Los Angeles is prepping for a possible nuclear strike from North Korea. I'm not one of those paranoid types, but I might buy a few boxes of potassium iodide for myself & each one of my family members if I was living on the West Coast. It prevents radioactive fallout from entering the thyroid and causing thyroid cancer. The US govt stockpiles this stuff, but don't expect them to be handing it out in an emergency, and if you were down wind of a strike, they might not think to give it to you. Children are especially vulnerable to that risk in a nuclear event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_iodide#Nuclear_accidents
* Duck and cover 2.0: How North Korea is prompting new efforts to prepare for a nuclear attack - Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nuclear-attack-preparations-20170725-story.html (Backup link: https://archive.is/fWW2H )
It's one of the few preventative measures you can take, aside from building a fallout shelter or bunker like people did in the 50s & 60s. I had an ex-gf who's house had an old nuclear bunker from a previous occupant, and they just used it as an extra storage space.
A company called Anbex makes the only potassium iodide that the government uses and buys up for stockpiles. Potassium iodide is basically just potassium bound to an iodine molecule, and you could take it for general health if you were low on iodine for some reason. But, if you use a salt shaker like most people, you're probably getting enough iodine. (Always buy iodonized salt. There's no reason not too, and most multivitamins don't include iodine for that reason.)
You can pick up a box of Anbex iOSAT potassium iodide for only around $10 on Amazon. They have an expiration date of 2023: http://amzn.to/2uE9QhK
If you're a survivalist, you can keep them next to your Cipro supply for an anthrax attack, Atropine and pralidoxime chloride (2-PAM Cl) for a sarin gas attack, and Hydroxycobalamin for a cyanide poisoning. Sleep tight!
You can also view a map of how close you are to a nuclear power plant on the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website:
https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/
There is always the possibility of a Three mile island type incident, although we as a country really should be looking to nuclear power as an alternative to coal and fossil fuels. If we're going to try and ween ourselves off of gas burning cars, we need something to power the huge batteries in them, and not everyone can put solar panels on their roofs yet, like Elon Musk wants us to do. Although I am very intrigued by his "Powerwall" idea, which solar panels charging a large battery that basically takes you off the grid of needing to purchase electricity, and simply storing your own.
* Tesla Powerwall: the complete review - Energysage.com: http://www.energysage.com/solar/solar-energy-storage/tesla-powerwall-home-battery/
A case can be made for a new type of nuclear plant that uses what's known as a "pebble bed reactor" which uses graphite pebbles that pull much more energy from them than the old plutonium/uranium rods dipped in water method.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble-bed_reactor
Making Safe Nuclear Power from Thorium | Thomas Jam Pedersen | TEDxCopenhagen - https://youtu.be/tHO1ebNxhVI
The fight to rethink (and reinvent) nuclear power - https://youtu.be/poPLSgbSO6k
Anyway, you can read more about Anbex's iOSAT potassium iodide, including the dosage and so forth, here: http://www.anbex.com/potassium-iodide/
You might also consider buying a copy of "The U.S. Armed Forces Nuclear, Biological And Chemical Survival Manual" http://amzn.to/2jRu1W9
I would think would be available as a free military manual, like the famous FM (Field Manual) 21-76 US Army Survival Manual, which you can find available in PDF online for free, as it is public domain and I have made available for you here: https://mega.nz/#!j8UGgagL!HssXv0EIuo1SRMBjw-nTdQZZbyjkmDsC7q1qhwJpm50 2.5MB or the 1999 updated and revised edition FM 21-76-1: https://mega.nz/#!7w0zTRQZ!ieDM_iXPQ9Y55ku2nEfCiy6_oAhotza5Wvb3iGuHdsE 3MB. You can find a list of free manuals here:
* 100 Military Manuals You Can Download for Free - http://theantimedia.org/100-military-manuals-you-can-download-for-free/
However, I would recommend you buy a copy of FM 21-76, since assuming you would actually need to use it for it's intended 'survivalist' purposes, there would probably be no electricity for you to view a PDF copy.
* US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76 - Paperback $10.28 http://amzn.to/2xXcMJg
I also have a neat app on my Android phone (I don't see it in the iOS store, let me know if you find it, maybe under a different name) called Alert 5
Download link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.littlewildebeestsoftware.alert5.app&hl=en
Publisher link with description: http://www.littlewildebeestsoftware.com/home/alert-5
It will alert you to the following possible emergency scenarios:
** Solar flare, Geomagnetic Storms, X-Ray bursts, etc..
** Stock Market drops
** Disease Outbreaks
** Nuclear Incidents
You can also adjust it to how strong the threat level is. Solar flares happen often, so I had to set those to sever because it was alerting me so often. But, when it did alert me to a major one, I happened to notice it was in the news potentially affecting satellites orbiting the planet and could have temporarily knocked them out of commission.
The Red Cross also makes a very nice app for both Android & iPhone that has alerts for many, many natural disasters, I highly recommend everyone get this on their phone, as it will alert you to any potential situation that may arise based on anywhere you live in the US (I don't believe it works outside of North America).
* Redcross Emergency iOS/iPhone App: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/emergency-alerts-notifications/id954783878?mt=8
* Redcross Emergency Android App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cube.arc.hzd&hl=en
Types of advisories it warns you of:
- Hurricane Warnings
- Hurricane Watch
- Tropical Storm Warning
- Tropical Storm Watch
- High Wind Warning
- High Wind Watch
- Earthquake Warning
- Flash Flood Warning
- Flash Flood Watch
- Coastal Flood Warning
- Coastal Flood Watch
- Flood Warning
- Flood Watch
- Coastal Flood Advisory
- Flood Advisory
- Tornado Warning
- Tornado Watch
- Blizzard Warning
- Blizzard Watch
- Lake Effect Snow Warning
- Lake Effect Snow Watch
- Winter Storm Warning
- Winter Storm Watch
- Winter Weather Advisory
- Snow Advisory
- Tsunami Warning
- Tsunami Watch
- Tsunami Advisory
- Fire Weather Watch
- Red Flag Warning
- Dense Smoke Advisory
- Severe Thunderstorm Warning
- Severe Thunderstorm Watch
- Excessive Heat Warning
- Excessive Heat Watch
- Heat Advsory
- Ashfall Warning (ash from a Volcano)
- Volcano Warning
- Ashfall Warning
- Air Quality Alert
- Hazardous Materials warning
- Evacuation Immediate
- Shelter In Place Warning
- Wind Advisory
- Red Cross Notifications
Both these apps are completely free and not very large, so it's a must have for anyone with a smart phone!
I also recommend you sign up to Twitter if you're not a user already and sign up for notification alerts from the following US governmental agencies:
* American Red Cross: https://twitter.com/redcross/alerts
* Centers for Disease Control: https://twitter.com/CDCemergency/alerts
* Federal Amergency Management Agency: https://twitter.com/fema/alerts
* US Geological Survey: https://twitter.com/usgs/alerts
* National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: https://twitter.com/noaa/alerts
* Ready.gov: https://twitter.com/readygov/alerts
* Travel.gov - US Dept. of State Travel Alerts: https://twitter.com/travelgov/alerts
These are different from actual tweets and send you push notifications of emergency situations that might be occurring in your region or nationwide. You can also find out what FEMA region you're in and follow their Twitter account: https://www.fema.gov/fema-regional-contacts
For example, I'm in Texas, so I follow FEMA Region 6 @FEMARegion6 on Twitter. Each FEMA Region has their own alerts as well. Unfortunately, Twitter took down their list of participating groups in their alerts page, but there is a backup copy on the Wayback Machine. But, you'll have to manually copy and paste the links and strip off the archive.org link to the Twitter page.
* Twitter Alerts: Participating organizations - https://web.archive.org/web/20140713114013/https://about.twitter.com/products/alerts/participating-organizations
* Twitter Support: Using Alerts - https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170444
If you have anything you'd like to add to this, feel free to contact me on Twitter @pogue25 or leave it in the comments below. Thanks for reading and feel free to share this with friends and family!
