"As an example: the top four likely events that my family prepares for are house fire, local industrial emergency, local weather emergency, and job loss."

Well stated, and that is true for most of us here. You mentioned earthquake potential, and as a SoCal resident, I share that concern. A lot of survival strategies involve measures that are common to camping and hiking - cooking over an open flame, treating water to render it potable, navigating through terrain, etc. A background in those activities is helpful, but even more important is the ability to adapt to novel situations, improvise, and generally to think outside the box.

Just a thought, since we've discussed dehydrated vs canned foods/MREs in this thread:



We have old infrastructure in my neighbourhood, and our water main gets shut off at least twice a year for repairs. We haven't lost water yet due to an emergency, but it is something that we prepare for at our house. If we lived in an earthquake zone, I imagine that it would be a higher priority for us.

We store water at home, and at the moment our pantry consists mostly of canned goods, rather than dehydrated. I am very aware of this when I'm backpacking, but I have to keep water consumption in mind as we do more dehydrating for home, and also consider it when rationing our home stores in a possible emergency.

The most common emergencies are the ones to plan for first, simply because they are common.

Bad Weather, Fire, Job/money.

If you start by planning for these, you start to cover less common things.

Going back to the basic basics.
In the worst possible situations
3 minutes without air
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
3 weeks without food.

Going to take air as a given.

Shelter-
Bad Weather or Job/money usually In place- (except hurricane zones)
This is optimum- most of your stuff is already there.
Ask yourself- How can I make my shelter better/safer? What is greatest risk to shelter?
Not trying to throw money at problems, just covering basics.
If you own, keeping trees trimmed back. Making sure all gutters work.
If you are in a cold area, making sure you have a safe heat source, have good insulation, and blankets/sleeping bags-
I picked up four 4lb bags from goodwill for 3.99 each (they had 7, but 3 were damaged)

Fire- fire Prep-- Thing #1 INSURANCE. Once you survive a fire, this is the prep that give you back your stuff.

Have several smoke alarms, wired and battery. 2 escapes for each room. This can be hard for non-fit people--My in laws are 70ish with arthritis. MAKE SURE YOU CAN USE THE ESCAPES- I had a rope ladder upstairs- which would have done no good as the @#### window jammed (now fixed)...TEST THEM.

Once you get out- do you have a plan on where to stay? Only good thing about most fires is they are very local-mostly just one house/building.
Hotel/tent/RV/car/neighbor/relative? Have stuff stored outside of your primary shelter- even a prepacked suitcase is 100% less sucky than having nothing but your p.j.s... Pack one like you are planning for a long weekend.

WATER- In place- Store water.
I have a 50 gallon in basement- cost 15.00 for barrel (used) from rent all place- Cleaned with bleach, filled from tap.
I have 5-8 gallons in garage 5 - 2 liter frozen in garage freezer (helps even out freezer temps) 2 2 gallon jugs, from store.

Food- not an expert- barely started in this area. working on plans. Wife is Gluten Free- no flour. 6 yr old hates all beans. sigh

Hi guys. Thanks for the information. Things got a little crazy; I'm in the middle of a job hunt and things go away when that's happening. I'll have to reread and then post.

Good luck with the search, Ed! I hope it goes well for you.

Oh, goodness that was a long break. Work calmed down and back to business as usual. I'm still trying to find the fault lines here, and not having much luck. Does anyone know how to use USGS maps? They're monitoring, but I have no idea otherwise. Otherwise, water remains the biggest problem...I have the water heater, which I could drain into a suitable container, but the only space in the apartment for now is under the sink or the bed. (My apartment is only 418 ft^2.) Ready to eat food won't be MUCH trouble, and rice even less. After that, I'll probably be bugging in.

I did a quick web search on, "earthquake fault lines in utah" and found a few links that would look interesting if I were in UT.
Regional Info
Utah Faults seems to indicate that the Wasatch Fault is your main concern.
Liquefaction Info would also be good to peruse. Beyond that you might want to contact the U of U seismology folks and see what other info might be available.

Also see Utah Seismic Hazard Map.

Rather than focus on individual faults, it is better to think in terms of zones or regions of seismic hazards. You are correct that the whole region along the Wasatch front is at significant risk of earthquakes.

I have a couple of possible storage solutions, depending on your degree of handiness and available cash. All of them are variations of under bed storage.

The first is a storage bed. It's like a captain's bed, but lower to the ground with a single row of drawers or cabinets. We put them in our kids' rooms because of the same storage constraints you have. The amount of large item storage can be considerable, but the weight of the water may be too much for the drawer glides during an earthquake. This is the most expensive option.

This one is similar to my son's.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40228708/

The second is a trundle bed, minus the second mattress. The trundle will roll easily, even when loaded with considerable amount of weight. Put a piece of plywood (if necessary) over the trundle's slats, and you have instant storage. Use a dust ruffle or bedskirt under the regular mattress to hide the contents. For emergency supplies, this would be my first choice.

In college, I put my bed on 8 inch risers similar to these. Added to the 6 inches of clearance normally found under a bed, and I had space for several large plastic tote boxes. It's cheap, but a solid shake could knock the bedframe off the lifters and onto your supplies.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50314319/

And, lastly, one of my college roommates used milk crates. Our rooms were a little over 110 square feet each, with a common bathroom and kitchen. He put all of his stuff in milk crates, put a plywood board on top of the crates, and his mattress on top of the plywood. This will require a bit of strength because you will have to move the mattress to get to your supplies.

EDIT: The USGS E-quake Hazard Maps might help quantify your risks.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/hazmaps/