Remember when I wrote that my workplace is closer to the epicenter than my home? This afternoon, we had a 4.0 centered less than 2 miles from my office. My office building is on rollers, which dissipates the energy safely, but several of us were slightly seasick. Maybe it was the rolling, maybe it has been the tension from frequent aftershocks in the past few days.I prepared an earthquake kit (actually one each for upstairs and downstairs). But Iris discovered the flashlights and other fun stuff. The kits just walked off and dissipated.
Mark says that media coverage of hurricane Katrina taught him a powerful lesson. Dark people loot. Light people forage. When the big one hits, our earthquake kit is at the supermarket and pharmacy 500 feet from our house. Which is fine, except if he is away when the big one hits; I don't have the benefit of his light skin. And take a look at the earthquake damage at that supermarket the other night.
If you click on the link above, you can see this excellent map of the faults in our local area. Actually, we live in about as safe an area as you can find within a short commute from work. We are midway between the Palos Verdes and Inglewood faults, on one of the few protrusions of bedrock, not in a landslide or flash flood area, far from the tsunami zone, refineries that might blow up and combustible wildlands. It's not picturesque, but it is relatively safe. So why am I feeling so edgy?
I've never been that close to an earthquake- I've just felt a few from far away. And even that can be unsettling. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteAfter our last set of terrible wildfires, I prepared a "go bag". That, and the bottles of water I keep in the office and garage are our earthquake kit. I really struggle to keep the stuff for Pumpkin in that bag current, though. I'm glad she's stopped growing so fast so that at least the diapers I put in there still fit! I also try to keep some canned goods on hand. After throwing five year old cans out when we moved, I started cycling them yearly by giving the old ones to one of the annual canned foods drives.
We've anchored our tall furniture and used museum putty to secure some breakables- but I'll confess that was more about babyproofing than earthquake proofing. All told, I give us a "C" for preparedness. It is hard to be really prepared, especially when you've got a kid in the house.