Haiti has made me realize that all of our preparations (currently a 72-hour kit and small amount of cash, with plans to have 3 weeks of food and water, more cash, communications equipment, a better medical kit and a neighborhood association set up) might not matter. Our biggest natural disaster risk (aside from wildfire) is earthquake; that one gives no warning and can destroy the infrastructure of a city in seconds. So what if we have a massive earthquake (entirely possible) and the majority or all of our preparedness gear is trapped in our collapsed building? What does that leave us with?
In that sort of scenario, the assets I'll have (assuming I survive, of course) are the knowledge in my head and my ability to use it. So I'm working on acquiring more knowledge. For example, I need to re-take the Red Cross First Aid and CPR classes. I'll probably also take Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) here locally. We've located a local, natural, year-round source of water (not potable water, but I'm figuring out how we could make it potable if we had no access to filters, bleach, etc.) In my walks around the neighborhood with the kids, I try to pay attention to my surroundings. Those neighbors with the huge trucks with Canine Search-and-Rescue bumper stickers and CB antennae? Noted. They could help located and dig people out of the rubble. The guy who occasionally comes home with his ambulance crew to grab his lunch? Noted. We might need a paramedic if the Big One hits. The location of power lines (and more importantly, the areas where they aren't) -- noted. If the lines are down and I need to go somewhere, I'll know how to get where I'm going without having to dance over live lines. I know where the only five pay phones in our neighborhood are, in case cell towers are knocked out. Our neighborhood happens to have a centrally-located school with large grounds and an adjacent city park; that's the place that I'd recommend for a mass feeding / shelter / field hospital location. With my training and background, I can organize and run mass feeding and sanitation for a lot of people, and so I've looked at that location and thought about where we'd put the latrines, the kitchen, the water, etc. This assumes that I'd be involved with the planning and organization of a localized relief effort, but the odds are good that in a huge disaster that's the sort of thing that might make a real difference -- having help and organization from within, since that without is likely to take a long time to come.
I hope that if something awful happens, we're OK and can leave (to my MIL's, most likely), but if we can't get out and the town is toast, I'd like to think that by identifying resources and investing in some personal training, I'd be able to help both my family and my neighborhood cope.
And as far as personal safety -- we've decided not to have firearms in the house, but bear spray is another thing entirely. It's also useful when walking the dog.
). And thank goodness we did leave. We watched it from a motel in Huntsville. We sneaked back in later that week, before we were permitted to return. We experienced some damage but were fortunate that we did not have to completely rebuild. However the damage to our community was (in my opinion/experience) nightmarish, far worse than what you saw on CNN. I have made a practice of not discussing it on the message board because (a) in Frank and my opinion if you weren't there, you just can't know how truly bad it was, and (b) discussions about it have the potential to get really political REALLY fast.
