Earthquake Preparation

Preparing for any disaster is a good thing.  Always good to have a plan.  You can't plan for everything, but some quick and easy planning can only help.

When we lived in San Francisco, one of Nancy's jobs was to prepare the Bank for 'business resumption' after a disaster or 'business interruption'.  We lived in earthquake country...but there were also riots, fires, power outages and much more that affected business and personal lives in those days.

We used to have several backpacks full of necessities (they lived in our cars, offices and at home).  We also had a plan of what to do and how to meet up if we were separated during an emergency.  We had call lists (provided the phones would work), we always had gas in the tank, and we knew where our shoes were!

In Oregon, we also had backpacks that lived in the vehicles.  It was more for snow country and trips along lonely country roads and wildfires..necessities like water, blankets, snacks, flares, a map, pet supplies...

Last week we felt another earthquake and it made us think we should have a plan and backpack here, too!  The quake was just a short rock/roll, very mild and not really worthy of even mentioning, but it did remind us that we again live in earthquake country. 

There are other disasters we should pay attention to.  Remember the political/police event last year?  Fortunately, we were together during that day and managed to get home safely.  What about another power outage across the City?  We had those during the drought a couple years back.  We weren't affected by the outages as we live in a modern building with generator back-up, but we did get affected if we were downtown at night...restaurants had no power, taxis were scarce, streets were dark. The other night our building's power and generator were taken off-line for repairs for a couple hours and we got a taste of no power in our building...  inconvenient, but made us think...

Now we are working on a general plan for disasters/emergencies.  We are collecting things like:  flashlight (1 for each floor of our apt),  individual bottles of water, portable snacks, first aid kit, meds, $$$...We have new places for shoes and keys (near the door!) and our cell phones (also near the door and not in a pocket somewhere).  We also know where to meet if we're separated.  We have important numbers loaded into our phones.  Our wallets are updated, too.

In most emergencies, you're pretty much on your own for awhile...  but, if/when one strikes, we're feeling better that we'll survive just fine.

It's better to be prepared, in our opinion.