Prepping

Hurricane Irma Projected To Reach Category 5 And Hit The East Coast – Panic Prepping Begins In Florida

On Monday, Hurricane Irma strengthened into a category 4 hurricane, and some meteorologists are projecting that it will eventually become a category 5 storm before it eventually makes landfall in the United States.  And since a “category 6” has not been created yet, category 5 is as high as the scale goes at the moment.  Over the past couple of days, the track of the storm has shifted “a lot further to the west”, and at this point it appears that Miami is the most likely to take the full force of the hurricane.  But as we have seen, trying to forecast the behavior of hurricanes is not an exact science.  Irma may never become a category 5 storm, and it may never hit the U.S. at all.  Or it may zip past Florida to the south and end up making landfall in the Gulf of Mexico.  The truth is that we just don’t know.

But for the moment things are not looking good for Florida, and a state of emergency has already been declared for every single county in the state…

On Monday afternoon, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for every county in Florida in anticipation of Irma. A state of emergency was also declared in Puerto Rico earlier in the day.

Another scenario still on the table is that Irma curve northward and miss the East Coast entirely. This would still generate large surf and rip currents along the East Coast. However, this scenario is the least likely to occur at this point.

And as I mentioned above, many are projecting that Irma will become a category 5 storm just a few days from now.  The following comes from the Express…

Many projections show the category storm strengtheing to a category 5 hurricane, capable of ripping roofs from houses and causing huge waves and storm surges.

Predictions from both the National Environmental Satellite data and Information Service (NESDIS) and international weather forecaster Ventusky suggest though Irma is currently a Category 3 storm by Thursday she is expected to strengthen to a Category 5.

A category 5 storm has winds of more than 157mph – enough to destroy whole buildings and cause devastating flooding.

But just because the experts are telling us that certain scenarios are likely to happen does not mean that they will actually take place.

In the end, it is entirely possible that Florida may not see a single drop of rain.  Hurricane Harvey certainly behaved in ways that nobody was expecting, and I have a feeling that the same will be true for Irma.

As Irma inches closer to Florida, “prepping fever” has hit the public.  Grocery stores and home improvement chains are already being flooded with traffic, and this is only going to get worse the closer that Irma gets.  The following comes from one local news report…

As Hurricane Irma continues to make its way towards a possible strike on the Southeastern U.S., stores in South Florida are beginning to see a rush for supplies.

Several Publix supermarkets were full before noon Monday as residents grabbed water, non-perishable food and other items.

Another local news report noted that essential supplies were already running low at a Home Depot in south Florida…

With Hurricane Irma churning west, many South Florida residents are taking precaution and stocking up on supplies on Labor Day.

A Home Depot in Royal Palm Beach on Monday morning posted a sign that said they were short of some hurricane supplies, including wing nuts, 5-gallon containers for gasoline and 5-gallon jugs of water.

Those that wait until the last minute are going to find that there is nothing left for them.  One resident of Palm Beach Gardens told reporters that the local Wal-Mart in her area is already completely out of water…

“There was nothing at Walmart,” said Bianca Rodriguez of Palm Beach Gardens. “Not even like one thing of water.”

Of course those that have been preparing all along don’t have to run out to the store in a panic.

If Irma hits the United States as a category 4 or category 5 storm, it is going to make history.

Meteorologists are telling us that the United States has not been hit by two hurricanes of at least category 4 strength in the same year in more than a century.

And prior to Hurricane Harvey, a hurricane had not made landfall in this country in about 12 years.

There is still a possibility that Irma could miss us completely, but as CNN’s Tom Sater has noted, “that window is shutting quickly”…

Computer models show the system moving through the Caribbean, and by the end of week, it will turn right toward the north, said CNN meteorologist and weather anchor Tom Sater.

“There is a small window. If it turns sooner rather than later, we could maybe see the system slide by the East Coast into the ocean, but that window is shutting quickly,” Sater said. “It definitely looks like we will be impacted by a major hurricane that is a Category 3, 4 or 5.”

If Irma is indeed a category 5 storm when it hits the U.S., it would completely rip coastal communities to shreds.

There haven’t been too many category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in modern American history, and a direct strike on Miami would be catastrophic.  But if Irma bypasses Florida and ends up hitting New Orleans or Houston, we could be talking about a disaster that is absolutely unprecedented in our history.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Category 6? If Hurricane Irma Becomes The Strongest Hurricane In History, It Could Wipe Entire Cities Off The Map

Meteorologists have been shocked at how rapidly Hurricane Irma has been strengthening, and they are already warning that if it hits the United States as a high level category 5 storm the devastation would be absolutely unprecedented.  Of course we are already dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and many experts are already telling us that the economic damage done by that storm will easily surpass any other disaster in all of U.S. history.  But there is a very real possibility that Hurricane Irma could be even worse.  According to the National Hurricane Center, at 5 PM on Friday Irma already had sustained winds of 130 miles per hour.  But it is still very early, and as you will see below, next week it is expected to potentially develop into a category 5 storm with winds of 180 miles per hour or more.

I suppose that it is appropriate that such a powerful storm has a very powerful name.  In old German, the name “Irma” actually means “war goddess”…

The name Irma is a German baby name. In German the meaning of the name Irma is: Universal, from the Old German ‘irmin’. War goddess.

Irma began forming on Wednesday, and it intensified at a faster rate than any storm that we have seen in nearly 20 years…

Hurricane Irma formed early Wednesday in the warm waters off the coast of West Africa — and took just 30 hours to strengthen to a Category 3. That’s the fastest intensification rate in almost two decades. By Friday afternoon, the storm had also grown noticeably larger in size with a well-defined eye, a classic sign of a strong hurricane.

Though Irma poses no immediate threat to land, the outlook is ominous: In the Atlantic, Irma is expected to pass through some abnormally warm waters — the primary fuel source for storm systems. The official National Hurricane Center forecast says it will remain at major hurricane status for at least the next five days, and, in a worst-case scenario, Irma could eventually grow into one of the strongest hurricanes ever seen in the Atlantic.

So how powerful could Irma eventually become?

According to Michael Ventrice of the Weather Channel, Irma could easily become a “super typhoon” with “sustained speeds of over 180mph”…

Veteran USA forecaster Michael Ventrice posted the track model on Twitter overnight and warned it looked like the storm could be a “super typhoon”, with sustained speeds of over 180mph.

He wrote: “These are the highest windspeed forecasts I’ve ever seen in my 10 yrs of Atlantic hurricane forecasting.

“Irma is another retiree candidate.”

The scale we have right now really never envisioned storms that powerful.  In fact, some have suggested that we need to add a “category 6” to describe the kind of “super storms” that are now developing in the Atlantic.

One of the reasons why Irma is so unique is because it is a “Cape Verde hurricane”…

There are a few factors that worry hurricane forecasters more about this storm when compared to the myriad other tropical storms and hurricanes that tend to form in the Atlantic.

First, it’s a so-called Cape Verde storm, having formed off the west coast of Africa. These storms tend to be the ones that go on to affect the U.S., after gathering strength for many days during their march across the ocean. For example, Hurricane Andrew, which was the most recent Category 5 storm to hit the U.S. in 1992, was a Cape Verde-type storm.

Because they begin at a relatively low latitude and move west rather than northwest, it can be harder for upper level winds blowing across North America to pick up and steer these types of storms away from the U.S. coast.

Let us hope that this storm does get steered away from our coastlines at some point, but so far that is just not happening.

Many hurricanes are often weakened by wind shear, but that isn’t happening to Irma either.  In fact, CNN is reporting that “Irma will remain in a low-shear environment for the next several days”…

A strong high-pressure ridge to the north of Irma, over the Atlantic, is steering the storm to the west and limiting the wind shear in the upper levels of the atmosphere, which has allowed the storm to grow so quickly. Wind shear is like hurricane kryptonite, and prevents storms from forming or gaining strength.

Unfortunately, Irma will remain in a low-shear environment for the next several days, so there isn’t much hope that Irma will weaken any time soon.

Basically, conditions are nearly ideal for a “super storm” to develop, and if Irma does make it to the U.S. the destruction that it causes could be absolutely off the charts.

Of course at this point there is no guarantee that it will ever reach the United States.  But if it does, and if it is still a category 5 storm when it arrives, we could be facing an event unlike anything that we have ever seen before.

Do you remember Hurricane Katrina?  Well, scientists now know that when it hit New Orleans it had already been downgraded to just a “low category 3” storm…

To put this all in perspective, Katrina was a Category 5 hurricane out over some hot spots in the Gulf. But when it hit New Orleans, scientists now know, Katrina had winds at a low Category 3, and much of them Category 2, including the “left side winds” that then came down from the north and pushed the surge-swollen waters of Lake Pontchartrain over and through NOLA’s levees. (Hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, so when Katrina came ashore just east of New Orleans, its winds hit the city from the north.)

Only three Category 5s have come ashore in the United States in the past century — the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, Camille in 1969 and Andrew in 1992.

And Hurricane Harvey was just a category 4 storm.

If Hurricane Irma were to make landfall as a category 5 storm with sustained winds of 180 miles per hour, it would rip buildings and everything else in its path to shreds.

Next week we shall find out what happens.  Let us hope for the best, but let us also get prepared for the worst.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Hurricane Harvey Aftermath: 100,000 Homes Destroyed, A Million Vehicles Ruined And Bottled Water Being Sold For $99 A Case

It is now being estimated that the total amount of economic damage caused by Hurricane Harvey will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 190 billion dollars.  It is a disaster unlike anything that we have ever seen before in all of U.S. history, and federal officials are already admitting that they are literally going to be dealing with the aftermath of this storm for “years”.  At this point, more than 100,000 homes have been destroyed, “up to one million vehicles” have been ruined, and many retailers have already been caught engaging in extreme price gouging.  But this could be just the beginning, because this storm has already rendered many areas along the Gulf coast “uninhabitable” for an extended period of time, and as you will see at the end of this article another hurricane may be arriving early next month.

What we just witnessed in Houston is being called “a 1,000-year-flood”, and many basic necessities are now in extremely short supply.  So of course it was inevitable that this would lead to price gouging, and this is reportedly even happening at some of the largest retail chains.  For example, at one Best Buy store cases of bottled water were being sold for 42 dollars…

On Friday, a Twitter user shared a picture of cases of bottled water being sold at a Best Buy in Houston. One of the cases was being sold for $42 when it normally retailed for about $15.

A Best Buy spokesman later apologized, saying it was a ‘big mistake’.

But that water was quite cheap compared to prices in other parts of the city.  According to CNN, one convenience store in Houston was actually charging 20 dollars for a single gallon of gasoline and 99 dollars for a case of bottled water…

Texas officials say they’ve gotten hundreds of complaints about price gouging and scams in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

One convenience store in Houston reportedly charged $20 for a gallon of gas, $8.50 for a bottle of water and $99 for a case of water, according to the Texas Attorney General’s office.

The state has received 684 complaints in all, according to Kayleigh Lovvorn, a spokeswoman for the office.

It is inexcusable to take advantage of people during a crisis in this way.  So many are running low on food, water and other basic supplies, and to try to make a quick profit by engaging in price gouging just isn’t right.

In the end, many people are going to have to leave Houston and never look back.  To this day some parts of New Orleans still have not recovered from the devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused, and we are facing a similar scenario now with Houston.  According to AccuWeather president Joel Myers, it will be “weeks and possibly months” before people can even get back into certain parts of Houston…

Hurricane Harvey could be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history with a potential price tag of $190 billion, according to a preliminary estimate from private weather firm AccuWeather.

This is equal to the combined cost of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and represents a 1% economic hit to the gross national product, AccuWeather said.

“Parts of Houston, the United States’ fourth largest city, will be uninhabitable for weeks and possibly months due to water damage, mold, disease-ridden water and all that will follow this 1,000-year flood,” said AccuWeather president Joel Myers.

I don’t think that the U.S. population as a whole really grasps what has just taken place.

Large stretches of the 4th-largest city in the United States have been destroyed.  Millions that were living comfortable middle class lives have now lost everything that they worked for.  Large numbers of people did not have flood insurance, and so they will be leaning on the federal government for assistance.  Many did have flood insurance, and a significant number of insurance companies may end up going bankrupt because of all the claims that will be suddenly pouring in.  Houston was one of the most important hubs for economic activity in our entire nation, and the economic damage from this crisis will literally stretch on for years.

But despite everything that has happened, many are being very bitter and very cruel on social media and on the comments sections of major news websites.  Apparently many on the left do not believe that compassion is appropriate because this storm hit a conservative state like Texas.  Not everything has to be politicized, and it has greatly disturbed me to see just how cold many hearts in this nation have become.

And what is truly frightening is that another hurricane is potentially heading toward the Gulf of Mexico.  It is still way too early to project exactly if it will make landfall or where, but it is being reported that Hurricane Irma has already become a category 3 storm…

Hurricane Irma continued its rapid power grab Thursday, with wind speeds increasing by more than 55 mph since Wednesday to become a major Cat 3 storm.

In their 5 p.m. advisory, National Hurricane Center forecasters said sustained winds had climbed to 115 mph as the storm headed to the west, northwest at 12 mph. Irma remains in the far east Atlantic, just over 1,700 miles east of the Leeward Islands. Up and down changes in intensity are possible over the next few days, forecasters said, but the storm is expected to remain a major hurricane that could become a Cat 4 storm in four days.

I am proud of how the Trump administration is handling this crisis, and when I win my race for Congress I look forward to working with Trump to make sure that our nation is always prepared to handle this sort of event.

And please keep praying for Houston, because if another major hurricane were to hit that area it would be a nightmare beyond anything that any of us would ever want to imagine.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Unprecedented Disaster: Hurricane Harvey Has Shattered The Rainfall Record For The Continental United States

Never before have we seen a storm dump more than 50 inches of rain on a single location in the continental United States.  The previous record for rainfall in the continental United States occurred when Tropical Storm Amelia dumped 48 inches of rain on Medina, Texas in 1978.  But now one spot in southeast Texas has already received 52 inches of rain, and the rain continues to fall.  And overall, 14 different spots in the Houston area have already gotten more than 40 inches of rain.  Authorities are telling us that this will easily be the most costly disaster in all of U.S. history, but nobody will be able to truly assess the total damage that has been done until the rain finally stops.

Sadly, meteorologists say that some parts of Texas will continue to get more rain all the way through Thursday.  By that time, some areas may receive an additional 20 inches of rain on top of what they already have…

Wide swaths of southeast Texas have been devastated by Tropical Storm Harvey, with some areas drowning in nearly 40 inches of water — and Lone Star State residents are bracing for another beating with up to 20 more inches of rain.

If you have seen video of the flooding that is taking place in Houston, it is hard to imagine that things could get much worse.  As I mentioned above, many areas already have more than 40 inches of rain, and one spot in southeast Texas has actually gotten 52 inches of rain…

A preliminary report from a rain gauge on the Cedar Bayou, east of Highlands, Texas, reported 51.88 inches of rain as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Earlier in the day, a weather station southeast of Houston at Mary’s Creek at Winding Road, reported 49.32 inches of rain, the weather service said.

Both reports break the previous continental U.S. record of 48 inches set in 1978 in Medina, Texas, by Tropical Storm Amelia.

In addition to all of the rainfall, a major problem is the fact that river levels are rising to extremely dangerous levels.  One levee has already been breached, and water has gone over the top of the 108 foot spillway for the Addicks Reservoir for the first time in history…

An already-swollen reservoir west of downtown Houston overtopped its spillway Tuesday, sending an “uncontrolled release” of Harvey’s floodwaters into nearby neighborhoods, as a separate levee breach south of the city prompted an urgent warning for residents to leave immediately.

Floodwaters in the the Addicks Reservoir, located about 19 miles west of downtown, went over the top of the 108-foot spillway for the first time in history, threatening immediate surrounding subdivisions.

Unfortunately, disasters such as this tend to bring out the worst in people.  As I mentioned yesterday, police have been busy rounding up looters, and some businesses have been caught engaging in extreme price gouging…

Over the weekend, more than 500 complaints of price gouging were lodged with the Texas attorney general’s office, according to CNBC—including $99 cases of bottled water, gas at $10 a gallon and hotels tripled or quadrupled in price.

I suppose that it is just human nature to do that, but to me that is utterly shameful.

It is during times of testing that our character is truly revealed.  So many down in Houston have been absolutely incredible throughout this entire crisis, while others have shown all of us who they really and truly are.

Our fourth largest city is in the process of literally being destroyed, and I am so thankful for everyone that is working to rescue, house and feed those that are in desperate need.  Sadly, there are others that are not stepping up to the plate, and they are being greatly criticized for it.

According to former FEMA Director Michael Brown, the economic damage being done by this storm will ultimately make it “the most expensive natural disaster in American history”…

“There are several factors that make it worse than Katrina. For one, there is the scope of the flooding. Harris County and the surrounding areas are so saturated,” Brown told the Houston Chronicle.

“Also, the amount of damages will continue to grow. There will be mold and structural damages adding up.” Brown said when Tropical Storm Harvey finally goes away, it will leave an incredible bill for taxpayers to pick up.

“This will be unfathomably expensive for both the private sector and taxpayers,” Brown said. “This will be easily the most expensive natural disaster in American history.”

Please pray for southeast Texas and for all of the people that have had their lives turned completely upside down by this storm.  We have never seen anything like this before in the history of our country, and this crisis is still far from over.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Hurricane Harvey Has Dumped 15 Trillion Gallons Of Water On Texas And May Be The Most Expensive Natural Disaster In U.S. History

Authorities are now telling us that Hurricane Harvey may end up causing more economic damage than even Hurricane Katrina did.  We already knew that some parts of southeast Texas are going to be “uninhabitable for an extended period of time”, but the latest forecasts are calling for about 10 more inches of total rain than had previously been projected.  At this moment 15 trillion gallons of water have already been dumped on Texas, and the rain continues to fall.  You can get some idea of the devastation that has taken place in Houston by watching this drone footage.  Essentially, some communities along the southeast Texas coastline have been totally destroyed.

It would be bad enough if 15 trillion gallons of water were dropped anywhere in the continental United States, but for it to happen in the Houston area makes it a disaster of unprecedented proportions.  Houston is our fourth largest city, and that means that millions upon millions of people are being deeply affected by this storm.  As I mentioned above, some experts now believe that this could end up being the most expensive natural disaster in our history…

Tropical Storm Harvey has dropped more than 15 trillion gallons of water on Texas, triggering catastrophic, unprecedented flooding in the Houston area. The rains have broken all-time records, exceeding the rainfall totals seen during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.

There may be no parallel available to any other rainstorm in U.S. history, based on the number of people affected, amount of water involved, and other factors, meteorologists have warned.

Due to its wide geographic scope across America’s 4th-largest city, the ensuing flood disaster may rank as one of the most, if not the most, expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

And 15 trillion gallons is just the current number.  Meteorologists are forecasting that another 6 trillion gallons of water will fall on Texas before this storm is over.

Just yesterday, authorities were warning that some areas may see more than 40 inches of total rain, but now many forecasts are calling for “as much as 50 inches of rain” before Hurricane Harvey finally leaves Texas…

As the water rose, the National Weather Service issued another ominous forecast: Before the storm is gone, some parts of Houston and its suburbs could get as much as 50 inches of rain. That would be the highest amount ever recorded in Texas.

FEMA’s Long predicted that the aftermath of the storm would require FEMA’s involvement for years.

“This disaster’s going to be a landmark event,” Long said.

If these forecasts are accurate, the rainfall levels will exceed any previous record.

In fact, the amount of rain that has already fallen on southeast Texas would be enough to completely fill the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and then fill it all the way to the top again.

FEMA officials are already saying that they are going to be in the Houston area for “years”.  Tens of thousands are already using temporary shelters, and it is being projected that 450,000 people will ultimately file for disaster assistance…

U.S. emergency management officials said on Monday they were expediting federal resources to Texas to help with rescue efforts after Hurricane Harvey swamped coastal areas of the state and forced 30,000 people to seek refuge in temporary shelters.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said more than 450,000 people were expected to seek disaster assistance due to flooding after Harvey made landfall during the weekend before weakening to tropical storm status.

Of course whenever there is a disaster such as this, bad people are going to try to take advantage of the situation.

According to Houston police chief Art Acevedo, a number of looters have already been arrested…

Acevedo also said officers are focused on protecting the city from looters as floodwater recede.

“We’ve already arrested a handful of looters. We’ve made it real clear to our community we’re going to do whatever it takes to protect their homes and their businesses,” Acevedo said. “And when people come from the outside to Houston, Texas, know we’re going to be out in the city, we’re not going to rest as a police department or law enforcement community until people restore their lives.”

I am proud of how the Trump administration and the authorities down in Texas are responding to this unprecedented crisis.  The loss of life appears to be minimal so far, and thousands of people have been rescued from their homes and vehicles.

We never give emergency responders the credit that they deserve.  Day after day they are saving lives in the most difficult of situations, and I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people that are working so hard to help Houston pull through this.

Please keep the people of Houston in your prayers, because this is truly the worst crisis that city has ever seen.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Hurricane Harvey Will Render Some Parts Of Texas ‘Uninhabitable For An Extended Period Of Time’

Do you remember what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans?  Well, now we are watching the same thing happen to southeast Texas.  On Friday, Hurricane Harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane.  It is the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States in 12 years, and it is the most powerful storm to hit the state of Texas in at least 50 years.  One meteorologist is saying that what we are witnessing is “worse than the worst-case scenario for Houston”, and another stated that this storm “could easily be one of the worst flooding disasters in U.S. history”.

It would be difficult to overstate the devastation in the Houston area at this moment.  Hurricane Harvey has ripped roofs off of homes, turned vehicles over and snapped thousands of trees.  Thousands have been rescued from their homes and vehicles, and it is being reported that so far five people have died.  In fact, one woman’s dead body was actually spotted floating down the street.

According to the National Weather Service, over 24 inches of rain fell in Houston in just a 24 hour period.  More rain continues to fall in southeast Texas, and meteorologists are running out of adjectives to describe the nightmare that is currently unfolding…

“It’s catastrophic, unprecedented, epic — whatever adjective you want to use,” Patrick Blood, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told the Chronicle. “It’s pretty horrible right now.” The newspaper reported the weather service said five people have died in the Houston area in unconfirmed flood-related deaths.

The latest forecasts are telling us that we could see a total of 40 to 50 inches of rain in southeast Texas by Thursday, and so some areas will actually receive a “year’s worth of rain” in less than a week…

“A year’s worth of rain may fall in the span of a few days near the Texas Gulf Coast,” reported Weather.com. “A multi-day deluge of the Texas Gulf Coast with catastrophic and life-threatening flooding and destructive winds through could leave areas uninhabitable for an extended period of time, the National Weather Service has warned.”

Did you catch that last part?

The National Weather Service is actually saying that some portions of Texas could be “uninhabitable for an extended period of time” as a result of this storm.

It appears to be inevitable that more people are doing to die before this is all over.  Authorities are trying to rescue as many people as they can, but there just aren’t enough resources.

As the water continues to climb, some people are actually climbing into their attics in a desperate attempt to save themselves, but that is a very bad idea…

“We are getting calls from people climbing into their attic. This is along I-45 between downtown and Clear Lake,” Lindner said. “This is along Berry Bayou, Beamer Ditch, Turkey Creek, portions of Clear Creek, Vince Bayou, Little Vince Bayou in Pasadena,” he said. “Pretty much the entire southeast side of Harris County has had 13 to 15 inches of rain in three hours.”

Lindner said they’re also seeing flooding along portions of Hunting Bayou, downtown along Buffalo Bayou, Brays Bayou and Keegan’s Bayou.

Chief Art Acevedo tweeted,” have reports of people getting into attic to escape floodwater do not do so unless you have an ax or means to break through onto your roof.”

This is already being called “a once in a 500 year flood”, and the experts are already telling us that the total economic damage is going to be in the tens of billions of dollars.

Earlier this month, I wrote about an unusual series of events that would happen over a 40 day period starting with the recent solar eclipse, but of course at the time I couldn’t account for additional unexpected events such as Hurricane Harvey.  And I find it very interesting that this hurricane began forming just about the same time as the eclipse.  The following comes from Wikipedia…

The eighth named storm, third hurricane, and the first major hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, Harvey developed from a tropical wave to the east of the Lesser Antilles on August 17. The storm crossed through the Windward Islands on the following day, passing just south of Barbados and later near Saint Vincent. Upon entering the Caribbean Sea, Harvey began to weaken due to moderate wind shear and degenerated into a tropical wave north of Colombia early on August 19. The remnants were monitored for regeneration as it continued west-northwestward across the Caribbean and the Yucatán Peninsula, before re-developing over the Bay of Campeche on August 23. Harvey then began to rapidly intensify on August 24, re-gaining tropical storm status and becoming a hurricane later that day. Moving generally northwestwards, Harvey’s intensification phase stalled slightly overnight from August 24–25, however Harvey soon resumed strengthening and became a Category 4 hurricane late on August 25. Hours later, Harvey made landfall near Rockport, Texas, at peak intensity.

As a result of this storm, thousands could be trapped in their homes without power for an extended period of time.

Do you think that those that have been storing up food and emergency supplies all this time will be glad that they have done so?

Of course the answer to that question is obvious.  If you wait until disaster strikes to get prepared, it will be too late.  A whole lot of people down in Texas are going to end up in some very desperate situations because they never believed that something like this could ever happen to them.

For those of you that would like some helpful advice on getting prepared for future disasters, I would encourage you to check out a book that I co-authored with Barbara Fix entitled “Get Prepared Now”.  Barbara is a highly respected prepping expert, and she is also getting heavily involved in my campaign for Congress.  So much of the information in that book is timeless, and my hope is that we can encourage as many people as possible to start getting prepared because very troubled times are ahead of us.

Please pray for the people in Houston and throughout the entire southeast Texas area.  We truly have not seen a storm like this since Hurricane Katrina, and many portions of the Texas Gulf Coast will be changed forever by this disaster.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Will You Turn Away Family, Friends And Neighbors At Your Door When America’s Day Of Disaster Arrives?

How will you handle all of the people that will show up at your door when a major crisis strikes because they haven’t been making any preparations of their own?  Earlier today somebody asked me about this on Facebook, and I thought that it was a very good question, because thousands of my readers will be faced with this precise dilemma at some point.  When America’s day of disaster arrives, it is inevitable that most of us that are prepping will have family, friends and neighbors showing up at our door asking for help.  When that happens, what will you do?

There are some people out there that are very honest about the fact that they do not plan to share what they have stored up with anyone, and that even close family members will be greeted with a shotgun if they show up unannounced.

Personally, I could never do that.  My wife and I have always had the philosophy that we need to work extra hard to prepare because there will be people that need to depend on us when times get really hard.  And turning away those that are in desperate need would go against everything that we stand for.  After all, I am even writing a book that is all about the true meaning of love, and so it would be quite hypocritical of me to turn away those that I care about when they need me the most.

And even if I wanted to be cold-hearted, my wife would never let me get away with it.  She has such a soft heart that she literally can’t bear to even see a bug die.  We often have spiders invade our place, and when she sees one she gently captures it and sets it free outside.  I tell her that they will just breed and come back in even bigger numbers, but that doesn’t seem to matter to her.  So needless to say we are going to have to find a non-violent way to deal with our spider problem.

But I certainly understand the frustrations of those that have been trying to warn family and friends about what is coming for years and they never seem to listen.

And it is true that resources are limited.  For the vast majority of us, there is only so much money and energy that we can put into prepping, and so why should those that have refused to listen to the warnings and prepare in advance be able to benefit from all of our hard work?

Unfortunately, life is not always fair.  And we also need to realize that there is a tremendous amount of deception going on out there these days.  Some of the deceptions that are currently circulating are very strong, and it can be very easy to be sucked into them.  So we need to have compassion for those that have been led into confusion.

Look, there are literally thousands of watchmen all across this country that have never wavered from warning America about what is coming even for a moment.  That is because they are standing on the truth and not on wishful thinking that is the product of overactive imaginations.

The ingredients for the “perfect storm” that so many watchmen have been warning about for ages are starting to come together right before our eyes.  We are closer to World War III than we have been in decades, our politicians are openly admitting that our relations with Russia are at “an all-time low”, the federal government is 20 trillion dollars in debt, our nation is on the verge of being torn apart by strife and civil unrest, the financial markets are primed for a crash of epic proportions, there are mass die-offs of animals all over the globe, and natural disasters are happening with frightening regularity as the crust of our planet rattles and shakes.

But we are somehow supposed to believe that “everything is going to be wonderful” even though we continue to kill babies on an industrial scale, just about every form of sexual immorality that you can possibly imagine is exploding all around us, our “entertainment” industry is an open sewer, and we lead the world in both legal and illegal drug use.

I’ve got dozens more facts that I could quote regarding our moral decay, but I think that you get the point.

If we actually changed our behavior, I could understand why it would make sense for America to be blessed.

But we haven’t changed our behavior, and there are no signs that this is going to happen any time soon.

As humans, we have the freedom to choose, but those choices inevitably have consequences.

The same thing is true for our nation as a whole.  We have made a whole bunch of exceedingly bad choices, and those choices are going to result in some incredibly painful consequences.

So you can do whatever you want, but my wife and I are going to continue to get prepared.  America is headed for a date with disaster, and those that are suggesting otherwise are not being honest with you.

Trumpocalypse? Suddenly Liberals Are The Ones Stockpiling Food, Guns And Emergency Supplies

prepper-photo-by-nomadic-lass-on-flickrNow that the shoe is on the other foot, many liberals all over America have suddenly become extremely interested in prepping.  Fearing that a Trump presidency could rapidly evolve into a “Trumpocalypse”, a significant number of leftists are now stockpiling food, guns and emergency supplies.  In fact, even though many had expected a sharp drop in gun sales following Trump’s victory, what actually happened is that fear of what is coming under Trump pushed background checks for gun sales to an all-time record high on Black Friday.  The election of Donald Trump has awakened the left to a degree that we haven’t seen in decades, and some on the left are embracing hardcore survivalism without any apologies.

What is ironic about all of this is that on the other end of the political spectrum interest in prepping is probably the lowest that it has ever been in the history of the modern prepper movement.  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about how it was like “a nuclear bomb went off in the prepping community“, and nothing has changed since that time.

In fact, since I originally wrote that article we have gotten some hard numbers that show how dramatically optimism about the future has surged among those on the right.

Just before the election, CNBC’s All-America Economic Survey found that only 15 percent of all Republicans believed that the economy would improve over the next year, but after the election that number skyrocketed all the way up to 74 percent.

But among Democrats it is a different story altogether.  That same CNBC survey found that optimism about the economy on the left fell by more than half after the election.  At this point, it is sitting at just 16 percent.

It would be hard to overstate how negatively many on the left feel about Trump.  We have seen many of them take to the streets to angrily protest his election, and according to the BBC others have decided to stockpile food and guns “in preparation for social and economic collapse”…

In America, stockpiling weapons and food, in preparation for social and economic collapse, has tended to be the preserve of right-wing libertarians and foes of “big government”. But the Liberal Prepper Facebook group – up to now a small band – reports a big increase in enquiries.

“A lot of people are worried that not only will [a Trump presidency] fail but that it will fail spectacularly to the point that we are going to end up on in one or more critical situations that we are just not prepared for,” says Jeff, 36, one of the group’s members.

So could we see “social and economic collapse” under Trump?

Despite the wild optimism that we are seeing on the right at the moment, without a doubt this is a possibility.

It is funny how a single election can change our perspective on things so dramatically.  During the Obama years, it seemed like the left was constantly talking about disarming everyone, but now Trump has sparked a renewed interest in gun ownership among many liberals.  Prominent progressive author Ana Marie Cox is just one example…

Witness Ana Marie Cox, a popular progressive writer with gigs at MTV and the New York Times. “So who else has been researching basic disaster prep stuff?” she polled her Twitter audience on Wednesday. “Bc—congrats, right wingers—I do not trust the government to help anymore!” Her next tweet extended the holiday merriment to our nation’s Second Amendment enthusiasts: “Getting my rifle out of storage this week.”

And did you know that leftists even have their own gun organization?

It is known as “the Liberal Gun Club”, and since Trump’s victory it has experienced a huge surge in membership…

Lara Smith, national spokesperson for the Liberal Gun Club, says her organization has seen a “huge” rise in enquiries since November’s election and a 10% increase in paid members.

US gun sales hit record levels in October amid fears a Hillary Clinton election victory would lead to draconian gun control measures.

The election of Donald Trump, who was backed by the National Rifle Association early on, was thought to bring an end to panic buying. Shares in gun manufacturers even dropped by as much as 18% following his victory.

Instead, FBI background checks for gun transactions soared to a new record for a single day – 185,713 – during the Black Friday sales on 25 November, according to gun control news site The Trace.

Many on the right have responded to Donald Trump’s election victory by deciding that the battle is over and that it is time to go to sleep.  But many on the left have been suddenly awakened and are now preparing for extremely challenging times ahead.

I hate to say this, but in this case those on the left that are busily preparing are showing much more wisdom than many on the right that have chosen to abandon prepping altogether at this point.

Of course most of those on the left don’t really understand the storm that is approaching.  All they know is that Trump is “really bad” and therefore they need to try to get through the next four years the best that they can.  Here is more from the BBC…

“We are not looking for end of the world Mad Max-type scenarios, we are not looking at a zombie apocalypse,” says the author of a left wing survivalist blog, who also reports a surge in interest since Trump’s victory.

He says it is “fairly easy to predict” an economic collapse under Trump but adds: “No matter what, the country is still going to be here in four years, there’s going to be another election.”

I would have to agree that a major economic downturn is quite likely in the very near future.  We have been on the greatest debt binge in history during the Obama years, and it is inevitable that this bubble will burst.

Donald Trump basically has two choices.  He could try to prolong this debt bubble for as long as possible, but that would make the ultimate outcome even worse.  Or he could try to deal with the crisis right away, but that would mean an extraordinary amount of pain for all of us.

No matter who won the election, we were going to have to deal with the consequences of decades of incredibly foolish decisions sooner or later.

Let us certainly hope for the best, but without a doubt those that are preparing for challenging times ahead are showing incredible wisdom, and this includes both liberals and conservatives.

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