Are you prepared?

[Jack]

I was listening to the news the other day and they were talking about the small 600+ earthquakes that were occurring off the Oregon coast over the past 2 weeks. They said that they have been monitoring this closely because they haven’t “heard” this kind of quake before. I am not VERY concerned, however, I have been thinking about how prepared we truly are for a larger event. The storm that left us without electricity for 4 days was a big wake up call. We have more oil lamps in our house now as well as more blankets. What is everyone doing to get ready for the “big one”? -Jack

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[karen]

I went down to the emergency preparedness place in South Park and got some 5 gallon containers for water (and filled them!) We do a lot of camping so the power outage meant going to the camping supplies and pulling them out.

Our preschool has an emergency kit with supplies and first aid equipment.

I am more worried about medications more than anything. Our insurance has gotten really tight with refills, you can only get them within a few days of when you are about to run out.

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[JimmyG]

We should all have earthquake kits here in W. Seattle. And remember to keep items on hand for your pets. You’ll need enough food and water for them too.

Like Karen we plan on relying on our camping gear to get by for a few days, but remember if the disaster is an earthquake you may not be able to get to your gear, so store it either in a drum in your garage or yard, or somewhere in your house that should the worst happen to the structure, you can still get to your supplies.

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[WSB]

Just saw this.

Please follow the home-page posts about Emergency Preparedness – we are part of a West Seattle-wide campaign this month to help people take simple steps.

One really important thing:

Check out this map,

http://tinyurl.com/428yrm

(that’ll take you to a Google map we created)

and click the locations to find the event that’s nearest your house – drop by, get info, familiarize yourself with the location.

Organizers agreed that if we can get people to do just ONE thing this month, it’s find out where the nearest neighborhood gathering place for info and help will be AFTER disaster strikes.

Next drop-by event is tomorrow, Thriftway in Morgan Junction.

–TR (WSB editor)

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[Erik]

The Alki community council meeting two days ago had great info. on this very topic. The dozen of us in attendance at least got some good handouts from Tony to get us thinking of what may be needed.

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[WSB]

That was part of the same monthlong event – the handouts you got from Tony (who is the Alki rep on the informal coalition organizing this West Seattle-wide) will be the same ones everybody else will see at the subsequent events! Any particular infobits you found most informative/enlightening/easy to act on?

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[Erik]

The basic stuff needed to survive for a few days, water, food (for the pets too), candles, batteries, etc. We were reminded that we are on a peninsula and could be cut off from easy help, medical and otherwise.

And since Benjamin Kinlow also happened to be there talking about block watch, the idea of knowing your neighbors and who to check on and having or being a point person for your area to help out in case of evacuation or giving out information about meeting places seemed prudent.

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[JimmyG]

I almost forgot: another thing to preplan with your family is to have a friend or relative that lives out of the area (a long distance phone call away) that all of you agree to call if you’re separated after an emergency.

The reason is that post-emergency, many local calls won’t go through, and you may not be able to reach your local family. But if everyone checks in with your long-distance contact you can at least find out who has checked in or not and find out their status.

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[Ken]

Some things that are painless to do if you make them a habit.

Keep 1 propane tank on your grill and keep 2 filled ones in reserve. Just fill one as you empty it and you will never have less than 2 spares to cook all that stuff in your freezer with for neighborhood stew.

If you buy water in 2.5 gal containers and keep one in the fridge and one or two on a garage or store room shelf, then you have an always fresh 2.5 to 5 gal cushion.

I keep a box of old cookware (dented alum pans, scratched Teflon, bent flatware) in a box under the stairs (strongest part of the house) to use in case I need to cook up the contents of the freezer.

If you have an outside storage shed, make sure you leave an old or cheap pipe wrench in there for when you need to turn off the gas at the meter. It can also turn off water meters in case of a line break.

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[Author]

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