Big quake makes me think

[LWJ]

Seeing Japan get flattened; visiting New Orleans last Summer; and reading about an escape from a Siberian Gulag recently; I keep thinking about survival and human endurance. I have three small children and live in Oregon. We are waiting for a large size quake here. The word is that it is inevitable. So why am I so ill prepared?

My yard does have a stream in the back that we could drink from if needed and I do have some emergency bleach for that. We have camping gear. But all of our stuff is spread out in the house. If the house was hit hard, could we get our gear? How long would we need to hang out until services and groceries were available? I can make a fire, keep rain off our heads, drink water as needed. Food would get thin but I don't imagine that we would perish from starvation.

Does anyone have a "reasonable" system? I think people fall into two camps: full on survivalist wacko and clueless victim. I would like to be in the prepared but not paranoid middle.

Comments welcome.
Larry

[Normy]

Here in south Florida, we are afflicted with tourists and hurricanes.

The first just get on your nerves; I keep a flame thrower in my 928- it works real well!

[that was a joke]

In my opinion, hurricanes get way more press than they deserve. When I lived in Orlando in 2004, three of them hit my house, and the only damage was to my landscaping and some shingles from the roof. I went through Katrina and Wilma in 2005 at my new home in Fort Lauderdale, and the damage was slight- my coconut palms looked like hell for a year, and one of my roof tiles was chipped. What sucked was that the first 13 days that I lived in my new house, I had no electricity. Day seven I managed to buy a 6.2 kw generator, so I finally could cook on the stove and could take warm showers....but I still "camped" in my house the first two weeks.

At the same time, I take these storms seriously. They typically hit Flori-duh between June 1 and November 1, so in late May/early June I usually take my five 5 gallon gasoline cans to the local gas station and fill them up. I keep about five 2 gallon plastic jugs of drinking water around, and I make sure I have a small amount of canned tuna around [love it with soy sauce and olive oil!] and plenty of pasta. The well for the sprinklers produces [disgusting] but drinkeable water too].

My house is concrete block with about an inch of stucco on the outside, with an "s-tile" roof, which is very heavy. The roof structure is secured to the walls with what they call "hurricane straps", or metal straps that secure each joist via several bolts to the block structure via several bolts. The place was built in 1962- its STRONG. But also, a previous owner installed $30,000 worth of impact glass windows. Impact glass might not work in Oregon, since it is single pane, but this stuff is HEAVY! You can feel it when you open the sliding door from the bedroom, which is normal sized and weighs over 260 pounds. It is 5/8 inch laminated glass with a plastic film in the middle, and can withstand the impact of a 3 foot length of 2X4 fired at 155 mph without intrusion-

You can literally hit these windows with a baseball bat and they won't break.

Oh, then there is the garage door. I replaced it last year after the state of Florida gave me a grant- It is a normal looking garage door from the outside, but it is two layers, and the individual sections that fold? They have boxed section steel frames behind them that are 6x3, and the track is a 4 inch wide track.

Now...to make a long story short? YES, I take hurricanes seriously. At the same time, when one comes, I'm going to put everything inside, stock up on beer, charge the boat battery so the bilge pump will run....and then throw ONE HELL OF A PARTY!

N!

[Crowbob]

At minimum, have numerous flashlights around the house, a small gererator, a few days or a week of canned goods, some bottled water, crank up emergency radio, first aid kit and predetermine a location to regroup.

At maximum, 6 mos of food, lots of ammo to go with the zombie repellants, bleach, medi-pack, $5,000 cash, a few hundred gallons of diesel fuel, completely stocked backpacks (clothes, nutrition bars, meds., walkie-talkie and a book or game) for each member of the family, acreage, woodlot...

[GH85Carrera]

I don't worry much about hurricanes or tsunamis in Oklahoma. Hurricanes that hit Texas and move into Oklahoma do generate rain and spawn tornados but that is no different than any spring. The biggest baddest tornado ever measured hit the metro area but it only destroys a small area. We did not even loose electricity in this part of town with that monster tornado. If a F5 hits a structure the structure will go away down to ground level. Those are very rare and we always have a LOT of warning, sometimes over a day of warning. We have a simple emergency plan to grab the medicines, put on good shoes and long sleeve shirt and jeans, grab the dogs and leashes and get in the shelter, or leave the area. Tornados don't sneak up on us.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I've often wondered about how we would fare after the breakdown of polite society. Very very unlikely, but if it happened how many would survive? I consider myself fairly handy but I'm very poor at cleaning fish, and while I have hunted a few times I have never actually killed, cleaned, and eaten anything. I have no generator, no real provisions, and not nearly enough ammo.

In the event of a major catastrophe I would likely try to get my family out to my in-laws in central KS, they live on acreage adjacent to a small town and have enough guns to fend off many zombies. They also are part of a small farming community where people still take care of themselves, I definitely wouldn't want to be in a large metro area if things went really bad.

Will it ever happen? Probably not, but it makes for fairly disturbing food for thought.

[Hugh R]

I have a few guns, but not a lotna few boxes off ammo. We keep maybe 20! Gallons of wate r plus the pool/spa. I have a pantry and enough food for a few weeks.I also have a Morman neighbor who I know doesn't have guns.

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I've often wondered about how we would fare after the breakdown of polite society.

I think that you would find that boundary lines get setup pretty quickly. I can tell you that in my neighborhood, anyone thinking they were going to rob or loot would be meet with armed resistance. Its one of the odd features of our society, and one that I think Ted Nuggent is probably correct, 'An armed society is a polite society'.

I think the earthquake in Japan has been a wake up call for me. Not being prepared is senseless. It doesn't cost much money, and it would make a huge difference if disaster happened. Because I hike in the mountains, I have a lot of the supplies that we would need. But are they all in one place that everyone in the family knows how to get to? No.

Time to get cracking.

[red-beard]

I priced up emergancy MRE type food for 6 for 18 months. About $15000 retail. Seems like something smart to do, along with a food seed bank.

[dependencies]

We don't get a lot of trouble on this island so far, plus I live so far inland
(royalty used to place their riches near here in times of invasion from Europeans) so Tsunami looks unlikely.


The quandy seems to be in Haiti & Japan,
that the best building land seems predominantly coastal where the minimal warnings available of a large wave make escape impossible

[flatbutt]

I think the Japanese may be setting a fine example. They're all hurting and as far as I can tell, they're all helping as best they can. I'm prepared to survive but equally prepared to help.

[GH85Carrera]

I just can't fathom any disaster that would put the entire country in a survival mode with armed looting. I don't see that as plausible.

I guess if the Yellowstone area blows or a big meteor his the Earth it could happen. Those are very unlikely and I can't see building a bunker and stocking it with months of provisions for that remote possibility.

When the big earthquake hits California and devastates the area the entire country will not descend into Mad Max culture. For California it will be just like Japan is now. No doubt there will be some major crime & looting and the Army will have to be sent in and martial law will be declared. It will really suck to be there. The entire country will suffer but life in the other states will continue on as before.

Last I saw the probability of the BIG one hitting in California is 94% in the next 30 years. It is not if but when.

[cbush]

The problem with keeping canned goods and MREs is that they have a limited shelf life. Even if you did buy all those, in a few years, they would be inedible.
The quote in the news about the guy in Japan who said they kept bottled water in case of an emergency makes sense. Think about what you would need to stay alive for 7-10 days until the government can get organized enough to help you. You could probably keep enough in your pantry, and rotate the stock so it was always fresh.

[Head416]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I just can't fathom any disaster that would put the entire country in a survival mode with armed looting. I don't see that as plausible.

What would CA look like if an earthquake led to an extended power outage, say 2-4 weeks?

I think there would be armed looting by day 2. By that time all the grocery store shelves would be empty. After a week of starving, unprepared families would have to loot neighborhoods to try to find food.

I think the government's ability to render aid would have only very localized benefit (ie, heart of LA), and even there I wouldn't be surprised if it looked like a food distribution center in Somalia.

This is all based on the premise of an extended power outage which I will admit may not be too likely, but given recent events must definitely be considered possible.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by cbush

The problem with keeping canned goods and MREs is that they have a limited shelf life. Even if you did buy all those, in a few years, they would be inedible.
The quote in the news about the guy in Japan who said they kept bottled water in case of an emergency makes sense. Think about what you would need to stay alive for 7-10 days until the government can get organized enough to help you. You could probably keep enough in your pantry, and rotate the stock so it was always fresh.

I agree, I just priced up what a quick emergancy supply of food would cost. Better to buy stuff you already buy, so that you can cycle through it. Our problem is, we generally don't use canned food.

[mikester]

I've been working on my preparedness list and have been researching small generators. Something like one of those little honda jobs - very portable, very usable on a regular basis so I don't have to wonder 'will it work' when I need it to.

One of the problems I'm worrying about is how to keep an extended supply of fuel safely stored. I haven't figured how much fuel I would need for 2 weeks (at least) of operations but I know we're talking at least a 5 gallon jug. The thing I worry about is FREAKING Ethanol! When it sits it absorbs water which turns into a white milky mess at the bottom of any tank.

I suppose there is just nothing I can really do about it so the answer is to regularly rotate the fuel supply to keep that from happening and don't let fuel SIT in the generator.

Yup. This morning before I woke up I had a dream that China was hit with a big one and that I was panicked and freaked out running around the house saying 'we're next!' to my wife.

Awesome...

[GH85Carrera]

One friend of mine is a bit of a survivalist. He has a large store of water food and a generator.

His plan for fuel is his pick up truck. He has twin tanks and 50 gallons of gas. He always keeps one tank full. As one gets low he switches tanks and fills up the low tank. He always has fresh gas that way.

Even if you made an effort to always have a 1/2 tank of gas in your car you would have a decent supply.

[tabs]

Civilization is but a thin veneer, and when the veil falls away what you are left with are a bunch of barbarous little monkeys. If anyone was paying attention, when the LAPD stepped back after the Rodney King verdict in 92 the city erupted.

[mikester]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

One friend of mine is a bit of a survivalist. He has a large store of water food and a generator.

His plan for fuel is his pick up truck. He has twin tanks and 50 gallons of gas. He always keeps one tank full. As one gets low he switches tanks and fills up the low tank. He always has fresh gas that way.

Even if you made an effort to always have a 1/2 tank of gas in your car you would have a decent supply.

How do I get the gas out easily though?

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by mikester

How do I get the gas out easily though?

Mike,

Diesel stores more easily, less chance of degredation, is not volatile and not prone to explosion.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

You need a way to protect it. One of the things that Katrina survivors noted was that looters honed in on the noise of generators, since the noise was a dead giveaway that someone had resources (that they could try to take, steal or beat up/intimidate/kill the owners to get).