Life Change #11: I Have Let Our Earthquake Survival Kit Fall into Disrepair

About once or twice a month, I get a little reminder that I live in Northern California, and though some may question the wisdom of that due to the cost of living, home prices, traffic, or the woeful public schools, the one issue that looms over all our heads with little or no solution is that each day we are drawing closer to a catastrophic earthquake. Happily, these reminders come in the form of a little jolt that simply gets the heart rate up, or awakes everyone from a sound sleep. But someday, I know, there will be a jolt that does more than frazzle nerves. There will come an earthquake that destroys buildings, roads and bridges, that breaks water and gas lines, and sadly, injures or kills people. In the back of my mind, I hope not to live here when that happens, but frankly, it could happen before I finish typing this page. If anyone could predict an oncoming earthquake, this might not be such a bad situation, but the uncertainty creates a distinct need for…preparation.

Like many folks in the Bay Area, I have an earthquake kit….stocked many years ago and probably more of a health hazard than a survival tool. I know it…I can see a telltale rust stain on the bottom of one of the translucent containers we store the kit in. It is time to open, and assess this earthquake kit. The survival of our family depends on it.

The containers are stashed in the far recess beneath a seldom used desk in my office. The building is separate from the house, and I figured if the house was destroyed or unlivable, this building would most likely still be standing. I am not sure when I last opened the box, but it must have been at least 10 years ago. I retrieve the first container; there are two, each about 18” by 30” and about 20" deep. Upon opening the lid, I am struck initially by the bad news that one of the water bottles sprung a leak…the water which would be so vital to our survival if the water service had been compromised in some way, had basically destroyed most of the stuff with in. Now it was reduced to a rather messy scrapbook of what I thought we needed when I initially stocked it

Apparently one of the 4 bottles of water had leaked , because 3 of them looked more or less sealed up, but the presence of water had rusted cans, and soaked everything else. Somehow, ants had gotten invited to the party, and even though they were not active now, there was evidence that thousands had breached the seal. IN addition to the water bottles, there was a Ziploc storage bag of dry cat food (our feline family members will also want to survive). The bag had leaked, and the food within was sort of moldy and not at all edible. There was an odd assortment of canned foods, and I tried hard to think about what was going through my mind when I placed them initially. There were several cans of mandarin oranges, I assume to ward off not only hunger, but also perhaps, scurvy. These cans fared poorly….the steel was either thin or vulnerable to rust, because these cans had leaked, apparently leading to the ants discovery.

There were perhaps a dozen diapers indicating at least one of our kids was a baby or toddler at the time, most likely my daughter The diapers seemed so small. It seemed like just yesterday that I was a young parent changing diapers, and learning the art of parenting on the fly. We had included some diaper rash ointment, a pacifier, and several jars of baby food. I pondered what might have been should we needed this survival kit in recent times. How might baby food have fit into our lives with my two teenage kids? What would we have used the diapers for? I wondered if we might be able to laugh about it despite serious circumstances. It sure seemed odd just now, throwing away damp diapers that never got used. The baby food was past its expiration date, so I tossed it out, but first scanned the labels. These must have been the kids favorites at the time….carrots, strained chicken, strained peaches…I used to come home after work, and sit and spoon this to them as they awaited each impatient bite. If they didn’t like it, there was that tortured “chewing” and then the pasted would ooze right back out of their mouth. Rejected. “Bring back the peaches, dad”, they would say without speaking.

I considered for a moment the pacifier. It was brand new, in an unopened package. I can imagine had an earthquake arrived while there was still a baby in the house, that a pacifier might be pretty important. Frayed nerves would only be made more so with the abject unhappiness of a baby, perhaps hungry, perhaps cold or hurt, with little a parent could do. Seemed a good addition. Wish they made these for adults. I though also of the nights when we could not locate the pacifier, when the need seemed so critical so that we could get some sleep, and all the while there was one right here. I am surprised it made it without a preemptive use on such an occasion.

There was some dry baby food cereal stuff made of rice…I remember mixing this in with the strained fruits or with milk to make a paste. It never looked or smelled too good, but the kids gobbled it. I must have been pretty focused on the needs of a baby. Much of the stuff in here was specific to a 1 or 2 year old. Would have been handy had the earthquake come the week after I packed the box.

And in truth, one did occur when our first child, our son, was only a couple of months old. We were living in a different house, and we had no earthquake survival kit, and there were many who wound up needing them. Before the earth had stopped shaking, I was in my car, racing home and ignoring all speed laws, as I made the 15 minute drive home in about half that time. I saw chimneys laying all over the road, so I dodged bricks, and traffic lights were out, so I snuck through intersections, avoiding freeways and main streets so I could dodge traffic. There were smoke plumes in various places, and the radio seemed to have unreal stories about collapsed bridges, buckled freeways, and apartment buildings on fire. The more I heard, the more quickly I drove. I had no cell phone, and land lines were either down or overloaded. The only way to know if everyone was OK was to go there and see for myself. For me and my family, the news was good. We had dodged a serious earthquake without benefit of an earthquake kit. We might not be so lucky the next time around. So soon thereafter, these boxes were packed.

The second box had some dry goods, and happily no water had leaked in to destroy things, though ants did find their way in, as did a handful of spiders, but nothing seemed to be alive in there any longer. There were the requisite Mylar reflective blankets, to ward off cold should it be winter. Some wash clothes and a couple of towels. I am guessing my wife was in charge of this box. There was a Swiss army knife, $40 in cash, several boxes of macaroni and cheese, as well as some dry cereal (Honey Nut Cheerios!) a couple of pairs of socks. A disposable camera, predating the advent of digital cameras, was stowed along side a box of kitchen matches. A camera is a good item to include, I congratulated myself. Documentation of human suffering, and more to the point, the resilience of humans would be valuable…even if not for me and my family, but for future generations. I recall seeing photographs following the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, where the city hall dome was standing atop timbers, while everything around it was a smoldering ruin. That sort of tells the story pretty well, now that most survivors have long since passed away. Perhaps my little disposable camera would share similar stories with my children’s grandchildren. There was a tube of toothpaste, a bar of soap, and there were a handful of pictures and a list of phone numbers of important friends and relatives, near and far. Some of the relatives were no longer alive, and some of the friends had moved out of the area, or had not been seen in some time. As I sifted through the stuff that could be saved and sorted it from the stuff that needed to be discarded, the boxes became more like a time capsule than survival kits. This was what we thought was important 10 or 12 years ago. This was what we thought we needed. As conditions on the planet have devolved, some of the stuff seemed almost quaint.

There was a first aid kit, reminding me of the serious nature of the supplies stocked in there. There were dozens of band-aids, and not much in the way of medical supplies. This earthquake was hopefully just delivering some scrapes and bruises. There were a couple of instant cold packs, an ace bandage, and some aspirin. The was something labeled “first aid cream” and various and sundry gauze pads. I recall watching on TV during our last earthquake as they hauled broken bodies out of the rubble of fallen overpasses, and wondered if this first aid kit was sufficient.

I managed to place a Ziploc bag of coffee and some tea bags into the undisturbed box, and was curious about what 10 year old coffee grounds would taste like. I also wondered what I was going to brew the coffee in, but I did include some filters, so perhaps I had a plan. There were two flashlights, and two packages of batteries, as well as some candles, a note pad and several pens and pencils. In an envelope was some paperwork folded up. Birth certificates for the kids, a copy of my driver’s license, a copy of our homeowner’s insurance (very much expired) and our health insurance policy. There was a pack of gum (since we’d want clean fresh breath), as well as a handful of candy bars, and a picture book I recall reading to the kids when they were young. That might be comforting, I thought.

There were a couple of old sweatshirts and a blanket rounding out the provisions, and as I discarded the pork and beans and canned corn that looked too rusted to be appetizing, I started to consider how I might fill up an earthquake kit for today, for the post 9/11 world, when it might not be an earthquake that causes us to open this box for real. Should I include a gas mask? Duct tape to seal up doorways and windows. What about gasoline? Should I stow some sort of firearm in there? I don’t even own a gun, and pretty much oppose their use, but it occurs to me that seismic shifts don’t always occur below ground.

Now with the container empty and cleaned out, it was time to consider what to put back. Of course, the list would start with water…how much? What really constitutes enough water? How long will we be without it I wonder? I consider gasoline. I really don’t want to store gallons of gasoline at my house, but it does occur to me that one of the best things I could do in the aftermath of an epic earthquake is get the hell out of here. Drive eastward until the impact of the quake is no longer felt…like Wyoming. Of course, a 500 mile drive would mean keeping 20 or 30 gallons of gasoline…far more than I would think wise. I always think I should leave the car tanks full for the same reason, but that is way more trouble than it is worth. Guess we’ll be riding it out.

Since we will be sticking around, better have a flashlight or two and some batteries. A radio would be nice, but I don’t have one of those transistor radios that we used to have that we would carry around in our pocket and listen tot the World Series secretly at school when I was a kid. I think those took like two AA batteries. I wonder if they even sell those things anymore. We do, however, have three or four boom boxes...which take like 16 D batteries....probably be good to listen to the news, and wouldn’t hurt to be able to blast tunes...better leave a couple of CD’s in there just in case...that should take me about a year or so to figure out which would be the right music for the post disaster world we would be living in....”It’s the End of the World as we Know it” sounds about right.

What kind of food will we be eating? Since the advent of survival type shows on the Discovery Channel, Bear Grylls has show us that you can eat almost anything in a pinch...you can even drink your own pee if it comes to that (thanks, I’ll just pack in some water!). I began to weigh the various options....cans seem to rust (at least when water bottles leak all over them)...bottles and jars could shatter, and dry food needs water to become edible (which means storing more water). Will we be cooking? Will our current household staple, Macaroni and Cheese, be viable? I have so many questions about the apocalypse.
I finally decide that a blend of things might be the right tack. Some boxes of Mac and Cheese, some cans of beans, some applesauce, even some backpacking food that seems as though it might last forever (in part because no one actually wants to eat it!). Cereal...maybe some beef jerky....some Tang (remember the ongoing scurvy threat!)...some food for the dog and cats might be nice as well, though I flash momentarily on the prospect of eating that stuff given the direness of the circumstances...I wonder at what point the survivors get the short straw.

In the end, I realize that the central problem is that I want to stock it and forget it...but a real earthquake kit gets rotated about once a year....I wonder what habit needs to change to afford me that sort of discipline.

Update on Previous Life Changes (Day Eleven):

A wall, or sorts. A busy day, a general malaise, and for the first time since I started this little lab rat examination, I failed to find time to exercise. I think I did OK on everything else, but I was surprised at the mix of guilt and apprehension I felt when the day ended without the requisite exercising. I was frankly tired, and the thought of climbing aboard the elliptical was almost nauseating, so I decided NOT to push it and in hindsight, that may have been exactly the time to dig a little deeper. No pain, no gain, or so goes the adage.
The truth is, today notwithstanding, I am starting to feel the impact of all the changes I have made. I do not get tired running up and down stairs, I have adjusted to the low fat milk, my body craves water if I do not drink enough of it….even though we are only into he 11th day, some things are taking their place in my life. The more “gourmet changes” like cursing and toilet seat positioning are basically changes in mindset. I simply have to be present enough, in the moment, to see these changes through. I raally have not left the toilet seat up, and I believe I have not sworn for 3 days(though I have noted that I managed to curse in my “inner dialogue”, silently, and wonder if that counts…perhaps that will go away with time).