NH earthquake live training

Just a few minutes ago I was on the phone with my wife and heard rumblimg upstairs that I thought was my daughter moving furniture. It got worse and the whole house shook so bad the fridge started to dance litterly. 4.6 earthquake in a town about 40 min from my house.

Told my wife to hurry home. All is good for now, no cell phone calls but we can text.

Lessons learned.

1) my wife has such an "aw, its nothing" attitude that quickly set me off. Every point I made about prepardness and my experiences with past earthquakes was countered with a dismissing attitude. Lesson is when your SHTF instincts kick in be prepared to deal with family members that are NOT on the same page as you are.

2) Water. Had some empty milk jugs and filled them ASAP for toilet flushing or washing...non potable. Made me realize how lacking my water cache is. Lesson is get your H2O going folks.

3)Disorentation. Whats the right thing to do with my BOBs, food supplies, EDC bags, weapons and supplies thats scattered all throughout the house?

4) Cars/fuel. my Rav4 is in the shop and my ranger is on less than 1/4 tank. I know I know

5) Cell phones inop. NO calls but texting was still good. Scary that I couldnt check in with elderly parents at all.

6) Emergency brodcast station. NOTHING on tv or radio about this incident. BTW, have several am/fm/shjortwave NOAA radios that were eaisiably accessible...good planning on my part.

7) Neighbors came out into the street to communicatge. A good indicator of the poitential for establishing alliences, leadership and other emergency actions to take care of those in need. This was a mild event but a good trainer for SHTF scenerios.

Stuff happens so fast and unexpectedly. What if my house crumbled? My daughter upstairs and the wife on the road in the car. If fire broke out or ? you have practacally no time to act. One thing I learned in the military was when it gets crazy you will automatically go into auto pilot and revert to your training. Suppose that running practice drills would be a big help. At least a basic first reaction checklist. Personally my family wouldnt take anything more than stocking up on supplies seriously and getting them to comply with a bug out safety exercise would be like hearding kittens.

Hope something I posted will help someone.

Pooly

PS empty boxes to load supplies from shelves to cars would help.

Thats weird, do you normally get earthquakes in your area?

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usb000d75b.php

No I know NH is on a fault line but its never happened before.
Very strange in my book. When I lived in central CA we'd get them from time to time but this one was intense. Thank God it lasted only about 15 seconds.

Sounded like a good opportunity to break out the Tea Mug from the tin as you chatted with the neighbours.

New England is certainly not as active as say Alaska or California, however some fairly large earthquakes have occured. See the New England Historical Earthquake Atlas. Also see the Northeast States Emergency Consortium earthquake page for some historical info.

While popular thought associates earthquakes in the United States with California, and with good reason, EQs have occurred throughout the United States. I believe there are only two states from which quakes have not been reported. Central Canada is extremely stable.

Remember, the most severe quake in US history did not occur in California. It struck 200 years ago.

Unlike most weather events, there are no reliable predictors or precursors of quakes. They just happen and there you are. It is smart in EQ country to never let your gas tank fall below 1/2 full. (I am in violation of this standard as I type this....)

one of the "paper labs" I did with my students was a hurricane supply check list... it identified the threat, offered a solution, and provided space to write in an alternative solution...additionally it identified the location within their home where it was actually stored at....personally, I use a wall closet shelving to provide a central location for those supplies that "most" of the time would be considered emergency supplies...FAK, cook stoves, kero lamps, LED area lamps, potable stored water, Sawyer 5 gal filter kit...a rolling tool chest houses the dedicated electronic gizmos..

greenghost... a section of garden hose that can access your hot water heater can provide some emergency water..make sure that there is not a build up in the bottom of the tank to limit its use

Thanks, Ive heard that a while ago and completely forgot it. I'll go out tonight and steal a hose from a neighbor. JUST KIDDING EVERYONE

The thought did cross my mind to fill the tubs but I didnt

We hope to build a greenhouse,to moderate temps at approx freezing temps we will use the 50 gallon blue water barrels to hold heat,works for greenhouse PLUS there we have our water storage,win win!

Green,you had a perfect example of why to prep,dont worry,they will get it eventually,in the meantime do your best I guess.

Mother Nature just gave your dependants a meaningful wake up call. I don't recall many EQ's in NH before.

Perhaps they will listen!!!

Greenghost,
In view of your recent post re. "meltdown" it might be wise to limit your preps to what you can do on your own. If you work too hard to include DW/DD, you may accerbate feelings best left under the surface.
My own opinion.
Best wishes.

You can't plan for everything, and you shouldn't try. But some written contingency plans can give you a starting point and reduce the number of decisions that you need to make under stress.



My stored generator fuel also serves as my stored get-out-of-Dodge fuel. Don't forget the Sta-Bil.



If my mom can learn to text, I'd think that yours could too .



Here's a way that ham radio might be able to help, as you might get better local information from other hams than you would from the media. This is particularly the case if you have a local RACES/ARES group.



Under stress, you won't rise to the occasion, you will fall to your level of training and practice.

Exactly what we practiced today on get out of dodge In Dodge in an emergency.Good mental prepping.

"Disorientation - supplies throughout thee house" - I am not sure that is a bad thing. In the event of a total or partial house collapse, some of your items will be accessible. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to organize things so that are two or three duplicate caches. Perhaps store some items away from the house.

What is the construction of your house? Frame buildings do rather well in quakes - unreinforced masonry not so well. Is your water heater fastened to studs so it won't turn over during a quake? Got big framed pictures over eds or couches? Unsecured bookcases. Where are big mirrors located? These are all concerns in EQ country.

Frankly, I plan to bug in after a quake. Basically I will be camping in my back yard (provided it is still there). Bugging out is the preferred strategy for wildfires.

I have a wood shed that I've enclosed. In it I keep my heavy tools like chainsaw, floor jack, large pry bars, axes, shovels, cribbing, etc. I also keep a hard hat, gloves, knee and elbow pads, glasses, respirator etc PPE.

In the event that my (or a neighbor's) house comes down, or are seriously damaged, I'll have access to tools that I need to stabilize it and gain access. Then I can get to my preps and camp in my yard too!

Welcome to your wake up call. Living primarily in the East, to include NH for a year, you don't think a lot about earthquakes, although I've been through 2 of them, TN and NC.

Rather than focusing on bugging out, figure on bugging in more, as DW/DD don't seem to like the idea of roughing it. Worst case scenario, camp in the yard.

Pick a closet, or part of a closet, and store your gear there. Keeping it all in one place, close to a door, means you know where it is, and get grab it on the way out. I don't recommend garages, as the temps vary too much.

Good luck.

I'm not an earthquake specialist, but I am a geoscientist by training, and have lived for much of my life in earthquake country. I'm interested in this stuff and have studied it extensively. Although I wasn't in Alaska in 1964, I have talked to many people who were. I have a couple of comments.

1. What to do during an earthquake: Drop, Cover, and Hold On! During earthquakes, drop to the floor, take cover under a sturdy desk or table, and hold on to it firmly. Be prepared to move with it until the shaking stops. Do not try to run outside. Lots of people get killed or injured when by bricks from falling chimneys and other stuff coming down, as they run outside. It seems counter intuitive, but in most cases you are safer by getting under something sturdy and staying put. Note that a big quake can have a lot of horizontal movement, and that table you are under can tend to walk across the floor, hence the advice to hold so you stay under it. A really strong quake can make it hard to walk, let alone run. Get under something and stay there until it stops!

2. As hikermor noted up thread, wood frame houses tend to do pretty well in quakes. Because of the way walls are constructed they tend to resist that horizontal shaking. The wood and nails also give a bit of flex. A wood house may be extensively damaged, but it is unlikely to fall down on you.

3. Brick, masonry, stone, or cement block buildings don't do well. Unless they are extensively reinforced with steel, that lateral shaking tends to make them fall into a pile of rubble. However, you are still better hiding under something, than trying to get out as the building falls down on you.

4. As also mentioned by hikermor, stuff falling down inside your house can also be deadly. A falling book case, china hutch, etc can be bad. Again, get under something sturdy! You can reduce damage by securing those objects ahead of time. There are simple kits available to make it easy to secure them to a wall stud.

5. Know how to shut off your gas and electricity. As noted above, though your house may not fall down, gas lines, etc may be broken.

6. Be prepared to stay put after the quake. Briges may be out, roads blocked by landslides, etc. Camping out in your yard is probably a better choice than trying to travel.

All excellent points! We have a shed in the back yard 12x10 that I keep my harley in. It would be a good place to store items that arn't effected by cold temps.

JPicket, youre advice is well recieved. It would be so less stressful to not have to sell the prep idea but know whats what and when SHTF they will attentitive

I suppose earthquake scenarios arent really needed but rather something more practical like a 2am fire drill