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Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

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101–110 of 418 posts

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#101
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The water seems like the hard part. Are there any tricks for cheap, safe hydration for a family? You already have the equipment for that. Your existing hot water heater stores enough drinking water for a month at least, probably more if you ration carefully.

we got the smaller 42 gallon one, and.. with two people and a pet... it might last a couple weeks tops, I'd think, if we rationed (~2-3 gallons per day?)

I don't think I've ever drunk two gallons in a day in my whole life. Sedentary survival needs in reasonable climates are maybe a third of that.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#102
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The water seems like the hard part. Are there any tricks for cheap, safe hydration for a family? I guess we could just start building walls of unopened water bottles in our basement… (In my teens I saw a family friend had a bag full of food supplies. I asked someone if that was a prep bag, and they said yes. I thought they were a bit weird. Now I’ve come full circle browsing Amazon for cheap doomsday food.)

I used to be a logistics officer for an Infantry battalion. Most of the comments down thread underestimate water consumption. Depending on the climate, you'll want the following daily quantities [1]: - 2-3 gallons for drinking - 1.5 gallons for hygiene (can skip for a while) - 0.5 gallons for food prep The planning factor for military operations was 8 gallons per person per day. Water is heavy—8 pounds per gallon—and…

> 8 gallons per person per day. Water is heavy—8 pounds per gallon

The average person needs far less than 65lbs (30kg) of water per day, which is a third of the average male weight in the US.

By medical standards humans need more like 8lbs (under 4l) per day for men and 6lbs (under 3l) for women. Less if your rationing and not exerting yourself.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#103
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a 50kw generac tied into my house with a 1000 gallon propane tank.

I don't understand what 50 kW could possibly be needed for. Part of the electricity bill here in Flanders is based on monthly power peak. I charge an EV at home, and by setting up the charging station to take into account consumption data from the meter, I have no problem staying below 7 kW. Okay, that's averaged over 15 minute time slots, but even the connection for my house is only rated 13.8 kW!

Startup spikes; AIUI anything with a motor will initially sink way more power than you expect it to use, then settle to a more reasonable level. So you need to overspec a generator to handle that without a brownout.

I think that's it, anyways; this is not my strong suit.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#104
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was actually more of a demonstration of the utter lack of community in our society, among other things.

That's the point. In many respects, community life is just a polite facade.

I see. I thought you were refuting the advice that having community is a major factor in resiliency - you were actually saying, "lol good luck having community in the modern world." Which... yeah : /

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#105
post #59
post #19

PJM (the US east coast power grid) has issued a warning: 104202 Warning Geomagnetic Disturbance Warning 05.10.2024 13:48 PJM-RTO A Geomagnetic Disturbance Warning has been issued for 13:48 on 05.10.2024 through 21:00 on 05.10.2024. A GMD warning of K8 or greater is in effect for this period. Times are US EDT. This is a warning only. No actions are listed yet.

If anyone else was looking for the source of this, it's here: https://emergencyprocedures.pjm.com/ep/pages/dashboard.jsf

Fascinating, if anyone has info on other grids that share these types of alerts, pease link!

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#106

Can you really call yourself a prepper if you don’t have a faraday cage with a spare laptop inside? (The intersection of doomerism and tech is amusingly cyberpunk sometimes.) Actually, what’s the most useful way you’d prepare for a worldwide grid outage? This isn’t that, but sometimes I wonder if a future CME might be as catastrophic as some say.

World wide grid outage prep? Assuming transformers out continent wide? That's very bad imo. One of the hardest to prepare for. Cities will be impossible. A year of food stored and a really good place to hide from the hordes that want it. Very difficult imo.

A continent-wide transformer blowout would pretty much be the end of modern civilization, as far as I've read. The capacity of both spares and teams capable of swapping them is orders of magnitude too low to do it in time to prevent large-scale collapse of interlinked systems.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#107

Can you really call yourself a prepper if you don’t have a faraday cage with a spare laptop inside? (The intersection of doomerism and tech is amusingly cyberpunk sometimes.) Actually, what’s the most useful way you’d prepare for a worldwide grid outage? This isn’t that, but sometimes I wonder if a future CME might be as catastrophic as some say.

One less obvious CME prep suggestion that I have heard is to prepare for extensive forest fires. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18291443/

Interesting, what's the proposed mechanism for CMEs causing fires? I unfortunately can't access the paper text.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#108
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just be aware that what looks like a strong community can quickly turn into something else once the sh* hits the fan...

Practice makes perfect. Highly recommend finding your local food not bombs cohort or visiting one in a nearby city and then starting your own back home. Community resiliency is a natural instinct it seems. Rebecca solnit's "paradise built in hell" is a fascinating read on the subject.

Now I’ve volunteered with a local FNB group so I’m not trying to be mean but…

What would a group that gets cheap and or throwaway groceries and feeds homeless do in a Fit-Hits-The-Shan or End-of-World scenario?

You’d have to hope some heavily agricultural minded types would be friendly to you and your labor potential.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#109

Here in Stockholm, Sweden had some power flickering and UPS triggering at home and several friend's place a few minutes ago. Shame it's going to be always bright outside tonight :(

I've seen the flickering as well, but surely it's not CME-related?

After all, it's already evening.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#110
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The water seems like the hard part. Are there any tricks for cheap, safe hydration for a family? I guess we could just start building walls of unopened water bottles in our basement… (In my teens I saw a family friend had a bag full of food supplies. I asked someone if that was a prep bag, and they said yes. I thought they were a bit weird. Now I’ve come full circle browsing Amazon for cheap doomsday food.)

Walmart sells 5 gallon water totes for $15. that is essentially 5 days for one person. We have a few on hand (family of 4 plus dog) and every six months or so, I empty them, clean them, and re-fill them. Also, there are gravity filters that work great if you have things like creeks near you.. Berkey Filters are pretty good for filtering out contaminants, as well as 2-bag gravity filters that are really popular with b…

If there is no AC, and you are exerting yourself a lot (no car or transportation is down, more work to prepare food, even having to take a dump outside), 5 gallons is barely enough for one person to drink per day. You'll be sweating a lot more in those conditions.

Another example is food in winter months. During a disaster, even with winter gear, your houee may not be heated. If it is -20C inside, your body will need more calories.

If you're having to go outside to cook, to expel waste, and maybe even to go find snow to melt for water, you're going to need 3x your caloric intake.

You have to plan for worst case usage per day, not best.

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