S. Korea heatwave kills more than 830,000 poultry

terradaily/South Korea's extended heatwave has taken its toll on both humans and animals, with more than 830,000 chickens or other poultry reported dead as of Wednesday.
The agriculture ministry said 786,512 chickens, 40,780 ducks, 3,000 quail, 336 pigs and five cows have died since July 20, when the peak temperature began hovering above 33 Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) in most areas.
The stifling heat also killed seven people in June and July, the health ministry said, mostly elderly people working in fields or greenhouses.
Temperatures have stayed above 35 C for 12 days in much of the country, causing massive blooms of algae in rivers.
Sales of electric fans and air conditioners have soared. On Monday the state power company warned that reserves were dangerously low and urged people to switch off appliances, as usage reached a record.
The meteorological administration says relief is in sight starting Friday, with midday temperatures dropping to the customary August figure of 30C from the weekend.

United States breaks heat records in first half of 2012

 

As I found this article I checked the temp and it was 101 in NW Arkansas. I had a cold bottlle of water that didnt stay cold very long. I actually didnt even finish it because it was so warm when I got to the end.

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(chicagotribune/Reuters)Scorching temperatures in June's second half helped the continental United States break its record for the hottest first six months in a calendar year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday.
The last 12 months also have been the warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1895, narrowly beating the previous 12-month period that ended in May 2012.

Every state except Washington in the contiguous United States had warmer-than-average temperatures for the June 2011-June 2012 period.
The recent blistering heat wave broke records across much of the United States, threatening the Midwest's corn crop and helping to fan destructive wildfires.
June was 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) warmer in the lower 48 states than the 20th-century average, but still just the 14th hottest June in the record books, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said in a statement.
June 1933, during the calamitous Dust Bowl period, was the hottest.
More than 170 all-time warm records were broken or tied during June's second half, NOAA said.
Temperatures in South Carolina and Georgia of 113 degrees F (45 degrees C) and 112 degrees F (44 degrees C) respectively are under review as possible all-time statewide temperature records.
Such record-high temperatures are in line with a long-term warming trend in the 48 contiguous states, said Jake Crouch, a scientist at the National Climatic Data Center.
Climate change spurred by carbon dioxide emissions may not be the primary cause, but these extreme conditions are consistent with what scientists see as a "new normal," Crouch said by telephone.
"It's hard to pinpoint climate change as the driving factor, but it appears that it is playing a role," he said. "What's going on for 2012 is exactly what we would expect from climate change."
CORN YIELD AT RISK
This past month was also the 10th driest June, with drought spreading to 56 percent of the contiguous U.S. states, up from 37.4 percent in May, making it the largest drought footprint of the 21st century.
The heat and drought put pressure on the corn crop, with analysts suggesting that theU.S. Department of Agriculture should lower its yield forecast in a monthly report due on Wednesday.
In early June, before the highest temperatures hit the U.S. grain belt, USDA forecast a record-large yield of 166 bushels per acre. Since then, hot, dry weather has baked much of the corn-growing region just as the crop was starting pollination, the key growth phase for determining yield.

Wildfires claimed 1.3 million acres, mostly in the West, the second-largest area to be charred during any June on record.
But it wasn't all dry. Tropical Storm Debby dumped so much rain during its slow pass across Florida that the state's monthly statewide precipitation total for the month was 13.16 inches, or 6.17 inches above average, making it Florida's wettest June on record.
Maine, Oregon and Washington state each had a top-10 wet June.
A broader look at global weather conditions for 2011 by U.S. and British scientists is set for release on Tuesday by NOAA and theUnited Kingdom's Met Office.
(Additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; Editing by Xavier Briand)

Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. "

Thomas Jefferson

 

Please prepare people! another bag of rice and a gallon of water a week goes a long ways when we have nothing. Natural disasters are becoming the norm lately. Dont depend on your neighbors and dont depend on the government. Depend on your self!!

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Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness

03.07.2012 10:33    Comments: 0    Categories: weather      Tags: east coast  heatwave  storms  power outage  

SHTFplan/We’ve seen it time and again over the last decade. An emergency strikes and panic grips the city or region for days or weeks on end.
We saw a complete breakdown of emergency response and law & order during Hurricane Katrina. The 2011 Snowpocalypse on the east coast led to runs on grocery stores and empty shelves within a matter of hours. Widespread blackouts during Hurricane Ike left large sections of the Houston power grid down for up to four weeks. In all these cases gas was almost impossible to find, what was in your pantry was what you had until food distribution resumed, local water was not safe for consumption, and government response was limited to reinstating essential services first and foremost.
The bottom line, as Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project notes, is that after billions have been spent by Department of Homeland Security, FEMA and local law enforcement, we are no more prepared today than we were the day before September 11, 2011.

After a short but unusually severe thunderstorm that roared through the D.C. area on Friday night, the entire Washington Metropolitan Area was thrown into chaos.
Three days later, countless traffic lights are still out, hundreds of thousands of residents are without power, including myself, grocery stores and gas station are closed for lack of power, and the federal government is encouraging employees to telework.
[SHTFplan Editor's note: Brilliant recommendation from the best and brightest - to "telework" when the grid is down. ]
…
Is this the work of a terrible terrorist attack? No, it is the complete disaster non-preparedness a decade after 9/11. Despite the fact that billions if not trillions have been spent since 9/11 on counter-terrorism and so-called “homeland security” measures, one of the major terrorist targets, the nation’s capital, cannot cope with a severe thunderstorm.
…
I received a message from PEPCO that most D.C.-area residents may not have power until next Friday at 11:00 pm – a full week after the storm hit. With temperatures this week set for the mid to upper-90s, that is a long time for residents to be with air conditioning, or fans, or refrigerators.
Two years ago, the Washington Post’s comprehensive examination of the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on “homeland security,” “Top Secret America” reflected that the D.C. metropolitan area was burgeoning with infrastructure, though apparently none of it focused on keeping the D.C.-area up and running after a severe thunderstorm.
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I am not the only D.C. taxpayer wondering, where are billions in “critical infrastructure” protection and “homeland security?” They are not going toward obvious solutions like putting power lines underground.
The D.C. area’s responsiveness to unexpected events has not improved, but taxpayers’ pockets have been drained to create an entire secret city of “national security” in northern Virginia. Making sure citizens have food and power in an emergency should be a top priority, not a distant second to security theater like taking our shoes off before getting on an airplane.

(Pictured: Run on grocery stores; Snowpocalypse 2010)

Once again we are provided with ample evidence that not only is the government ill-prepared to handle a large scale city-wide emergency, but the residents of this nation are completely oblivious to the fact that if the shit hits the fan, no one will be there to provide assistance.
When Houston was hit almost head on by Hurricane Ike in 2008 the residents of the entire metropolitan area were shocked. Never mind the mass chaos as millions tried to flee the region, with drives to neighboring cities taking upwards of ten times longer than they normally would. Power for 90% of the city went out, and for some areas, including where we lived, power was not restored for almost a month. Suffice it to say our community was anxiety ridden, frustrated and tempers were flaring. When gas became wholly unavailable and the generators stopped running and we were overtaken with near 100 degree heat during the day, the situation for many became untenable.
FEMA’s own web site calls on Americans to have a two week supply of emergency items, yet most citizens have only a three day supply of reserve food available – whatever’s in the kitchen when disaster strikes is what they’ve got until things get back to normal.
Even after these recommendations from the very people who are tasked with responding to emergency and disaster situations, not a single resident in our community that we were aware of had emergency supplies on hand when Ike hit – even though many had gone through countless hurricanes before and knew what to expect.
After Katrina, Ike, the various earthquakes, wildfires, snow storms, “Derechos,”  power outages, and tens of billions in taxpayer funds supposedly appropriated into infrastructure, security and emergency response, it’s simply incredible that we are so unprepared as a society.
Imagine, for a moment, what happens in a scenario that affects not a single city, but an entire multi-state region, or, perhaps the entire nation. And imagine that the event(s) is so widespread that government is totally overwhelmed – food transportation stops, refineries can’t get gas to local areas, water and power utility workers stay home to care for their families, law enforcement is faced with widespread looting, the internet becomes inaccessible as do all avenues of communication due to blackouts, and grocery store shelves remain out of stock for weeks or months.
Such a scenario may be unlikely, but certainly possible – and the resulting effects on the population and our way of life would be nothing short of complete and utter pandemonium, especially for those who have failed to prepare.