Silver Sentinel, Major Disaster Preparedness Exercise

Today I will be at the Alameda County Sheriffs Office EOC for the Silver Sentinel exercise.

The exercise is based on a major earthquake hitting the Bay Area, and takes place approximately 48 hours after the earthquake hitting. Which is also the 140 year anniversary of the Hayward fault earthquake that happened in 1868 and was a magnitude 6.9 - 7.0 quake.

During 1868 only 26,000 people lived in the area and about 36 people lost their lives, today about 2 million people live in the same area.

For more about the 1868 earthquake please visit: 1868 Hayward Earthquake Alliance.

The exercise will last from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM

I will edit this post later with more information.

UPDATE: Overall the Silver Sentinel exercise was a large success with many participants from various public and private entities.

The only difference I would like to add here from what I wrote previously above is that the exercise took place 3 days after a 6.9 earthquake along the Hayward fault.

I have written several times about earthquakes and earthquake safety please be sure to check these stories for useful information on what to do if there is an earthquake in your area.

In another post I spoke about how to safely install a generator which will come in handy after a power loss. Two main rules to remember is never to run a generator indoors or in an inclosed area, and never refuel a generator while it is running.

Iran To Have Nukes Within Three Months?

According to a report released this past Friday, October 17th 2008 Iran is now three months away from developing its first nuclear weapon. This report was released by the NTI.

The report also states that according to Iranian state television an exercise is curretnly underway to show that Iran has the capability to strike Iran.

This could be due to speculation that the Israelis are planning a strike against Iranian nuclear sites.

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Pakistan Strike Kills 40 Militants

Pakistan Killed approximately 40 militants in a strike today as the Country was being visited by a United States Diplomat.

It appears the new Pakistani Government is steaping up efforts against militants, but the Country is still extremely volatile with Al-Qaeda, and Taliban militants increasing their attacks throughout the Country.

Pakistan has also asked for a loan of $5-6Billion from the IMF.

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Al-Qaeda Suffers From Communications Problems In Cyberspace

Since September 10th 2008 Al-Qaeda has had a problem with their web based forums. Only leaving one currently operational.

The trouble has forced them to issue statements to their followers to no trust look alike sites and stated on September 29th that they were down for technical reasons.

The report by the Washington Post noted there have been several examples in recent years of extremist Web sites being attacked by hackers, though it isn't clear who the hackers are nor whether the United States is involved in the attempts to disable the terrorist communication network.

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Trailer Loaded with Coffee Creamer Stolen

Someone has stolen 53 foot trailer was loaded with coffee creamer. The trailer was left for several days in a parking lot in a shopping center for several days, and when the driver of the truck returned to the lot, the trailer was gone.

Why is this such a concern? Because, coffee creamer is highly incendiary and can be used to make explosives.

The 1999 white cargo trailer belonged to Parrish Trucking of Freeburg and had the number 3062 printed on the rear door.

Anyone with information is asked to call West City police at 435-6112 or the trucking company at (800) 486-3885.

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