What to do Before an Earthquake

What to do BEFORE an Earthquake

• Stock up on Water. Have at least 7 day supply – that is 7 gallons for each person in the home, plus extra for your pets. Do not store them on teh concrete or in just one location.
• Stock up on food that you can eat without electricity to prepare it. Have a manual can opener and rotate your supplies.
• Most Americans hurt or killed during an earthquake are victims of falling objects, not from buildings collapsing. Therefore, fasten or have fastened those things that can hurt or kill you. This should include tall or heavy furniture, cabinets in the kitchen and maybe some in other locations, appliances, wall hangings and those heavy or valuable shelf items such as vases. This can be accomplished by purchasing products at home improvement stores such as Home Depot or Lowe’s. You can install them yourself, call upon a neighbor for assistance or call a professional.
• Always keep your car gas tank at least half full. This may be the only easy source of heating, cooling and shelter. The car radio will provide you a means of keeping informed abut conditions in the community.
• Buy or build a “grab n go” bag of emergency supplies. Be sure to add your medications, money in small denominations, emergency contact list, entertainment items such as books or puzzles, eye glasses, snacks, hygiene products, sneakers, a change of cloths, radio, leather gloves, a flashlight, and first aid items. Do not forget supplies for your pets.
• Take a few minutes to walk your home. Assume you are in various rooms when a major quake hits. What would you do? Plan to drop, prehaps to crawl to a better situation and then cover and hold on. If you do not, the odds are you will do what most people do in a time of high stress. FREEZE. You will have a much better chance of a happy outcome if you respond with a rehearsed action.
• Have a family plan for what you will do in an emergency. If you are separated from family members, decide in advance where you will meet. Do not plan on having use of your phones, as communication systems may be inoperable and first responders will need open lines of communications to be able to help where they are needed.
• Establish a contact outside the area. If communication systems are available, call them once things settle down and have them call everyone you want to update. Discourage anyone from calling you to find out if you are OK. Emergency HAM Radio Operators should be available to help update your contact person outside the area via the National Traffic System.
• Stock up on batteries for all your devices. Be sure to have several flashlights. Tie a bag with at least shoes and a working flashlight to the legs or frame of your bed so that you don’t have to walk around barefoot. Things will fall and break and you do not want to cut your feet. If your shoes move away from your bed, use your pillows as stepping stones to get to your clothes and shoes.
• Make copies of all your important papers. This should include licenses, passports, deeds, insurance policies, important contracts, financial account information and your computer passwords. Keep them in a safe place like your Grab n Go bag, fireproof safe, or in one of the cloud storage locations like Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box.net, etc.
•  Keep emergency supplies in your car. Make sure that water is easily accessible for all passengers.
• Know where your local Command Post (ERC) and/or First Aid stations are located.
• Join an Emergency Preparedness Group. There are a lot of them in Coachella Valley.