Don’t let quake rarity influence preparation

I understand that the San Diego region rarely gets a really bad earthquake, maybe one every 150 years.

As earthquakecountry.org notes, “Our relatively short history in the region has created a false sense of immunity from earthquakes in the San Diego area, but a major earthquake along the length of the Rose Canyon Fault could result in devastating consequences.” Because of the two tectonic plates under us and the risk of a catastrophic earthquake, I have taken steps to prepare.

I try to do one preparedness thing at a time. There are hundreds of things you can do to prepare but you get buried with a hundred action items and may not take any action.

Some say to make a personal disaster plan with your family first. Others say to start with the most important resource you’ll need after a major earthquake —

water. I’d say do one then the other. The disaster plan is easy and still extremely important. You can get the template from readysandiego.org (in 12 languages.) Be sure to involve your entire family and your pets.

And I suggest you include discussion on “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” and practice that every six months each time you pull out the plan and review it. There are modified actions at earthquakecountry.org/step5 to “Drop, Cover and Hold On” for people with wheelchairs, walkers and crutches.

Water — we need water to survive. After a severe earthquake, our water supply might get contaminated or fail completely because of broken pipes. You need about one gallon per day of drinking water for each person. You should have enough drinking water for a week or two. If you have a hot water tank, that is a good start. How big is it and can you disconnect it from the water supply to keep that water drinkable?

If you don’t have a hot water tank, you’ll still need water. Most experts say you shouldn’t drink swimming pool water because of the high amount of chemicals that can’t be filtered except through distillation. I won’t be drinking pool water. Some people get boxes of 2-gallon water bottles from big-box stores. A family of four for two weeks — four gallons a day times 14 days — needs 56 gallons. Wow! Do what you can.

Once you have a personal disaster plan and water reserves, go on a hazard hunt and identify hazards in your home that can fall on you in a big minute-long-shake.

Then you can sign up for early warning,

10 to 30 seconds if you are lucky. That is still better than no warning at all especially if you have kids to help.

Just because we don’t have big earthquakes very often, you can still take easy and practical steps to prepare — one at a time.

Ed Langmaid, Tierrasanta