I was thinking about the disasters recently, and started compiling a list of just the major events over the last 30ish days.

During the summer of 2017, dozens of large wildfires burned over 2 million acres from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. In Canada, wildfires were burning across all provinces, from the Great Lakes to Alaska. Wildfires in 2017 also plagued Siberia, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand.

Hurricane Harvey struck the southern Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane on August 25. The storm meandered along the coast, making three landfalls, dumping record levels of torrential rain and causing severe flooding from Corpus Christi to Houston to Louisiana, before finally moving along and dissipating on 9/3. Thousands were left homeless. The storm also affected oil production from the gulf, leading to runs on gas stations as residents feared gasoline outages. Flooding and electrical outages at chemical plants resulted in releases of toxic chemicals and explosions.

Mexico pledged assistance to help recovery efforts following Hurricane Harvey. However, they experienced an 8.1 magnitude earthquake on September 8th that required diverting their resources to focus on their own citizens. While this was happening, Hurricane Katia also hit central Mexico on September 8th.

While Texans were cleaning up from Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma formed in the Atlantic, rapidly building to a Category 5 storm. After plowing through the Bahamas and Cuba as a Category 5 storm, Hurricane Irma made landfall in southern Florida on September 10th as a Category 4 storm and wreaked havoc along the length of the peninsula, with flooding and wind damage, leaving millions without power for days to weeks. Irma finally dissipated by 9/15.

On September 11th, the sun emitted a significant solar flare. NASA classified the flare as an X8.2-class, denoting the flare was in the most intense class (X) with 8.2 denoting the strength. While the flare was pointed away from Earth, astronauts on the International Space Station were instructed to seek shelter in a reinforced area of the station due to the proton storm from the flare. Other strong activity had been occurring during this period.

Hurricane Maria then formed in the Atlantic, appearing to follow the same track as Hurricane Irma. Maria devastated Puerto Rico, striking the island on September 20th as a Category 4 storm, before moving on to other eastern Caribbean islands. Significant portions of Puerto Rico will be without power for months.

Central Mexico experienced another strong earthquake of 7.1-magnitude on September 20th, killing hundreds as buildings toppled in central Mexico. The US sent additional earthquake rescue teams to assist Mexican rescuers. Strong aftershocks have followed.

While these natural disasters were destroying lives and property, the rogue North Korean regime conducted tests of its’ ballistic missiles on August 29th and September 15th. They also test detonated nuclear weapons on September 3rd and 9th, prompting stern warnings from world leaders. Military exercises along both sides of the border between North and South Korea contributed to the sabre rattling and the war of words continues to escalate.

Fortunately, a collision with Planet X/Nibiru was avoided on September 23.

While any one of these are significant events, requiring well coordinated responses from emergency personnel and federal resources, imagine if two or more of them occurred in closer proximity &/or at the same time. A hurricane with an earthquake? On October 2, 2005, Taiwan was dealing with the category 4 Supertyphoon, Longwang, when it experienced a 5.4 earthquake. On August 13, 2007, a 5.4-magnitude earthquake hit Hawaii as it was preparing for the approach of Hurricane Flossie.

Imagine responding to an earthquake during a Carrington Event type storm could severely limit radio and electric resources. A missile launch that made it through defenses while dealing with a west coast earthquake? A New Madrid scale quake during a blizzard? A Barringer sized meteor strike during a massive wildfire? Planet X...nevermind.

In spite of how it sounds, these things are either happening frequently or there is always the potential for their occurrence. Yes, this is why we prepare, because this is actually normal, and there is always the potential for disasters.

I look at prepping (and many other aspects of life) with the concept of concentric rings. You are in the center, and you must be prepared, functional and healthy. If you are not, you will not survive, and you will not be able to help others.

The next ring is your immediate family and close friends. If you have taken care of yourself, you can help them prepare, and teach them why and how. As a group, you are better prepared than a bunch of individuals.

The next ring (at least for preparing for disasters) is your community. If everyone in your community has taken the necessary steps to prepare as individuals and families, then your community is very resilient. It will not require much outside help, and can actually take care of others.

You see how the concentric ring concept works. It can keep getting larger, but it all rests on those individuals and families.

There is nothing really new or unusual about these disasters listed. History is full of such events and circumstances. And life on Earth goes on.

If you live in California, be ready for earthquakes; in Kansas, stand by for tornadoes, in Florida, hunker down for hurricanes. Everyone is subject to fires (wild or otherwise), auto accidents, or inability to watch sporting events because the grid is down.

Preparing is the answer. This timely article was in the paper this morning:

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-quake-sanders-20170923-story.html

While they're regular occurrences, the current news cycle tends to quickly move along to saturate us with only the latest disaster. When you take some time to look back, even just the last 30 days in this case, you can certainly realize just how fragile the shell of civilization is, and why being prepared shouldn't stop because you have a 72 hour kit that's 10 years old.

Yes, disasters do damage, and sometimes it is catastrophic. However, what astonishes me is not how fragile civilization is, but how resilient.

Well said, sir!

Resilient - now more due to modern technology, modern machinery, readily available transportation (ship, rail, aircraft) specialized SAR / recovery teams, various .gov, military, NGO resources and more.

True,modern tech is dandy, but past civilizations were pretty resilient, as well (just ask an archaeologist!). Fundamentally, we are social critters, and, faced with adversity, most often work together.

Stone axes take longer than chain saws,but they get rid of debris eventually....