What would you pack in a disaster? Are you ready?

I felt it in Berkeley, too. It was a roller, here. I thought I was getting dizzy for some reason. Dogs did not react. Glad it wasn't the Hayward fault. We're right on it, about a mile or so higher that the Cal stadium. didn't mean for anyone to think I was glad it was the Calaveras. Not anywhere, thank you very much!

And a 5.8! Last night when I checked I thought the site showed a 1.something and thought that was a bit low for what you guys were feeling up there.
A lot cooler here this a.m., cool enough to close the windows and that reminds me...when I loaded things to take with, I hadn't thought of changing weather and needing my sweats. Time to dig them out.

It was a 5.6.
As of right now, 27 aftershocks, highest was 2.8 but most are in the 1. range so none can be felt.

Earthquakes have never worried me somehow, but that's probably because I've never been in the middle of one of the bad ones and all of the dangerous problems that come with it. I'm sure they would probably freak me out ever after if I'd been on the Bay Bridge when it collapsed.

We felt Northridge pretty hard because we lived in a "tall and skinny" house near LAX. We had a 300 pound glass table top that moved - jumped up and came down in a different place. We were in bed and could only cover our heads with pillows and cringe. The noise was the worst part, though.

Remember once when I was very young being in an upstairs apartment with long hardwood floors. We saw the floor roll with the quake. That was spooky.

I agree, Sherry, we've never been hurt, so they don't scare us much. Also, they are over so quickly and recovery can start right away. Not like waiting for water to recede or fires to be put out.

DH is this morning mentioning buying a U-Haul truck to build racks in and keeping a great part of his tools in there. To work out of, to have more room in the workshop, and they would be loaded and ready to go. We would take a big, big, big hit if the workshop burned. 35 years of tool collecting. And they would be items that we would need again immediately in rebuilding. We're taking this thing very seriously. My 'comfort level' has taken a big hit.

WC....that is a marvelous idea! Jo

Hve you noticed that men can find many excuses for buying a truck? lol.....

Just make sure the truck is disabled when it is not needed - it would be a shame for it to drive off in the middle of the night "by itself" with all the tools inside.

Yes, have considered that!

Well, this was news to me. I haven't explored the whole site yet, but it looks very useful. Not just for California.

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM THE NOKR WEBSITE.]

The Next Of Kin Registry (NOKR) was established as a FREE tool for
daily emergencies and national disasters. NOKR is an emergency
contact system to help if you or your family member is missing,
injured or deceased. NOKR provides the public a free proactive
service to store emergency contacts, next of kin and vital medical
information that would be critical to emergency response agencies.
Stored information is only accessible via a secure area that is only
accessible by emergency public trust agencies that have registered with NOKR.

NOKR encourages every township, county, municipality, city, state and
nation to take ownership of the NOKR. This resource belongs to you,
your citizens and to your emergency agencies. Take the NOKR
registration forms and add your own identifying symbols.

NOKR is a humanitarian organization. As part of our mission to
society NOKR has created a trusted safeguarding system for all
personal emergency contacts worldwide. NOKR does not own the
information we store, this information belongs to the registrants and
is made available securely to registered emergency agencies during
times of urgent need.

NOKR is a non-partisan; non-profit 501(c)(3) dedicated to bridging
rapid emergency contact information. NOKR was established in January
2004, for daily emergency situations.

Get the family together this weekend and make it a family fun
project. Live Safe be Prepared!

The injury or passing of a loved one is a difficult time for families
and friends. This sad time is compounded when you're not informed
when a loved one is injured or passes on. This happens when Local and
State Agencies are unable to locate a family member or Next Of Kin.
This would happen for numerous reasons:

A lack of information about family or contacts.
A lack of resources available to search for family members, emergency
contacts or "Next Of Kin".

NOKR national NEWS USA
Monday, October 22, 2007
San Diego, California USA
250,000 flee raging wildfires around San Diego

NOKR is asking anyone that may have a missing or potentially injured
family member due to the Wildfires situation in San Diego County to
register this person with the Next of Kin Registry.
Register at:

The NOKR organization has initiated contact with San Diego County
Office of Emergency Service to offer any assistance possible to help
reunify individuals and families displaced by these tragic fires.

Information about NOKR can be found at the following links below:

State of California Listed on the States Home Page
Information About (Living in California)
Next of Kin


National Next of Kin Registry


US Governments Portal USA.gov (Under Family Services)

(Next of Kin National Registry)

Very interesting,K. Can anyone think of a down side to this? I'm so untrusting anymore.

Me too...that's why I hesitated.

We are all in some sort of data base. But I tend to draw back from walking through this kind of door. I don't like to make decisions based on fear, unless it falls in the category of defending myself. Hmmm...need to reflect on this a bit.

My Ex works for USAA and suggests photos of things you consider dear, important and valuable be posted to your email address or somewhere considered somewhat protected ('cause everything can be hacked eventually). Photos of documents, possessions. Of course, they'd be in your computer and available if you removed your computer at the time of evacuation.

I'd take my meds, auto, photo albums and some very old art and dishes. And my Standard Poodle, of course.

OH! I've always wanted a Standard Poodle; what a doll!

I've always said, DG is a small world. I've always had Standard Poodles. Many years ago I showed in obedience, my then 8 year old daughter became involved in the dogs and in 1990, won Westminster Kennel Club Junior Showmanship. We were VERY involved. I've been an exclusive Standard Poodle groomer for the past 15 years. D-mail for continued talk so we don't make the uninterested parties grimace!

Another lovable beauty!

A friend who is an EMT posted what I think is a splendid list of what to have in a "go kit" bag over on the Making Light weblog around the week of the San Jose quake. Me, I was on the 101 coming up from Monterey and didn't feel a thing. Jim Macdonald's been known to post some splendid ideas on first aid kits and general topics of being prepared. Over there (google "making light" and "go bags", since I"m not sure if it's okay to link offsite URLs here), there are more detailed descriptions; here are some bare-bones of the list, for review:

Urban bag

If you only have ten seconds, grab this one.
(Along with what’s in your pockets. I assume some pocket change, subway tokens, a pocket knife, ID, and so on.)

In a waist pouch:
one AA flashlight
one AA transistor radio
one spare pack of AA batteries
one pack moleskin
anti-chafing ointment
one small sharp curved scissors
one space blanket
one disposable poncho
250 mL of water
one whistle
$100 in ten-dollar bills
$10 in quarters
two disposable butane lighters
one pack waterproof matches
one pre-paid phone card (rotate)
lists of phone numbers
one pen/pencil
one notepad
inventory list
consider: regional map
Consider: laminated photocopies of important documents (e.g. marriage license, birth certificate, social security card, first page of passport)

Evacuation/deployment bag
If you have twenty seconds, grab this one too. If you have half-an-hour you can put this together from stuff you have in your closet.
In a backpack:
one or more changes of clothing (including shoes), underwear, socks
toiletries and hygiene supplies
A light raincoat, a light pair of gloves, a light wool hat, and a light wool sweater, should cover most of the continental US during most of the year.
medications
snacks
reading material, deck of cards, or other entertainment
pen
notepad
inventory list

For the urban bags, consider making two kits: one for home, one for office.

Once you’ve made your kit, put it on and walk for a mile or three. How does it feel?

Remember to keep your car fueled. Half-a-tank is empty. Refuel if it gets down to the mid-point. (Gas stations may run out of gas; in a power failure gas pumps won’t work.) Stay calm, think things through. It’ll turn out okay.

Inside the kits, keep things separated, organized, and dry with plastic bags.

Go dig out the original, the liner notes about each item are worth more than gold. He spends some time discussing the rotation of water, fresh batteries, etc. - basically, checking things on a quarterly basis (hah! at my house, half a year is often... but putting it on the calendar can't hurt).


The SF Chronicle newspaper also has a pretty good Earthquake Preparedness Kit list archived at sfgate; they also use the good old five-gallon bucket idea; Jim's lists are intended to be portable by one person on foot - which is perhaps more practical for any urban dweller who primarily uses public transit. Having a vehicle, I like having the bucket option.

You're definitely allowed to post links to other websites, the only time you can't is if you're affiliated with the business in the link because that would be considered advertising or promoting your business. But links to businesses you aren't affiliated with or informational websites are fine.

Excellent list....we were all thinking about what we wanted to save....getting away from the danger we'd be okay...just what stuff we didn't want to lose. This is what we *should* be thinking of, survival.

Great, ecrane3, here are my favorite "what to pack ahead of time" lists,

Go-Bags
http://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009528.html
Yoicks, you may say — a weblog with nearly 200 comments to a single post? Yeah, it's a fine community, most of whom know one another face to face, and the commentaries, sometimes in verse, sometimes in old Saxon, are the best. Jim's a former military officer and a current Nationally Registered Wilderness EMT-I.
Here's another set of his emergency prep lists:
http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/emerg_kit.htm

and an index to all various medical posts on Making Light
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009176.html

The SF Chronicle newspaper, at http://sfgate.com/ online, has a splendid special section on quakes with a variety of informative articles and preparedness checklists, with links to Red Cross and USGS informational site and documents:
http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/special/quakes/
(this is the list we used).

Minnesota, which has enough forestation to see the occasional serious fire, has a list of what to bring with when evacuating from a fire. Note the charming reliance on government assistance and advice, that folks in some situations might not necessarily have. Not to raise any political queries, but consider for your family what impact a lack of infrastructure/communications in an emergency might have on your packing and planning.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/firewise/livingwithfire/kit.html

Some folks advise checking things every six months, some every quarter. I'm really not believing those folks who sell kits and pretend their water's going to be good for 5 years. ew.

Also - if you don't have an advance directive, and/or springing power of attorney in case something happens to you, please do that now. The forms, which are different for just about every state in the union, are all available online, free. I like the Arizona "five questions" and have adopted that specific wording into my own state's fill in the blanks cognate.

Wassail, and a safe healthy happy new year in the garden, everybody!