The Right Way to Get Ready For Earthquakes

This is the second part, in a three part series:   part 1 Earthquake Rocks Baja California   part 3 Think You’re Ready For A Disaster?  Think Again!

Our last post was about the recent California/Mexico earthquake and the best ways to prepare for future quakes.  As we said in the last post, and as we tell our Ready In 10 System clients, 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 safe location, in less than ten minutes.  It’s a lot easier than it sounds.  All you need is to do is 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 two.  The most important step of all.

To Be Continued…

Earthquake Rocks Baja California

This is the first part in a three part series:   part 2 The Right Way To Get Ready For Earthquakes     part 3 Think You’re Ready For A Disaster?  Think Again!

7.2 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes California/Mexico Border

On Sunday April 4^th, millions of families from California and Mexico who were sitting down to Easter dinner, were jolted by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake.   According to Lucy Jones of the US Geological Survey, the powerful quake, centered near the city of Calexico, was felt by nearly 20 million people, from Baja to Los Angeles and as far away as the Bay Area, Las Vegas and Phoenix.  The quake, was most damaging to the city of Calexico, which by mid-afternoon on Monday, was reporting that nearly 80% of its buildings had been red-tagged, a designation that means a building is uninhabitable.  The quake devastated their downtown area and jangled the nerves of people throughout the Southwest, especially after recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. 

Watch Mike Von Fremd’s coverage of the quake, along with the rest of the ABC News team on location in Calexico, for more details of the Easter earthquake.  As USGS reminds us, aftershocks continue to occur and probably will for the next week or two.

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 the 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 build 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.

To Be Continued…