Monthly Archives: August 2017

Okay we are now seeing CAC do what we built it for, find the people not getting enough help and helping them.  Houston is being over loaded with help, don’t get me wrong they need it desperately but what is on TV?  Houston, Houston, Houston.  But this is what we just heard….

Right now Port Author is getting pounded, rescues are being made and rescuers are dropping people off on dry land but with no idea where to put them or where to send them.

This is the report that just came in from a responder we have in the area.  And these is what we need help with now.

 A Place for Our Repsonders to Sleep, Get a Shower, Etc. 

And we need your help with a places for our responders to stay.  If you are near Port Author and can put people up please let us know.  Our folks don’t need much a floor and some bedding and a place to take a shower and grab some sleep is a real help right now.

We can also use safe housing for responders just about anywhere near the effected areas, including Houston, Corpus Christi, Rockport, etc.  We may not even need you right now but may need you in the future our teams are remaining mobile and going to the least served areas as designed.

Over the next week the effort will turn more and more to clean up and things like tearing down dry wall in flooded houses to try to save them from mold and other things like that.  So if you have the ability to put any of our folks up please let us know.

Someone That Can Pull A Trailer Down to the Port Author/Beaumont Area 

Do to the evolving situation in Port Author we have redirected a team that was stopping by my place strait into Port Author.  So what we now could use a person with a truck who can pull a trailer down to that area to meet up with out team in the next day or two.

This person doesn’t have to be heavily involved in the effort, it is pretty much a delivery effort.  Pick up the trailer, deliver it and head home.  The pick up location is in the Fort Worth Area.

If you can help with either of these needs, it is highly appreciated.  To do so please contact Steven Harris at support =at= knowledgepublications (dot) com with “Safehaven” in the Subject Line, let him know where you are and how many people you are willing to provide a place to sleep to.  Or let him know that you are interested in delivering a trailer full of supplies to our teams in the Beaumont/Port Arthur area.

This is just a smattering of what is and has been going on.  Right now we have at least 7 people active on the ground in South Texas.  We have people currently north of Houston and all the way over to the west in the Aransas Pass area just east of Corpus Christi.

We have been directly helping people on the side of the road, supplying clothing, food, water, hygiene products, etc. to shelters and our people are now hooking up with work crews to provide labor to clean up debris and more.

Right now we have one group that will be arriving at my place tonight to rest before heading south in the morning, that group alone is made up of 6 more responders.   A friend of mine right now has gone out and worked with others to fill a trailer with supplies, he is bringing it to my place today, and the team of six will be taking it south with them.

CAC is doing exactly what I envisioned, totally unconstrained by bureaucracy we are able to adapt to the situation and make best use of opportunities as they present themselves.  Here is one example.

A gentleman named Chris was one of our first responders to come down, he stayed at my house for two nights.  The first day he and two others drove south an actually had a hard time finding people in need of aid.  They made a decision to relocate further south the next day to another safe house.

During that first day though they did locate a church which was in need of clothing for evacuees.  They had a pretty specific list of stuff they were in most need of.  That same day on NextDoor.com I located a neighbor that said she had a 10×10 filled floor to ceiling with clothes.  I connected Chris to her, she got the list and started pulling stuff aside based on it.

The next morning Chris and the other two gentlemen rolled out with two vehicles stuffed to gills with this clothing.  So yes we are using our funding to buy food, hygiene, water, etc as needed but we are also using our man power to find any resource and any need, match them up and put them together.

With this I ask you to please if you have not done so consider donating to CAC Team today.  I don’t know of any other group that is putting 99% of all donated funds DIRECTLY into supplies for those who need them.  Our staff takes no salary and the only costs we cover for our field responders is gasoline.

To help you you can find out how to become a responder by emailing Steven Harris at support =at= knowledgepublications (dot) com with “I Want to Help CAC” in the subject line or you can make a financial donation at our website here.  Check out this video of our responders in action below

Learn how you can help at www.cacteam.com video was edited and produced by our team member the Awesome Nicole Sauce NicoleSauce.com

Guys in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy back in 2012 as I watched the Red Cross unable to find their ass with both hands I conceived of a rapid response agile non profit to help when something like this happened again.

This vision became CAC Teams (Citizen’s Assisting Citizens).  Realizing I didn’t have the time or the knowledge to run such an organization I assembled a team of folks to do so.  This team acquired non profit status, and built the organization I envisioned.  Today that group is run by our own Steven Harris.

Hurricane Harvey and its damage is exactly why I envisioned such a team and right now they are deploying into North Texas to support the refugees that have evacuated the area.  I just recieved this email from Steven Harris, it tells you how you can help the CAC Team Effort, as a responder or by contributing to the organization.

From: Steven Harris
Subject: EMERGENCY Callout for TSP Listeners – Hurricane Harvey

The entire state of Texas from Dallas SOUTH to Houston and that whole area is OUT OF GAS, OUT OF ATM CASH, OUT OF FOOD, OUT OF WATER, OUT OF DIAPERS.  There will be lots of places Dallas and SOUTH where you will be able to find people in need and churches or schools that set up a shelter for locals and the Red Cross and the Salvation Army IS NOT there and don’t even know that they exist.

HARVEY WILL BE WORSE THAN KATRINA.  Harvey is going to STALL over southern Texas and sit there and SPIN and NOT LEAVE until Late Tuesday or Wednesday.   This devastation will be going on for a week and then even more after the storm.  Your help is NEEDED NOW or even 7 Days from NOW.  You’ll be able to help people.   You DO NOT need to drive into the area of destruction.

No matter WHO you are, no matter HOW FAR you are from the Dallas and South Areas of Texas.  If you want to drive down with food, water and diapers and baby wipes and anything else you can go to walmart and get a ‘bluebird card’ and call me, Steven Harris, or Tom Patterson.  I’m the Chairman of the Board of CACTeam.com, Tom Patterson is the Executive Director of CACTeam.com.  Tom can load money onto your bluebird card (at walmart) once you give him the card numbers.  If you show up to a place and there is red cross or salvation army is there, then LEAVE and go find people who don’t have these agencies there.  Like I say below, you’ll find people camping in their cars in walmart parking lots, and home depot lots etc… 

We are paying for the FOOD, Water, Diapers, Baby Wipes and anything else you are going to take down.   We are going to be paying for  your FUEL to go there as well.   We’re NOT paying for your hotel if you stay because one of the main reasons is ALL THE HOTELS ARE FULL.   You are going to find people sleeping in their cars in a walmart parking lot.  You’ll find mothers with babies who have no diapers, they are out of gas and stuck there and the store is out of everything.   These are the types of people we are there to help.   If you have room, you can shuttle people to a Red Cross Shelter.  IF you are comfortable doing this.

*IF* you are going.   You *MUST* have enough fuel with you to get to where you are going and to get BACK to where there is fuel ON YOUR OWN.   Its like swimming out to sea, you can go so far that you won’t be able to make it back.   So know your vehicle and know how much fuel you have and how much you can carry.  You *MUST* have your own food.  I’d like to say we’ll buy you dinner at Cracker Barrel but they are going to be out of food too.  I’d suggest you have a tent that you can pop open someplace and take a break, sleep, then drive back home. DO NOT DRIVE TIRED !!!!   I have a close friend who is DEAD because he drove and fell asleep (no seatbelt either).

Ok.  So here is what you MUST DO if you are going to do this.   You *MUST* EMAIL Me, Steven Harris, *FIRST* Send me your name, location and your cell phone number.  I will call you back.  I will brief you on what I want you to do, what to buy, where to buy etc…  Then you go to a walmart and get a “bluebird card’.  then you call Tom Patterson, I’ll of already contacted him that you are calling.  He will load some funds onto your bluebird card.  You can then fill up, get food, water etc… and drive to areas on need in Texas.   Don’t forget to stop by a police station or a fire station and ask where is there a shelter or people we can deliver snacks and water too?  Don’t forget to offer the cops and firemen some water and snacks as well.  Also, you *MUST* save ALL receipts !!! and they will have to be photographed and emailed to Tom Patterson when you get back.

If you can stop and get some iphone and android charging cables and you can charge off your car, 1.  to keep your phone alive, 2, charge other people’s cell phone, then please do so.  I have a video that covers ALL aspects of cell phone charging.  Call me, or email me, I’ll send you the video for free, you can actually BUY the items from Amazon TONIGHT, get them in 2-3 days and deploy in 4 or 5 days from now.

ALOT of people are going to need HELP from people LIKE YOU.  Have questions?  Email me or Call me.  You can call me up to 3AM in the morning EST.  Please call me AFTER 12 Noon and before 3AM.   Got it?   Got Questions?  Ask!!!  Have a pen and paper ready for when you call me.  Get ready for me to download to you, you are about to jack in and you are about to find out just how deep this rabbit hole goes.  This will be a story you’ll be telling to others for a decade and it will be on of those ‘points’ in your life where you’ll never ever forget.

Oh... there is one OTHER thing YOU *MUST* DO.  Ready.  You MUST be ready with your cell phone or camera to take 100, 200 or more photos.  WE NEED YOUR PHOTOS, if there is some good video you can take of the situation or of you helping, please do that as well.   We are ready to spend *ALL* of our CAC funds on Harvey.  If we want MORE donations then we NEED those photos and videos you’ll take to SHOW people WHERE their money is going !!!  Got it ?!!   So you darn well better ask me for my Cell Phone Video and have the tools and the memory space to do this.  *I* need these photos and video bad to continue CACteam.  I know you’ll do outstanding.

ALSO !!! ! ALL PHOTOS AND VIDEO are to be taken HORIZONTALLY…. in landscape.DO NOT NOT NOT NOT take ANY photos with the cell phone VERTICAL or in Portrait mode !!  GOT IT !!!  Human eyeballs are side to side.  Movie Theaters and TVs are oriented HORIZONTALLY !!!  The world is FLAT, its NOT a skinny cylinder up and down.  Take the photos horizontally or do not take them at all.  The only thing worse than no photos is bad photos.

Steven Harris
Chairman of the Board CACTEAM.com
You can email me at support =at= knowledgepublications (dot) com

Folks now is the time to assist others in need, I told you how bad this was going to be in my post “Get Out, Get Out, Get Out“, yesterday.  Many did indeed get out, now they need our help.

If you can help with this effort contact Steve, if you can’t help directly but can contribute financially to the effort, you can do that at http://www.cacteam.com/make-a-difference/financial-donations  I personally just made a significant donation to CAC, remember I never ask this community to do anything I would not personally do myself.

Disclaimer – While I founded CAC and assembled the initial team behind it, I no longer have any official influence over the organization.  I have no official position with the group.  It is simply the result of a vision I had, to see it now go into action gives me a great deal of pride.  Thank you to Steve and the other board members who made it happen.

I have said “get out, get out, get out” two other times at TSP.  The first was in reference to the stock market in 2008, the second was in reference to hurricane Ike also in 2008, both times I was sadly right.  So it has been 9 years since I last said, “get out, get out, get out”, please listen to me if you live in major impact areas for this storm.

The media talking heads are in love with their coverage of this storm, gives them something to be over the top about with little need of hype.  They are also falling over themselves to determine if Harvey will make landfall as a Category 2 or Category 3 storm.  You know what that is like?  Debating about whether you want to be shot center mass by a 308 or a 30-06, there may be a few FPS difference but the terminal effects are going to be identical.

This storm will be a few MPH in max wind over or under 110, and it won’t matter what number they assign it, the terminal effects are going to be the same, if it is 108 or 112, the Saffir-Simpson number will change but the effects won’t.  America has suffered from “mine is bigger syndrome” so long that people think this actually matters, it doesn’t.

Here is the deadly combination and why I am saying “get out, get out, get out”.  First this storm is well organized and it is going to be very harsh in making land fall, again a few mph won’t mean shit when it does.  So you are going to get typical major storm surge and damage.

The nightmare though will be flooding and flooding kills more people every year in the US than any other weather related force.  There is a system sitting over north Texas where I live, this system is holding Harvey’s speed of movement (not wind) to a snails crawl.  So when it makes landfall it is going to be like a slow moving buzz saw!  It is going to stay near the coast for a LONG TIME which will give it a lot of fuel that it can draw in moisture and heat from the gulf.

Worse!  It is going to stall!  It will dump over 3 feet of rain in some areas, the flooding is going to look biblical, I say again, if you are where major impacts are going to be “get out, get out, get out”.  Sure a day into this it will likely “weaken” into a tropical storm as it sits over land, it won’t matter, you will still get likely tornadoes, wind shears and strait line wind damage.

Again though you are going to have flooding in ways some won’t even believe after they see it.  I could be wrong, I probably am not, so please one more time “get out, get out, get out”.  The last time a storm really stalled like this and dumped massive rain was Tropical Storm Debby in 2012 in Florida.  The TV barely mentioned it but many that lived though it know it brought massive missery.  The highest rain fall totals were about 25 inches, you can see the rain fall totals here.

Well Harvey already has some rain fall projections over 35 inches!  Do you get it yet.  Everyone is worried about the wind, that is wise but the water is the bigger danger.  I have said my piece, if you are in the impact zone you know what to do.  If you have family saying they want to stick it out, please talk them into taking a brief vacation, lots of nice hotels in Austin, good music, good food.  If nothing happens go home Monday and go back to work.  If you have dogs find a pet friendly hotel, find a relative to shack up with for a few days.

Listeners to this show should have a bug out plan, this storm is exactly why that is important!