Are you prepared?

As I am sure you have seen the horrific news in Japan with the earthquakes and tsunami.

I am from Christchurch, New Zealand where we recently had a earthquake that killed nearly 200 people. To date we have had over 5,000 aftershocks.

Our first earthquake was on September 4th, with a magnitude of 7.1. We recovered well and started picking up the pieces. We were fortunate that there was no loss of life.

Our second one was on December 26th, a shallow M4.9, causing more damage to the city but no loss of life.

Then on February 22nd, I was just preparing to go into the city to organise something for work but I was running late. I am glad because at 12:51pm, we had a M6.3 earthquake that was just over the hill from where I live. Imagine a peanut on a drum and the drum was being banged on violently, causing the peanut to move around. That is what the house felt like.

In the first earthquake, we were not prepared - we had no emergency water supplies, no large amount of canned food, etcetera.

Fortunately, we learned from this initial earthquake what we needed and this time around, we were prepared. I am glad that I was prepared because we had to endure 15 days without power.

I think it is important to be prepared - people do become complacent and think that it won't happen to them.

Anything can happen anywhere.

Are you prepared?

It is always a good idea to have a container filled with items such as: bottled water - they recommend 3 litres a day per person, canned food, batteries, flashlights (I found the flashlights that go on your head to be most useful), cat food, baby wipes, first aid kit for any injuries, chemical toilet (which we received free from the city council yesterday!), a spade to dig a hole to create your own toilet if the sewage system is munted, gas cooker, gas bottles for the cooker, a gas tank for the barbeque as it comes in handy, a gas heater, a radio, toilet paper, dust masks, can opener.

Are you prepared? Please do be prepared. It will save you further agony as going for long periods of time without power and water is hard and quite stressful.

We have an earthquake kit near the front door, but we have nothing for Zoe, and nothing for the kitties (although we have sacks of food and litter in the garage near the cat carriers, so could easily just throw those in the car if needed). We also have no water set aside.

DH and I really need to sit down one of these fine days and get our kit in order.

Gary and I aren't normal. We are so prepared, we even have gas masks and a filtered "tent" for the cats.

We don't keep more than several gallons of water on hand, but we have five hand-operated "pumps" to filter water that can clean up even giardia and coccidia (we can take water out of puddles if we had to). We keep at least 3 months of dried or canned food on hand. We also keep stores of salt, because that's the one thing we can't grow or hunt.

We also keep quite a few flashlights that don't require batteries.

Originally Posted by LDG

Gary and I aren't normal. We are so prepared, we even have gas masks and a filtered "tent" for the cats.

We don't keep more than several gallons of water on hand, but we have five hand-operated "pumps" to filter water that can clean up even giardia and coccidia (we can take water out of puddles if we had to). We keep at least 3 months of dried or canned food on hand. We also keep stores of salt, because that's the one thing we can't grow or hunt.

We also keep quite a few flashlights that don't require batteries.

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I like your kind of abnormal!

I take disaster prep pretty seriously. I always have 3-6 months of food, human and feline, on hand, and basic toiletries, toilet paper, etc. With DH's job, it seems we have a financial crisis week or 2 each year since 2004. That pantry has come in mighty handy several times. I could focus on paying the mortgage, etc., and not have to worry about buying food, toilet paper, etc. I highly recommend everyone try to do something similar--it doesn't have to be a natural disaster to need "disaster" supplies. I even used my disaster kit when our heat pump died (in early February). They kept messing up the installation, so we had no heat for exactly 1 month (except for space heaters). Those sleeping bags, extra sweatpants, hoodies, hand warmers, and space (foil) blankets were very handy--perhaps even life-saving (I think I had started to become hypothermic one night, before we could obtain a kerosense heater--from 3 hours away--all were out of stock around here. Our house was 44F, and I could see my breath in the bathroom.).

Marge, we've done the same thing - those food supplies have come in handy several times. We always restock when money isn't an issue.

Having camping gear definitely helped us during a week of power failure. We already had a propane heater, so we could keep ourselves and the cats warm in the bedroom (why does the power always go out in winter?). But we kept our fish alive by boiling water on the camping stove, enabling us to keep the tank at 70. And, of course, we had to use it to make our own food.

That was when we lived in a house. The RV was just outside, and we could have moved in there . (propane doesn't require power other than the 12 volt to run and we have a generator).

We're in the hurricane belt. From June 1, to November 30, it's touch and go with every tropical storm. We are very used to the "readiness" needed. When Wilma hit, we would have been without food, water and electric for 3 weeks if we weren't prepared.

We don't have a specific plan though we have many of those listed items (except the water). We have a tractor and chainsaws and some equipment like that.

The US has advised its citizens not to live within 50 miles of the nuclear power plant in Japan and I just google mapped the one closet to us in Wisconsin and its 37 miles away (to the southeast). Its about on the shore of Lake Michigan in Two Rivers,WI. Not as big as the Japanese one though.

Originally Posted by LDG

Marge, we've done the same thing - those food supplies have come in handy several times. We always restock when money isn't an issue.

Having camping gear definitely helped us during a week of power failure. We already had a propane heater, so we could keep ourselves and the cats warm in the bedroom (why does the power always go out in winter?). But we kept our fish alive by boiling water on the camping stove, enabling us to keep the tank at 70. And, of course, we had to use it to make our own food.

That was when we lived in a house. The RV was just outside, and we could have moved in there

. (propane doesn't require power other than the 12 volt to run and we have a generator).

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I get paid bi-weekly; such fun! When I see good canned goods sales, for example, Acme's 10/10 sales (I usually don't shop there, as they are very expensive), I spend $10-$20. That will get you a lot of toothpaste, toothbrushes, canned goods, pasta, etc. I can usually spare $10 or a bit more if I stumble across a good sale.

Even if we don't need the stuff for emergencies, I like having it. I hate shopping, so I don't run out of stuff, either!

We try to stay stocked up on food, and always do for the cats food.
As for a natural disaster, tornadoes are the most common. How many pounds of stuff should I try to take care of along with the cats when there are only minutes to spare? I've never saw the point of a disaster kit that will blow away with everything else...

Not prepared at all.

I got water today - yay!

We live just outside of Washington, DC. After 9/11, I got all paranoid and started stockpiling emergency supplies. It's recommended that people have a 3 day supply of food/whatever else you need. We'd be good for at least a month.

I hate running out of things in general so I always have at least a few months of things like toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. I'm in cat litter for a good 6 months and always have an extra month of cat food. I love Costco!

The one thing I need to buy is a battery operated TV. The two we have are useless because of the conversion to digital.

No, we are not prepared, we shop once a week and always run out of things... if anything were to happen Id rather just pass quickly and painlessly, that's how I see it...
It's not. An earthquake zone here, but hurricanes and tornados do cause damage occasionally..

We're to the point now where we try to keep 50 cans of cat food in stock at all times. It gets rotated frequently, so it's not like they'd be eating years-old food. Really, with six cats, 50 cats won't go far; we keep saying we need more. We have water in gallon jugs in the freezer, for what it's worth. We also have a shelve of bottled water. There are a lot of bags of litter in the basement. There's also a hefty first aid kit in the basement, one in the bathroom, and one smaller kit in each of our vehicles.

We have large stockpiles of things like toilet paper, paper towels, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, bars of soap, cleaning supplies, etc. A large supply of canned goods and the like. The shampoo, soap, and cleaning supplies are in the basement closet with canned goods. Paper supplies are in the bathoom closet.

As long as the electricity doesn't kick, we can eat out of our basement freezer for about 4 months, other than things like milk or eggs.

We've thought about joining Costco....the closest one is about 60 miles away.

Not really. We live in a fairly sheltered area. We have the occasional severe storms with tornado warnings but very rarely do they actually form. We try to never let the kitties get low on food, and we have some water downstairs but thats basically it.

Only have the simple basics ready for a disaster. Guess I should think about that in light of all of these natural disasters. It is very scary. I am going to put together a plan just in case.

to be honest....we´re not prepared for a Earthquake.... we got some suplys and every year try to get some groceries for the hurricane season....but being honest as you said we never think in a Earthquake around here....

(knocking wood!....)....

Originally Posted by Trouts mom

Not prepared at all.

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Same here. We have some canned food stocked up, but it's "stocked" because I'm not a fan of most of it and just stick in the back of the cupboard.

We're not stocked up on cat and dog food, we just buy food at the beginning of each month, which is a little bit before we'd run out.

We have bottled water. That's about all I can say for us.

Fortunately hurricanes are unheard of here (we live very far from any body of water), tornadoes are just occasional tiny "dirt devils" that are more annoying than harmful, and though in the northwest of the state we get some "after effects" or "ripples" from California's earthquakes, I've never experienced it or heard of one here.

We're not really prepared for anything either. Here in Nova Scotia we basically never get tornadoes (I think two in the history of NS, both F0). We get tropical storms and occasionally a category 1-2 hurricanes. Hurricane Juan was a Cat. 2. We had no power for a week, but got by.
I think I might stock up on stuff as well. Especially for the cats. We don't even have enough carriers for all 3!
There was a small fire in an apartment on the second floor of our building (we're on the 3rd) and once I smelled the smoke, I started to freak out, not knowing who I was gonna put where. It really pays to be ready for emergencies!