Ready for the BIG ONE

After losing my virginity to the 4.1 earthquake last week and hearing about the 6.5 earthquake just up the road, I began to seriously look for information on how to be ready for The Big One. I found several websites with lists on what to have on hand to Be Prepared. Using the Emergency Survival Program's Make Disaster Kits, I started to collect stuff. The lists, part of an awareness campaign developed by the state, have three parts - Household, Personal, and Pets. While each section lists many items you would expect - food, water, first aid supplies - there are also some unusual ones..... like non-latex exam gloves, litter pans and litter, road maps. And "manual can opener" is listed three times. So I got that first. And THEN if you study the lists - which I have been doing all week - you will note that there are some VERY important omissions...... like toilet paper and a shovel and a saw (shovel to make a latrine pit.... saw to cut wood to burn and to get to stuff in the wooden wreck of my house.... you get the picture). I started shopping and brought home a carful of stuff - camping stove and gas, canned food, bottled water and jugs to fill with water. The list for personal supplies suggested a backpack that could be kept by the door and grabbed on the way out. So I got one and filled it with spare eyeglasses, whistle, snack foods (like chocolate), water. I even got those suck-all-the-air-out-so-you-can-pack-more-stuff bags and put a set of spare clothes in, sucked the air out and had a neat tiny package to add. We have copied personal papers and included them as well. And then the earthquake hit Haiti....... and all week I have been looking a pictures of the devastation and death. The quake happened Tuesday and supplies/aid is still just trickling in. I have thought about being isolated with no help for days. It made The Big One here more real. But I don't live in a cement block building with poor construction because there are no building codes. And I have the ability to get supplies ahead of time and be prepared. And I don't live on an island with a corrupt government and a poor infrastructure for community assistance. So I fill my four plastic bins - labeled with a list of the contents of each taped to the lid and sorted by need - and I practice to STOP-DROP-HOLD ON which is what you do when the shaking starts. And I feel a bit more secure.
I have been asking other San Joseans if they have emergency supplies put away. Surprisingly, most don't. Even the ones who lived through that last Big One - 1989. One lady described how the floor of one of her rooms completely dropped away and her sewing machine was hanging in midair by the cord which was still plugged into the wall. The only thing she does is to keep a pair of shoes by the bed. That way, she can slip them on and walk out through any broken glass. Good idea. I added it to my list. I am feeling a bit self righteous about being the NoCal newbie and being so prepared. A bit like one of the wise virgins with the lamp oil from the New Testament or the pig in the brick house of Three-Little-Pigs fame or a Boy Scout (Be Prepared!). But what I also feel, as I watch the bodies being piled up on the streets in Port au Prince, is very lucky to be ABLE to be so OCD and get prepared. So bring on The Big One...... I'm ready.