Preparing for an Earthquake w/ the Earthquake Lady!

 According to a KSL news cast on April 17, 2012:


"The infamous Wasatch Fault Line is 240 miles long, extending from Malad City, Idaho south to Fayette, Utah.  The Brigham City, Weber, Salt Lake, Provo and Nephi segments of that fault run through the most populated areas of our state.

At least 23 magnitude seven quakes have hit these segments over the past 6500 years - an average of a big shakeup every 300 years.

"I don't want to say we're overdue, but based on this paleo-seismic evidence and the geologic evidence from trenching the fault, it would not be unexpected for one to happen soon," Koper said.
Tomorrow, five, fifty, a hundred years from now? The experts don't know but say it will happen."

These so called "rumors" of Utah being long overdue for a quake are really more than rumors.  There is much scientific evidence pointing to the likely hood that "the big one" is coming.

This past Thursday, I attended a local presentation about earthquake preparedness.   The presenter was Maralin Hoff, otherwise known as the "Earthquake Lady."  Below are my notes from the meeting as well as photos of her display.   I am also including links to all of the handouts that were given, as they are available on the Utah state website.

Click on Photo to see details

The first thing she discussed was our immediate responses to an earthquake when we feel one starting.  Most of us know to "Take Cover" but it is also important to stay put.   An earthquake can cause an upset stomach, dizziness, nausea, etc.   So you shouldn't try to move about during one, other than to get to a safe area.

Click on Photo to see details

Safe areas include the inside solid walls if you are in a church or commercial type building.  The center wall in home nearest the hall is usually the safest area.  Stay away from window walls or outside walls.

Train your brain to know and get to these safe areas.  Door frames are generally recognized as safe as well as Bathrooms (commercial bldgs.), closets, or hallway.

It is a good idea to go through each room at home with your family and at work with your employees and/or co-workers and talk about which areas are safe.

We have lots of options for protecting ourselves.  But the most important thing is to drop, cover, and hold,  protecting our heads is #1.  If you are under a parking garage go to the nearest pillar.  Pillars are the safe part of the structure.   Maralin jokes that we should hug it and pray-- alot.

Be aware of glass-display cases, etc. in public places.  Picture windows in stores and malls, anywhere that glass can explode from you want to be away.   If you can't get away, at least turn your back to the glass so if it shatters your face and organs are protected.

If you are in a basement go to center of it.  Furthest away from outside windows.  Stairs are weak and could collapse.  As part of preparing your home for an earthquake, you should secure stairs with "L" brackets from the hardware store.   Check basement windows to make sure they will open in an emergency.  They used to tell us to get under the beds but now they say don't get under the beds-that's a no-no now.   Because if you are under the bed and something falls next to it, you could be pinned from getting out.  Stay away from fireplaces and chandeliers.  Securing water heaters with heavy metal straps should be #1 on our homework list in order to prevent gas leaks and fires during earthquakes.    Bookcases should also be secured to walls with brackets.

If you are outside stay outside find an open area out from under power lines, away from trees and buildings.  If you're at the store squat down and put your head under the basket. Or turn the basket sideways and crawl in.  If you have a baby or young child put them in first and then stick your head in.
Stores like Bed Bath Beyond, Costco etc are stocked to Ceiling.  Wouldn't want to be in that store when the earth starts moving.   

If you are driving you may not know you're in an earthquake right away. Things will happen in slow motion.  You should pull off to the side of road and stay in your car.  Check for wires up above and make sure you are not underneath a possible falling power line.

Freeways will become parking lots.  Authorities have asked that you  do not abandon your vehicle on a main Road, especially on the freeway.   Be patient  UDOT will get the cars moving.  You may have to wait for hours but eventually they will want you to be there to move your car.

Click on Photo to see details

It's always important to have an emergency kit in your car.  Some of the most important items include flashlight(s)-crank style or battery operated.  An umbrella, shovel (snow shovel in utah).  Blankets-emergency, wool, flannel, mylar.  And most importantly, water.  You should always keep comfortable walking shoes in the vehicle as well.  Whistles are an imperative item.   If you are always carrying one, you can more easily alert rescue crews to your location.   Ladies- keep a whistle in your purse.  Men in your briefcase or wallet.  Keep whistles everywhere.   They can even be tied to zipper pulls on school backpacks.  You can wrap things in mylar to stabilize temperatures such as the water in your cars.   

Click on Photo to see details

When creating emergency kits, its a good idea to get together with friends and neighbors and try to order things in groups.   Don't order pricey pre-made kits when you can get items affordably--dollar stores have lots of great items.   If you need medications - take them with you everywhere.  

Include the basics in your kit and then add your personal items.  Ie:  Sanitary items for women and girls, etc.  Cell phones don't usually work during an emergency.  However  texting may work.

Do not store emergency kits in the basement.  They should be on the main level or in the garage easy to grab and go.   Kids can have kits in bedrooms under beds w/ handle sticking out .

Keep track of kit expirations on a Calendar  ie: batteries, food, etc,  so that you remember to regularly update consumable items.

Kids Kits should grow with them.  Be sure to update toys and reading items to reflect their current interests.  

I'm sure there are many more tips and ideas included on the website in the following handouts:


Your Guide to Personal and Family Preparedness
Emergency Plan
72 Hour Kit Checklist
Car Survival Kit
Childrens Activity Book
Disaster Preparedness for Seniors
FEMA Guide for Citizens Preparedness

Emergency Porta-Potty Kit
Animal 72 hour kit
Animal First Aid Kit

For more information, links and flyers please visit:
http://beready.utah.gov

What do I do without electricity?

   About 9:30 on Sunday morning the lights flickered, dimmed, and went out completely.   The AC came to a screeching halt, and the entire house went silent as all of the noise from running fans stopped abruptly.  "You've got to be kidding me," I thought.   Exactly one week to the day since the boil order was lifted on our water supply.  Seems we have been blessed with all sorts of opportunities recently to test our preparedness skills. We began to think about how this would affect us.  I claimed the first shower, just in case the hot water went cold before the the tanks could heat again, and then I remembered we have gas water heaters.  :-) We wondered if church would be cancelled if there was no power in the building, and hubby started dragging out the solar panels we haven't had a chance to set up yet.  {Notice the shade tree directly over them... ha ha.}  

     Truthfully that kind of made me laugh because we didn't even know yet if this would be a long term outage.   And there's wouldn't be enough power coming from those to run a freezer, which was my biggest immediate concern.  Freezers will continue to keep your food frozen for quite a long time if you don't open the doors.   But in a long term outage, most food would begin to thaw within 12-18 hours.  Requiring cooking up of any meats, and other foods.   Canning of vegetables, and tossing out ice cream and popsicles.     We have tons of Goat milk in our freezer that wouldn't be good for anything but Cheese or soap.   And truthfully, I'm not prepared for the amount of work it would take to salvage/process all of this.

     We have had a heat wave lately as well, and it was already over 80 outside at 9am so I knew the house was going to heat up pretty quickly.   The Solar panels might power a few fans, but ultimately, we'd have to start living in the basement to keep cool.   I had noodles boiling on the {gas} stove in preparation for dinner, which was actually a good thing, because I had contemplated using my electric pressure cooker that morning, and decided against it.   But all of this ads heat to the room quite easily.

   I also rather enjoyed the fact that within minutes, people were posting on Facebook about the outage from their smart phones with internet contracts.   The whole neighborhood was out of power and we still have Facebook.   Kind of oxymoronic in a cool sort of way.   And I don't discount the usefulness of Facebook in times of emergency either.   It was how the city kept in contact with us about the water issues as well, and how I found out the boil order was lifted.  Its sort of our latest source for local news and information.   And tidbits spread like wildfire, so its really an effective means of checking on everyone and spreading the updates.

    I know you are used to very informative updates from me, but this one is just intended to make you think.   What would YOU do if you had a long term power outage?   Are you prepared to carry on?   Would you be able to cook, eat, keep warm/cool?   Are there things in your house that could/should be changed replaced to accomodate such a situation?  Ie:  having a gas rather than electric stove, water heater, etc. etc.

     I'll ad more to this topic as time goes on.   We can discuss alternate power options, energy efficiency ideas and more.  In the meantime, I'm super grateful that my power was only off for 2 hours and 3 minutes.  :-)   Have a great week!

     

Water storage & Preparation for contamination scenarios

Well, today it happened.  The city issued a warning to all residents that the culinary water had tested positive for E-coli.  There have been a lot of questions, and frantic running to the store to buy water.   How do you properly prepare for this scenario?   Water storage, and water purification systems and products.  Be sure to scroll down to see how to care for your pets as well.

I have always kept old juice containers, washed them out and filled them with tap water to keep in the bottom of my pantry for emergencies.   This is the 2nd time this year I have had to use them.   A few months ago a water main broke at a construction site near our home, and there was no water for about 1/2 a day.   But at our house things went on as usual, we simply pulled out the jugs and used them for hand washing and drinking while waiting for the water to come back on.  Just don't forget to refill them for next time.
 If you haven't planned ahead, the best thing to do is set your largest pot or several smaller pots on the stove, fill them with water, and bring them to a boil.   Once they have boiled for 1 minute you can turn them off on let them cool.   The water is now safe to drink.




In Utah, we are always on the verge of, if not IN a drought.   Some cities are already restricting water use.  So really we should all be prepared with some type of water storage.   Ifyou are in an apartment having 55 gallon drums to store water is, of course, impractical.  This is where I recommend re-using juice containers and keeping them in the bottom of closets.   You should plan to have enough water for every person in your home for at least 72 hours.  The general recommendation for this is one gallon of water per person per day, MINIMUM.  This would not be enough for hand washing or bathing.  If you have a place to store larger amounts of water, the big 55 gallon drums are a great resource.   Many grocery stores actually carry them here in Utah, and the emergency preparedness stores.  But if you live somewhere where that is not available, you CAN order them online.   Be sure to put pallets or 2x4's under your drums if they are on cement.  Recommended long term Emergency storage is 2 Barrels per person.

55 Gallon Barrell and water use kit.

Water Storage Do's and Dont's :
Rinse and sanitize all previously used containers before storing water in them.
Do NOT use containers that were previously used for NON Food items/ Chemicals.
Store water AWAY from excess light or heat.
Do not store containers or drums directly on concrete.   Use pallets or cardboard underneath.
Do not use milk jugs.  They aren't intended for long-term use.
Plain, unscented household bleach can also be used for purifying water at the rate of 8-16 drops per gallon depending on how clear the water is to start with.



Water storage ideas/locations:
Most homes actually have at least a small amount of water storage built in.  You can find water in different areas of your home if you look closely.

Water heater tanks have 35-50 gallons of water
Reverse osmosis storage tanks usually have 2-5 gallons of water.
Even the toilet tanks on the back of the toilet contain at least a gallon of water.  (You can boil or purify it to be safe.)
If you have a swimming pool, and you maintain it well, this is a great source of water storage for emergencies.   It can be boiled and treated as well before consumption.
Also you can purchase water purification tablets to have on hand for these types of situations as well as hiking and travel to areas where pure water may not be available.

Potable Water purification Tablets

NATURAL PURIFICATION METHODS:
Colloidal silver is well known for its purification properties, as well as just putting a solid silver round or silver dollar in your water filtration device or in a jug of water.
Also you can purchase a portable UV light purification system for bottled water to purify water on the go.





Animals & Water Contamination:

I feed my animals small doses of Diatomaceous earth along with their food daily.  DE is a natural product, and has long be known to kill worms, bacterias and even e-coli, preventing them from having problems related to a tainted water supply.

"As these millions of cylinders move through the stomach and digestive tract, they attract and absorb fungi, protozoa, viruses, endotoxins, pesticides, and drug residues, E.coli, and heavy metals. These are trapped inside the cylinder and passed out of the body. In addition, any larger parasites that happen to be in the stomach or digestive tract are "cut up" and killed by the sharp edges of the Diatomaceous Earth. "

Food Grade DE would even be suitable in preventing these issues in humans, should we not be able to get our hands on pure water.  If you don't have DE on hand, I recommend obtaining some for future emergencies to prepare for your pets needs as well as your own.

Animals are just as susceptible to the symptoms as we are, but this is an easier way to keep them healthy long term, and not have to react in emergencies, since they are already being dosed regularly.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Ok for all you Preppers out there, here is a homemade laundry soap recipe.  My friend swears by it, and said she actually really likes it and prefers it to what she used to use from the store.  (Which was basically whatever soap was the cheapest that day.)  I'll admit, I am a little bit pickier.  OK a LOT pickier.  So I will stick with my Melaleuca detergent for now.  But I think its always good to know how to do this kind of thing if you needed to.  I also keep all the ingredients on hand in case I run out and can't order more of my favorite detergent.  

This is the liquid recipe:

1 bar grated Fels Naptha soap

5 gallon bucket

1 cup washing soda (Arm and Hammer)

1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax

4 1/2 gallons hot water

Put grated Fels Naptha in saucepan and cover with water. Heat on low until dissolved. Fill bucket with hot water and add soap. Stir to combine. Add 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax and mix well. As it cools, it will thicken. About 24-48 hrs. If mixture becomes too thick, add hot water to thin it to desired consistency. May be used immediately. Mix well before each use. Use 1/2(normal) to 1 cup per load (heavy).

This is the powder recipe:

Powdered Laundry Detergent

1 cup grated Fels Naptha Soap

1/2 cup washing soda

1/2 cup 20 mule team borax

Mix and store in airtight container or bag. For light or small loads, use 1 tablespoon. For normal loads, use 2 tablespoons. For heavy loads, use 3 tablespoons.

To make a large batch - grate 6 bars of Fels Naptha Soap and then add 3 cups of Washing Soda and 3 cups of 20 Mule Team Borax. Mix well and store in covered container.

TIP: The above recipes will NOT make suds in your washer so don't be alarmed. Fels Naptha Soap is a pure soap and typically makes little or no suds in the water. This makes it perfect for use in the new HE washers as well as tradional washers. You will also notice the need to either reduce your laundry softener or in most cases you can even eliminate the use of softener completely.  -site unknown

Preparing a 72 hour kit - Do you have one?

Many preppers begin the journey by focusing on food storage.  While this is a worthwhile pursuit, I would say its almost MORE important to have a well-stocked 72 hour kit FIRST.  When emergencies or even regional disasters strike many people are unable to get to their food storage and other preparations as quickly as they would like to either due to building collapses (earthquakes), or in the case of an evacuation for fire or flood.  For these reasons, it is necessary to have a 72 hour kit within easy access that you can grab on your way out.  This food and other necessities will sustain you during the most stressful time of an incident, which is thought to be during the first 72 hours.

There are many different kinds of kits you can make, and also several available for purchase in emergency supply stores, warehouse stores, and even online.  The 2 I choose to have are as follows:  1) A large Emergency Kit with enough supplies for the whole family, tucked into a rolling garbage can for portability.    2) Several small individual kits in backpacks kept in garage or cars.

What items should I have in my 72 hour kit? Below is a list I've compiled of many different things.  You may consider some of these things optional, I am just including a comprehensive list of ideas for things you may possibly need.

9 meals for each person.  Ideas include:
Soups, canned or dehydrated
Instant Oatmeal packets
Applesauce/Fruit Cups
Canned pastas in sauce
Hot Cocoa Mixes
Granola Bars
Protein bars
Cereals/Crackers
Trail Mix
Dried Fruits
Candy/Gum
Canned Tuna, Beans
Beef Jerky
Water for 3 days

Dishes/ Untensils, and Napkins
Can Opener if your food requires it
Pocket Knife
Rope
Duct Tape
First Aid Kit
Emergency Radio
Medications, inhalers, etc.
Portable Stove & Fuel
Fire starter (Matches or Flint and Steel, lighter)
Flashlight & Extra Batteries
Change of Clothing
Blankets/Sleeping Bags
Tarp or Tube Tent
Sanitary Supplies for Women
Toiletries, soap, shampoo, razor, brush etc.
Roll of Toilet paper (Can be flattened and put in a zip loc)
Extra diapers for Infants
Formula for Infants
Toothbrushes/Toothpaste
Notebook & Pen
Coloring book & Crayons for young children
Personal Documents - Copies of Drivers license, Marriage & Birth Certificates, Insurance Policies, etc.
Cash and Emergency Credit Card
Recent Family photo
Emergency Rain Poncho

For more ideas, see:
FEMA Disaster Supplies List
2 Person 72 Hour Kit in Backpack
Augason Farms 11 Day Grab and Go Emergency Food Supply

Just so you can see, the outside of my can was pretty dirty from hanging around the yard for several years.   But everything inside was clean and dry because I vacuum sealed most things, and Packed clothing and blankets in "Space Bags."