I vividly remember Oct 17th, 1989. Jaclyn was an infant so she and I hid under a table on the first floor while Nicole was napping in her bedroom on the second floor. Cabinets flew open, our microwave bounced to the floor, and photo frames shattered everywhere. The tremors kept rolling and ceramic pots landed on me as I made my way up the stairs to call for Nicole. Meanwhile, barefooted Nicole managed to walk through the broken glass in the hallway without cutting her feet. We were terrified as we all walked through the house and garage out to the driveway. Huge cabinets had fallen over and it looked like a hurricane had whipped through our house. Then we looked over at our neighbor’s house and saw the entire hillside tumbled with giant boulders. This scared me to my core.
Today marks 30 years from the Loma Prieta Earthquake. We had to evacuate our home for 3 years while we shored up the hillside behind our house. Immediately, we prepared for the next “Big One” by putting earthquake kits (now called Go Bags) in our cars, earthquake kits on the property (for food and clothing), and an earthquake plan (where to meet). But that was 30 years ago.
A few years ago, I opened up our earthquake kit to see what was in there – it had been a few decades since I created it. I found diapers and formula for Jaclyn – who was in college at the time! The food had all expired, the water wasn’t safe to drink, and the clothes wouldn’t fit any of us.
On this anniversary, it’s time to restock our earthquake kits and create our go bags. Check out ShakeOut.org to find your region and learn what you can do to prepare for the next earthquake.
Let Oct 17th be a great reminder to plan and prepare for the next big earthquake.
