I was working in a biochemistry research lab when I heard about a serious earthquake on the far side of the state. I looked around my lab, with its floor to ceiling open shelves of every sort of chemical, many in glass bottles, and knew some changes had to be made. Are you and your spaces ready for when the ground begins to shake?
Look around your space and visualize what would happen if the walls started swaying.
Are you at risk?
This is an important consideration, but let me just point you to Salty’s post here for more information.
Making your spaces safer in an earthquake.
As happened in my chem lab, sometimes all it takes is a thoughtful look around to see some changes that need to be made. Anything on an open shelf or weakly attached to a wall is likely to come down. Will the stuff land on anyone, or cause a fresh a hazard when it breaks? Do your cabinets have good latches to keep the chaos contained?
Having cabinets pop open and rain down tupperware is a mess. Having top cabinets rain down crock-pots and cast iron cookware is different level of problem. **What about those big pieces of furniture? The couch probably isn’t going anywhere, but do you have a big-screen tv that’s not super secure? What about tall dressers? Our can storage system would probably make a fine mess, for example; but at least it’s not anywhere where it will dump on a sleeping person. Heavy, tippy furniture should be securely attached to wall joists.
Now consider what’s under the hood. Water heaters tipping are a major cause of problems in earthquakes. The same week I had my lab revelation, I went down to the basement and strapped the water heater to the brick main floor support conveniently located right behind it.
Water heaters having lines pulled free when the heater tipped were a major household problem in earthquakes. Bad enough if it’s just the water lines spraying all over your basement, but it’s a powered appliance. Will there be a ‘hot’ electrical wire in that water? Will there be an accompanying gas leak?
Know how to turn off your services
Speaking of hot wires and gas and water leaks … Do you know where and how to shut all of these off if a problem is known or suspected? If not, Now is a good time to find out.
Fire is a real post-earthquake risk
First, there are the problems with new fires starting. The guy next door might not have thought about securing his gas-powered water heater, for example.
Then, there’s the fact that first responders are going to have worlds of problems doing their jobs. Water mains are often broken, meaning the hydrants won’t have pressure. Here in the boonies all the fire departments have pumper trucks that can pull from surface water sources, but that’s still slower and uncertain … and I bet it’s not as common in cities, as well.
They also might not be able to get to fires. Giant cracks in roadways are certainly attention-getting, but debris in the roads is more common. Bridge and overpass losses are serious barriers too.
Would you drive a fire engine over roads that looked like this? Not if you planned to keep the fire engine.*
What can you do about that? Well, have a plan for how not to get roasted if a local fire goes out of control, for one. Escape routes that don’t rely on bridges are an example.
Look for traffic circles instead of overpasses for escape routes.
You can also be ready to nip more manageable problems in the bud. Having robust fire extinguishers where you can get to them and knowing how to use them’s a good start there.
Many other earthquake preps are more general
Water. Food. Power needs. Medications. Communication plans. Escape plans. Much of what earthquake prep requires will do double duty with preps for other disasters.
To sum up, earthquake is a when not an if for large parts of the world. Being ready for the shakedown is an important piece of prepping.
*Krish Dulal [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
** Jongriffin [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
*** Thanks to the Red Cross for sending me a reminder about the Great ShakeOut, which got me thinking and sharing about this topic.
This is some good info. Also would apply to a fairly close (30 mile) nuke attack. I have most of my shelves roped back in, in my shop, but missed the hot water problem……… Thanks.
Being in the Navy, every space had to be “secured ” for being underway (out to sea). This was the minimal procedure of doing things like tying a length of rope to your roller chair to the desk (which was welded to the floor), so if the ship pitched your chair wouldn’t freely roll around. After four years of living on the ship, I’ve come to realize that there’s no 100% preparation of being ready for that rouge wave (or in this case an earthquake), but if you prepare for one, an 80% success rate is right on the money. The point is, is that the loss is catastrophic if there is no preparation… Respectfully, The Break Away Homesteader.
Good food for thought.
One of the major factors in my leaving CA 37 years ago, just a monthly Shake-Rattle-&-Roll was enough to get the help out, that and Taxes, Millions of people, Politics, Property cost, did I mention Taxes, and just all out stupid people.
I remember silting in 100% stopped traffic (wreck of some kind) on the 805 and 8 interchange in SD. The ramp I was on was a high speed ramp at about 10% sideways slope, with a Semi Truck right next to me, High Side of course. This ramp was honestly 200-250 feet off the ground. Frightening was a minimal word to use.
About that time I had a Come to Jesus conversation and got the heck OUT.
Moved to an area whereas there are ZERO quakes in the last 2-300 years.
For those that don’t think a Quake can happen, check out Alaska last week, and the hundreds of after shakes.
One word of advice, it it’s not bolted down, it WILL become a bullet with yar name on it.
But Quakes are just another item on the disaster list for this year…..
Does it seem like there have been even more Natural Disasters and Fires this year?
I was in San Francisco a couple of weeks before the World Series (Loma Prieta) Earthquake hit, I remember driving on the Cypress Street Viaduct, an old, concrete two-decker elevated highway and thinking “Man this would be one really bad place to be when the big one hits…”
Not even a month later, I was watching shots of people on that very lower deck being pulled out dead and alive after the top deck pancaked down on it.
Wild.