Lessons from Haiti?

[On Our own]

Well, we all know how horrible things are in Haiti, and my heart goes out to them. But, for them the S HAS HTF.

But, I quickly got to thinking: all of my preps are stored in my basement. If my house collapsed they would be useless to me. What would you do?

If a quake happened in the middle of the day my family members would be in 3 different states! What lessons did you take form what happened in Haiti?

 

[user251]

you have to put your supplies somewhere. what if they are in the attic and a tornado hits? we can only do the best we can with what we have. that is why i have made friends all around me, if my or one of my friends crap gets destroyed then we pitch in and help each other its already agreed on and prepared for.

 

[TanksHill]

I thought the same thing. I was thinking about some kind of out building would be nice. Most of my extended storage is in my garage, Under my house. Maybe not to good.

g

 

[HannaLee]

There's only so much one can do. We prepare as best we can and deal with whatever comes.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Where I live, earthquakes are part of life. We keep our camping gear and emergency box in the enclosed porch. Even if it collapsed, we would be able to dig the stuff out easily. The emergency box is right under a window.
I also have an emergency kit in my car: extra clothes (including a windbreaker), water, granola bars, small medicine kit, flashlight, pocket poncho (in case of rain), old tennis shoes (comfortable, for walking), backpack, money, blankets (one a small quilt and a small wool blanket), rope, plastic bags, tp, paper towels, candy, compact camping emergency kit, plastic food containers, knife and eating utensils, colapsible cup and I can't remember what else.
I figure, if I am not home, I might be in my car or traveled to where I am in my car. I keep the emergency stuff in an old laundry basket in my car. I could possibly even tie the rope to it and drag stuff behind me in the plastic laundry basket. On the other hand, if I am going to the feed store and really need all my trunk space, it is easy to take the laundry basket out of the car for the one trip. I still have another mini emergency kit in the passenger area of my car. During the Loma Prieta quake many people were trapped in their cars and wouldn't have been able to access their trunks. I like having a water bottle and a food source, where I can reach it from my seat. I have a whistle attached to my key chain. If I were trapped like those people were on Hwy 17, I would have been able to get to my water, some food and blow my whistle, so people would know I was alive, unless my arms were broken

 

[Mackay]

The biggest thing we should learn from Haiti is not to accept housing that does not meet specifications for earthquake resistance.

Hopefully when they rebuild they will put up sounder structures. It did not need to be anywhere as bad as it is. Crapy unsound buildings will kill many, and obviously did. If we had a quake anywhere in california in a city it would not be nearly as bad, not nearly.

 

[big brown horse]

First of all, my heart goes out to all those poor folks in Haiti. Someone from my hometown was found dead in the rubble. She was only in her early 20's.




Wow FD, you are really prepared! I have a nice sized sun-roofed wood shed. I can see in there with out electricity. Perhaps I should put an emergency kit of some sort out there.

I live in an earthquake, tsunami and volcano zone...YIKES!!

 

[Wifezilla]

While earth quakes are not at the top of my list of worries, I think there are plenty of things we can learn from this.

Water was and remains the biggest issue there now. I have SOME jugs I keep full and in the freezer in case of power outage or to grab for camping, but it wouldn't last long.

Lights? I have a lot of flash lights but I also have an autistic son who is fascinated by flash lights and who likes to take them completely apart AFTER he drains the batteries. So I moved to hang crank. I have 2 pretty good ones but could use some more.

First aid supplies? Have those too but could always use more.

Food? Pretty good stash.

Emergency shelter? We have a tent and some tarps.

 

[MorelCabin]

An underground storage culvert is what I would do if I had the money and land

http://www.nogw.com/download/2005_cellar3.pdf

 

[SKR8PN]

Morel.........that thing RAWKS!!!