I don’t live near any Volcanos, should I prep for them anyway? The short answer is absolutely! The thing is, when a volcano erupts, it effects more than just the local environment. In today’s post, we are going to take a closer look at this question and what we should do about prepping for one. Sit back grab a drink and let’s get started.
First off, there are many types of volcanos and each one presents its own set of challenges. The Caldera Volcano is probably the one that most of us are used to hearing about. These are the ones like Mount St. Helen, in Washington state. While they do not erupt often, when they do, they can throw millions of tons of sediment into the upper atmosphere and the winds can carry it far and wide from the actual volcano itself. While you may not live close to it, it can still affect you and your family profoundly. It can cause ash to rain down on you and your family, as well as affect the weather around it. Volcano ash is basically ground glass and rocks that can be very abrasive and even cause death if inhaled in large quantities. It can get into rivers and lakes and form mud flows that have been known to take out bridges, houses and forest, as a result of the flowing mud.
There are also Super Volcanos such as the Yellowstone Volcano. This thing is huge and harbors tremendous destructive power. In the past it has erupted and spread ash as far as Alabama and Northern Florida, according to some scientist. While it has been dormant for a long time, these catastrophic eruptions occur at Yellowstone approximately every 600,000 to 800,000 years. In fact, two of those eruptions are believed to be the largest that have ever occurred anywhere on earth. The amount of destruction that an eruption of that magnitude could do would boggle the mind and is definitely something that should be considered when planning for large disasters in your preps. These can alter weather patterns all around the world and have been known to cause temperatures in the US to remain abnormally low for a year or more. In fact, evidence suggests that the year of 1816 (also known as “the winter without a summer” here in America) was caused by an eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies. The effects of this eruption were felt all around the globe and no one was immune to it no matter where they live. This same thing could happen again if the Yellowstone Super Volcano was to erupt. If you live in North America, you would be seriously screwed if you did not take this into account, when building your preps.
Planning for the worst and praying for the best is a pretty much a way of life for most of us and this is no exception. So what should you expect and what should you prep for one of these types of disasters? That is a really good question and I will do my best to answer it for you.
The first thing on this list should be particle mask…Lots of them! When volcanic ash is inhaled into your lungs, it mixes with the moisture there and turns into a cement like substance and can cause a form of pneumonia that can make you very sick and in some cases it can even kill you. This is why it is so important to wear a particle mask, eye protection (goggles) and a long sleeve shirt and pants anytime you go outside if there is ash falling. You will also want to keep all windows and doors closed and sealed with duct tape when possible to keep the finer dust particles from it out of your home. Turn off your air conditioner and heating units as they too will clog up quickly from the ash. The next thing is to have plenty of water on hand. You see these particles will get into the air intakes on combustion engines’ and cause them to stop working. What does this have to do with water? It’s simple, you see if the power were to go out, many plants have backup generators so they can continue water service, however in this case, those generators would not run very long before they were clogged and unusable. This means no backup power to keep your water flowing and thus, no water. Keep lots of water on hand at all times for any emergency that might shut down the power grid just to be safe. The next thing I would be concerned about is if you live in a low-lying area as you could run into flooding caused by large amounts of falling ash. Something else to consider is that ash is very small ground rock so any accumulations of it on the roof of your home or out buildings should be kept clean because it won’t take much to add up to a tremendous amount of weight and this could prove to be disastrous to your roof if not removed. Remember to bring in all animals from out in the open to protect them as well.
Well, I guess that is about it for today and I hope I have given you something new to think about and maybe even a few ways that you can be prepared for whatever may come. Just as a side note, there is a Russian General that has stated publicly that if they were to attack the US, one of the first things they would do is to detonate a nuclear device at the Yellowstone Super Volcano in an attempt to cause a massive eruption. Now to answer the original question of “I don’t live near any Volcanos, should I prep for them anyway?” and the answer is a resounding YES! No matter where you may live, you can always be effected by Volcanos even if they are thousands of miles away. Until next time, just remember that prepping is a direction of travel and not a destination!
PS
There is a great movie that I really enjoyed called: Dante’s Peak that might illustrate some of the things we discussed above and the dangers that Volcanos present.
-The Sargent-
