General News State of Emergency in West Virginia [Water Ban]

Another shining example of 'clean coal'.

 

Oh, Lord. Can't wait to see who ends up footing the bill on this one.

 

I feel horrible for all the people affected by this.. it will be interesting to see what ends up happening to the company that caused this whole mess. It will also be interesting to see what comes out about this company (things like previous violations).

 

This is exactly why I advocate being prepared with ON HAND supplies at all times. Now everyone is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. All because they failed to believe it possible that the gird of support could fail them.

 

I have friends in the area, and there is no water in the stores anywhere. People in West Virginia cannot always to have supplies on hand. I lived there for four years and it is such a poor state. I have never seen poverty like West Virginia, it is so sad there. People are barely getting by as it, and this just makes things so much worse for them. I really hope people finally get there act together and decided to actually take of West Virginians instead of ignoring them, because they are already poor. Trust me that happens there, so many times.

 

Phoenix89 I've lived on 1000 a month with close to 800 in bills all on my own. I still managed to keep a month or more of food stocked. Aside from that do people in this state live in such poverty that they cannot reuse plastic containers to store a decent amount of water for emergency reasons rotating it regularly? I highly doubt that. Thus there is no reason for the store runs in the manner that they happened.

 

As a person who practices preparedness, I agree in part with both of y'all. If you really want to prepare, you can do so on any budget. Buy an extra packet of Ramen or canned item every shopping trip and rotate out to prevent it spoils. A couple extra bucks a week can do wonders. That said, having the mentality to prepare is one that comes natural to a few people. For me, it was the chaos of Hurricane Rita when I was 15, that made me more of a prepared person (even though the Hurricane didn't hit us by a few hundred miles, the stores were ransacked of water and supplies).

That said, when people's daily mindset is survival (e.g. paycheck-to-paycheck) it might be harder for them to accomplish this if they lack the time to even ponder of the grand scheme of things. It also might be easier for someone who served in the Armed Forces to think of preparedness and contingencies than someone who didn't have such training. Maybe this can serve as a wake-up call for more people to prepare.

 

Every time things like this happen I hope at least one or more people wake up to how fragile the grid is. There is no reason for these people to suffer this bad if they just took a little effort each week.

 

Does anyone know what chemicals were spilt?

Edit - Oh 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol , Methanol is horrible stuff, it can make you blind and all sorts of nasty stuff. How did this get spilt, someone is going to get into a whole lot of trouble over this

 

Cyclohexane is pretty nasty stuff as well, don't know about its toxicity but I had a headache for hours after handling it at school

 

It's used to process coal. It's not pretty.

 

I'm from West Virginia. There is poverty there that is hard to comprehend. I am certain many of these people are pretty reliant on the government for things, like food stamps etc. Prepping is probably the last thing on their minds. I'm not saying it should be, but that's just reality. Many of these people can't afford to put away food or buy the equipment to collect water. There is no budget for it, not even a small one. $1,000 a month is $300 more than I made when I lived there. Colorado seems like quite an affluent place by comparison. What West Virginia DOES have is strong people and a great environment for growing things and living off the grid. All they have to do is see the necessity of breaking free from the grocery store. There will be little support for poor people there. West Virginia has a history of that. If anyone can survive a SHTF scenario though, it's Mountaineers.

 

Outterspace. First of all 1000 a month beong 300 more then you made tells someone nothing if its not weighted against the cost of your expenses. Like I said I had around 800 in bills not leaving a lot of money left over for savings or the like but I managed to save and prep. On top of that You cannot tell me that they cant take an extra even 2 dollars a week and stack aside one or two cans of food. And equipment to collect water? Do you mean empty soda and juice bottles? because that is what I use. You can prep yourself for less then 10 dollars a month if you really put a clever mind to it.

 

I am not saying at all that you can't be clever about your prepping. I actually was referring to water catchment systems. I certainly hope you weren't saving your potable water in used plastic bottles. They leach toxins. You need BPA-free plastic for that. And what I am saying is that you can try to store food, but when you end up being forced to eat your preps because you don't have enough money to last all month then how do you expect to accumulate a stock? Like that's what it means to go hungry. It means I literally have no money to get more food. There are plenty of people like that.

I am not telling you what my bills were, but suffice it to say I was cutting it way closer than you, and that's AFTER I had to cancel my phone, internet, and TV. My point is, there is not a climate of education for sustainable living and prepping there because the immediate needs of food and shelter are not even being met. I don't think you can relate. Think what a climate of education there would do to big coal if people realized they didn't have to work in the mines and they could just grow their own food and have clean energy.

There are literally people in some parts of WV with dirt floor shacks. There are parts that are like a third world. Many people don't have municipal water and so when hydrofracking ruins their water wells they are just totally SOL. The coal industry, chemical plants, and now fracking have destroyed WV and people have died as a result. They don't care. They'll get away with it like they always have. WV is horribly exploited.

 

I fully agree. I know of a fair amount of family who were so reliant on food banks, Hunters for the Hungry, and church support groups, that they would have died without them. They couldn't prep, because that meant skipping meals.

One time a lot of schools in the area I was in, where closed for a week, and people were scrambling to make sure that the children who were in need got enough food to eat. These people could not and cannot afford to prep. They cannot get by without help to begin with.

Take a trip to places like Charleston, Morgantown or Wheeling, especially, Wheeling. The poverty in these places, and the outskirting rural area, can make you cry, seeing how bad it is. There is not enough done to support people get screwed over by chemical leaks and spills. I have a fracking well right beside, my property, less than an arce away, I have well water, but we had no choice, we needed the money from the royalties from rent our mineral right in order to get by.

I now currently live in Ohio, but there area I am in is very, very poor. Luckily my family hunts and and farms and can handle some problems. I have gone with out gas for months, imagine 5 months of cold showers, and cooking everything or little electric skillets or grill. Or having to wash clothes at home and then drive to the laundry mat to dry them? A lot of people in my area in the utility of the month club, which is what you utility bill you won't pay this month.

 

coal isn't a chemical. and even if it has anything to do with coal, tell me that eliminating coal would eliminate all possibilities that chemicals could spill into our water. chemicals, oils, and all sorts of stuff can accidentally be spilled into water. Without coal, you have no idea how bad off this state would be

 

What I meant was that it's a chemical used to process coal, to separate it from the surrounding rock, and 'clean' it. It's just one more aspect of the various ways coal production can be toxic, and pollute groundwater, among other things.

Here's s story about what it is, and how it's used:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environmen...ill-What-s-4-methylcyclohexane-methanol-video

 

thank you

---------- Post added 11th Jan 2014 at 11:39 PM ----------

too many people rely on coal for jobs out here. there's not much else we have, and coal isnt the only thing that any of this is used for. Instead of everyone focusing on how "bad" coal is or how "unprepared" west Virginians were for this, why don't we all try being supportive of the MANY people who will be affected by this?

 

I totally agree, and think it's not useful to blame people for making a living in one of the few industries around...we all have to eat. I'd like to see more support to help create jobs there in different sectors, and I really hope people across the country decide to chip in and help out in this current crisis. I haven't seen a lot of places that are taking donations/setting up relief, but hopefully people will step up.

I also agree it seems silly to criticize people for not being 'prepped'. I live in a studio apartment...not much room to prep!