How To Prepare For And Deal With Earthquakes |
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After
the latest devastation in Fukushima Japan, Tokyo and Christchurch
New Zealand, plus the ongoing effort to rebuild after the Chile and
Haiti earthquakes, here is some information on how to deal with
earthquakes. It’s not just about getting ready for
disasters, but it’s about getting back to LIFE after a disaster.
That’s something very few people talk about. Yet millions upon
millions of people are facing that question right this moment. How
do we get back to our normal lives after this magnitude of disaster?
Having
made it through Southern California earthquakes and a jumbo jet
crash right across the street from our home, we know how difficult
the coming weeks and months will be for the people of Japan and New
Zealand as they deal with this horrendous disaster. Our
prayers are with them... Best, Laura and Janet As longtime residents of Southern California, we know how difficult it can be to spend the days and weeks after a quake, living in earthquake mode. The phenomenon isn’t really something you can explain to someone who hasn’t experience it personally. New Californians are always asking how they’ll know if what they feel is a quake, or just an especially loud garbage truck. There’s only one answer to that question. You’ll know! And sure enough when it happens, they’ll say, “you were absolutely right!” An earthquake combines two things that most humans hate– the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Feeling like the floor is going to crack open and swallow you, while listening to your house, cracking and groaning, while glass, bricks and your best china crashing to the ground around you, is a horrible sensation. So what’s the best way to prepare for an earthquake? Earthquakes are probably the most difficult type of disaster to prepare for, for two reasons. First, there is absolutely no warning when one is going to strike. Second, you never know how or where it’s going to strike. Two earthquakes of the same magnitude aren’t necessarily going to have the same destructive capability. A shallow 5.0 quake, can potentially create more damages and injury than a 7.0 quake centered deep within the earth. Shallow earthquakes mean more shaking and more cracks and fissures in the earth, which in turn damages more buildings, streets and injures more people. You also have to factor in how close the earthquake is to your home and where your home is located. We once experienced a 1.5 quake that was centered very close to our home and knocked books off the shelves – while a 6.4 earthquake 30 or 40 miles away got us out of bed, but left our possessions exactly where they were the night before. In earthquake country “location, location, location couldn’t be more true. Remember the parable of the man who built his house on the sand versus the man who built his on the rock? Those guys must have lived in earthquake country! It’s called liquefaction. Especially in California, in areas where there are high concentrations of sand in the soil – aka high priced beach communities – the violent shaking of an earthquake causes water underground to rise up through the sandy soil, turning pseudo solid earth beneath homes to turn into liquid, swallowing anything above it – houses, stores, freeway on ramps. Making sure that your home is built on rock solid ground is a great first step to long term earthquake safety. The final reason that earthquakes are so hard to prepare for, is that they tend to happen very early in the morning. Imagine being shaken out of a sound sleep, only to realize that your bed, your walls and your floor are all moving in opposite directions, while you try and remember the first item on your disaster checklist! Not going to happen! So
how do we prepare? The way we and our customers prepare
is by taking a two-step approach. The first step, is to make sure that you have your earthquake survival gear and know how to secure your home and personal safety when an earthquake strikes. The second, is to make sure that you’re able to grab everything you need – necessities, keepsakes, vital information – and leave for a safer location, in less than ten minutes. It’s a lot easier than it sounds. All you need is to do is to take the necessary steps now, to ensure you have access to all the items and information that will help you get back to living your normal life, as quickly and easily as possible. The best way to physically prepare for earthquakes, is to think through the different scenarios that could take place. If a quake is large enough to have to “deal with” chances are, the electricity is going to go out. Telephone and/or cell service could also be down. In Calexico, power lines fell, plunging the city into darkness. That means not only means you won’t have light, but you also won’t have power for computers or televisions and radios. Grocery and drug stores won’t be able to ring up purchases, ATMs won’t work, garage door openers might not function. Name any tool in this world and chances are it’s powered by electricity.
So your first defense is making sure that you always have an alternative source of power, battery powered flashlights, extra cash, a supply of canned or frozen food that doesn’t need to be cooked to be eaten, and the all-important supply of water – enough to last you and everyone in your family for three days. Your home or neighborhood might be damaged. Broken glass and rocks will be strewn everywhere. Rubber-soled shoes, a warm jacket and other emergency gear should be easily reachable from your bed or right inside your closet. There are literally hundreds of sources that can give you tremendous lists of what you should have on hand during an earthquake, including our web site. Even more will give you specific instructions on what to do before and after a quake – for example, how to turn off your gas line, or when to boil your water – so we won’t get into details like that. You should also create or update your evacuation checklist, detailing the items that you and your family would need if you were unable to live in your home for three or more days. This includes all of your necessities, prescriptions, vital documents (or access to them on portable hard drives, online or in out of area safe deposit boxes), keepsakes, personal and professional contacts, ID and basic medical history and anything else that your family will need while evacuated. But I want you to think about something. Think about the last few earthquakes – or hurricanes for that matter. Think about the coverage you saw on CNN or the local news. Think about the faces of the people in the midst of the quake zone or the storm. They looked shell-shocked, terrified, lost. Most of those people, were at least moderately prepared for a disaster. Those in earthquake country most likely had stockpiled some food and water, those in hurricane country might even have evacuated and done everything their local news and emergency authorities told them to do. And yet, after the disaster, they were standing there, scared and helpless, because their homes, the people they loved, and basically their entire lives have been destroyed to the point that their own existence was now unrecognizable. All of those people, rich and poor, young and old — they all had one thing in common. They had NO idea where to go and what to do from here. And
THAT – knowing what to do and where to go after the disaster, is
step three. The most important step of all. Facing
a disaster without giving yourself a plan to recover from it, is
like trying to build a house with no blueprint and no tools! Having
two plans can make all the difference, in getting you through those
first few days and weeks after a disaster strikes. What
are the plans? They are the Ready In 10 Evacuation Plan and the Get
Back To Life Plan — the same plans that we’ve built into our Ready
In 10 System. The
evacuation plan is pretty simple. It all comes from one question…
If you were at home or at work and suddenly had to evacuate your
home, or your general area, where would you go? As
you think about the locations you’ll use for your evacuation,
consider, the people traveling with you, how you’ll get there
(car, bus, plane), any pets traveling with you and whether those
locations will actually work for you – for instance are they close
to stores or services your family might need, like pharmacies,
clothing, banks and doctors. We
suggest that people have three different locations in mind, to give
you different types of locations and choices depending on the
circumstances. As you create your plan, write everything down in
detail. If you have to use this plan, you and the people you love
are probably going to be in panic mode and following an easy to
understand plan, will help calm and focus you. Write
down the people who will be traveling with you, and any special
instructions you’ll need to gather everyone together, in case a
disaster or emergency occurs while you’re all away from home. Name
the location that you and your family will use to meet up with each
other and the location you will be evacuating to, if you cannot live
in your home, but your immediate area is still safe. Include the
address of the location, contact phone, email address and
directions. Next
choose a location (writing down the details, address and contact
information) that your family will use if you not only need to
evacuate your home, but your immediate area or city. This might
happen during a moderate hurricane or a tornado. Your third location
is out of state, for a serious, widely destructive emergency like
Hurricane Katrina, the Iceland Volcano, or other disaster that will
make your entire region uninhabitable. You will also include these locations on your emergency wallet card and your family’s wallet cards (and hopefully your Shoewallets to carry them securely!). Now, no matter what the disaster, even a fire or local emergency, you and your family will now know where and how to gather, and who will be responsible for what, so you can quickly reunite and travel on to your emergency location together. If you like, you can also give a card to the person you chose to be your out-of-area contact as well. Will
you have any pets traveling with you? Be sure to fill out the pet
section, so that you will have all the information you need for
them, like the name and numbers for the veterinarian, their
licenses, and names/numbers of kennels in the location you are
evacuating to and any prescriptions or special instructions you’ll
need until you return home. Your Get Back To Life Plan The worst part of any disaster, short of losing a loved one, is the possibility that the home you love and care for and everything in it would be damaged beyond repair. That is what your Get Back To Life Plan is all about. Imagine
that you and your family have survived an earthquake, but had to
leave your area because it is uninhabitable. You’re in your
evacuation location two days after the hurricane subsides. The phone
rings. It’s a good friend of yours, who has just toured your
neighborhood and is calling to tell you that your home is badly
damaged and he doubts that you will be able to live in it for
several months, if ever again.
After you and your family hold each other for a while and talk, you finally feel strong enough to open your Ready In 10 Notebook. There you find your Get Back To Life Plan and begin making calls to your insurance agent, your contractor and your boss. You call the local real estate agent in your evacuation city and ask her to begin looking for temporary housing, register your children in the local school, and begin calling the contacts you need (that you jotted down just in case), to help you settle in. Getting settled is easier than you thought, since you have copies of all of the vital documents you need, like your birth certificates and property deeds in a safe deposit box at the local bank. It takes some time, but with hard work and a lot of courage, you and your family are back to living in a matter of weeks. Now
imagine the same scenario, the same phone call, holding your family,
talking and then realizing that you have no plan and no clue how to
get back to living your life. It’s CNN coverage all over again.
The best part of this little scenario is that it hasn’t happened
to you and that you have time right now, to make sure no matter what
ever occurs in your area, you and your family will be prepared. If you don’t have a copy of our actual Get Back To Life Plan, grab a piece of paper.
Take
a few minutes to answer the following questions:
Once you’ve answered the questions, get your family together to work out any potential problems you have uncovered and then draft your plan. And don’t forget to compile a list of real estate agents, financial contacts and jobs, schools, doctors and other professionals or information that you might need to establish yourself in the new city temporarily or permanently. Starting
over is never easy, especially when it happens because of a disaster
or other life changing emergency. But taking a few hours now to
think through and draft a plan, will give you and your family the
direction, information and support that you need, to get through not
only the first hours and days after a disaster, but the first steps
back to living the life you’ve worked so hard to build. Want
to be ready to deal with any disaster or emergency in 10 minutes or
less? Are you READY to create your Get Back To Life Plan, Evacuation
Plan and have all of your vital information and cherished belongings
GRABBABLE and ready to go? Then
grab a copy of our Ready In 10 Book and Downloadable Get Ready Kit
for only $19.99 from Amazon.com!
Laura and Janet Greenwald, are the founders of The Next of Kin Education Project and Stuf Productions. The mother & daughter team were not only instrumental in enacting three Next of Kin Laws in California and Illinois, but created the Seven Steps to Successful Notification System, which teaches quick, easy, next of kin notification skills for trauma patients to hospitals like Dallas’ Methodist Medical Center.
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