After today's magnitude 6.5 temblor, the epicenter of which was maybe 30 miles from my house, I have earthquake preparedness on my mind. I'm feeling pretty good, since this was a fairly major event and my only damage was a broken vinegar bottle. But despite the fact that lots of people appear to feel that this was the biggest quake in memory (I suppose those who don't feel that way don't get quoted by the media), there's likely bigger ones on the way in this, the most seismically active area of the continental USA. So I can't help thinking of this as a great test of my readiness for the Big One.
My initial reaction was that a very, very big truck which had escaped my notice was rumbling past the house. It was more the noise, a very loud, low rumble, than the shaking that I noticed, at least for a second or so. Then the nearly full vinegar bottle fell from its perch to the kitchen counter, broke into many pieces, and then hit the floor. It was the only item to fall from my open kitchen shelves (pictured at right), but it was enough to wake me up to what was really going on. I immediately know I had to find my glasses, which as per usual I was not wearing. Fortunately, they were next to me in the spot they always are when I sit at the computer, and I was level-headed enough to know that. Next, oddly enough, I thought of my disaster stash of water and food, and got up to go fetch it. That idea was dismissed as idiotic almost immediately, but as the stash is in the pantry, I found myself standing in the doorway, which I judged to be a good idea. Thinking a bit more, I decided a better place to be would be outside, as this is a very rural area and there's nothing that could fall on me out there. I think by this time the shaking had stopped, but nevertheless I went outside, grabbing my car keys (which hang on a hook by the door) on the way.I stayed outside for a few minutes, during which Reggie (the cat), in a full-blown panic, hurled himself at one of the windows, trying to get out. I decided not to let him out, reasoning that in his agitated state he may run away and get lost. In hindsight, I'm still not sure what I should have done. Had the house collapsed with him inside, I would of course feel terrible, but I wonder what the chances of that happening would be. I certainly could not have collected him; if he got out he was going to run somewhere, fast. What would have happened then I can't say. As it was, unable to escape, Reggie ran under the bed and stayed there for about two hours. Reggie's usually "large and in charge" around here, but today he was revealed as a true "scairdy cat."
After a couple of minutes, my neighbor came out of his house and waved at me. I waved back, and walked down to talk to him. It was at this time that I realized that, not only did I not know what was going on more than 100 yards from my home, I had no good way of finding out, since I didn't think I had a working radio and in any case had no idea of the local radio frequencies. It turns out that my satellite radio has AM and FM dials, and it does pick up some stations, so I now have to make a list of the local frequencies so I know where to tune to get information when I need it.
This is an area that, I believe, is well-prepared for the Big One. This summer, the local university in conjunction with a few alphabet-soup governmental agencies published the brochure pictured above left, and it went into wide circulation. I got a copy with my local newspaper, then a second with the alternative weekly paper, and I suppose it was made available--or even force-fed--in a number of different ways as well. Plus, just a week or two ago someone in one of these papers published an op-ed about waiting for the Big One. So this is not really news to any of us, even a newbie like me.
But I'm not satisfied with my preparations, some of which I now need to re-think. There's the radio, and the cat, but also there's my emergency stash. I presently have it in my pantry, on the top shelf. Nothing happened to it today, but of course today's event was not wicked enough for me to need it. (The electricity went out but came right back on; my coffeemaker didn't even forget the time. I never lost either water or gas, both of which are local--that is, gas is in a tank outside, and water comes in pipes from a tank up the hill.) If we had a Big One, over 7.0 say, I think it's a reasonably good chance that I won't be able to get to the stash through the wreckage of the pantry. I'm not sure, however, where a better place would be, except perhaps for my car, which is likely to make it through any temblor unscathed. I'm not so sure I want to tote all that stuff around all the time, but I'll have to consider it.
I do like how easily accessible my car keys were, and that I thought of grabbing them. Around here, I could probably just leave them in the ignition, but this is next best. I didn't grab anything else, but I don't really have any "important papers"--most of my financial life exists on-line, and I have no homeowner's/renter's insurance (not offered this far from a fire station.) I might want to find a more convenient spot for my wallet, but otherwise I'm not concerned about papers.
So all in all, I think I'd give myself a 'B' for this preparedness test. And now I'm better prepared when the Big One rumbles through.
I can't say that for poor Reggie, though. I think he was eating when the quake struck, and it totally freaked him out. Now he's a little afraid to go back into that small room (the laundry room.) I hope and expect that he'll forget all about it by tomorrow.
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