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

I have an Xscaper fire mask on my desk at work and attached to my EDC bag. In each Xscaper bag comes a set of goggles with foam face gasket, and I've added an e-gear Pico flashlight (recent upgrade), Swiss Army Compact knife, emergency whistle, and an emergency poncho. I also have N95 masks, a baseball cap, insulated leather gloves, and a nylon poncho and rain pants in my EDC bag and each GHB. There's an 18" wrecking bar and a Leatherman Surge mult-tool in my office filing cabinet. I hadn't considered one before, and I'm not really in an earthquake zone, but a hard hat sounds like a reasonable addition.

How do you find your family?

In theory, this isn't an issue for me, as I'm single and all of my kids are old enough to drive. We have regular discussions about what to do and where to go in the event of an emergency, with way points and a selection of routes pre-programmed into each vehicle's GPS. Rally points include our home, our town's municipal complex (police, courthouse, library, nearby fire and rescue), the storage area 10 miles from our house where I park my RV, and pre-arranged sheltering locations to the north, south and west (east would likely take you closer to trouble), including one sheltering location over 50 miles (and a mountain range) away. I even have a mostly off-road route along an abandoned railroad grade mapped-out to the most distant location, which two of our vehicles can navigate.

We also have a communications plan, which includes cell phones, land line contacts, email, social networking sites and written messages left at home or intermediate rallying points.

How do you get home?

In a scenario like Japan, this would be tough for me. I drive 34 miles each way. My habit has been to park on the street or in an open lot far enough from hi-rise buildings to increase the odds that my vehicle would be accessible through most disasters. But a tidal wave that extended further than 1 mile inland could take that option out of play.

A major earthquake could take out one or more of the bridges I would need to cross. My work location is essentially a peninsula due to the confluence of a bay and two rivers. Technically, these obstacles can be circumvented by going north, but even during normal rush hours these routes are clogged and slow. Add a couple million commuters and local residents trying to escape, and I'm sure all motor vehicle traffic would be at a standstill.

I have sufficient gear and supplies in my GHB to provide for walking home, taking up to 3 days (longer if I tighten rations), but this is kept in my vehicle. The supplies and gear in my EDC can sustain me for 24-hours provided the weather was not too extreme, and additional food/water supplies in my office for up to 72-hours (plus our office also has 72-hour shelter-in-place kits, so that's 144 hours total). I always wear hiking shoes and weather-appropriate clothing.

More likely I would shelter-in-place for 24 hours to see if the situation improves or is improving, before attempting to evacuate.

How do you find aid stations?

My normal travel areas are suburban or urban, so fire, rescue and police stations and hospitals are well known and easily accessible. At our more remote, rural sheltering point we are familiar with the location of local emergency services locations and designated evacuation locations.

Will you be able to get news from radios?

Presumably yes, though not necessarily via network news outlets. I have a small embassy radio (AM|FM|WB|SW) in my GHB and another at home. Maybe I'll get one for my EDC bag.

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

I'll assume if I'm near or downwind of a radiation event that I'll be exposed, and will try to take whatever precautions I can.

What will happen if you are exposed to radiation?

I assume I will get sick, and possibly die. To try to avoid that, I'd don whatever protective items I have available (e.g., N95 mask, rain gear, hat, gloves, poncho, etc) to try to at least avoid fallout. Depending on the specific circumstances, I'd either try to escape the danger zone if reasonably possible, or find a protected area to shelter-in-place and hope for assistance.

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

I'd like to think within 72 hours, but its hard to estimate. In general, though, I think that if there's no evidence of an effective emergency response in the area within 24 hours, and your present location doesn't offer the necessary resources or safety to stay put for at least a week, then it's time to evacuate on your own.

What will aid stations be like?

This depends so much on the environment and scope of the disaster. I've only visited aid stations twice: once in a suburban location and once in a outlying-suburban/rural area, both times due to hurricane-related disasters. In both cases there were sufficient trained aid and security personnel in-place by the time I arrived, but I was told that initially there were plenty of sympathetic but disorganized and essentially unhelpful "Good Samaritans" with few supplies and trained responders. Within hours the trained responders and initial supplies and gear were built-up enough to be effective, with triage procedures in-place and security to keep the lookie-loos and well-meaning but untrained Good Samaritans out of the area. In one case the National Guard was on-site within the first 24 hours to completely secure not only the aid locations and shelters, but the entire affected area.

But I have no illusions that things would be as good in something more widespread like Japan's earthquake or even a Katrina-like hurricane hit.

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

It depends on the situation and source of the public water supply. Some areas rely on community wells for water, so I would consider that safe to drink. Otherwise, I'd filter it, but don't know how effective that would be against fallout.