Must You Experience An Earthquake or Other Disaster To Get the Incentive To Prepare for the Next One?

The Los Angeles area of California experienced an Earthquake of 5.4 magnitude on Tuesday, July 29, 2008, that was considered a "moderate" quake by seismologists. Reports from this quake are still coming in (as you can see in the USGS newsfeed further down in this site).

In May 2008, China suffered a very large earthquake--about 800 miles southwest of Beijing--authorities now estimate that more than 50,000 people may have lost their lives in this quake--and multitudes more are homeless. Find more information about the quakes in the RSS feed below.

The 102nd anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 was on April 18th. --And, seemingly in commemoration of this event, the Midwest of the U.S.--namely, Illinois--had a rare 5.2 earthquake on that day this year! And then, a few weeks later, Reno, Nevada has experienced a series of quakes that led up to a real rattler! It was just reported on the news that there has been more than 1000 earthquakes recorded in the past two months in the California-Nevada area. Check the RSS news-feed below to see all the quakes happening by the minute!

This may be a good time to learn a bit about the power and devastation of these natural occurrences--and to prepare for that next "big one". There's more about earthquakes below.

The tips and survival gear presented here can also be helpful for preparing for typhoons, hurricanes, blizzards, and other types of disasters.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California, we recently experienced a 5.6 earthquake (felt as far away as the Central Valley)--a somewhat minor one, but one that still shook stuff off bookcases, created messes in grocery stores (with broken bottles of pickles, olives, jam, syrup, wine, and other fluids on the floors), and put our nerves on edge.  While I sat in my living room--watching the ceiling fan swaying and feeling the floor rocking like a boat in choppy water--I re-affirmed that I must go out and check our "Earthquake Supplies" to make sure they are fresh and ready to go.

Disaster preparedness is something that all of us should be aware of, but sometimes we procrastinate and never get around to thinking about it--let alone doing something about it--until the disaster hits close to home. By then, however, it's most likely a tad too late and we're in for some hard times, if we survive at all.

My family and I have experienced major disasters (either during or after) such as typhoons, tornados, blizzards, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Some of the earthquake disaster preparedness ideas and concepts I'm presenting here could be useful for preparing for other types of disasters as well.

One thing to remember--natural occurrences such as earthquakes (and the resulting tsunami) and volcanic eruptions are NOT the result of global warming. In fact, volcanic eruptions can cause massive shifts in the Earth's climate--as evidenced by the uncharacteristically cold years and droughts (and other weird weather patterns) following the eruptions of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines and Mt. St Helens in Washington in the US.

These lessons (of disaster preparation) have been learned over a long period of time and while living in a wide variety of locations: 

While living in Montana, I went through some white-out blizzards during which the snow-drifts almost covered the house, the wind was exceeding 70 mph, and the wind-chill factor was colder than -50 degrees F. It took nearly a week to dig out of the snow and to get power and telephone communications restored. Return to "normal life" took even longer than that. We also saw massive forest fires and the resulting destruction from those.

While living on Guam, I experienced numerous typhoons, some of which exceeded 150mph, and saw the massive accompanying flooding destruction of storm surge and heavy torrential downpours in addition to the wind damage. I also experienced some major earthquakes while on Guam. Again, after these types of disasters, sometimes it would take many weeks and sometimes many months before life returned to somewhat normal with power, water, and telephone connections working again.

While living in New Mexico, I experienced numerous sandstorms (that would blot out the sky and eliminate visibility and also cause severe wind damage) and a tornado (that caused severe wind damage). Forest fires were particularly nasty here--because of the extreme dryness of New Mexico's ecology.

In the Bay Area of California, I experienced and saw the results of major earthquakes, mudslides, and floods. I saw first-hand the collapsed freeways, the ruptured gas-lines, the destroyed buildings, and the damaged economy from the Loma Prieta Quake of October 1989 and the Northridge Quake of 1994. Forest fires in the Lake Tahoe and Yosemite area as well as the wildfires that occur almost annually in Southern California are also a concern for folks living in that area.  Many times the fires get to the point that evacuations are required--some folks return to find their home and belongings destroyed.

Additionally, as part of a village-rebuilding relief-team, my daughter saw first-hand the destruction of December 2004's series of earthquakes and tsunami in Thailand. She was in Thailand during one of the 7-point-plus aftershocks of the initial massive quake.