Prepare! A Resource Guide - Part 1: Be Informed

I sometimes brag about our area for emergency preparedness. None of these things were thought about when my mother located the house in 1978; she was just looking for four bedrooms and a fenced yard. We nonetheless have the following advantages:

• There's a mountain range between us and the coast, so there is no tsunami danger.
• We are not near a river, so there is also no seiche danger, but more importantly we are not in a floodplain.
• We are not under a hill, so there is no danger of landslides.
• We are not adjacent to any real wildfire danger.
• The power lines are mostly underground, so even in bad storms we rarely lose power.

The first few points are true for a lot of our neighbors, but with the last one, even three blocks away to the West and not much farther to the South, the risk of power outages goes way up.

Obviously, our main danger is earthquakes - a risk for the entire greater region - but I do appreciate the advantages we have. It would also be silly to get cocky about them.

After all, an earthquake can be a pretty big deal - perhaps not calling for quite the amount of doom The New Yorker  called for, but still important.

A really bad wildfire can spread in surprising ways.

We are not in tornado alley by any stretch, but it has become more frequent to have tornado damage in nearby areas.

The windstorm that really demonstrated the superiority of our section of the electrical grid still knocked a large tree into our yard.

This area really is not great at dealing with snow.

Also, there are some things that can happen anywhere. A house fire can threaten anyone, and becomes more of a risk at this time of year with people getting careless with bottle rockets. Anyone can have a fall. A strike can affect the ability of stores to stock supplies. Not every water supply is subject to blue algae, but it matters if yours is.

Also, we don't always stay at home. Sometimes we might vacation in a tsunami zone or somewhere that gets hurricanes or tornadoes or wildfires. Sure, there are seasons, but the seasons for a lot of those are getting longer. There were hikers trapped in the Eagle Creek fire (speaking of illegal fireworks), and no one died, but their day did not go as planned. Hikers are always supposed to be prepared for something going wrong, but would you be?

Specific awareness should accompany general awareness and vice versa. These are my greatest known risks, but also these are things that can happen, and these are things you should do.

I am not going to focus too much on any one area, because we will get to most of it with the other sections. If it looks like something is missing once we are done, I will get back to it, but take a broad view.

If some of that ends up being a little weird, like seriously considering the best course of action in a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion, that can be okay. You may still come up with some realistic strategies for actual possibilities, and it can be fun. Your tornado plans should not involve hitching a ride to Oz, but if your alien invasion plans involve having an extra food supply, that could end up being very helpful for that long ice storm.

And the machete that you get because of zombies can be good for clearing underbrush, but don't focus too much on the killing plans. Most disasters are likely to go better with some cooperation.