Thursday, November 01, 2012
Flooding at Holman Municipal Airport sometime in the 1940's.
From NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) Collection, image wea 00745
Photographer: Archival Photography by Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS
We’ve been seeing our fair share of severe weather in the DC region over the last year or so:
heavy snowfall,
earthquake,
derecho,
hurricane. All of these events stopped time for us. Literally. Power outages crippled the region and had us stocking up on candles, canned goods and batteries and buttering up our neighbors with generators because Home Depot was sold out of them by the time we got there. Some people are paying more attention to the
survival-type shows on TV to pick up tips on preparing for the worst.
Your local library branch also has some great resources for you. We can help you prepare for and survive nature’s wrath and also help keep cabin fever at bay when you are sheltering in place. Let’s start with the preparations…
Take a stroll to the 613.9 area of non-fiction for survival tips and look for books like:
Now that you have your plans in place, browse through the rest of the library to find entertainment for your weather-proof bunker.
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Read fiction to match the atmosphere with books like:
Ashfall, about a catastrophic volcano eruption that separates a young man from his family;
Life as We Knew It, about a meteor knocking the moon out of its orbit and the changes that wreaks on the earth; or the classic
Swiss Family Robinson, about a family shipwrecked on a deserted island.
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Read non-fiction and be thankful that the worst thing you are suffering is losing cable for a few hours or having to eat PB & J for every meal for three days, like:
Into the Wild, about a young man who drove a bus into remote Alaskan wilderness and disappeared;
The Perfect Storm, about fisherman lost 500 miles off the New England shores battling extreme waves and churning seas; or
Alive or
Miracle in the Andes, about a plane crashed on a remote glacier in the Andes and the unimaginable decisions the survivors had to make in order to live and seek rescue.
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If you still have power and internet connection, explore the
E-Library and download a classic to read aloud or listen to with the family, find tunes to keep you dancing on
Freegal or learn a new language with
Mango Languages (including Pirate!).
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Stock up on DVDs using this list of… even though the list is mostly limited to natural disasters and does not include
surviving zombies.
& FAQ
