21 thoughts on “Aftershocks”

1. It’s not too late to move to Las Vegas and enjoy beachfront property.

2. Maybe Billy the Mountain finally got his royalties check for all those postcards, and he and Ethel are taking a vacation.

3. You should always be stocked up.

   1. Yes. Though sometimes you have to restock when things get stale.

      1. Aside from all the normal things people say, be sure to have some charging bricks for devices.

   2. We did just purchase some water containers, after the one on the 4th.

   3. The main thing is to make sure you have enough cat food to get through any crisis, otherwise you’ll be sent out in the middle of the night to search a disaster zone for Little Friskies or Meow Mix.

      1. That reminds me that we’re almost out of dry cat food. I’ll have to go out and get some (and some litter) or it will be a crisis.

      2. Or worse, you’ll end up as Meow Mix in the middle of the disaster zone.

         Not that dogs wouldn’t do the same, but not as readily as cats.

4. I promise not to make any jokes about how a picture I just helped to hang would stay up even when The Big One hits.

   I learned my lesson about doing that just a few hours later — on October 17, 1989.

   1. Did it stay up?

      1. You hung it with a neutrally buoyant balloon?

         1. I wrote up the whole story for Instapundit’s open thread last night.

      2. Yep.

         1. A case of interstitial art supported by superstitious constructor.

5. After Katrina I was required to extricate several people. There is no substitute for fuel and a road or off road vehicle of substances. Bugging out is your best option.

   1. I’ve often wondered how much time is available between the actual event and the point at which the roads are hopelessly clogged.

      I’m sure it’s dependent on many things like location and the nature of the event.

      1. Well, that depends …

         There was a cartoon in the San Jose Mercury-News after Loma Prieta in 1989; the “Silicon Valley Richter Scale” or something like that. For magnitudes 3.5 to 7.0, in addition to some other semi-humorous indicator, there was “Freeways impassable”. For 7.5, I think it was “Hackers notice movement. Freeways beginning to clear.” For 8.0, it was “Freeways clear.”.

      2. When Mt St Helens, or one of the others, errupts again, EM doesn’t count on roads existing.

         There are a lot of low grade emergencies that can happen. Going without power for a week could be caused by any number of things. In California, it could be because they shut the grid down to prevent fires. Its always good to have some level of preparness, even if it isn’t built up enough to withstand SHTF zombie apocalypse, EMP, 9.0000h quakes, or nuclear war.

6. Do people have their book shelves, computer desks, home-theatre hutches and other major pieces of furniture fastened with screws to the wall studs? Are the kitchen cabinet door equipped with latches that won’t shake open and all the dishes to “walk out” from shaking? Are desktop computers and monitors similarly tied down?

   Someone who went through the Northridge event talked about how his apartment got trashed by bookshelves and cabinets spilling their contents. I guess at shaking much less than structure and life threatening, an earthquake can make a serious household mess.

   I have been thinking about taking such measures here in ‘Sconsin because plausible earthquakes from the New Madrid fault put us at the Northridge level, but I have only received dark stares from family members on this project.

   1. Although not in an earthquake prone region of the country we had to go through a similar analysis in regards to two 8 ft high bookshelves and our climbing 3 y/o at the time. Everything got anchored to wall studs.

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