what I've experienced firsthand in these past few weeks, I am left with the sobering conclusion that North Americans are vastly unprepared.
JHK readers will of course be nodding their heads in recognition, however, I do not think that even Jim can envision what may truly lie ahead when North Americans in large urban centers do not have water, electricity and gasoline for an extended period of time.
In other words, picture Katrina on a continental scale with no national guard to save the day.
Unless politicians on both sides of the 49th start preparing the populace with open and honest dialogue re: conservation, preparation and mitigation strategies... I'm afraid we may face TOTAL CIVIL WAR
I agree that what has unfolded on the west coast has been a wake up call when it comes to emergency preparedness (the eastern blackout in 2003 revealed similar vulnerabilities), and I agree that if people were deprived of the necessities for a prolonged priod of time, then anarchy would result. People need to be far, far better prepared to face interruptions in the supply of basic necessities, whether due to natural disasters, blackouts, peak oil/gas, financial crisis etc. While one cannot plan for every continency, some basic planning is not very difficult or even very expensive and can make a big difference.