In light of the flooding in Houston, I asked Toastmasters this question for table topics: how would you prepare for a major earthquake?
Have backpack with cooking stuff, 72 hours of food, water, sleeping bag. How prepared am I? Where will I go? Chaos all around. Major gas leak so has to leave the neighborhood. What if my roommate is alive but has a broken leg. 2 backpacks have to carry and help roommate move. To coalesce all efforts of prep, what can you do in next 24 hours will influence your survival.
He was raised in San Fran so earthquakes not foreign. Never had a level 7 but did have tremors. Mother would call him into her room and show him trinkets shaking on the wall. Cars and buses up and down the street in front of his house used to shake the house a little. Used to think was traffic, but sometimes the shaking was a little more intense than the traffic. See whole cabinet shake. Mother taught him to stand in door frames or under tables. School taught the same and had earthquake drills like hurricane drills in the south. Learned how to prepare. Aftermath, not something they talked about. 1st go get water, and could live a while catching fish and living in the mountains.
A year ago last Christmas, got prepared as Christmas present to children and gave them 72-hour kits. Packets of food in kit and husband got excited about preparing the kids too. Added a hatchet and the kit became 1000 pound. Had little cookers, bbq sauce, canned chicken. Bbq chicken over rice. Christmas morning, had them cook their own breakfast with their 72-hour kits. Been prepared 5 times in life, then lose track of where things are, things get dispersed. Like to do something in future to calm fears, sister lives in Herriman and really into preparedness. Had fire there and before that, had mock forest fire drill. What to do to clear land if forest fire comes. People participated captains on street, made a website where you can call. A year later when a fire happened, the process of evacuation and reporting ran like clockwork so that few of the houses were destroyed. 2 that were destroyed didn’t follow the plan the year before. Would love to do a mock fire drill or disaster drill for the family.
Earthquakes can be a little exciting. Was on a mission for about a month when in an earthquake in Los Angeles. Lived in a 2nd floor of apartments. Place swayed. People got excited, running out, car alarms were sensitive and were going off. Ready for an earthquake, usually happen early in the morning or late at night. Has a gas line running down the street right in front of my house. This is a bug out situation. Grab your stuff and go. Throw stuff into the back of your car. Want to have water and sugar. Going to want to get away from things. Then think. Brain burns the most sugar. Sugar can help you think. Need something to feed you. If you want to catch a rabbit, may be brain addled and not catch a rabbit. Was also in LA riots and Northridge earthquake. People get excited. Protect yourself and get your family together.
I enjoy reading sci fi thrillers but not crazy aliens and planets. Likes artificial intelligence and how it could evolve into something disastrous. Books full of conspiracy theories enable us to do more things but fewer things. Had a huge earthquake that hit and made us lose critical systems like electricity, plumbing, the internet. How would we survive? If any state is prepared, it’s Utah. Emergency preparedness. Thinks about the whole country and how many of us could respond to situations like that. Technology enables us and handicaps us.
