Comments

1
As the resident complainer, thanks for the link -- it hadn't gone up yet when I was doing my cursory pre-whining Googling.
2
I lived in Japan for 15 years, and lived through the 3/11 earthquake last year. I was in Tokyo at the time. "Sustainability" means nearly zero in case of a major earthquake.

(1) If you are a home owner, earthquake retro fit your home. An earthquake proofed home with no insulation is better than an insulated home that's in a inhabitable pile.

(2) Make a disaster kit. Your jump bag should have all your cash, credit cards, blank checks, digitized financial documents, and insurance contracts. 3 days water & food per person. Water sanitation kits. Menstrual pads. Pain killer (trust me, you will need ibuprofen). Anything specialized for the people in your household (baby formula, diapers, prescription). Wind-up radios. There are plenty of online resources for what to have and do beyond this.

(3) Mentally review what you would do in case SHTF. Having an idea of where you would go and how you would do it is immensely valuable under stressful situations. What would you do if the big one hit at work (I was, slept at the office overnight on cardboard boxes)? Have you worked through how to get back to your family? Your supplies? In my case, I actually have a second mini-emergency kit with a hardhat, sturdy shoes, and safety gloves for storing at the office.

(4) Periodically update your stuff and plans. Things change over time, food & water expire, and improvements can always be made.
3
Jeremy's got it right! His thinking on this is what will get us to a real culture of preparedness everyday and not just when the earth shakes!
4
Good advice. And if you really want to get serious about preparedness, buy yourself a generator. They're pretty cheap, will fit in almost every home, and will make the difference between living like refugees and some semblance of normality. Think: easily boiling water for drinking, heating the house, hot showers, cooking, seeing when you go to the bathroom at night, etc. Of course you can do tall this with camping gear, but not as easily or as well. Store about 10 gallons of gasoline as well in a cool, dry place. Plan to run the generator only a few hours each day if fuel supplies are limited.
5
Let's write up a little shopping list: "Very well-insulated house, rain water catchment system, bicycle, vegetable garden, fruit & nut trees, greenhouse, alternative energy." Gotcha. Current amount in checking: $1.46. Oh oh ... daddy gonna die.

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