Corporate Life
We had two big earthquakes near here recently; a 6.4 and 6.5 on January 5th, about 200 kms off the coast of Bella Bella, BC. It didn't cause any tsunamis here in Vancouver - even if it did, I live at about 65 metres above sea level, near one of the highest points in Vancouver proper - Queen Elizabeth Park, at around 125 metres. It's also a big, stable area - an ex-rock quarry actually. So while the folks in Richmond will have their land turn into a quicksand-like slurry when the big one hits, I'll be running for the safety of Queen E. Park.
Anyhow, while I was researching the two earthquakes, I came across a website that indicates that we have a few earthquakes near Vancouver pretty much every day. In fact, we are overdue for a big one - not a weenie shaker like the ones caused by the San Andreas Fault, but a geography-changing, tsunami-causing, subduction earthquake that will cause substantial loss of life and general chaos.
It usually takes an event like this for the news to pipe up about earthquake/disaster preparedness, and all sorts of articles come up about how would you get by if there were no electricity, food or drinking water. It actually even comes up when we get gobs of rain in a short period of time, and our water reservoirs on the North Shore experience "high turbidity" when clay, silt, organic matter and illness-causing giardia, cryptosporidium, bacteria and viruses are washed into the watershed.
Back when hurricane Katrina hit, the Vancouver Sun ran a feature on the kits you should have for disaster preparedness, and I kept it, intending to put together a kit on my own. Well here we are, over two years later, and I finally got around to putting it together. Most of the stuff I had already - little things that I've collected from years of camping and a couple of small duffel bags that we weren't using. I just need to add some water and non-perishable food, and we're now prepared for whatever might happen.
It was Louis Pasteur that said, "... chance favors only the prepared mind". But before you start thinking that I'm some scholar that followed the careers of famous scientists, I first heard the quote watching a Steven Seagal movie, when the bad guy, Travis Dane blurted it out. Just one more reason to watch crappy, B-grade action movies.
Originally Posted on: Jan 14, 2008
It usually takes an event like this for the news to pipe up about earthquake/disaster preparedness, and all sorts of articles come up about how would you get by if there were no electricity, food or drinking water. It actually even comes up when we get gobs of rain in a short period of time, and our water reservoirs on the North Shore experience "high turbidity" when clay, silt, organic matter and illness-causing giardia, cryptosporidium, bacteria and viruses are washed into the watershed.
Back when hurricane Katrina hit, the Vancouver Sun ran a feature on the kits you should have for disaster preparedness, and I kept it, intending to put together a kit on my own. Well here we are, over two years later, and I finally got around to putting it together. Most of the stuff I had already - little things that I've collected from years of camping and a couple of small duffel bags that we weren't using. I just need to add some water and non-perishable food, and we're now prepared for whatever might happen.
