Ringed Asteroid Stuns Astronomers | Space News

© Courtesy Thunderbolts Prokect

Thunderbolts Project | Apr 4, 2014 | CHANNEL

A team of astronomers is puzzling over an unprecedented discovery--the first ever observed asteroid with its own ring system. The asteroid Chariklo, which is 250 km in diameter and orbits between Saturn and Uranus, displays two rings which are said to be similar in nature to those of Saturn. Wal Thornhill provides EU insight into the discovery.



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Thousands of dead, dying starfish washing ashore across the U.S. Gulf coast

© CBS4
Dead Brittle Stars, also called Spider
Starfish, have been washing ashore
beaches from Florida
Panhandle to Alabama.

Sott.net | Apr 2, 2014 | Source

Beaches across the Gulf coast, including the Florida Panhandle, are getting the star treatment as thousands of starfish drift ashore.

Most of them, dead or dying, are washing up on beaches from Perdido Key, Florida in Pensacola to Alabama.

The majority are brittle stars, also called spider starfish, and they are very common in waters around the world.

"This is very rare, I have lived here all my life and I have never seen them like this," said beachgoer Charlotte Phillips.

Marine experts said rough surf caused by recent storms may have pushed the starfish over the sandbars and onto the beach.

Tidal pools hold most of what's left.

‘Nobody Really Knows What’s Happening With Climate Change. They’re Just Guessing’

Watts Up With That | Apr 3, 2014 | Anthony Watts

The IPCC Just Agreed With Nigel Lawson 

Nigel Lawson was right after all. Ever since the Centre for Policy Studies lecture in 2006 that launched the former chancellor on his late career as a critic of global warming policy, Lord Lawson has been stressing the need to adapt to climate change, rather than throw public money at futile attempts to prevent it. Until now, the official line has been largely to ignore adaptation and focus instead on ‘mitigation’ — the misleading term for preventing carbon dioxide emissions. That has now changed. The received wisdom on global warming, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was updated this week: the IPCC emphasised, again and again, the need to adapt to climate change. –Matt Ridley, The Spectator, 5 April 2014

Take this climate matter everybody is thinking about. They all talk, they pass laws, they do things, as if they knew what was happening. I don’t think anybody really knows what’s happening. They just guess. And a whole group of them meet together and encourage each other’s guesses. –James Lovelock, BBC Newsnight, 2 April 2014

Influential scientist, inventor, and environmentalist James Lovelock is having some second thoughts about the whole climate change thing. In the context of a doom-and-gloom United Nations climate science report, Lovelock, 94, described the environmental movement as becoming “a religion, and religions don’t worry too much about facts.” He added that “It’s just as silly to be a denier as it is to be a believer. You can’t be certain.” –Inquisitr News, 2 April 2014

The latest United Nations report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is something of brain twister. The IPCC report is at odds with global economic and political realities. There are, in effect, two different worlds. At the IPCC, the objective is to fan fears of fossil-fuel-induced global crises brought on by rising carbon emissions. In the rest of the world, demand for fossil fuels continues to expand, regardless of the carbon risks. It surely has not escaped the IPCC’s policy leaders that as they try to drum up support for reduced carbon emissions and policy action, the leading powers are in an escalating battle for fossil-fuel supremacy. –Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, 1 April 2014

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Working Group II has concluded that global warming of 2.5˚C would cost the equivalent to losing between 0.2-2.0% of annual income. This seems in sharp contrast to the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change, which found it would cost 5-20%. How can that be? The Stern Review was prepared by a team of civil servants and never reviewed (beforepublication) by independent experts. Some argue that the Stern Review served to bolster Gordon Brown’s credentials with the environmental wing of the Labour Party in preparation for his transition to party leader and prime minister. And in fact next weekIPCC Working Group III will conclude that the Stern Review grossly underestimated the costs of bringing down greenhouse gas emissions. –Richard Tol, The Conversation, 2 April 2014

Of 10,885 Peer-Reviewed Articles on Climate Change in 2013, Only 2 Question Human Involvement

Dried Lake in Texas
(photo: Tony Gutierrez, AP)

ALLGOV | Apr 3, 2014 | Noel Brinkerhoff

James L. Powell is an MIT-educated geologist who taught students about the earth for 20 years at Oberlin College and served on the prestigious National Science Board at the request of two Republican presidents (Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush). He’s also a believer in human-made global warming, and has spent considerable time reviewing scientific and academic papers on the subject.

In 2013 alone, Powell found 10,885 peer-reviewed articles that discussed global warming or climate change. But only two described as peer-reviewed denied the widely-held belief that the planet is warming up because of humans, he says, and one of the two turned out not to be peer-reviewed.

One of those papers was produced by a Russian scientist, S. V. Avakyan, who claims global warming is a product of solar activity. Avakyan also says that calls for reducing the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere not only won’t help, but could cripple Russia’s economy and the oil industry. The other paper, published by a German chemistry publication, amounted to a one-page opinion piece that wasn’t peer-reviewed, according to Powell.

In addition to the more than 10,000 articles he found for last year, Powell says he’s reviewed more than another 15,000 papers on climate change. Of the grand total of 25,182 scientific articles he’s read, only 26 rejected the idea that humans are causing global warming.

These 26 papers do not offer a common, rival theory to man-made global warming, he says. Instead, they amount to “a hodgepodge of alternatives, none of which has caught on. The dissenting articles are rarely cited, even by other dissenters. A groundswell this is not. The 26 rejecting articles have had no discernible influence on science,” he wrote on his blog.

He further states that “the so-called debate over global warming is an illusion, a hoax conjured up by a handful of apostate scientists and a misguided and sometimes colluding media, aided and abetted by funding from fossil fuel companies and right wing foundations.”

Powell is not alone in claiming that conservatives and oil interests have tried to discredit man-made global warming.

Robert Brulle, a sociologist at Drexel University, and other academics published a paper late last year saying right-wing organizations had spent an average of $1 billion a year to support campaigns that attempt to refute the existence of global warming.

Brulle and his collaborators discovered more than 90 think tanks, advocacy groups and industry associations working to block action on climate change. The effort has been funded largely by conservative billionaires, such as the Koch brothers, using secretive funding networks to conceal their contributions.

Animals fleeing Yellowstone spark fears of volcanic eruption

Yellowstone National Park (Reuters / Jim Urquhart)

RT | Apr 2, 2014

Videos of bison seemingly fleeing Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming have sparked concerns among some bloggers that recent seismic activity could trigger the eruption of the park’s so-called supervolcano.

According to Epoch Times, multiple videos of such incidents have been posted online recently, one of which shows a herd of buffalo allegedly leaving the park and “running for their lives.” Although people behind the discussion acknowledge there’s no way to predict when the park’s massive volcano could erupt, they believe the reaction of the Yellowstone’s animals could signal some kind of alert.

On March 30, Yellowstone was struck by the most powerful earthquake it has experienced since 1980 – a 4.8 magnitude quake that did no damage, but that some believe could be connected to the various animals’ movements.


“Whether I believe this, or whether I don’t believe the story or not, I don’t know. I can tell you this story I saw this morning about the buffaloes running the street … whether or not it’s because of any activity in Yellowstone or not, I don’t know,” said blogger Jay Lee, according to the Times.

“But I’ll tell you this, whatever the case may be, that their running away from Yellowstone is an alert of some sort.”

Another video uploaded to YouTube, this time by self-described “survivalist” and “search-and-rescue expert” Tom Lupshu, claims, “Biologists aren’t sure if there’s been a stunning decline in the herd or if other factors have skewed the tally.” Lupshu also said that helium releases in the area are 1,000 times above normal levels, and accused the US Geological Survey of not reporting small quakes occurring near the volcano.

“Herds of bison running for their lives on the public roadways and they were not being chased or rounded up, the bison were running down the mountain slopes onto roadways running right past a filming crew,” he added. “They detect something vast and deadly. The Yellowstone Supervolcano is the only thing there that would fit the bill.”


The supervolcano – which was found last year to be 2.5 times larger than previously thought – has not erupted in over 640,000 years, leaving some to speculate that a blast is overdue. If and when it erupts again, the volcano could potentially spew ash over large swathes of North America and cause trouble around the entire planet.

"It would be a global event," Jamie Farrell of the University of Utah told the Associated Press last year. "There would be a lot of destruction and a lot of impacts around the globe."

Although Farrell said scientists don’t know enough to map out the next eruption’s likely arrival, he did say they’d know if magma was moving towards the Earth’s surface.

In another video, Lupshu said that increased seismic activity at Yellowstone could bring about the volcano’s eruption, but the Geological Survey has noted such activity is currently par for the course, and that between 1,000 and 3,000 earthquakes hit the area every year. The agency also stated that helium releases have “no implications about volcanic hazards.”

According to Epoch Times, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations also downplayed fears.

“There is no evidence that a catastrophic eruption at Yellowstone National Park (YNP) is imminent,” the service said. “Current geologic activity at Yellowstone has remained relatively constant since earth scientists first started monitoring some 30 years ago. Though another caldera-forming eruption is theoretically possible, it is very unlikely to occur in the next thousand or even 10,000 years.”

Half of European bumblebees in decline, quarter face extinction – study

Reuters / Stephen Ausmus

RT | Apr 2, 2014

Almost one-quarter of European crops’ vital pollinators – bumblebees – could die out in the coming years, as half of the species are declining, a new study says. Citing human factor and climate change, it warns of “serious implications” for agriculture.

A preview of the recent European Commission-funded study, published on the website of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Wednesday, says it has some “bad news” for Europe’s bumblebees.

As much as 46 percent of the 68 bumblebee species living in Europe have a declining population and just 13 percent are increasing in numbers, the study shows. According to IUCN, 24 percent of those species are “threatened with extinction.”

The study, which contributes to the European Red List of pollinators and is part of the Status and Trends of European Pollinators (STEP) project, stresses that three of the five “most important insect pollinators of European crops” are bumblebee species.

Bumblebees have for thousands of years played a “critical role” in agriculture as they help crops reproduce by transferring pollen from plant to plant. However, as agriculture and urban development have intensified in recent years and cultivated land has been changed, bumblebees have been hit by the loss of habitat and the loss of their preferred forage, as well as pollution and insecticides.

The population of critically endangered Bombus cullumanus, for example, has declined by more than 80 percent over the last decade alone, according to the study. Once widespread in Europe, the so-called Cullum’s Bumblebee now survives only “in a few scattered locations,” much due to the mass removing of its favorite clovers from farming practices.

A beef-up in agriculture has also been blamed by the study’s authors for the shrinking population of the endangered Bombus fragrans (Steppe Bumblebee), whose native habitat is being “destroyed” in Ukraine and parts of Russia.

Increasing temperatures and long periods of drought brought about by climate change are also responsible for “major changes” in the insects’ habitat. Those species living in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, like the Scandinavian tundra and Russia’s extreme north, are vulnerable to a dramatic decline, the study concludes.

‘22 billion euro a year’  

Scientists have been “very concerned” with the findings of the study, Ana Nieto, European biodiversity officer of IUCN and the study’s coordinator, said, adding that “such a high proportion of threatened bumblebees can have serious implications for our food production.”

According to Simon Potts, coordinator of STEP, this shows an increasing threat to Europe’s “natural capital,” an essential part of which is “the contribution of bumblebees to food security and the maintenance of wider plant biodiversity.”

The study itself offers an even more striking assessment of this “capital.”

Together with other pollinators, bumblebees contribute “more than 22 billion euros [over US$30 billion] to European agriculture per year,” according to IUCN.

The EU’s top environment official, Janez Potocnik, said the EU has already banned or restricted the use of certain pesticides dangerous for pollinators, but their efforts “clearly need to be scaled up.”

Potocnik believes the solution lies in “mainstreaming of biodiversity into other policies” and in raising awareness about the benefits that bumblebees bring.

According to Nieto, the negative trends can be reversed by “protecting bumblebee species and habitats, restoring degraded ecosystems and promoting biodiversity-friendly agricultural practice.”

More precisely, such measures may include “increasing the margins and buffer strips around agricultural fields that are rich in flowers and wildlife and the preservation of grasslands.”

Calls for awareness of bumblebees’ plight come as the EU strategy to halt biodiversity loss remains under review. The previously approved plan, set by EU leaders in March 2010, must be “fully implemented,” IUCN has stressed.

Reuters / Vasily Fedosenko

Building the Ark

© Courtesy Farm Wars

Farm Wars | Mar 30, 2014 | Barbara H. Peterson

Chemical warfare on planet earth and its inhabitants is increasing rapidly, which, if left unchecked, will result in a good portion of the planet being left unsuitable for the propagation of life. This is being caused by those who refuse to put humanity, the earth, its creatures, and our ecology ahead of corporate profit.

To those who would rape and pillage without a moment’s hesitation all for the sake of power, glory, and gold, I say:

If you do not change your ways, it is too late for you. If you do not stop this corporate onslaught that creates nothing but waste in its path, you will, at some point, come face to face with what you have done and have to answer for it.

But for those who see what is to come due to that all-consuming greed and lust for control of all resources that is inherent in those who would seek to dominate all things around them, who possess the arrogance to think that they can improve on nature’s way, it’s all about building the ark.

In Noah’s day, only a few survived. Noah and family built an ark to save themselves and the seed of life, leaving all others to perish in the flood. Noah and family were the only pure seed left. The only ones who would listen and act. All others were corrupt. So corrupt that nothing could be done to save them.

Mat 24:37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

It appears that today, corruption is also running rampant. Our food is being gene spliced with different species combined in one transgenic plant and animal that would never occur in nature, we are being genetically engineered, nanoteched, chemically mutated, slowly poisoned by the air we breathe and the water we drink, rivers are running red with pollution, males are becoming feminized through testosterone suppressing chemicals and foods, our children are being brainwashed and stolen from their parents by government agencies, and we sit back in our recliners thinking that this is okay. We are entering a time when corruption is the norm. We are becoming “as the days of Noah were.”

It’s Time to Build the Ark

Today’s ark is not one of wood and pitch. It is one that consists of enclaves dedicated to the preservation of all that is truly natural. It consists of saving what we can before the pollution is so all-consuming that there is nothing pure left. Just like it was up to Noah to build the ark and save his family along with the animals and plantlife, it is up to us to build arks of communities that store seeds and develop the skills to revive the planet. These communities will work with nature to rid it of the chemical and genetic nightmare that it has been subjected to and help it to recover along with its inhabitants.

Why? We do this because when the day comes to give an accounting of just what we have done, we want to stand with the knowledge that we have done everything in our power to do what is right. To support life and not ravage it. To build a way of life that is acceptable to all living things, and end the grievous existence that thrives on death and destruction. We do this because we love life and despise the lie. We do this because the only other option is to become that which we despise.

©2014 Barbara H. Peterson

Contamination Even More Widespread After Nuclear Dump Site Leak

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant pictured December 2004
(Photo: Leaflet/ Creative Commons/ Wiki Commons)

Common Dreams | Apr 1, 2014 | Lauren McCauley

Department of Energy to begin investigation into source of leak 

Four more workers have now tested positive for radiation after being exposed to a February leak from an underground nuclear waste dump near Carlsbad, New Mexico, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday, bringing the total number of contaminated workers to 21.

The announcement came a day ahead of a DOE plan to send a team of experts into the half-mile deep Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to set up bases from which they can begin to investigate the cause of the leak. First detected Valentine's Day weekend, officials later announced that the facility's leak was believed to be releasing radiation into the air.

WIPP is the nation's only permanent underground repository where radioactive waste—including from nuclear weapons production—is dumped deep beneath the earth's surface and stored in salt formations.

Though DOE officials said Monday that all contaminated workers had received "low doses of radiation," well below levels deemed unsafe, they have previously acknowledged that accurately determining dosage requires multiple samples taken over time.

Further, as Robert Alvarez, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and former senior policy adviser to the secretary of energy under the Clinton administration, recently told Common Dreams, the number of workers exposed was "unusually high."

Organic winemaker risks prison for not using pesticide

The Ecologist | Mar 28, 2014 | Sandra Saadi

An organic farmer in France's Cote d'Or has been prosecuted for refusing to spray insecticide on his vineyard - and is anxiously awaiting the verdict, due on 7th April. He faces 6 months in prison and a €30,000 fine.

A French biodynamic winemaker in Cote d'Or department has been prosecuted for not using an insecticide on his vineyard to prevent infection with the bacterial vine disease flavescence dorée - and is anxiously awaiting the verdit, due on 7th April.

Emmanuel Giboulot, 51, faces up to six months imprisonment and a €30,000 fine for defying a prefectural order forcing winemakers to spray their vines with pesticide against the leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus, the insect responsible for the spread of the disease.

"I refuse to spray a dangerous pesticide that destroys bees among other things. Even the least harmful insecticide against leafhopper kills the auxiliary fauna", he declared.

Official Order to prevent any risk of epidemic

The Prefectural Order was released in June 2013 to fight a hypothetical risk of this contagious grapevine disease. Two hotbeds were discovered in the area in 2005 and 2011 leaving thousands of vines damaged over an area of 12 hectares, about 30 acres.

To avoid a recurrence of the infection, the Prefect of Cote d'Or Department has ordered vineyard owners to spray insecticide on their vines to reduce leafhopper density - stressing that the application should happen only once.

Flavescence dorée (FD) disease appeared in Europe after the leafhopper was accidentally imported from the United States in the early 20th century. It was discovered for the first time in southwest of France in 1958.

Giboulot has cultivated his 10-hectare (25 acre) domaine organically since the 1970s providing "excellent results" without using any chemical products, and without resorting to prophylactic spraying of any kind. He has also been farming biodynamically since 1985.

Found guilty - but final judgment reserved

He was prosecuted under article 125-20 of the Rural Code for breaking a Prefectural Order regarding the fight against regulated animal and plant diseases.

Giboulot's lawyer Benoist Busson, a specialist in environmental law, told the court that the Order was illegal in the absence of any state of emergency.

He also reminded the court that the Order against the vines disease was made in 2003 and revised in December 2013 - it its terms applied only to areas actually at risk of the flavescence dorée disease - and "not the entire Department".

In a first hearing, the judge deemed Mr. Giboulot guilty of a criminal offence for refusing to respect an official order and sentenced him a €1,000 fine, half of it suspended.

The final judgment will be delivered at a hearing on 7th April at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Dijon.

'Natural products can do the job'

Giboulot insists that vineyards can be protected against leafhopper without damaging the environment using natural products such as ferns, calcined clay and oat straw.

He also stresses that there was no actual outbreak of the disease in the entire Department, so there was no risk in any case.

Both biodynamic and organic farming rules forbid the use preventative pesticide treatments. But in the event of an outbreak, he would have been allowed to use the plant-based insecticide Pyrevert, based on natural pyrethrum from chrysanthemum flowers.

But Pyrevert is non-selective and as well as killing any leafhoppers, it's also toxic to other insects including pollinators such as bees, and benign predatory insects such as ladybirds that feed on aphids - which can also damage vines and reduce yields.

Another group of beneficial insects at risk are Typhlodromus mites, a group of predatory insects that attack red spiders, a serious pest which, like aphids, feed on vine sap.

It's the ecology, stupid

As Denis Thiery, director in the National Institute of Agronomical Research told Le Monde, "Even if Pyrevert is of natural origins it is damaging for the environment. It is a neurotoxin that can affect not just insects, but birds, other animals, even the winemakers, depending on the doses used."

He added that the treatment was also likely to be ineffective: "In reality, the efficacy of these treatments against flavescence dorée, whether natural or conventional, is not great.

"Not all the insects are killed and the epidemic continues to spread quickly. But, like all epidemics, we don't know if the situation would be worse without the treatment."

Diagnose first, spray later - if you have to

Dr Sebastien Bellow, whose PhD thesis is on vines' natural resistance to mildew, said: "To avoid contagious grapevine diseases we must develop reliable diagnostic tools to implement beforehand.

"Many different solutions can be used to do so such as fluorescence - then we can see at an early stage if vines are infected. This diagnostic method is non-destructive and pre-symptomatic." That is, the presence of diseases can be identified before any symptoms are apparent.

The French farmers union, Confederation Paysanne, agrees with this low-impact approach to pest control.

"The insecticide spraying has been made mandatory on large geographic areas despite the absence of a preliminary diagnostic to assess the level of risk of flavescence dorée ...

"These automatic treatments have a short-term effect and will reduce to nothing many years of work to put in place a balanced ecosystem allowing self-regulation of diseases and parasitism."

Support committee and Ecophyto Plan

Giboulot's case has been widely publicised in France. A petition launched by IPSN, the Institute for the Protection of Natural Health, to support his fight with the authorities, has received over 500,000 signatures. Another Change.org petition has gathered over 61,000 supporters.

His Facebook support page has recorded 125,000 Likes. He has also released a video, seen more than 80,000 times, to explain and alert the public to his case which could affect not only winemakers, but all organic farmers. In it he says:

"Farmers should be encouraged to use solutions that protect the environment and shouldn't be subjected to the terror of a judicial punishment. Nothing will change if hundreds of thousands of citizens don't speak up clearly by signing the petition."

France - Europe's biggest agrochemicals consumer

IPSN also denounces the massive preventative use of pesticides in France. Despite the 'Ecophyto Plan' launched in 2008 by the Ministry of Agriculture, France is the biggest agrochemicals consumer in Europe.

The Ecophyto Plan's main objective is to reduce by 50% the amount of pesticide used in France by 2018. But the target will not be reached, the French Minister of Agriculture himself, Stéphane Le Foll, told the responsible Senate Commitee in July 2013.

Green MEP for the region, Sandrine Bélier, deplored Le Foll's admission of failure - and mocked "the nonsense of a system that sentences those who make the brave choice to promote other farming approaches such as the biodynamy."

She says that France's vineyards, which occupy 3.7% of farmland, use 20% of all pesticides and that the intensive spraying is damaging the health of cultivators.

And she believes that sinister forces may be at play, influencing decision-making processes in government: "Automatic use of chemicals is nothing but a decoy expertly maintained to maintain control of a sector with products from agro-chemical industry."

Sandra Saadi is a freelance journalist.

Sign the IPSN petition.

NOAA Warns of Heavy Flooding Occurring This Spring

The Daily Sheeple | Mar 31, 2014 | Tess Pennington \ Ready Nutrition

Those who are ready to put their rain gear away in the hopes to enjoy the weather that spring tends to bring might not want to be so hasty. According to the NOAA, an unusually cold and wet winter that has caused deep layers of frozen ground that, when thawed and melted could bring the risk of serious heavy flooding.

Be concerned if your area is experiencing any the following:

• current snowpacks
• deep layers of frozen ground
• swollen rivers and small streams
• saturated soil
• heavy spring storms

Areas at risk are across the Upper Mississippi Basin, Great Lakes region, Ohio River Valley, northern Middle Atlantic, New York and New England has produced an above normal amount of water in the current snowpack and a deep layer of frozen ground much further south than typical. With significant frozen ground in these areas, the flood risk is highly dependent on the amount of future rainfall and the rate of snowmelt this spring. Recent snowmelt has increased the near surface soil moisture and elevated the potential for rapid runoff from rain events. In addition, significant river ice increases the risk of flooding related to ice jams and ice jam breakups.

In the report, the NOAA warned of specific rivers at risk that include the Mississippi River between Davenport, Iowa and Burlington, Iowa, the Illinois River between Beardstown, Illinois and Henry, Illinois and many smaller rivers in the area. In addition, a potential for exceeding minor river flood levels exists across the upper Midwest and east into New England.

Get Prepared!

It won’t take much for heavy flooding to occur in certain areas, so be prepared and have a bug out bag packed for a speedy evacuation.

To prepare for a flood, you should:

• Avoid building in a floodplain unless you elevate and reinforce your home.
• Elevate the furnace, water heater, and electric panel if susceptible to flooding.
• Install “check valves” in sewer traps to prevent flood water from backing up into the drains of your home.
• Construct barriers (levees, beams, floodwalls) to stop floodwater from entering the building.
• Seal walls in basements with waterproofing compounds to avoid seepage.
• Have a disaster plan in place along with disaster supplies in place.

If a flood is likely in your area, you should:

• Listen to the radio or television for information.
• Be aware that flash flooding can occur. If there is any possibility of a flash flood, move immediately to higher ground. Do not wait for instructions to move.
• Be aware of streams, drainage channels, canyons, and other areas known to flood suddenly. Flash floods can occur in these areas with or without such typical warnings as rain clouds or heavy rain.
• Do not hide in the basement. If a flash flooding occurs, basements can quickly become death traps.
• Add some sandbags to your preps and have sand on standby in case you need to fill the bags up to protect your home.

90% of the damage related to all natural disasters (excluding droughts) is caused by floods and debris flows. Do what you can to prepare for this type of natural disaster beforehand. This type of disaster can happen very suddenly and the sooner you are able to evacuate the area, the safer you and your family will be.