Homework help

[azziria]

A query for those of you who live/have lived out there in earthquake land - DS needs to make a list for his homework of stuff you'd have in an earthquake survival pack. What should he include?

Comments

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

#1 item: WATER WATER WATER. Anything else, you can survive without, until help arrives. Clean water is the thing that will kill you.

#2: Sanitation. A 5 gallon bucket with 100 plastic liners for use as a toilet. Packs of hand-wipes/diaper wipes. Diapers, if one has household members (or perhaps neighbors?) with children of such an age. Eldercare diapers, if needed. Alcohol hand sanitizer. Skip soap - it needs precious water to be useful, and clean water should be saved for drinking.

#3: Basic first aid kit. Alcohol for antiseptic, bandages & gauze, emergency medical triage booklet, pain relief/anti-inflammatory, allergy medication, back ups for life-sustaining prescriptions.

#4: Food. Canned, dehydrated, whatever it takes for long shelf life. CAN OPENER. Foods should require only minimal preparation, if any - cooking facilities may be non-existent. (We keep a camping stove and 2 weeks supply of propane handy, but then, we enjoy camping.) Two weeks worth of food is considered sufficient.

#5: Structural clean-up items. Sturdy work gloves. Garbage bags. Warm work-clothing. Heavy plastic tarping/sheeting, to cover broken windows. Duct tape. Filtering face masks for the incredible levels of dust. And the VITAL GAS SHUT-OFF WRENCH, which really should be right up there at #0. My kids are trained to race outside and shut off the gas to the house, first thing, should an earthquake ever be strong enough to break a window, here.

I'm sure there's more, but that's the "just off the top of my head" list.

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

er, LACK OF clean water is the thing that will kill you. Not the clean water itself, of course!

[azziria.livejournal.com]

Thank you - this is going to make far more impact on DS coming from someone who lives with this threat day in, day out.