Matt Drudge Tweets Dire Warning: “Self-Quarantine”

The world’s leading news aggregator always stays on top of the most important stories in the world. With over a billion monthly visitors to his web site at DrudgeReport.com, it’s why thousands of media organizations follow his every post. Though seemingly a private person, there is no doubt that Matt Drudge has the inside scoop on many goings on in Washington and around the country. With contacts in high places, it stands to reason that the man behind the largest news source on the planet might get a heads up about key developments every so often.

Yesterday, after having completely wiped his social media Twitter account clean recently, Matt Drudge posted his first message in months.

It’s a simple message and very much to the point, but for those following the news of failing Ebola containment protocols it’s terrifying.

“self-quarantine”

(All News Pipeline via Steve Quayle)

Maybe Matt Drudge has gotten word of something that we’re not yet aware of just yet.
Or, perhaps, like any concerned citizen watching the Centers for Disease control botch the handling of Ebola, he sees the writing on the wall. The virus, as has been the case in Africa, will continue to spread.

Given what we know of the last 48 hours, the virus made it’s way from Dallas to Ohio and back when the second person to contract Ebola in America, Amber Vinson, boarded a commercial passenger plane while symptomatic. She was approved to fly after contacting the CDC and telling them she had a low-grade fever and had been a nurse treating Patient Zero Thomas Duncan.

There’s no telling how many people Vinson or Nina Pham (Patient #2) came into contact with while they were infected or where those people are now.
Given these latest developments, Matt Drudge may be right on target with his recommendation to self-quarantine.

But is it time to do that now?

Tess Pennington, author of The Prepper’s Blueprint, addresses this in her latest guide: When Should I Go Into a Full Pandemic Lockdown Mode And Self Quarantine?

Before you dismiss this as just another over-sensationalized attempt at fear mongering, understand this: Ebola has a 70% mortality rate and there is no cure.

Let’s be absolutely clear – this is not a common cold or flu. If you get Ebola, odds are you will die.

Pennington outlines several events and warning signs that should trigger your personal lockdown plan. She also goes on to provide details on what you’ll need to survive an extended quarantine in your own home.

For people who have never considered the possibility of a pandemic or large-scale emergency, it sounds simple enough. Lock the doors. No one goes in, no one goes out.

But unless you’ve planned for a pandemic in advance you can expect to run out of essential supplies like food pretty quickly. Moreover, have you considered what you’ll do if utility workers stop showing up for work and the power or water treatment plants stop functioning? What about sanitation – where will you put all that waste, especially if the sewage system goes down along with other utilities?

For those with country retreats or survival “bug outs” and the means to go off-grid, the solution is easy. For those living in cities, working full-time jobs, and kids at school it becomes a daunting task.
Nonetheless, Drudge is right. What happens if this virus continues to spiral out of control and the medical system can no longer handle it? Despite our purportedly advanced health care infrastructure, what if we go the way of West Africa? What if the CDC can’t stop it?

Then, self quarantine becomes the only viable means of prevention.

You absolutely cannot depend on the government to protect you this time. If Ebola spreads, your ability to prevent infection and survive will come down to one factor: YOU.
Are you ready for this possibility?

Preparing to Hunker Down in Place

Preparing to Hunker Down in Place

For the past week, I have been giving a lot of consideration to what I would personally do if there was even the slightest hint of an Ebola pandemic in the United States. You would think that the process I engage would be easy since I live on an island that is only accessible by ferry, private vessel, or small aircraft. But, as with all things, preparedness, there are always unique circumstances that come into play in any disaster and a pandemic is no different.

The risk, as I see it, is that I live in a popular tourist destination. By popular I mean that the population swells up to three-fold during the summer months as visitors from around the world come to view the scenic beauty of the waterways as well as the bald eagles and Orca whales. This translates into possible exposure from tourists who are carriers showing no outward sign of sickness.



In the article Seven Facts You Should Know About Ebola, I touched upon some pandemic preparedness basics. From the ten thousand foot level, here were my suggestions:

Be Prepared for a Pandemic!

How to prepare for a pandemic? The usual: plenty of food, water, first aid supplies, face masks, and something to keep your mind occupied in the event you are confined to close quarters. Examples include books, playing cards, and board games. I also recommend essential oils but more about that in a moment.

You should also be prepared to physically isolate yourself. If a pandemic is even rumored, isolate yourself from large crowds, avoid commercial travel, and head out to your bug-out-location if you have one. If you work outside the home, plan to telecommute if you can and if not, take some vacation time. Above all, use common sense and keep a level head about you.

Going beyond those basics, today I am getting up close and personal by sharing my plan. Having never experienced a pandemic, I can not say whether my approach is right or not. Instead I am applying the best common sense I can muster so that I can be ready to hunker down in place if and when the time comes.

7 Things to Do to Prepare to Hunker Down in Place

1. Plan to Stay Put. This means no travel. Air travel is totally out of the picture as is travel to urban areas or anywhere else more than 20 miles outside the radius of my home. This is pretty easy since travel 20 miles from where I live would land me in the sea.
2. Inventory Sick Room Supplies. My existing sick room supplies include both N95 and N100 masks, disposable gloves, disinfectants (bleach, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide), nitrile gloves, and rubber gloves. I also have a large supply of plastic sheeting material, tarps, duct tape and disposable shower caps to use to cover my feet. This is all in addition to a comprehensive first aid kit with the usual bandages, pain killers, and antibiotics.
3. Purchase Additional Sick Room Supplies: After inventorying what I have on hand, I have ordered protective eyewear (goggles) and disposable clothing. I have also ordered more essential oils to both diffuse and apply topically in an attempt to boost my immune system.
4. Create an Island of Physical Isolation: At the very first inkling that the risk of pandemic is real, I plan to physically isolate myself from social interaction with anyone outside of my home. This should not be too difficult since my home includes a small outdoor deck on the second floor; large enough for Tucker to do his business and for Shelly and I to get a bit of fresh air.
5. Mobilize Other Preps: I have pulled my “portable potty” out of storage and have also stocked my day-to-day pantry with plenty of canned goods and freeze-dried items from deep storage. I have plenty of food, water, disposable eating utensils, heavy duty garbage bags, toilet paper, soap, pet supplies, personal hygiene items and prescription meds to get by for a long period of physical isolation.
6. Deep Cleaning: I hate housekeeping as much as the next person but now is not the time to use the good-enough method of housecleaning. We have done a deep cleaning of our home and plan to keep it that way.
7. Avoid Boredom and Cabin Fever: In the unlikely event that we really do need to hunker down in place, I have removed the board games and dance videos from storage so that they are easily accessible. Missing from my collection are some 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles; they are something I need to purchase.

The bottom line? I plan to stay put, socially isolate myself, and use my preps to limit my exposure to anything and anyone outside the four walls of my home. Remember what I said earlier about common sense?

http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/preparing-to-hunker-down-in-place/

James Rawles Warns: Be Prepared To Hunker Down For Months

 

by Mac Slavo

 

As you consider the threats we face and the options available to you should the worst happen, you have no doubt played out numerous scenarios surrounding the effects of a total collapse event that would bring down the national power grid. Be it a cyber attack which DHS Secretary Napolitano says has a 100% likelihood of occurring, a super-EMP weapon being detonated in the skies of America, or a natural disaster involving a highly charged coronal mass ejection from the sun, the possibility is quite realistic.

Some have escaped major cities and headed for the hills, but considering that the majority of the U.S. population is centered in 146 of the country’s 3000 counties, chances are most of us will find ourselves in the middle of the worst that humanity has to offer.

Developing strategies that encompass everything from food preparation and water harvesting, to security and communications should be at the top of our lists. This is where highly respected author and Survival Blog founder James Rawles puts much of his focus in his most recent interview with the team at alternative news hub SGT Report.

It’s an interview you don’t want to miss, because that one little oversight in your preparedness plan may be the mistake that kills you.

Your chances of survival are fairly low if you’re in a major metropolitan area.
In a true grid down situation I recommend that you literally be prepared to hunker down for months.



Among other critical preparedness topics James Rawles discusses the effects and survival strategies for a grid down collapse in high population urban centers:
For someone in an urban area who plans to hunker down and doesn’t plan to bug out with country cousins, one thing that should be at the top of everyone’s list but that’s very much overlooked is… if you’re in a situation where you have power because you have photovoltaics but your neighbors don’t, you really should concentrate on black-out curtains for your windows. You need to black out your house completely, without any light leaks so that your house will look just as black as any other on your block.

Otherwise you’re going to be targeted as the rich guy. You don’t want to become a loot-me-beacon at night. That should be a fairly high priority for you.
…
There’s so many things that are gonna go into it. If we’re truly in a grid-down situation you’re going to have to think in terms of not just food storage, but where you can collect rainwater or surface water, whether it’s a pond or a creek, and how you’re going to transport that water home without access to a gas engine vehicle.
…
You’re gonna want to be able to cook without any spices whatsoever… From an efficiency standpoint… you’re going to want to use a special insulated cooker… It’s essentially like crock-pot cooking where you bring your water to a boil, add your rice, meat, vegetables, whatever… and you’re going to enclose it in a double-insulated container. With that cooking method you have a couple of advantages. One is you don’t have cooking odors escaping and the other is you have the absolute minimum energy input.

That’s just one example of the work-arounds that you can use in an urban or suburban environment if you literally can’t trust your ravenous neighbors.
…
For someone who has to hunker down you’re going to have think through each of those situations, whether it’s sanitation, cooking, home security, communications… the whole works. You’re going to have to think through each of those.

Unfortunately, in an urban environment, you can do everything right but if you’re neighbors can’t adapt you’re going to end up just as dead, because… the sanitation situation is going to be horrendous. And, if people are going door-to-door kicking in the front doors of houses, eventually they’re going to get to your house. If it’s that bad, if it’s a total worst case your chances are not that good hunkering down in place.

You may beat the odds, but I would rather be somewhere else, frankly.
…
[Living in the city] You’re in the same situation as probably 30% or 40% of my readership, so don’t feel like you’re alone. There are a lot of people that would love to relocate, but either for financial reasons, or family obligations, or work obligations, or health considerations… you’re not alone.
…
A level of planning that you’ll have to make is definitely a step up than your average suburbanite. You’re going to have to think everything through. You’re going to have to shepherd your funds, and prioritize your purchasing and your training with exactitude.

All it takes is one overlooked area and you’re another statistic.

We strongly encourage you to listen to James Rawles’ interview with SGT Report in full. It has tons of ideas, tips and situations that any serious prepper needs to consider – not tomorrow, today.

There are a variety of excellent resources available to help you insulate yourself for a long-term disaster scenario no matter where you find yourself when it goes down, starting with Rawles’ preparedness guidelines outlined in his book How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It where he details tactics, techniques, and technologies for uncertain times.

We encourage you to forward this to friends and family who may not be as convinced as you are about the possibility of an emergency that wipes out our electric grid.

The fact is, the U.S. government has been preparing for exactly such a scenario, and they’ll be launching nationwide simulations later this year. They’ve been stockpiling food, water treatment supplies, firearms, ammunition, and training personnel to deal with the aftermath.

If you’re not doing the same thing, then you haven’t been paying attention – or you’ve chosen to stick your hand in the sand and pretend that it’s not really happening.

http://www.prepperfortress.com/james-rawles-warns-be-prepared-to-hunker-down-for-months-2/