Last night in the wee morning hours Golf and I were jolted awake when our entire apartment jerked and it made a loud noise, like someone dropped an entire sofa in the living room. I had a feeling it was an earthquake and sure enough, this morning I heard on the news that it was. It was a 3.2, near Oakland, which is about two miles from where we live.
My heart was racing hard and when I finally fell asleep again, I dreamed of THE BIG ONE and how our apartment complex would collapse since we're on the third floor and would I get to my baby on time. Or what would happen if Golf were working in Berkeley when the big one hit. How would he call me? (We have no cell phone and who's to say that would work anyway?) How would he make his way home if the streets and freeways and the tunnel to Alameda were ruined? No communication and no way home, I wouldn't know if he were dead or alive. Hmmm... much like what happened with many of the hurricane victims who could not find their loved ones, sometimes their own children. I could not imagine....
So it got me to thinking about preparing an earthquake kit. Even just a little something for the apartment and the car. You can never know and it will surely happen here sooner or later.
3 comments:
Hey Amy,
Get a cell phone if you can (you should be able to get a phone and buy phone cards like you do in Thailand, I know a friend of mine does that in LA - then you're not tied to an expensive monthly contract.
Especially with a baby, you really should get one - it would be awful if you couldn't contact each other in the event of an emergency.
The US is a bitch though isn't it when it comes to the expense of everything? I know when I set myself up with a phone here, it was $5 for the sim card and $5 for a 200 baht card - $10. Couldn't do that in the US!
E-mail to follow!
Amy,
Your blog is always so interesting to read. We live on a fault line too, and I have stocked up on many things from this list:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/prepare.html
Good luck!
Thanks for the link, Jyotsna, that's very helpful. :)
Michelle, looking forward to your email -- your time is coming soon for arrival in the USA! Cell phone is something I thought about, but in a real emergency, if it was very devastating, I would think that the transmission stations for the cell phone signals would be knocked out.
You're right about the expense of things. It's so good I had a year to save up a lot of money, easy to do with good salaries and cheap expenses in Thailand. We've spent a lot to set up a basic household here. And it's gonna be worse after these two hurricanes. Thank goodness we don't drive much with the price of gas being what it is.
Post a Comment