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Earthquakes and Natural disasters This week is the anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. The earthquake struck at 5:04 pm on Tuesday, October 17th 1989. The shaking lasted 20 seconds. Many of you reading this might be too young to recall it. Like many monumental events, people who lived through it can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when it struck. I can remember it like it was yesterday. My Loma Prieta story (scroll down if you want to skip to the preparedness aspect of this post). I will start by mentioning that I had airline tickets for a flight at 7am on October 18th to go to visit my parents in Pittsburgh. On this particular visit, I would be traveling with my 26 month old daughter Lauren. Sandy was not coming with us. The morning of October 17th, I got a call from USAir. There was an equipment change. Would we be willing to switch our reservation the next day from the 7 am flight to one that departed at 11 am? In return we would get 2 round trip tickets for a future flight. We could still keep the bulkhead seats at the front of the plane. To this day, I have never since heard of an airline reaching out the day before travel for something like this. In any event, this was a no-brainer, I was happy to make the swap. After the call from the airline, as per our daily routine, I dropped Lauren off. Lauren spent her days at a family daycare in the home of a magical person named Jeanine. ‘Gigi’ lived out by the zoo and tended to 4-5 kids at a time.They took walks, read poetry and did yoga. Everyone should be so lucky to find such a loving and wise childcare provider. In the playroom where they spend much of their time was an ornate telephone that was off limits. The kids all knew the rules. No touching the phone. More about this later. After depositing Lauren at Jeanine's, I headed to work in Noe Valley. Sandy worked downtown and at the end of his day would take the underground Muni back to our house where he would get his car and then go pick her up. My day at the Noe Valley Pediatrics office was wrapping up and I was on the phone with a remarkably long winded mom. I tend to be fairly patient, but this woman wasn’t even coming up for air. She was going on and on about something when suddenly she shouted earthquake and the call ended. I confess that I looked upwards and mouthed a little ‘thank you” for getting her off the phone. It took a moment or so until I too felt the shaking. The entire building rocked and rolled. The lights went out. A good bit of the water sloshed out of the fish tank that we had in the waiting room. It was a long 20 seconds. All of us who were in the office ran to the doorways and held on. When it was over I was consumed with only one thought. I had to get to Sandy and Lauren to make sure they were okay. This was long before we all had cell phones. I had no way of knowing if Sandy was stuck on muni or if he had picked up Lauren before the earthquake struck. There is no question about it. Being away from your child adds a whole new element to any natural disaster. I left immediately for home. Along the way I was struck by how well cars were behaving in a mannerly fashion. Every corner became a 4 way stop since all the traffic lights were out. At some of the bigger intersections, good samaritans were out directing traffic. I made it home safely, listening to the radio and hearing terrifying reports coming in of collapsing highways and bridges. I was doing my best to remain calm. It wasn’t easy. I was finally able to breathe when I saw that Sandy and Lauren were at home waiting for me and that was when I burst into tears. Back at Gigi’s, Jeanine had stepped out of the room for a moment and at 5:04 Lauren took the opportunity to be a little naughty and picked up the forbidden telephone receiver. Sandy had just arrived at Jeanine’s when the shaking started. He was right outside the gate and was able to see Lauren. Her expression was priceless. Oh, this is why you shouldn’t touch the phone! She hurriedly returned the phone to its cradle and looked around to see if anyone noticed what she had done. For years, thanks to her dad, she was pretty convinced that she caused the earthquake. Once we were all home and together, the situation was much easier to handle. We spent the evening outside with neighbors taking turns listening to radios and trying to get a handle on damage and casualties. Remember my flight the next day? The original 7 am one ended up being canceled. My 11 am one was the first flight to take off post earthquake. Those were the good old days when anyone could walk to the gate. My parents were at the gate waiting for us with baited breath. The area was also loaded with reporters waiting to interview the ‘survivors’. My mom had been chatting with one of the reporters. Since Lauren and I were in the front of the plane we were the first to get off. The light bulbs were flashing and we ended up on the front page of the now defunct Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The front page article was full of wild misquotes, but so it goes. The photo is of my mom giving me a big hug. My dad is grinning in the background. (For those readers who have read previous posts about my family, there should be no surprise that they kept a copy of the paper) It is perfectly normal for the thought of natural disasters to create a hum of anxiety. Different locations seem to have their specific menu of terrors. Here in the Bay Area our big ones are wildfires and earthquakes. The key to dealing with potential disasters in a sensible way is to do some preparation ahead of time. If you have children, then you simply must have a plan. Sandy and I had certainly talked about needing to do that, but it never got off the to do list. This is the nudge for every family that hasn't done so yet, to take care of this now. How will your family reunite if you are separated? Check with schools and daycares to see what their plan is. Remember that cell phones might not work, so you can’t count on them as part of your plan. Landlines are sometimes a better bet, but so many people no longer have those. (As an aside, Sandy, who worked for one of the world's largest telecom companies, says that while the cell phones might not work for calls, there is a chance that texting might still work.) I am not going to completely reinvent the wheel. At the bottom of the post are some comprehensive checklists from some excellent sites, but here are some of the basics that come to mind. Making sure your home is safe and well stocked
Okay, what if it is a situation where you need to evacuate?
In any case, make sure that you routinely restock and rotate supplies. The twice a year clock shifts are a great time to do this. When you are done changing the battery in your smoke detector, take a look at your emergency stash. Get rid of anything that is about to expire and make sure that you update sizes for spare clothes and diapers. This list was just a start. I highly recommend checking out the links below and use them to help you create a comprehensive plan. https://www.ready.gov/ |
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