FIVE SIMPLE STEPS FOR EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS

Nowadays earthquake incidences become more frequent than last decade. Actually every day we have a lot of earthquake incidences all around the world, but we don’t realize them because they were in very weak power. They’re between 1 up to 2 at Richter scale in average. However, those were facts in 10-20 years ago. In last 10 years we have got very different condition. We have got terrible earthquakes with deadly power such as Aceh earthquake; East Sumatra earthquake and Haiti earthquake. They’re between 5 up to 9 at Richter scale range and take place more frequent. We don’t know exactly why bigger earthquakes happened more frequent, so do the scientists. Of course they won’t publish those facts to us for stability reason.

So if an earthquake happened in our town, what would we do? Could we do something before an earthquake happened? Here we give you four effective steps for earthquake preparedness before an earthquake happened:

1.    Secure any potential hazards in our home such as:

• put heavy or large or breakable objects in lower place or far from beds, couches and anywhere people sit, so when an earthquake come, they won’t felt down or hurt onto you
• store flammable products in closed place
• repair defective electrical wiring, leaky gas connections and any deep cracks in ceilings or foundations

2.    Prepare safe places inside and outside our home like:

• under sturdy furniture such as a heavy desk or table
• far away from where glass could shatter or where heavy objects could fall over
• in the open area, stay away from buildings, trees, telephone and electrical lines

3.    Train our family

• prepare the emergency contact line and teach them how to call the emergency help
• teach all family members how and when to turn off gas, electricity, and water
• in case family members are separated from one another during an earthquake (a real possibility during the day when adults are at work and children are at school), develop a plan for reuniting after the disaster.
• ask an out-of-state relative or friend to serve as the "family contact." After a disaster, it's often easier to call long distance. Make sure everyone in the family knows the name, address, and phone number of the contact person.

4.    Prepare disaster supplies including:

• Flashlight and extra batteries
• Portable battery-operated radio and extra batteries
• First aid kit and manual
• Emergency food and water
• Nonelectric can opener
• Essential medicines
• Cash and credit cards
• Sturdy shoes

5.    Find and get an earthquake insurance

This is a breakthrough step of course. I realize that our life can’t be changed by some amount of money. However earthquake insurance provides us any useful chance for improvement after an earthquake disaster took place.