Could we use more reminders about how vulnerable this area is to disasters? Well, the 6.4 and 7.1 magnitude Ridgecrest earthquakes are pretty good wake-up calls.
Although the quakes were a few hundred miles away and we aren’t likely to get any that big locally, they bring to mind that nothing stands in the way of a disaster. If not an earthquake, it could be it a wildfire or flood. We even have a couple of volcanos in our neighborhood.
This is California after all, the place where disasters are certain to occur.
It is halfway through 2019 and no disaster in Butte County yet. We should be ready because it’s only a matter of time. We should also have a healthy bit of fear too, because fear leads to preparation.
No matter the disaster’s type or strength, we will never be sufficiently prepared, but we can always be better than we are right now. That’s why newspapers write editorials like this, hoping to plant the seed.
Do we need an emergency every year to remind us to collect batteries, check food levels, and make sure our important papers and medications are assembled? Sometimes it seems that way.
Between the 2017’s Oroville Dam spillway crisis and 2018’s Camp Fire, there’s plenty of reasons.
What can we take away from those recent Southern California earthquakes?
Perhaps we can be more alert to our surroundings — where would we go if a disaster happened, earthquake or otherwise?
We certainly can figure out the best options for us, and talk to our children, our friends and our relatives about those options. Equipping our children with the knowledge of what to do — especially not panicking — is a critical component in remaining safe.
Get them together. Explain and demonstrate what to do. Then take them through it. Make them actually do it.
Even if parents for just one time lead their children through the exercise of what to do, it could make a difference. As resistant as they might be, some bit of information is likely to stick and could help could save their life, or yours.
