As we are all aware (hopefully), there was a magnitude 8.9 earthquake yesterday that rocked Japan. Aftershocks are still following the massive quake -- there have been hundreds. A tsunami hit and devastated the country. I am deeply saddened by this whole situation, and the people of Japan, and people I know who live there are continually in my thoughts.
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| Japan |
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| Diamond Head Reef -- which drained about 5 times before I finally fell asleep. It was seriously eery. |
I'll be honest, I went from "nahhh, nothing is going to happen" mentality to "oh shit, we're fucked" in about an hour. I flipped out. Brad probably thought I was completely over reacting, and maybe I was (okay, I was) but natural disasters are no fucking joke. The only natural disaster I've ever been in was an earthquake in Washington in...2001, that was a 6.8 magnitude quake. I was going over to my boyfriends house after getting all my classes for the next trimester, and as I was getting ready to step in the door, the quake hit. It was scary, but it was over before I even knew it, and there was hardly any damage...1 person died due to a stress related heart condition, and about 400 people had reported injuries. That was the only natural disaster that I've ever been in, and to tell you the truth, the word "tsunami" never popped into my mind when we were getting ready to move here, but last night really made me reevaluate our emergency preparedness....of which we have none. I scrambled around the house for forty-five minutes to an hour, gathering clothes and diapers for us (the diapers were just for Ophelia), and any non-perishable food I could find (which we have little of), and try to fill some jugs with water. I finally managed to gather about two sets of clothes for each of us, and the food, which consisted of crackers, tortillas, cereal, Reilly snacks, chips, bread and peanut butter. Oh and a couple of huge cans of fruit. You can tell how prepared we were.
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| Fire in Japan |
Luckily for us, unless there is an earthquake that causes a tsunami right next to us, we will have at least a couple hours before anything hits us. But this made me realize that we are not prepared at all, and if we needed to be evacuate, we would have to rush to gather things we need, and in that rush, I can guarantee that we would grab everything. So now my new project is to slowly gather things for a disaster kit. This is from FEMA for a disaster kit. I suggest that everyone make one. There are also places you can buy one, but I think making one to better suit your families needs is better, while using a list as a guideline. Really, I do encourage everyone to make one. Even if you don't think you'll need it. Plus, it might come in handy for a zombie apocalypse. Just sayin.
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| Sunken house in Japan |
You never know what could happen with a natural disaster. Mother nature is a crafty, crazy, unpredictable bitch, and we need to be prepared for what she has in store, even if that means putting together a box that we may never use. Well, that we hope we'll never have to use anyway.
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| Tsunami strength path. Hawaii is about at 220 and 0. (There abouts, not exact) |
So friends and family, please, take precautions for any natural disaster...tsunami, earthquake, flood, hurricane...whatever it may be. Make sure you provide things for your family.
Also, if you feel the need to help out in Japan's time of need, you can text REDCROSS to 90999 and donate $10 to relieve for Japan. You don't have to, but the Red Cross is doing the same thing they did with Haiti (which I donated money to, and probably will again). And yes, it's legit. I looked on the Red Cross website.
