Watching these huge disasters, the wailing people in the streets, overwhelmed rescue services...wow.

So let's say your city has just been destroyed an hour ago and you are one of the unhurt survivors, what do you need to be thinking of? This seems to be lacking in our discussions of Japan. While most of us "old-timers" have most of this figured out I think it would be beneficial to talk about it to help newer board members.

Some common questions:
How do you protect yourself from possible physical dangers (falling debris, fires, etc...)

How do you find your family?

How do you get home?

How do you find aid stations?

Will you be able to get news from radios?

How can you tell if you've been exposed to radiation?

What will happen if you are exposed to radiation?

When will "help" arrive (I know this is a potentially loaded question)?

What will aid stations be like?

Can you drink water coming out from a broken water pipe?

-Blast

i was standing in my garage last night thinking the exact same thing what if...

need to re-pack the family BOB. maybe adding hardhats for everyone isn't such a bad idea. need to refill the propane tanks and pick up a connector hose for the coleman stove. those trees won't last long, especially when people start fighting over the wood. we need a better way to secure the house and protect ourselves. do we really have enough bottled water/water pur tabs. need to check with the kid's new school to find out if their nuke emergency evac plan is the same as his old school.

i've got friends and family over there. everyone that i know made it through unhurt and property at least some what intact. some were facing a long trek home.

the pressing challenges for those people right now seems to be on-going aftershocks and the risk of another tsunami, getting home, lack of power, limited food and water, rationed gasoline, hygene and sanitation, and the looming question of radiation.

i wonder about those whose homes were turned to rubble or ended up under water. things are even less straight forward for them.

my hubby is usually unphased by world events such as these. he's on-board with our bug-in plans, but he spent yesterday afternoon making sure that both vehicles are in tip top shape. fluids, wires, tires and gas - a full month before their next servicing is scheduled.

I was just about to start a new thread focusing on the U.S. west coast's prospects. Will fold that into this thread. I looked last night at the "Ring of Fire" history of quakes and the 600-mile subduction zone along the Pacific Northwest is conspicuously devoid of major quakes in recorded history (the last was an estimated 9.0 in January 1700).

Tick-tock, tick-tock....

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/121662/2...noaa-japan.htm#


"...a major quake along the Oregon fault could produce tsunami waves of up to 98 feet (30 meters) high. Previous calculations had pointed to the possibility of tsunami waves of only 50 feet (15 meters)."


Japan's experienced the perfect storm, the one-two-three punch of quake/tsunami/nuclear. The Pacific Northwest at least doesn't have the nuclear plant presence that Japan has and I don't think any of them are vulnerable to tsunami waves. California's nuclear plants seem more vulnerable, and plentiful.

I'm curious how many nuclear plants in the midwest and east could be affected by a major quake along the New Madrid fault..... Japan is the leader on quake-resistant construction and I heard on the radio that the nuclear plant currently in crisis was built to withstand a 7.4 or so quake and it's tsunami preps anticipated a wave half the height of what occurred on Friday. Those standards seemed prudent to the engineers at the time, based on known historical seismicity.

What strikes me about so much of the Japan videos are that hundreds of thousands of survivors have only the clothes on their back and the shoes on their feet.

First priority is not to be pummeled by falling rubble or glass shook loose by aftershocks or, if in a tsunami-vulnerable area, not drown in subsequent waves.

Walking is your primary means of transportation, unless you have a bicycle or motorcycle handy. Roads probably impassable or gridlocked, at the least.

Are the local-regional radio and TV stations even functioning? Maybe not.

First Aid stations may not be set up for days. The local-regional first responders were also in the quake zone and have their own survival issues to sort through.

Have to find water, quick. Underground water pipes have surely ruptured, the water treatment plant may be damaged or without power. Pumping stations may be without power.

Did the quake occur on a sunny, mild day? Or is it cold? Or hot and humid? Are storms forecast?

Shelter-water-food. Start walking and keep alert.

If my SUV survived and is accessible, then I've got in it a couple days of water, a few days of food and extra clothes, first aid and much more.

Great discussion, thanks. All these disasters should result in an after-action memo for everyone. There are always lessons to learn and heed.

you're so right Dagny. we should all be learning from these events, and re-evalating our own situations. thanks for the kick in the butt Blast!

These repetitive discussions after disasters are worthwhile, even for the most prepared. These are repetitive mental drills, and mental conditioning is imperative to develop the instincts and knowledge that could save lives, starting with your own.

All the gear in the world is useless if you don't make the right decisions at critical times. And in something the scale of Japan's disaster(s), surviving the initial event has a lot to do with luck.

If I were at Cannon Beach last Thursday, I would not have reacted as quickly or decisively to a tremor as I would today. This morning and for at least the next several months, I'd be immediately running like I was in the shadow of a tsunami.

Gear-wise, a lesson that is obvious from the Japan videos is that your home stash of supplies and gear may be washed away or otherwise destroyed before you can grab any of it. And you may not be home when the event occurs. The Japan 9.0 happened at 2:30 in the afternoon.

That argues for keeping essential items (including some water and food) in other locations at all times, starting with vehicles and office. Because I camp so much I've got three mini-REIs -- home, car, teardrop trailer (in storage 100 miles away so that's a mixed bag).

And the first thing I'm going to do today is put some Micropur tablets in my wallet.

Walking - or running - with the clothes on your back and the tools in your pocket is the most realistic scenario you can plan for.

It's the scenario that maps to any and all "instant emergencies" - by instant I mean 5 minutes or less warning. No Bags, No Packs, No Vehicles. You, your mind and what you happen to have.

That's why the more you know the less you need.

that's the lesson of the Japan and Christchurch disasters for me - what's on your person is your first line of defense, and may end up being your only defense, when you've got only seconds or minutes to react.

earthquakes and tsunamis happen in an instant, and luck plays a big part sometimes. we should know what dangers are lurking where we live, work and visit, and we should learn how to take care of ourselves when they happen. how many times this winter alone have we heard about people being stranded in snow storms?

planning ahead, re-evaluating how you reacted in previous situations, evaluating what others have done - in other words, thinking things through - is so important.

This is why the discussions of pocket survival kits/altoids tin kits etc. is really so valuable. It has to be small enough to carry with you at all times, but still useful enough to provide the basic survival tools. That, with knowledge, equips you to survive.

I think it may have been Bill Merrill, author of "The Survival Handbook" who wrote words to the effect that the single most important factor in survival situations is having the will and determination to survive.

After 9/11/2001 having to fight to get into downtown, then wait for my wife to be allowed to leave (her work let the staff go last after the important people were safe) then having to fight the traffic to get home, our long term plans have come together. We are outside the outerbelt and live, work and go to school all within a couple mile radius.



If we have to we can walk home, close enough.



Unless something went very wrong, we won't need those



Most radio stations around here are crap for news. I turn on the scanner and listen to whats happening before the news even reports it.