Earthquake thoughts
Sunday, January 17th, 2010The Big One is inevitable. Catastrophe is not.: “The message for Southern California from the horror in Haiti should be — but probably won’t be — to prepare for disaster.
(Via L.A. Times - California | Local News.)
I actually started this post before this LA Times article came out. But it is an easy post to work off of. While we don’t expect a natural disaster will turn our cities into third world countries, we must expect it.
The article points out that we have better building codes. We also have bigger earthquakes.
My father says tells me to always have half a tank of gas in the car. Useful advice as long as the roads and bridges are passable.
In San Jose, it is possible that downtown residents will not be able to get to hospitals because of bridge failures. That of course assumes that the hospitals are still standing. Many hospitals have yet to achieve the States seismic standards.
The truth is that when the big one hits, you can expect to be without power, water, communication for days to weeks. The government will be helpless to help you.
You are going to have to rely on yourself and your neighbors. At a minimum, you should have enough water and food to last a week.
If you don’t have an emergency cache, make it now. There are plenty of resources to help. Here are a few:
LA Fire Department (pdf)
There is a difference between a natural disaster and a man-made one. We make man-made disasters by being unprepared.
