Dagny's sister is in Portland OR, I have a feeling that finding water to purify won't be an issue. Rather than carrying a Silcock wrench, a small water filter may be more useful for long term water treatment. I have an MSR MiniWorks; it "screws onto an MSR Dromedary® Bag or Nalgene® water bottle". There's lots of water in Portland, it's just a matter of making it drinkable.
That said, since your (petite) sister will not be carrying a bag with lots of gear, size this kit to assist in getting to the larger kit in her car or as a GHB. Think of it as a walking kit with a destination -- car/home. The bigger kits reside where you use them.
What is the elevation of her home? At what elevation in Portland would one be "safe" from a serious tsunami?
Thank you, Acropolis, and thanks, Russ.
I will look at all those tools tomorrow. Talked to my sister tonight and she's begun storing water in Aquatainers (7 gal. each) and is looking at rain barrels. That New Yorker article made quite an impression.
Portland is not at risk of a tsunami. It's about 80 air miles from the coast and 100 miles away via the Columbia River. My sister's house is at a couple hundred feet elevation. Her house is ten years old and the frame is bolted to the foundation, water heater is strapped to the wall, etc. She needs to secure all the taller furniture and artwork to the walls. There's reason to hope her house will remain habitable but in the worst scenario she's likely to lose utilities, possibly all of them.
To my surprise, I was reading today that The Dalles, a town 80 miles further east (about 200 miles from the coast) has been told they they'd likely lose electricity.
Portland may lose electricity for a couple of months. That's unprecedented in the U.S. and difficult to fathom.
https://goo.gl/maps/YunIXIn a big quake, liquefaction will be a problem for Portland, landslides will be rampant, most of the bridges linking the westside and downtown to the eastside are expected to be impassable or destroyed. And most of the buildings - private and public sector - were built during the 1950s-70s. Oregon didn't have even a rudimentary building code until 1974. The building codes were not significantly strengthened until the mid-1990s as policymakers were made aware of the CSZ threat.
Unfortunately, the hospital my sister works in may be among the casualties. Two-thirds of the hospitals in the CSZ are expected to be nonfunctional in the worst-case scenario. The good news is she'll be surrounded by doctors and nurses. The bad news is that it's a really big building and it's not new.
Hollywood should do a disaster flick about the CSZ scenario. There would be no need to embellish for dramatic effect.
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