Some of us were shaken awake by the earthquake last week. For all of us, it should be a wake-up call.
The earthquake near Saanich last Tuesday, estimated somewhere between 4.3 and 4.8 magnitude, wasn’t the big one that we’ve been warned about, but it was the biggest one many of us have ever experienced, and about the biggest one we’d want to experience. The Richter scale goes from ‘interesting’ to ‘problematic’ to ‘devastating’ pretty quickly.
This time, we didn’t have to dive underneath sturdy furniture and hold on tightly. Next time, we might.
Many of us who live along the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire faultlines know that we should have an earthquake preparedness kit ready and waiting in case of an emergency. Yet many of us just figure we’ll get around to it at some point in the future, long before an earthquake actually happens, and somehow fail to see the flaw in our reasoning.
So we hope that last week’s actual, tangible, physical shaking sensation was enough to motivate people toward earthquake preparedness.
We probably have most of the necessities we need in a survival kit already, in our homes – items like flashlights, medicine, first-aid supplies and warm clothing. So really, putting together an earthquake survival kit mostly just means setting aside lots of water, plenty of non-perishable food (including pet food) and some cash. Living on an Island, a week’s worth of rations are recommended.
It’s a new year, and since we can’t predict what the new year will bring, then we might as well try to be ready for anything.
Last week’s little tremor was the great Vancouver Island quake of 2015, for lack of competition. And now that we’ve survived it, let’s turn our attentions to surviving the next one.