Hurricane Ravaged Dominica: "It"s All Gone" And Fighting For Survival

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

In just the blink of an eye, island life on Dominica was turned upside down.  Like Puerto Rico, Dominica was violently ravaged by Hurricane Maria, and residents are still fighting for survival.

The wooden frames and scattered, water-damaged belongings are all that remains of some homes of on Dominica, which was ravaged by Hurricane Maria last month.

Without warning, the storm rapidly accelerated from a Category 3 to a Category 5, and residents said they could do little to prepare.

 “There was lightning, there was heavy rain…[it was like] the hurricane was in the house,”said Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit according to ABC News.

 

“We have lost everything that money can buy, and that is a fact.”

The roof of Roosevelt Skerrit’s house was blown away and its floors flooded. On the night Hurricane Maria hit, Skerrit took to Facebook to post updates including one that said, “I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane. House is flooding” and another that said, “The winds are merciless! We shall survive by the grace of God!” Later he posted, “I have been rescued.”

“You can still see the shock, the anxiety, the fear the trauma in the eyes and the expressions of people every day,” he told ABC’s Nightline.

 

“Their entire life investments, life’s savings, blown away.”

 

Another now displaced resident named Emmanuel Peter said he can still remember the roar of the hurricane-force winds.

 

 “It was just whistling, whistling,” he said. “I thought it would burst my eardrums.”

Puerto Rico was not the only island in Hurricane Maria’s path, and almost a month later, both islands still look like post-apocalyptic zones.  But the island with the highest death toll per capita was Dominica; a close-knit, mostly Christian nation that was left at the mercy of a hurricane that shared a name with the mother of Christ: Maria.  

To date, 26 people are confirmed dead, 31 are still missing, and more than 50,000 people are displaced on the island that has a total population of roughly 74,000.

When  ABC’s Nightline visited Dominica six days after the storm, the only way to reach its interior was with the United States military. Upon arrival, many who had the option to evacuate the island were already in the process of doing so, including 1,300 students at Ross University Medical School, an American college based in Dominica.

“I do feel sadness for the people of Dominica,” said Carey James, the college’s associate dean of operations, analysis, and admissions. “My wife’s family is from Dominica … and it’s hard to see a place that you love go through that kind of a storm.” And nearly four weeks after the storm, people are still fighting to survive.

No one on the island has access to running, drinkable water, and with sewage systems destroyed, residents are contending with fears of diarrhea, dehydration, and dysentery. Much of the island still remains without power. For the vast majority of Dominicans, the choice to leave their home country isn’t financially available. More than 85 percent of houses have been damaged, and of those, more than a quarter simply do not exist anymore, leaving many of the residents homeless.

All The Countries America Has Invaded... In One Map

From Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, the US has had a military presence across the world, from almost day one of its independence. For those who have ever wanted a clearer picture of the true reach of the United States military - both historically and currently - but shied away due to the sheer volume of research required to find an answer, The Anti Media points out that a crew at the Independent just made things a whole lot simpler.

Using data compiled by a Geography and Native Studies professor from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, the indy100 team created an interactive map of U.S. military incursions outside its own borders from Argentina in 1890 to Syria in 2014.

To avoid confusion, indy100 laid out its prerequisites for what constitutes an invasion:

“Deployment of the military to evacuate American citizens, covert military actions by US intelligence, providing military support to an internal opposition group, providing military support in one side of a conflict, use of the army in drug enforcement actions.”

But indy100 didn’t stop there. To put all that history into context, using data from the Department of Defense (DOD), the team also put together a map to display all the countries in which nearly 200,000 active members of the U.S. military are now stationed.

For more details, click on the country:

The three countries with the biggest U.S. presence, according to DOD numbers, are Japan at 39,623, Germany at 34,399 and South Korea at 23,297.

The publication of the maps comes just after President Donald Trump announced the military would not be pulling out of its 16-year engagement in Afghanistan - a reversal of his previous stance - and that the U.S. would seek stronger ties with India to combat terrorism in South and Central Asia.

America Is No Longer Top Dog: Chinese Military "Reaching Near-Parity" With The West

Submitted by Daniel Lang via SHTFPlan.com,

The United States military is without a doubt the most technologically advanced force on the planet, and has been since at least World War II. Most Western nations are likewise, heavily dependent on advanced technology. When the West wins wars, it’s not because of moxy or numbers or cunning. It’s because we can detonate our enemies from miles away on a whim.

In response, our rivals have spent decades trying to compensate with those aforementioned traits. They’re the ones who rely on fighting spirit, cannon fodder, and clever underhanded tactics. They, which includes Russia, China, and lord knows how many insurgents and terrorists, have mastered the domain of unconventional warfare. And they’ve done so by necessity. We’re a wealthy nation with an unbelievably massive military budget. They could never conduct enough scientific research or build enough advanced war machines to compete with us in a conventional war.

Or could they?

It appears that China might be able to. Or at least that’s what the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) thinks. They’re a British think tank that’s been around since 1958, and they have countless members who formerly worked for the British and American governments. The IISS specializes in researching geopolitical issues, and every year they publish the Military Balance report, which examines the military capabilities of the world’s nations. Their latest issue should give the American defense establishment pause.

“Western military technological superiority, once taken for granted, is increasingly challenged,” Dr. John Chipman, Director-General and Chief Executive of IISS, said in a statement.

“We now judge that in some capability areas, particularly in the air domain, China appears to be reaching near-parity with the West.”

Instead of its usual practice of working on systems that imitate Soviet and Russian technology, China has shifted its efforts (and budget) to domestic research and development. Its Navy is currently working on three new advanced cruisers, 13 destroyers, and outfitting other ships with better radar.

Most shocking were the claims that China is making fast gains in the air war domain. This is an arena that Western nations have dominated since World War II. It could be argued that the United States hasn’t won any war since the 1940’s without that advantage. Now they’re catching up, partly with their own domestic military research, and partly with research that they’ve stolen from us.

So the question is, what happens if a nation that has already mastered unconventional warfare also reaches parity with the United States when it comes to conventional warfare? Let’s just say that the results won’t be pretty for us should we come to blows with China. Perhaps the Trump and his administration should tread lightly in East Asia, if they want to avoid a rather embarrassing conflict in that region.