CERT Courses (Community Emergency Response Training) are available through county Gov organizations, usually an office of emergency preparedness, homeland security or emergency management in your community. These courses consist of multiple topics and sessions over a period of several weeks, are well-worth the time and effort and will certify you to volunteer in your area in event of an emergency. A hard-hat, a vest and ID are usually given on completion of the course. In addition, your local office will offer mini-courses on other pertinent topics such as preparing and maintaining a Weather Emergency Kit for your family.

Now is the time to prepare for power outages and winter storms by gathering necessary supplies in a container for your home and car. Many Gov websites (DHS, FEMA, etc.) offer lists of items to include in home and car kits. Avoid the use of candles if possible by stocking up on small, inexpensive LED lanterns and extra batteries for the home and car kits.

Do you have your BOP?

Those of you with military or LE backgrounds will recognize the term as shorthand for a Bug-Out Pack, a bag of critical or essential items that allows you to “grab and go” when the situation demands. Readers living in areas subject to rapid fires or sudden severe weather probably already realize the necessity of a BOP. Please remember that cell phone outages will be common in an emergency due to system overloading and infrastructure damage, so please plan for alternate means of communication. Inexpensive FRS and GMRS radios with extra batteries can keep family members or neighbors in touch during an emergency. Plan now — be safe later.

Ready.gov is a great source of information about emergency preparedness and putting together an emergency kit for your family. Please take a few minutes and read through their supply list.

Meth users no longer have to pony up cash to their favorite drug dealer – they can now do a quick home brew without the former need for a kitchen or garage lab to cook the product.

Remember the griping of all of us who suffer from sinus and allergy problems about having to stand in line and show ID to purchase pseudofed every month? Well, despite the illicit trafficking of bulk pseudofed from suppliers overseas and ingress through our porous southern borders, meth manufacturers were also somewhat inconvenienced and set about to resolve the problem and lower production costs.

The new home brew method uses only small amounts of pseudofed, a 2 liter pop bottle, some common and poisonous chemicals, a few shakes and you get heat, pressure, crystal meth and a noxious brown slurry which you can discard with the pop bottle—no need to worry about bulk waste disposal. Heck, you can even do this while driving and get enough for a few doses out of one mix—if everything goes precisely as planned.

Apparently, actions and timing are most critical here since there are rapidly increasing reports of explosions, fires and severe injuries using Shake and Bake. The old kitchen labs were a little safer it seems since you had a bit of warning and could run like heck. With Shake and Bake you are holding the lab in your hands and near your face!

Warning to Community Clean Up Crews: Never attempt to pick up a “puffy” soda bottle since it could explode—and never open a bottle with a brown liquid inside since the contents are highly poisonous. Alert LE when these bottles start appearing in your community and try to get the tag # when you see one pitched from a vehicle.