Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ~ George Orwell
I was recently doing some research about the aftermath of some natural disasters that took place here in America. I was shocked to find that the articles I was looking for – ones that I had read in the past – were pretty hard to find, but articles refuting the sought-for pieces were rampant. Not just one event, but every single crisis aftermath that I looked up, had articles that were written after the fact stating in no uncertain terms that the hunger, chaos, and unrest never happened.
Apparently we, the preparedness community, are all wrong when it comes to the belief that after a disaster, chaos erupts and civic disorder is the rule of the day.
According to “experts” it never happens.
Panic? What panic?
According to newspaper articles written after Superstorm Sandy devastated the East Coast and after Hurricane Katrina caused countless billions in damage in New Orleans, people were calm, benevolent and peaceful. Heck, they were all standing around singing Kumbayah around a campfire, sharing their canned goods, calming frightened puppies, and helping the elderly.
Apparently studies prove that the fear of anarchy, lawlessness, and chaos is nothing but the “disaster myth”. Reams of examples exist of the goodness and warmth of society as a whole after disaster strikes. All the stories you read at the time were just that – stories, according to the mainstream media:
Yet there are a few examples stubbornly fixed in the popular imagination of people reacting to a natural disaster by becoming primal and vicious. Remember the gangs “marauding” through New Orleans, raping and even cannibalizing people in the Super-Dome after Hurricane Katrina? It turns out they didn’t exist. Years of journalistic investigations showed them to be racist fantasies. They didn’t happen. Yes, there was some “looting” — which consisted of starving people breaking into closed and abandoned shops for food. Of course human beings can behave atrociously – but the aftermath of a disaster seems to be the time when it is least likely. (source)
The Disaster Myth
The Disaster Myth is a narrative created by the establishment and delivered by their stoolies in the mainstream media. The Disaster Myth points fingers at many of the things that are commonly believed to be true by the preparedness community. Included in this narrative:
- People do not panic after a disaster – instead, they pull together.
- The official government response is always speedy and appropriate.
- You will be taken care of if you simply comply peacefully with authorities.
- There is little increase in post-disaster crime.
Looting? Only hungry people getting food from unmanned stores. Who wouldn’t do that?
Beatings and assaults? Didn’t happen. Disturbed people made these stories up for attention.
Gang rapes? No way. You watch too much Law and Order: SVU.
Murder, mayhem, and gangs of youth on the streets? Silly readers – we just made that up.
However, these statements all stand in direct opposition to the stories we hear from news sources during the crisis.
Remember this?
We heard terrible stories from eyewitnesses who suffered from hunger, thirst, and unsanitary condition in the Superdome after Katrina. We heard about citizens being robbed of their 2nd Amendment rights by police after the crisis, and we heard about gang rapes, looting, and mayhem.
Fast forward to Sandy where people were defecating in the hallways of their high rise apartments and digging through garbage to find food just a few days after the storm. As for the official response, who can forget the FEMA shelter that closed because of inclement weather? Of course, the weather was inclement – it was a freaking weather-related disaster!
Here’s how bad it got.
Mac Slavo of SHTFplan wrote of the unrest, discomfort, and mayhem after Superstorm Sandy ransacked the East Coast:
For tens of thousands of east coast residents that worst case scenario is now playing out in real-time. No longer are images of starving people waiting for government handouts restricted to just the third-world.
In the midst of crisis, once civilized societies will very rapidly descend into chaos when essential infrastructure systems collapse.
Though the National Guard was deployed before the storm even hit, there is simply no way for the government to coordinate a response requiring millions of servings of food, water and medical supplies
Many east coast residents who failed to evacuate or prepare reserve supplies ahead of the storm are being forced to fend for themselves.
Frustration and anger have taken hold, as residents have no means of acquiring food or gas and thousands of trucks across the region remain stuck in limbo.
Limited electricity has made it possible for some to share their experiences:
Via Twitter:
- I was in chaos tonite tryin to get groceries…lines for shuttle buses, only to get to the no food left & closing early (link)
- I’m not sure what has shocked me more, all the communities around me destroyed, or the 5 hour lines for gas and food. (link)
- Haven’t slept or ate well in a few days. Hope things start getting better around here soon (link no longer available)
- These days a lot of people are impatient because they’re used to fast things. Fast food, fast internet, fast lines and fast shipping etc. (link)
- Glad Obama is off to Vegas after his 90 minute visit. Gas lines are miles long.. Running out of food and water. Great Job (link)
- Went to the Grocery store and lines were crazy but nail salon was empty so I’ve got a new gel manicure and some Korean junk food (link)
- So f*cking devastated right now. Smell burning houses. People fighting for food. Pitch darkness. I may spend the night in rockaway to help (link)
At the time of the event, even the mainstream reported on the affluent East Side residents dumpster diving in search of food. Was this NBC report, complete with video, a work of salacious fiction?
As far as civil unrest is concerned, the “Twittersphere” was jammed with people planning looting sprees in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Those who were already of criminal leanings saw the disaster as a great opportunity. In the great North American Edit, however, these tweets are said to be part of the myth – apparently they were just kids playing around. Some reports pooh-poohed the very idea that looters had run amok.
This article from Prison Planet refutes all of the refuting and says that the civil unrest DID occur and that it generally does, given evidence from past events.
Legends from the past? Every single extreme weather event in recent years in the United States has been followed by looting.
As MSNBC reported at the time, looting during Hurricane Katrina was so prevalent that it “took place in full view of police and National Guard troops.”
Residents described the scenes as being like “downtown Baghdad” as looters filled garbage cans full of stolen goods and floated them down flooded streets.
As Forbes’ Erik Kain points out, “looting and rioting…occur after most natural disasters,” including after Hurricane Irene as well as Hurricane Isaac.
Looters also targeted victims of the Colorado wildfires earlier this year.
But again and again, we’re told that none of it happened.
Here’s a sampling of articles and studies supporting the Disaster Myth Narrative:
- http://ann.sagepub.com
- http://voices.yahoo.com
- http://articles.washingtonpost.com
- http://www.slate.com
- http://www.minnpost.com
- http://nextcity.org
- http://dspace.udel.edu
Does this sound familiar?
This revision of inconvenient history will sound quite familiar to anyone who has read George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984 (which was not meant to be an instruction manual, by the way.)
In the novel, the main character, Winston Smith, worked for the Ministry of Truth, which was actually a department of propaganda whose job it was to rewrite any faction of history that did not make the government look omniscient.
In George Orwell‘s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Ministry of Truth is Oceania‘s propaganda ministry. It is responsible for any necessary falsification of historical events. The word truth in the title Ministry of Truth should warn, by definition, that the “minister” will self-serve its own “truth”; the title implies the willful fooling of posterity using “historical” archives to show “in fact” what “really” happened. As well as administering truth, the ministry spreads a new language amongst the populace called Newspeak, in which, for example, truth is understood to mean statements like 2 + 2 = 5 when the situation warrants.
The Ministry of Truth is involved with news media, entertainment, the fine arts and educational books. Its purpose is to rewrite history to change the facts to fit Party doctrine for propaganda effect. For example, if Big Brother makes a prediction that turns out to be wrong, the employees of the Ministry of Truth go back and rewrite the prediction so that any prediction Big Brother previously made is accurate. This is the “how” of the Ministry of Truth’s existence. Within the novel, Orwell elaborates that the deeper reason for its existence is to maintain the illusion that the Party is absolute. It cannot ever seem to change its mind (if, for instance, they perform one of their constant changes regarding enemies during war) or make a mistake (firing an official or making a grossly misjudged supply prediction), for that would imply weakness and to maintain power the Party must seem eternally right and strong. (source)
But….WHY????
So why the vast effort to expunge tales of mayhem and to make it seem like our own national disasters really weren’t that bad? Why does the government and the media want us to think everything is just fine?
I can think of no other reason than their own irrelevance.
Remember when the Cajun Navy began rescuing people from floods and they ran into all sorts of legal issues? The did a better and more efficient job than officials and the people “in charge” just wouldn’t have it.
If you don’t NEED them, then there is no leverage to force you into compliance. You don’t NEED to go to Camp FEMA in order to have 3 squares a day. You don’t NEED to give up your guns in order to have a roof over your head and government-supplied security. You don’t NEED to get some kind of chip implanted in your arm to be scanned in order to receive “benefits” like medical care, food, and even money.
Self-sufficiency means freedom. When you can feed yourself, clothe yourself, shelter yourself, and protect yourself, you are far less likely to need to cede your freedoms in order to stay alive. And in a nation governed by those who are frantically trying to withdraw our constitutional rights, this just won’t do. They need leverage.
So the establishment has created a narrative that tells us what we are doing is silly and unnecessary.
They are rewriting history (and not just about disasters) even though we only lived that history in the past decade. Even though we know the truth of the matter because we watched it live, they are changing the facts to make us doubt our own perceptions.
To give credit where it’s due, the current head of FEMA seems to be doing things a little differently. But don’t expect the media and Congress to follow suit.
But we know the civil unrest is really occurring.
If this civil unrest is not occurring, why is the National Guard called to keep the peace? Why are state police riding around on tanks wearing body armor? Why were the guns of law-abiding citizens taken away in the aftermath of Katrina?
My family and I have opted to be prepared with food, water, a self-defense strategy, and home security. We believe that when bad things happen, worse things often follow before order is restored. We won’t be lining up to get an MRE and a bottle of water to share amongst us. We won’t require a cot at Camp FEMA. We won’t need to give up our firearms in order to get our next meal.
Which reality are you going to believe?
Are you going to believe the one that you witnessed or the perverted rewrite that the mainstream media is trying to push upon you?
Let me know your thoughts about this in the comments below.
Daisy, I don’t want to disappoint you, but it was worse than that.
Police officers were ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING in the looting of stores during Katrina.
Take a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmQW6xLECUU
NOPD, et.al. were never known for being the most honest police force around.
Must be a Louisiana thing.
Yes I grew up there.
the person who posted above, im sorry, you didt get the point. YOU have no idea waht is coming. sheep, so many sheep, not enough time. Me, i come from the forefathers blood. seriously. There are things going on many have NO idea of. YES the police??? were looting, well, doing what they wanted. Point is, we dont need no government, to “help” us, with those kind of “friends” who needs enemies. Too many panty waste dependent people, cant take care of yourselves, afraid all the time, afraid to die, un uninformed, the person who [posted above, get RE uducated, the IS an “event coming, and your LATE, too late now. There is not enough time for you to learn, that is evident by your comment, sorry folks, well, no im not. becuase most of you cant see whats happenning righy before your eyes, ya stick ur heads inh the sand. and are cowards, naany stated raised babies. and i dont care if i misspeelllled a word, i am in a hurry. Thanx daisy, dont waste ur time on um.
To anon – Your rant makes no sense. I beleive the person above you was agreeing with Daisy and pointing out that it was actually worse. There was not denail in his response. But I am sure your rant felt good to yourself also.
Great Article Daisy! What I would like to see is some accounts of preppers who survived these or other disasters. How they coped, observations and what they would do differently next time. The memory of Katrina that stands out the most is a woman standing on the corner of an underwater street screaming for President Bush to help them. I thought to my self at the time “ummm… the government did try to help you, the NWS told you four days ago to get the hell out of the way!”
Also, don’t forget the mess hospitals were in. No power, no drugs, no water, no supplies like glove gowns and masks. Many were made sick just from the conditions let alone the injuries they suffered. Peace Clay
I don’t know exactly what post-disaster sources you were looking for and not finding, but I didn’t have any difficulty finding articles from Katrina about man’s inhumanity to man during a natural disaster. I simply googled “was there looting after hurricane Katrina”, and a large number of articles popped up.
I clicked on the first one. From an article dated 8/30/05, the mainstream media represented by NBCnews.com allowed this quote to make it into their article:
“Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold.
“To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it’s an opportunity to get back at society,” he said.”
The next article in line was from propublica.org, dated August 24, 2010. The focus of the article was whether or not an order was formally issued to police to shoot looters in New Orleans. I picked out this quote:
Defense attorneys representing two of the officers charged in the shooting of six civilians at the Danziger Bridge said their defenses will largely center on the contention that the shootings were justified — that officers believed they were under fire.
“They weren’t shooting looters. They were shooting at people who they thought were shooting at them,” said Lindsay Larson III, one of the attorneys representing former officer Robert Faulcon.”
A blog on HuffPost dated 10/31/12 and wondering whether what happened during Katrina would happen in the northeast after Sandy, had this to say:
“The collective sentiment of the looters at the time appeared to be all that stuff was up for grabs because of the emergency. Sociologists call this a breakdown in the social order.”
While I agree that the revisionist mythos exists (see the Wikipedia article on Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, which wasn’t on your further reading list, for example), I think everyone reading this knows it’s false in the first place. If there’s any doubt that human nature has its dark side, one doesn’t need to look at articles on the social breakdown during natural disasters; one only need look at the year’s hottest toy for the holidays. Every Christmas season there are media reports of people being trampled by impatient mobs to enter the store on Black Friday; fist fights over the last toy on the shelf; and scalpers selling the item for ten times it’s list price.
While I certainly agree that its common sense to consider the possibility of a natural (or not-so-natural) disaster and to be prepared with adequate provisions and protection, it’s unfortunate that the sarcastic, defensive tenor of this post wasn’t revised itself during editing. Yes, I know it’s hard to be objective when you see injustice done. But it doesn’t lend credence to your point when you can’t contain your disdain.
Careful Daisy, someone is likely to accuse you of not only “investigative journalism and connecting the dots”, but a “capable and articulate author”. There goes your chances with the “state run media”.
So what happened in Argentina in the last financial meltdown? I think this article is a little naive
If I remember correctly, things were really bad in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in Florida.
While I am sorry that so many people lost their homes, and didn’t have “help” from Hurricane/super storm Sandy, these people did not have any common sense, either. I am not being callous. The main part of the storm hit the Jersey Shore and affected large areas inland as well, myself included. Most of the Jersey Shore, in essence, is a sand bar. There have been big changes along the shore. When I was young, many families (not mine) vacationed “down the shore” in tar papered shacks. Today, Condos and houses are built closer and closer to the beach, and therefore the water. It was considered a good investment to purchase a vacation home, especially to rent. It was not unusual during choppy seas that waves would crash over the jetty to the cars driving down route 36. In some part of this road, it is the only way in and out. Those who lived there knew this. If you build your house on sand, it will not stand. We took a trip in the spring to the area. Unsurprisingly, they are all rebuilding.
Through our education system and mass media, most people will not do for themselves. They would rather have someone else do it for them. For one who has been “ridiculed” by others for my DIY/saving money/frugal lifestyle attitude, I have come to understand their position. Many have an entitlement attitude despite the fact that they have no basis for it. Most would rather be entertained than work at a skill with a challenging learning curve. Most do not understand that reduction of expenditures is the same as cash. Most do not know what delayed gratification is. Most do not understand that making and doing improves health both mentally and physically. It is their loss.
Unfortunately, these same people will say, “Why should **you** have XYZ when I don’t!” Some will up act upon their attitude.
This also means that one must keep these parasites in mind when thinking of the future.
I was fortunate that the worst of Sandy missed my area. However, the storm did cause disruptions in gasoline supplies. This would not have been a big problem if not for widespread economic ignorance — specifically, about the necessity of market prices for actual *economizing* to take place, especially during times of crisis.
State government in NY and NJ imposed price controls on gasoline in the form of “price gouging” laws. Thus, the demand for a dwindling supply of gasoline was never tempered by rising prices. People actually purchased more than usual, at artificially low prices, topping off and filling up plastic containers to carry home with them.
Predictably, this resulted in gas shortages. Many stations just closed. The ones that remained open were host to long, snaking lines of cars. People waited for hours, often only to be turned away because there was no more gas. Time was wasted, tempers flared, fights erupted.
This went on for two or three weeks. Rather than lift the price controls, government doubled down, promising severe punishment for any station owner who raised prices.
Having prevented rationing by price, government implemented coercive rationing in the form of an “odd-even” scheme. Police officers were dispatched to enforce the rationing and discourage fighting among customers.
For me, this was an eye-opening experience. I realized how quickly “civilization” could grind to a halt, and how the “authorities,” ignorant and driven only by the lust for power and prestige for themselves, would act to make a bad situation much worse.
In my area, in the aftermath of Hurricane/super storm Sandy, there were gas lines, but everything was relatively peaceful. We had enough fuel to drive to an area even further away to get more fuel as a back up as we were not certain when the electric was going to be turned on; we learned out lesson and this will not happen again. Electric was out for two weeks, and for the few, even more. While certainly not everyone, it is not unusual in my area for people to have generators. The guy across the street ran his gasoline generator non stop. Our guess it was to watch TV-as it was flickering through the front window. It was expensive entertainment. Freezers and refrigerators only need 4 hrs per day, especially if the outside temperatures are colder.
There was enough warning for people to get enough gasoline/diesel before the storm hit. There was enough time to get enough food as well; the stores in my area were not sold out. There are many meals that do not need to be heated or refrigerated. While Staten Island took a bit hit, and I know of some poor fellow who drowned in his basement, there was enough time to prepare for provisions. There are a number of people I know who survived, by choice, without electric or heat. Several used the showers at their gym memberships, taking a chance on the gym having electric.
In the 1970’s there was as rationing every-other-day/odd even license plate numbers. It caused long lines, and it was a royal pain, but I do not remember flaring tempers, although I am sure if someone did enough research it would be found. Then again, in those days, gas stations were not open 24/7 and if you wanted to travel at night or first thing in the early morning, you had your tank filled before closing.
I understood the gas shortages were due closing NY Harbor. The waters are treacherous around there, and I was told that the buoys were removed due to the storm surge. Ships were unable to navigate the waters/harbor without them. I could be in error.
With due respect, “Price gouging,” people buying what others do not think they need (hoarding?), and other accusations that get thrown around during times of crisis is, quite frankly, a waste of time and energy for me. Price gouging and stock piling was used and criticized in the South during the Civil War/War between the States. It was also used during the blizzard of 1880-1881 in South Dakota area, and my guess just about everywhere the haves have and those who don’t do not. It is best to prepare my “ship” for “rough seas ahead” than find oneself adrift, ill prepared, and in a crisis.
As an aside, when a business person looks ahead and buys products that are needed in the future to sell and make a profit, it is considered good business practice. When someone saves something they think they might need in the future, to use or sell, and another person thinks they don’t need it, it is usually considered “hoarding,” an incorrect use of the word.
Re: Sandy…in my part of brooklyn, 20ft from Sheepshead Bay, we didn’t get electricity back for almost four weeks…longer for those houses which had electrical systems located in the basement. There were waiting lists on getting the supplies needed to replace fried meter boxes. Many homes didn’t have electricity by Christmas.
I was the only prepper on my block besides a little polish woman who didn’t call herself a prepper but it was her habit to have much put away. Between the two of us, my year’s worth of food fed almost 200 people on my block (we were a tight knit block…think seaseme street), including about 30 children under 12, fed for the five weeks it took before the money and gas came back. The one grocery store, and a couple of mom-n-pop bodegas were in business at three weeks but only on a cash basis. There was no gas to go to the closest working ATM miles inland, and the stores couldn’t take debit. The one bodega on our block was taking IOUs from the long time residents, bless them.
And don’t tell me there were no looters. There were packs of looters, mostly traveling up from coney island. We had a brigade of men with bats and shovels and what all at either end of our block to keep them from coming down to us and stealing our two generators which were running our two pumps which were systematically pumping dry every house on the block. And fron syphoning the gas out of the flooded cars on our street (of course, we had already done that but they were our cars). They hit up the “rich” neighborhood across the marina. Rockaway was absolutely lawless.
Why didn’t we evacuate? Because there was ONE 300 bed shelter for brooklyn (a second was for elderly and special needs only) that couldn’t be reached by train from our neighborhood. We saw the first FEMA representative the weekend before thanksgiving. He used my house as a warming station during the week. We fed him at our communal meals and gave him blankets to take back to the shelter where he and the other reps were staying, to keep warm because, per their instructions, they showed up with a change of clothes only to be given a bare cot and 3 days of MREs.
By and large, we did MUCH better NOT evacuating. But I don’t live in Brookyn anymore. Afterwards our block was not the same and even now, 70% of the stores and shopping streets are still closed down. There are apartment houses that landlords still have not renovated so our neighbors moved. I moved in the spring because that taught me that no, an urban area–especially one on an island–is NOT the place to be come SHTF.
Great article!
Hurrican Ivan was a major catastrophe in the Baldwin County area, but didn’t get much publicity because it’s not as popular an area as New Orleans, and therefore the public is not as interested (or such is the media’s approach.) My family was without power for a month. Gas rose to over $5 a gallon before the police cracked down on price gouging. You had to get in line at 4am and wait till they opened at 7am, then you still might not get gas before they ran out. There was a 10 gallon limit so you had to go multiple times. My family lived in the woods and I was away at college. I had to bring them gas and chain saws to cut themselves out of the woods, where so many trees had fallen that they couldn’t get out. Fortunately my dad was prepared and had plenty of food and water, along with propane and other necessary supplies, to survive the situation. None of this was ever put into any news stories I saw.
Back in 1993 a freak late winter storm dropped over 3 feet of snow in Alabama where there normally is NO snow. Consequently there is no road clearing or salting equipment per se. The evening weather shows tracked the storms all the way from Texas into Alabama, but no one bothered to get prepared because they failed to grasp the seriousness. The power went off for three full days. ALL secondary roads were impassable and main roads were accessible by emergency and off road vehicles. Listening to our battery powered radio the airways were filled with people fearful because they had no medicine or sometimes O2 and no way to obtain more! Many had no food and no heat. Schedules were made to pick up nurses to carry them to hospitals to work and relieve those trapped by the storm. We made it using an old propane camp stove, our gas grill and we heated our den using the gas fed log lighter inside the fireplace. We had no wood but sheets over all the doorways allowed the room to be passably warm. Now we live our in a rural area and are retired, but we now have a propane powered generator for power outages. We were prepared for the worst after the Zimmerman trial. You never know where the next problem will arise.
I had to drive through that storm from SC home to MS. I stopped at a gas station in Atlanta on I20 and stood there for hours talking to people coming off the highway from Birmingham. The 150 miles from Birmingham to Atlanta was basically a parking lot. Most vehicles were stranded. I called a friend in Montgomery and asked about the roads there. He said they were passable. So I went down I85 to Montgomery. Got a hotel on the way and drove home the next morning. If I haden’t stopped in that gas station and talked to drivers about road conditions, learning about situational awareness, I would have been trapped.
I usually agree with you 100% — and am not disagreeing this time, exactly. But ….
I have been doing research on the subject. What is interesting is that usually the “we won’t tell them because they’ll panic” line, is used to justify withholding the truth of industrial-caused disasters. Studies have been done more recently that suggest people don’t panic … where they are challenging the paradigm of the panic myth as an EXCUSE. So for example, we are told by the white house that fukushima won’t affect US, and then the first family goes off to Brasil for two weeks. So in this sense, we SHOULD have been told to stay indoors, duct tape our windows … but we weren’t because we might “panic.”
On the other hand, people HAVE behaved VERY BADLY in the days following recent disasters in the US … but I would argue that this is not panic … it is opportunistic predation on those who expected help. Katrina is an excellent case in point, but the real panic they experienced was because they were lured to an isolated location where they had to depend on others to care for them, and the powers to be had no intent of helping the poor and black (sad, but absolutely true). So I would argue here that your point, being prepared to help yourself, is VERY solid. But for different reasons.
I had the pleasure of living in Alaska for a few years. People still tell stories in Anchorage of the 1964 good friday earthquake. JC Penneys operated under a fancy tent for THREE years afterwards, and people DID help their neighbors. Is it the times that have changed? I fear so. In particular, I fear that so many people are unprepared because they are poor, and have been so beaten down, that they have stopped maintaining that fragile veil of civility we all once carried. But I would argue that it is not panic, but avarice, i.e. selfishness and greed, rather than panic, that results in people victimizing others.
High River and parts of Calgary Alberta were flooded in June 2013.
A big mess. Communications in High River were ‘out’ and Amateur radio (FARS – Foothills amateur radio) stepped in to fill the void.
https://wp.rac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/VinceDeon_High-River-Floods_SO2013TCA.pdf
“CanTF2 provided an Incident Management Team (IMT) to the Emergency Operations Centre for over three weeks to assist in supporting the local Command staff with Operations, Logistics, Planning, and Human Impact Services”
http://www.cantf2.com/high-river-flood
RCMP broke into High River homes that had been locked and left by their owners after they were ordered to evacuate.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/high-river-residents-paid-2-3m-for-controversial-rcmp-home-and-gun-sweeps-during-2013-flood
I realize the extent of this incident was small compared to some of the floods in the US.
It’s never small when it happens in your area.
Why do people forget about Katrina and MS? Some coastal towns were just rubble. Everything south of the barrier of I-10 in Gulfport and Biloxi was destroyed. All the casino barges were on the beach or inland.
Creepy as s**t! I think I shall depend upon the evidence of my own eyes and ears in the event of a disaster as much as possible.
Great article Daisy! This is one of the reasons that I collect primary source books and documents. Virtually every “modern day” publication regarding historical events are written by revisionist “historians.” I much prefer to learn from those that were there, and have taught my children to do the same.
The truth is most white controlled areas or with lots of orientals will be the least likely to fall apart and become looted and bedlam of anarchy.
If you don’t want to be a victim stick to these areas and be nice. You’ll get all the help you need.
Daisy you are Awesome keep up the Great Work! We have a Semi-1984 Deep State Globalist Propaganda/News Machine that LIES 24/7/365. Think about The Weather Control, Mind Control, Behavior Modification – White is Black, Left is Right, Up is Down, etc. – an Ever Growing Surveillance State that will be Modeled after China’s Social Credit System & Normal Values & Morals are being Morphed into Satanic, Sexual, Pedophilia, Gang-Rape & Mutilation of Girls & Women & with the “Growing”(LIES)Transgenders & Robots – Women will be Made Property, Irrelevant, Obsolete or even Illegal. Even if a Person doesn’t Believe in Jesus or God – NOW would be a Good Time to Try because We are All going to Need SuperNatural Miracles from GOD to Survive in this World. I don’t Worry anymore – I Prep, Plan, Pray & When the Time comes I Won’t Turn the Other Cheek I will become a Crusader to Protect My Family & I Will wear the Cross & Ask for GOD’s Blessings & Protection. Blessing to you & All of US.
Daisy,
You correctly answered your own query re why does the MSM promote this “no panic or bad behavior in disasters”narrative? Because they don’t want to encourage anyone to be prepared and self reliant.
There illustrates an even bigger point. “Whatever the MSM tells you is A LIE, or such a distortion of the truth that it’s totally deceptive!”
To paraphrase the old Lawyer Joke…..
How do you know when CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Fox, et al are lying to you…..?
WHEN THEY’RE BROADCASTING.
Daisy,
I was in New Jersey during Super Storm Sandy AND spent two days at a shelter, I was one of the HAM radio operators and did some medical treatment on those in the shelter until the response teams from PA arrived to help out. People were doing every thing you saw on TV. And a day after I was relieved on my duties and had replacements, I and my wife had went to Joint Base McGuire-Dix to the post exchange. While there we saw several (like 6 ) FEMA folks. They had the brown uniforms with the big “FEMA” letters on the back of their shirts. At the checkout I was behind two of them, they were not getting food or anything like that. They were getting clothes for their grandkids or other family members that said Joint Base Dix or whatever. BUT what really pissed me off was they got mad when the cashier told them they could not buy alcohol and cigarettes. They were allowed under law to use the Post Exchange when they were activated but were limited on what they could buy. So this was like 4 days AFTER the storm hit and they were out buying crap for themselves not doing ANYTHING for the people that needed help. So do not depend on FEMA or any other “letter” agency from the government to help. I now no longer live in that socialist State, but I am in East Tennessee in the land of the free… DM out
Good article.
if you want an example of internet censoring and purging – there’s no better example than Katrina – especially in regard to NOLA and the whole SuperDome disaster – if it wasn’t for the remaining “Bash Bush” articles you’d think it was a freaking picnic ….
My name is Jim Jelinski.
I live on the north shore of Bay Saint Louis in Mississippi, just north across the small Bay from the towns of Bay Saint Louis and Waveland, MS, which was ‘Ground Zero’ for hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The Friday before the storm, the prediction changed from “Class 2, going ashore east of Pensacola, FL” (in other words, “No Threat”) to “Turning west and rapidly strengthening” (in other words, “GET READY, HEADED THIS WAY!”) so we started getting ready. We worked all evening on Friday, then all day on Saturday, then all day Sunday, leaving town Sunday night as the Class 5 storm was bearing down on us.
The eastern eye wall (the strongest part of the storm) came across Waveland, Bay Saint Louis, and my neighborhood on Monday morning. Due to the path of the storm, the strongest winds -blowing the water onto the shore- remained over our area for approximately 4 hours.
We stayed away on Monday and Tuesday, until the weather moderated at the place where we had evacuated to.
Not knowing what we would be returning to, we bought what supplies we thought we needed and returned home Wednesday evening, arriving at dusk for a first look around.
The place was wrecked! BUT…. the House was still Standing!
We had had 14-feet of muddy salt water in our yard. My house, raised 10-feet above the ground, had had 4 ft of water in it, and everything below that level….all the furniture, appliances, cabinets, sheetrock, carpets, and about 2/5 of the floor was…. gone.
I believe that my house was the southernmost house in my neighborhood to survive the storm. In the immediate neighborhood, we had about 250 houses destroyed and washed away with only the slabs remaining. I at least had a basic structure, and a roof.
We had an upstairs (up inside the roof) that was relatively undamaged.
The storm hit on -I think it was 28 August 2005.
One figures out real quick that Water is a necessity, Electricity is a convenience.
We carried water from what had been the neighborhood water pump and well, that turned out to be an artesian (flowing) well, for the first couple of weeks, then the water company barricaded the well to keep people out. After that we hauled water from where it was available a couple of miles away until the water company got the water going on our street on Christmas Eve.
I cleaned and repaired my generator-welder and used it for electricity as needed until the power company installed new poles, rebuilt the lines and restored power on my street on about 15 November.
The scale of the disaster was HUGE…. the power was out from New Orleans to somewhere around Mobile, AL, and from the Gulf Coast up to Jackson, MS.
The disaster recovery in Mississippi was very well done.
The night after we first came back, we did a look around, then we drove over to a friend’s house (out of the flood zone) to sleep. On the way, we passed the Hancock County fairgrounds, and there was a ARMY of Power Company trucks parked there, with poles, cables and supplies to start rebuilding the power system the next day.
At our place, the evening of the 2nd or 3rd day was a low point…. low on food, low on water, it looked like we were going to have to bail out.
But, perhaps the next day, something like 3 or 4 days after the storm, the Federal and Mississippi governments, working together, had set up PODs (Points of Distribution) all over the place, with water, MRE’s (military Meals Ready to Eat) and medical assistance. The National Guard was all over the place, and if you needed water, food, or medical help, all one had to do was ask these fine young people and they would do everything that they could to help.
My understanding is that in Louisiana, the Democrat Governor Blanco REFUSED to let the Federal government help, as the Democrats wanted to slam President Bush for the ‘Botched’ response to the disaster. – and that is JUST what the Democrats and the Media did!
Yes, in my area there was some looting and some stealing, but in my experience it was minor compared to the GOOD that people showed each other.
At night, listening to the news on the our battery-powered radio, I heard the crazy New Orleans Mayor talk about the Superdome, saying “They’re Raping Babies In There!”
I don’t believe him for one instant. I think there were a lot of miserable, unhappy people in there, but ‘raping babies’? No Way!
I understand that there WAS a lot of looting in New Orleans, large parts of which remained flooded for several weeks.
(For a somewhat cynical view, look up the song “Battle of Katrina”.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqLa-hLqcnQ
My belief is that it is a difference in CULTURE that is the cause of the difference in BEHAVIOR.
In MY neck of the woods, people HELPED each other.
If you want to get an idea of what it was like in my area in the months after the storm, do a YouTube search for “One Eyed Girl Katrina”….
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJX4VtZdds
….. it is a video that a couple of young guys made in the town of Bay Saint Louis a couple of months after the storm. (Do not confuse this with a movie “One Eyed Girl” that came out later, that is why adding the word ‘Katrina’ in the search terms.)
I want to mention….. in addition to the help from the Federal and Mississippi governments, a TREMENDOUS amount of help came from CHURCH GROUPS. THOUSANDS of Regular people, volunteering and organizing through their churches, helped for MONTHS!
If YOU were one of them, THANK YOU!…..AGAIN!
Anyway, that’s MY experience….. Yes, there was some bad, but there was a lot more GOOD!
check out the book A Paradise Built in Hell by rebecca solnit.
A fantastic article, well done. It neeeds sites like this to debunk to MSM crap which fewer and fewer people believe anyway – they have lost credibility, big time.
I have written a book about all this and the coming crisis and which covers many aspects of survival after the first effects of crisis have been borne. A free pdf of my manuscript is available by request to: [email protected]
Keep up the good work my friends.
All just examples of the “fake news”that has taken the place of real journalism. I was in Homestead Fla. when Hurricane Andrew hit. There was plenty of looting, vandalism and other criminal acts going on, before, during, and after the storm. After the storm, the national guard (10th mtn. div) moved in to “keep the peace”. When they were loading up to move out, they had their vehicles loaded on a train , and all the sides were boarded up, to carry away all the loot they were taking. At a rail siding in mid town, I saw a sergeant and a pfc carrying a large entertainment center up the ramp to load it onto the train. I had a bunch of surplus military vehicle parts that I had purchased before the storm and they sole some of my best parts.
My sister and brother in law (god rest his soul) were part of a church group that went, repeatedly, to MS to help. Church sponsored. People were helpful and grateful.
My sister commented that it was relief groups that helped the most. They cooked. They cleaned up. They rebuilt. And added that although you could see FEMA around, if you wanted something it was best to go to the Salvation Army, unless you wanted to be handed a number or to be instructed which line to stand in. (In her mind, as an outside observer, it was people helping people, not the government helping people)
Keep that in mind as you prep. Like many have said before, do NOT count on the government to help in the event of a big emergency. Help is out there, even in something as big as Katrina, but it won’t be from those who are charged with helping. YOU will be the one who is helping.
GREAT Article!! I have always wondered why we don’t get more information after these disasters to help with future planning.
The truth is our society is under a constant program of social engineering propaganda. EVERYTHING in the MSM & entertainment is designed to dumb you down with the hope to make you dependant & hence controllable.
This is why independent sources of information (like this website) & the act of prepping is SO important. Those who are most informed & have the right skills will survive the coming chaos. Because some form of social chaos or civil war is coming. It’s just when, where & how bad will it be.
read SUPERSTORM OF CHAOS:FEMA DISASTER DIARY and remember: It’s not a disaster until FEMA arrives