Claire Petersky wrote:

In any case, considering Katrina's aftermath, I was wondering what
people's disaster preparation plans were, and if they've been
changed.

We don't have any but I think I'll be making some! :-( First and fore most
I'm going to stock pile some water. I can't imagine no water and I have
none for emergency use at all. I plan to put copies of important papers in
a small lock box so that I can grab a small container and keep it with me.
I'd have to haul half the house to get a few bits of important info. If I
had time I'd hit the ATM machine and withdraw all my money so I had cash if
I needed to leave the area or what have you.

For us, the most likely disaster to strike would be an
earthquake or similar seismic disturbance.

A tornado would be the most likely threat here. Blizzards happen but they
are a bit different. Tornadoes generally happen to quickly to evacuate a
whole city but there is warning to get someplace safe - a basement if you
have one or various buildings in the city are identified if you don't. The
thing with a tornado is the destruction is not so far reaching. If you are
in its path you are destroyed but it doesn't have near the impact that a
earthquake or hurricane does.

I also live next to the Missouri river so I'm going to see if my house would
be underwater if the dam was taken out. I don't think a force of nature
could do that (even a tornado) but it could certainly be blown up! I have
no idea how to prepare for that. Get out if I had enough forewarning to do
so but I imagine I might not.

One of the big concerns for our family has been that typically one or
both parents have had work or school in the city, and there's a major
body of water, Lake Washington, between the city and where we live.

Oh my. Earthquakes are scary things. We are all on the same side of the
river and there is always storms before tornadoes so if one was bad enough
our family would be able to get together. Same thing with blizzards. A
blizzard now that I live in town is not such a major problem but when I was
in the country I did a lot more planning/preparedness. They are generally
forecasted as well so you can often avoid problems. We have a fire place
and try to keep enough wood to keep us warm if the electricity was out a
long time (not nearly enough for 5 days though!!) and a propane heater we
can aim at the pipes to keep them from freezing. Of course you don't have
to worry about your house being destroyed in a blizzard. In some other kind
of disaster one wouldn't have pipes or a fire place at all! Over all I
feel good about the area I live in as far as horrific natural disasters.

plans have included who the girls could go to and stay with in our
neighborhood, with conversations with and instructions for the kids,
the school, and the neighbors.

All the rural kids in our area have to list a town address that they can go
to in the event that they can't get home.

The other set of plans in place have centered around setting up camp
at home. We have two large 2.5 gallon jugs of fresh water stored, and
food for about five days on hand. We have camping equipment, so we
have things like the Coleman stove (the backpacking stove too, in a
pinch), water purification tablets, and so on. We have a bag stowed
with items such as a hand-crank radio, flashlight, batteries, deck of
cards, and other items that would be helpful.

Good ideas! I had not thought of water purification tablets - didn't know
they existed actually ;-)

To be honest with you all, I never thought that we'd really need
items for beyond a few days. Now, after Katrina, I'm beginning to
think that five days' worth of supplies is a bare minimum.

Yes - I'm in total agreement. I never thought it would take 5 or more days
to get to people in this country. It has sure been an eye opener.

Something else we never considered -- if there really was a
catastrophic earthquake, would we want to evacuate from the Puget
Sound area entirely? How far would we have to go to get to where
there were any sort of services? How would we get there?

If we couldn't drive out (and I can think of lots of reasons we wouldn't be
able to) I have no idea what we'd do. We could try to walk out I suppose
but I think that as long as we had the bare necessities for survival I'd try
to stay a couple weeks and wait to be rescued. That is after the fact. I'd
certainly evacuate before the fact if I had the chance.

--
Nikki
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
EDD 4/06