Kalasin's Blog

Glad you're okay. I experienced a very minor earthquake in California last year. Nothing was broken or anything, the earth just shook for a minute or so, so I can't really give a ton of advice on earthquake survival. When it started my grandparents told everyone to get out of the house ASAP (in case it collapsed). Beyond that I'm not sure.

-Bama

That was me OOC attacking you.

My Earthquake

Awesome and very scary. Glad to hear you're alright, though.

I was in a tornado once. It tore the roof off and collapsed the building I was in. It was the most exhilarating and scariest thing of my life.

Hope you don't get too many more!

Can you recommend emergency equipment etc? Or any tips on how to get through it?

Yes I can:

Hey, I live in Christchurch, New Zealand.

In the last 9 months, We have experienced a 7.1 and two 6.3s, and over 7000 aftershocks since september 4th.

(if anyone doesn't believe me just do to http://quake.crowe.co.nz/)

But we have found that During an earthquake it is probably best to just run outside IF YOU CAN. Anything 6.3ish and above it iv very difficult to move where you want to go. If you cant get outside, roll up into your ball and get close to the main supporting wall, the "turtle tuck" as the kids here call it.

In terms of an emergency kit.

As long as you have the following it will help:

Torch

Corded Phone (doesn't require power to run)

Batteries

First aid kit

Water (and tonnes of it)

Spare Clothes

And an emergency plan with your family (where to meet etc)

For example, Our routine after a larger shake now is to pack the baby up and go to mums, we have the emergency kit in the car which we don't park in the garage and never let it under quarter a tank of gas. we have 12 litres of water stored in the kitchen and another 6 litres in the car,

I could go on fgor days but you get the general gist of it.

I leave you with a new nursery rhyme now sang by kids of christchurch.

TURTLE TUCK

"If the earth begins to shake,

what do we do for safety's sake,

get under a table and hold on tight,

and everything will be all right...

Crouch on the ground and cover your head,

just like a turtle tucked up in bed. "

Thanks Excessium, that's a great help.

I was in a 9.0 earthquake this one time. Not much you can do during that. As my wife's aunt in Sendai put it "I just fell down and prayed that I would live"

Afterwards? Water, water water. It's so freaking important. Even more-so here because the tap-water was irradiated. We kept emergency water before (around 10L), now we keep 25L.

Excessium hits the main points. Remember too, probably phones/internets are down, so you need to just have an automatic plan that you go on, can't wait to hear from loved ones.

Water.

I am fortunate enough to live in an area that doesn't see much for earthquakes (in the middle of the continental US), but even we have gotten some before, albeit not very severe. We had a ~4.0 quake about a month ago. What we do get is tornados, and this year has been really bad for them.

I used to live in Reykjavík, and don't really consider minor earthquakes such as the ones you're describing to be natural disasters.

Six- and seven-point earthquakes are another story of course.

Probably the closest thing to a real disaster for me was White Juan, which was a colossal snowstorm in Halifax. However mostly I just remember getting stuck inside followed by a huge amount of snow shoveling and then waiting for all the damage from the fallen trees to be repaired, was like a month or two of various buildings around town being closed off.

One more thing to add, while running out, get away to an open space, staying outside your building, near it or any other building for that matter, is just as bad as being inside one. Having had a close call with an aircondtioning unit fall on the road next to me in a quake is not a pleasant memory.

If you live in some third world country with crappy building standards (or in a place where earthquakes don't typically occur) then I suppose "running outside" is a viable strategy... I'm a California boy, and we have earthquakes with enough regularity that our building codes take it into account, and running outside is about the stupidest and most dangerous things you can do here.

As for an emergency kit, Google is probably a better resource than random schmucks like me. Water and food are the key things (and water purification tablets, or plain ol' chlorine bleach).

-Craig

i best also just add,

If there ever is a large event and you do need to escape the building DO NOT GO BACK IN untill you know its safe, There was a lady in the CBD that managed to get out of her workplace safe, and when the EQ finished she went back in to get her cellphone, while she went back in the aftershock hit and she died when the building came down.

Also Denkimon, i'm curious.

i understand that your M9, against our 7.1, and 2x6.3, because yours was on a major fault and was soo deep it lasted for a while and was widley felt whereas ours being shallow (5-15km deep) they are extremely violent but relativley shorter (20-60 seconds of shaking) and our earth shaking comparison was Mag 9 - 1.6xgravity - Mag 6.3 -2.8xGravity.

So im curious to know how long your EQ lasted for?