"Warring Ideals in One Dark Body"

I appreciate not having my time wasted like the folks at the pizza joint who took 20 minutes to serve me a single slice. That means treating us all like we're big critters and can read. The instructors at at CORE didn't go over every page in our considerable packets of information, which I think sets the proper tone since we're talking about a degree of self-sufficiency here.

1983 Landslide
1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake
1990 Freeze
1991 Oakland/Berkeley Hills Firestorm
1995 Floods
1997 El Nino
1998 La Nina
2006 Winter Storms
2006 Spring Storms
2007 I-580 MacArthur Maze Fire
2007 Cosco Busan Oil Spill
2008 Winter Storms

There's more to planning than I could reasonably address in one post, however, there are some important points to mention just in case I'm not around to ask at the time.

You are the first priority in any emergency. You can't get your kitten from under the table if you pass out because you didn't realized you got hit on the head. Check yourself over well and make certain you're okay before trying to help anyone else. If you took first aid ten years ago, some protocols have changed (tourniquets in back in, for instance) and a refresher would be good.

Does your household have two places to meet in an emergency? (One just outside the house in the event of something such as a fire. A second in a place such as at a nearby park or school in case you or your loved one(s) is/are away from home and can't get back to it because of downed power lines, police taping off the block, etc.)

Does everyone in the house/group have a number to a pre-designated person out of state who will get the following 30 second message: "Hi, Uncle Steve, it's aquenigmatic. There's been a major earthquake. I've got a large cut on my arm that I've bandaged, and I'm at work at XYZ address. I'm off on foot for home. It's six miles from here to there. I'll be walking south on I-80 to Ashby to try to get to home or [pre-determined site B], and I'll call you back in one hour. Love you, bye." Then when the next person calls Uncle Steve he can relay your condition and whereabouts. It needs to be out of state because the local phone lines will be jammed.

Does your household have a landline (not Comcast or AT&T Universal--those won't work without power). Phone lines have their own power. Your cell phone will only work if the cell phone tower has power and isn't damaged. Even so, if there's no power for 10 days, you won't have anything to charge it on. That also means that you won't have anyone's phone number if you don't remember it or have a hard copy.

Keep an ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact on your person with your name, address, medical conditions, allergies, special needs, and your emergency contacts. A card in your wallet and a name in your cell phone is a good idea.

Learn how to shut off the gas in your building; only do so if you smell gas. (Rationale for not pre-emptively shutting it off available upon request.) Once you turn it off, you should not turn it back on yourself. You can either do it with a crescent wrench or a tool from the hardware store that you can bungee to the valve if your have ambulatory tools like I do.

Someone asked the lead instructor, "You have both the wrench and the special tool?"

He shrugged. "I have belts and suspenders too. Sometimes the space shuttle doesn't come back."


We can talk about how to set up a portable camp toilet and how to store the waste since we don't want you to survive the quake only to die of cholera. An important note is not going #1 and #2 into the same bag since the acidic urine will eat through the plastic bag you're going to defecate into. Kitty litter or agricultural lime for smell is useful.

Do you have a plan for people close to you who have medical conditions, functional needs or difficulty communicating?

Do you have a plan for your pets whether you need to stay or go?

Do you have copies of vital documents with Uncle Steve in Albuquerque? (ID, birth/death certificates, medical cards, bank account numbers, credit card numbers with vendor, cvv/cvc codes and expirations, inventories and photos of household goods, SS numbers, professional licenses or credentials, tax returns, vehicle title, passports, important telephone numbers, that only photo of your grandma...)

Get a crank/solar radio that you can charge your phone on. In an emergency, whether it's Shelter, Shut, and Listen or Run Like Hell, that is going to be your best friend.

2 gallons of water per person per day. That means 20 gallons minimum for your home earthquake kit per person - enough to wash, boil things, drink, cook in... Oh, and that bottled water you bought three years ago? Don't even think of doing anything but watering your plants with that--it goes bad after 6 months. There are plastic barrels at the Earthquake Supply Store (yes, there is such a thing) that are FDA approved for storing large amounts of water (15 gallons and up) and they come with pumps (like for a keg) and magic juice called chorine that will keep it potable for five years.

You can also drink water out of your hot water heater if it's a newer one with a spigot and it's nicely strapped in place so it doesn't bounce all over your basement. Also, those things are supposed to have flexible portions of hose leading to the hard pipe. If you do drink out of the water heater, turn off the flame first or when the water gets low there's gonna be a fire.

Bug-out bags in your car, in your work, in your home. Water, a little food, medicine, last year's glasses, *socks*, a few empty gallon Ziploc bags, a flashlight, a map, a compass, a small first aid kit, a multi-tool, a blanket, and maybe a few other things that you think are important.

Now I know...this seems like a lot. It is a lot. It'll go that much farther when the time comes. And I'm available to you with any questions that I feel like I can answer, and if I can't answer it, I probably want to be able to. We'll find the answers together.

Do I have all this stuff done? NO. But little by little, it's happening. If there's some way I can help, please let me know.