I talked to Shaun Koopman again this week.
You know what that means, right?
It means you get another column on being prepared for an emergency…or not.
Some of you may remember from previous episodes in the ongoing saga I’m calling, “Davies does something about his total lack of emergeny preparation,” that I’ve signed up for emergency alerts to be sent to my phone, purchased backpacks and some supplies to make them into Grab & Go bags for me and my family and I’ve purchased – but not yet installed – metal brackets to more soundly attach my hot water tank to the wall.
And with the tsunami warning last month causing many around Vancouver Island to actually be forced into evacuation mode, it reminded me, once again, that it’s time to continue that saga with another chapter.
So this weekend, I’m getting those bands wrapped around my hot water tank and filling those backpacks with the supplies that are still in the grocery bags piled beside them on the floor.
I’m also going to go through my list of what we need in them and double checking that it’s there. I’m going to get an envelope and put some cash in it to keep in mine.
I’m resolving to stop driving around on less than a quarter tank of fuel. My gas light came on this morning on my way into work this morning, which reminded me that’s really not a good idea.
I’m going to mount the other fire extinguisher that I bought. I attached one to the wall in my garage – which has become a woodshop over the past year or so – but I still need to mount the other one upstairs.
Wait…I still need to check if they were on that recall list a couple of months ago.
I need to make sure those battery pack things are charged. You know the things. Those little boxes that store power to charge your phones. Whatever they’re called. Power bricks, maybe? Doesn’t matter.
Crap. I need better shoes. I can’t climb over rubble in these.
Do I sound frantic? I feel like I sound frantic.
I’m not, really. But like Shaun told me on the phone this week when I was following up with him on the huge spike in the number of people who signed up to receive emergency notifications last week, there’s nothing quite like an emergency – or even a scare – to get people motivated to do something to be ready for an emergency.
The fact that we know we’ve chosen to live in a place that’s overdue for a megathrust earthquake isn’t enough, apparently. We need to actually see people fleeing. We need to be scared. Just a little.
I’m betting the people of Christchurch, New Zealand, are pretty darn prepared for an earthquake now that they’ve been hit.
I’m not waiting until the ground shakes. Are you?