What's your areas most likely disaster and how are you prepared?

[Catalina]

Tornados, blizzard and 'Day After Tomorrow' freezing temps.

Has anyone watched 'Day After Tomorrow'?
Notice how the whole top of the US was frozen solid?
They didn't even try to rescue anyone from the north!

And I am not prepared for a natural disaster.

 

[tamlynn]

I haven't read all the posts, but I'm going to say "the big one" a huge earthquake that sinks all of CA into the Pacific Ocean. Maybe we need a boat.

Seriously, though we had 2 earthquakes this week! a 4.7 and a 4.0 aftershock two days later. Thankfully no damage.

 

[ChickenPotPie]

Earthquake, power outage, drought, bad economy, riots , and terrorist attack. Yes, I live in California.

We keep food storage - both "raw" items like wheat, oats, dry milk, dry beans, and food we use every day - canned/jarred foods from the grocery store. We also keep toilet paper, paper plates, cleaning supplies (stocked up for about 2 years), and a few other non-edibles. We have 165 gallons of drinking water (not enough imo), a few small propane tanks, small bbq, box oven materials, fire starter materials, first aid kit, and other camping gear so we don't have to rely on outside power. We have power outages a few times a year and we don't even blink.

My pantry shelves are basket type shelves so the goods will be less likely to be thrown off the shelves in an earthquake.

I garden year round. We have 5 semi-dwarf fruit trees on our tiny, suburban property. I compost and have a supply of manure. The plants are pest resistant because I garden organically. I start my own seeds but need to learn how to keep seeds from the plants I grow - especially tomatoes.

I'm just learning how to can food.

Except for the dog and cats, we can eat our pets. They either provide meat, eggs, or milk. The rabbits and chickens can reproduce quickly. I keep about a month supply of food for all the animals.

We have several ham radios - hand, mobile, and a base station plus emergency power for the base station.

We know an alternative exit route out of the valley so we don't have to take the freeways.

We are still greatly lacking in preparedness but are in much better shape than most in our area I suspect.

In the future, I'd like to teach my dog, as well as a few goats, to pack.

 

[Mackay]

When I lived in San Diego I was single then, no land. Nothing. I kept a packed backpack at all times. I figured If the big one came there would be no other alternative except to try to hike it out and my friends and I had an agreed upon meeting place near Tuscon....glad I didn't have to go through that one!

Freaky these earth quakes happening the last few days... the whole ring of fire has been shaking!

 

[dragonlaurel]

One of the things my little private water system (11 parcels sharing a creek) did was to put in a 10000 gallon tank reserve for firefighting use only. I pretty much duplicated that at my own place- I have 2 2500 gallon tanks. Might be just a drop in the bucket but could be a life saver too.
My sister put in a 250 gallon tank for her well, which produces fine, so that if the power went out, she would have a little reserve too. It's a relatively cheap way to store a bit- you just need a flat spot with a layer of pea gravel to even it out and a spigot at the bottom. You can fill it from the top and use it for your garden watering once or twice a year to clean it out.

Great idea about the fire water tank!

I used to live in Fla and my hurricane prep was:
stocked up on canned goods and dry stuff I could eat as is or cook quickly. Stock sterno - less fumes, when using.
Kept 10 gallons of drinking water - 1 gallon frozen or 2 if hurricane was coming. Filled tub before hurricane.
Built a fire pit with concrete blocks and a chimnea also.
Stocked up on candles. Kept a lighter with big jar candle. Lit candle per room from sunset till bedtime if power off.
Kept a flashlight hanging from a cup hook near my bed, so I always knew where to find one.
Got crank radio and flashlight. Kept cell phone charged when rough weather is coming. Recharged it at work.
Store all yard stuff in shed till safe again. Prune weak branches & open tree canopy some, so wind can go through.
Propped old mattress up against the biggest window and wedged it there to limit damage if window got busted.
Solar shower bag - They get hot ! No cold showers.
Kept a basic dome tent & sleeping bag blanket for more options about evacuation.
Fill gas tank up and keep plenty in it through hurricane season.


I moved to Arkansas last winter and we live in a very strong building on a hill. Likely hazards here are:

Floods happen frequently further down so we might get stuck up here for a while.
Forest fires are possible. Concrete building is fairly safe but the smoke might be a danger.
Ice storms take out the power lines sometimes. We also get hail and some snow.
Tornadoes usually skip over because of the way the local mountains are shaped but there is a basement.
Stocked on candles again.
Still have solar shower bag, crank radio, and crank flashlight.
We need to stock extra food that can be eaten when power is off. Longest power failure I know of was 3 days.
Stock extra drinking water. Shower only here - I could fill a plastic tote for flushing.
Need sterno for cooking or could use propane stove on balcony.

 

[Ldychef2k]

We are close to an area of California that has earthquakes, but we are not subject to them.

I think the greatest threat right now is economic collapse here in the US. I believe I am in a place now where I could survive, as could my extended family, for at least one year without money, electricity or gas. I have everything you could possibly imagine stockpiled in every nook and cranny in my house and garage.

 

[old fashioned]

Okay so I can't sleep and going thru old posts.
Looking thru this one, I don't see anyone from PNW so here I go.
Floods, snow/ice (usually not bad enough to stop life as we know it, just slow it down), windstorms, earthquakes and volcano's. Most of these are common somewhere in the states. But I didn't see any posts about volcano's, doesn't Ca , Or, AK or BC have a few spewing mountains?
The rivers flood nearly every year, but we live on a hill so if we got flooded I'd be looking for the ARK. Snow, ice and wind storms can be damaging here, winds more so, but usually only for a few days. Life doesn't stop, it just gets slowed down.
Volcano's and the "big" one (yes we have rumors too) earthquakes are our biggest concerns since these can truly be devastating with longer lasting effects. I'm referring to Mt Rainier that is overdue for an erruption and would produce lava flows, not to mention lehars which is from melted glacial snow and ice and debris overfilling the rivers, breaking dams and wiping out everything in its path. This would cause the most destruction with lasting effects.

I just hope those darn geologists will be able to give enough warning like they did with St Helens. I've already told DH "if Rainier starts rumblin, we're outta here".

Anyway, we're pretty well set for atleast a month or two around here, but if it looked like trouble would last longer than that I'd be rationing stuff to make it last longer.

 

[savingdogs]

Well if you saw where we are on a map, you might say we are likely to have problems with the local volcano! We live about 20 miles from Mt. Saint Helens.

But actually although our mountain lives in the shadow of Mt. Saint Helens, we are in little danger except possibly for ash fall. We are on the south side and all the action is on the north side of her.

In reality we are more likely to have a problem with ice and snow storms, forest fires, and earthquakes.

As far as preparedness, we are prepared to leave this area if we are told that Mt. Saint Helen's is going to be a danger for us. Luckily these things, while not exactly predictable, have precursers. The greater danger from the mountain erupting is from lahars that run down the course of the waterways causing all kinds of damage. We are not on any waterway and are, in fact, on top of a mountain high above where the water could go.

We are away from the coast where earthquakes could trigger tsunami's, at least.

The way we look at it, is if it is your time, it is your time. Whereever you live there is some danger. We have, of course, a stock of food and supplies that my husband has fun collecting and sorting, but in the long run, we don't feel very "self sufficient" when it comes to things like our natural disasters, such as fires. We need the fire department to come!!!!!!!

We have been removing trees close to the house (and using them to heat the house) and hoping we have a wider cleared circle around our home in case of fire however.

We are Californians so we never got away from thinking about potential earthquakes. But I have to admit, we skedaddles out of there after the Northridge earthquake!!!!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Earthquakes, flooding, windstorms and fire. I've been through the first three. Where we live specifically, flooding isn't going to be so bad. But all the areas around us have lots of problems and we often end up helping neighbors or friends who live near the river or low lying areas. High rainfall also causes mudslides and flashfloods, both of which cause road closures. Usually many trees fall during heavy rain and they take out the power lines.

I keep an emergency kit in my car: water, simple food stuff like granola bars, a wool blanket, comfortable clothes, rope, a flashlight, money, 1st aid kit, and a plastic rainslicker. My sunshade is actually a self inflating camping mat. There are no doubt some other items, that I am not remembering right now.

We keep all our camping gear on the back porch and also a large rubbermaid container on wheels filled with various recommended items. Wheneve we come across another nifty emergencey item, we just toss it in there. This actually makes me think, we need to go through it again. I think it has been a year since we last updated the contents.

The only thing, that is really difficult to prepare for is fire. The only thing you can really do is to just get out of the way of it. We do have lots of pet carriers and figure we'll load all the critters up in them and get to take very little else with us since both our vehicles will be filled like Noah's arc

 

[FarmerChick]

I guess my most immediate is ICE storms

going into winter now and ICE is my worst enemy. We don't get nailed too often, but all of the sudden it is time to fill up extra water troughs for the animals etc. in case we lose power.

So my mind is heading to winter problems now..LOL