Drill To Prepare First Responders For The ‘Big One’ (CA)

CBSLA.com) ^ | March 21, 2013 6:58 AM

[BenLurkin]

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — First responders from across Los Angeles County are practicing for the “big one” Thursday in a drill designed to measure the response to a magnitude-7.8 earthquake.

The exercise is hosted by the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management and will take place downtown from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“It’s our game day. The NCAA basketball tourney is starting, it’s their game day. It’s our game day for the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Offices, Office of Emergency Management,” Emergency Manager Kenneth Kondo told KNX1070.

This year’s functional exercise will feature the California Integrated Seismic Network’s Earthquake Early Warning Demonstration System and the participation of 53 city emergency operations centers, American Red Cross, Emergency Network Los Angeles, Southern California Edison and county departments like the Coroner, Fire, Health, Human Resources, Public Health and Sheriff.

The event will test and evaluate selected emergency functions and the interaction of various levels of government, response organizations, volunteer groups, and industry in a simulated environment, officials said in a statement.

“When a catastrophic disaster takes place, we’re all in it together and we all gotta help each other,” Kondo said.

Safety officials recommend all residents have an emergency kit that includes a battery or hand crank radio, whistle and food and water to sustain themselves for several days.

For more information on how to prepare for disasters, visit http://lacoa.org and http://espfocus.org.

[Yardstick]

Two weeks worth of supplies would get 90% of people through the worst part of any disaster that has any likelihood of actually happening. Even if the “big one” hit California, you’d have the entire rest of the country pouring relief into the state. Two weeks would sustain the vast majority of people until then.

The problem with hardcore preppers like you is that you’re way out on the irrelevent end of the probability curve. Your approach is based on the .001% case rather than the 1% case. The latter is what you would focus on if you really were interested in doing the most good for the greatest number of people.

[A Navy Vet]

I'll look into it. But most survival, campers and even military swear by Katadyn water filters and the convenience. It's a simple pump without all the need for buckets and such, but not as cost effective. Pretty sure they meet your requirements. They are top line filters for particles, bacteria, and some viruses. Below, is just one of their products. You may want a larger unit other than the "pocket filter" for home. Still, the one below could be a good bug out filter.

"Like a fine handcrafted Swiss timepiece, the Katadyn Pocket Filter has been one of our best SELLING water filters for the past 20 YEARS and for a good reason. With simple effort, the Katadyn Pocket filter can produce up to 1 quart of safe drinking water per minute. The Katadyn Pocket Filter's SILVER IMPREGNATED element has been used by the U.S. Military Special Forces, NATO, RED CROSS, U.S. Forestry Service, and other military and relief agencies worldwide. The Katadyn Pocket Filter has long been regarded as the "BEST" portable water filter made in the world. In addition, the Katadyn Pocket Filter is by far the best constructed filter on the market and built to last a lifetime. ONLY FILTER in the WORLD that carries a LIFETIME WARRANTY!"

I purchase many of my disaster supplies from Nitro-Pak. Reasonable prices and wide selection. That's where we got our Mountain House freeze dried food at a decent price. They ship quickly and have never had a problem with them.

[Marcella]

I also keep a rolling bag with canned food, instant oatmeal, instant COFFEE, packets of water, dishes, canned heat, Sterno stove, eating utensils, etc., close to my front door. There is enough food/water in there to last a week. The rolling bag goes with me if I have to leave.

[A Navy Vet]

Looks like a good bug out pack.

[Marcella]

I had four Katadyn Combi water filters. Then, when the Big Berkey came out, I got that. I gave one of the Katadyn Combis to my sister-in-law last Christmas, so now have three of those. The Big Berkey is first choice to use, with the Katadyns as backup. I always have three or more backups of everything required to sustain life.

[Marcella]

You criticize Kartographer constantly, and guess what, we don't care if you prepare or not.

I may have more preps than Kartographer (bet he doesn't have a regular oven, just like one in his kitchen, that works outside) and over 26,000 people have read my prep articles on another website. Between us, Kart and I have reached many thousands of people who want to have insurance that their families will be safe in case of an emergency, whether it lasts one day or a year.

Please add my name to Karts when you post your useless criticism.

[RikaStrom]

I stumbled across http://www.survival-gear.com/ when I first went looking for the “Life Gear’s Wings of Life”. I love their site, and “grab and go” is excellent option for me and the pyscho puppy.

I dont recall why I didn’t get the Life Gear one, it made sense to me at the time, but another great choice. :-)

[TangoLimaSierra]

"Several days"? If the San Andreas does its thing, you're going to need more than "several days".

You're forgetting the whistle.

[JRandomFreeper]

My grandmother wouldn't have thought of going into winter without a solid 6 months supply of food. I do the same thing. I'm still eating harvest from last year out of my larder.

The whole "Just in Time" food thing is a recent phenomenon.

Is is prepping? Or is is prudent and conservative living?

I used stored, homegrown, and foraged foods for over a year and half after the 2008 market crash. And I'm glad I had them.

/johnny

[Yardstick]

Yes, I post to Kartographer when he posts stuff that addresses unbelievers such as myself. People are allowed to respond to him, right?

For instance, on the last thread I posted to, he had listed a bunch of reasons why people don’t prep, but of course he had left out the most obvious and sensible reason. So I provided it. Surely that’s not too much for you to bear.

[A Navy Vet]

"Two weeks worth of supplies would get 90% of people through the worst part of any disaster that has any likelihood of actually happening. Even if the “big one” hit California, you’d have the entire rest of the country pouring relief into the state. Two weeks would sustain the vast majority of people until then."

Unfortunately, you are comparing apples to oranges. Hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, Sandy storms don't disrupt the underground infrastructure as an earthquake can do. It's usually pretty much surface damage, which is bad enough.

As I said above, and been proven from large scale earthquakes, our water, natural gas, under ground electrical grid, and food distribution has been interrupted by broken freeways, overpasses, surface roads for an extended time.

It always take longer for services to come back on line because of all the digging they have to do, no matter how much FEMA can do. BTW, they did really great with Katrina, didn't they? sarcasm. There are still entire neighborhoods that are ghost towns. They still haven't recovered fully.

"The problem with hardcore preppers like you is that you’re way out on the irrelevent end of the probability curve. Your approach is based on the .001% case rather than the 1% case. The latter is what you would focus on if you really were interested in doing the most good for the greatest number of people."

What does my interest in "doing the most good for the greatest number of people" have anything to do with disaster preparedness for me and mine in case of a massive earthquake? Your hypothesis is pecurliar, and I'm not a hard core "prepper" - I'm a realist about mother nature. I even laugh at many on the Prepper Show (History channel?).

Really? You think I'm some apocalyptic doom sayer? I'm just prepared to last more than it takes to get the broken water mains, gas lines, food supplies (after the rioters loot), and freeway truck routes repaired. Apparently, you missed or forget about the Northridge, CA earthquake that destroy many of the above. People were living in parks for weeks, while the different city services were trying to repair all the underground lines. People were fighting for FEMA water and food and others were looting, as they did in Katrina.

Think what you will. Hope you're in a safe place, but there is no safe place on this rock. This planet is a dangerous place. Think Indonesia/Japan's tsumanis. Japan has yet to recover from that and thousands are living in temporary housing. Indonesia lost 10's of thousands of lives. Shit happens on this planet, and people make it worse as they try to survive. Japan, with their cultural ethics came together - Indonesia not so much. Our inner-city welfare types and lowlifes would be rioting for the first handout from FEMA.

Last thought: In 1991 after the Rodney King verdict, the inner-city went ballistic. It got so bad that the police pulled out and after a while the fireman wouldn't show up because of gunfire on them. It lasted around 2 weeks as the area went up in flames. Now extrapolate that to a massive earthquake or dirty bomb disaster and how would those same people deal with it? Hopefully, the Koreans will stand there ground with rifles in hand as they did then.

Starting to get the picture why some of us want to be prepared? I'm not talking about end of the world - so shut the f*ck up and don't try to lecture this 63 year old man about humanity. I've seen the best and worse. In massive times of trouble, the bad surfaces. Got my shotgun. Deal with it.

[metmom]

I seem to recall that the day Doolittles raiders attacked Tokyo they had just concluded an air raid drill so that when the American planes came overhead nobody thought anything of it and it totally screwed up their response to the raid. Just a quirky thought.

I would think that the ground violently heaving under you would be a clue that it wasn't a drill.

[yorkiemom]

You mean that backpack comes with all that stuff, for $100?

[metmom]

For instance, on the last thread I posted to, he had listed a bunch of reasons why people don’t prep, but of course he had left out the most obvious and sensible reason.

There is no sensible reason to not prep.

But if you want to live with your head in the clouds, have at it. And let us know how those clouds are at keeping you warm, fed, and healthy when things go south.

We live in Upstate NY and the weather is so unpredictable, that I start every winter with several months of food and other supplies to get through with a minimal, and I do mean minimal, amount of shopping.

Aside from the fact that the nearest grocery store is 15 miles from us, just who wants to schlep heavy groceries in through the cold, snow, and slop we're inundated with every winter.

It's much nicer to just sit inside and watch the weather happen, than get on the roads with all the idiots who panic at the last minute, mob the stores and strip them of essentials, and drive like total morons in the crap coming down outside.

Mock away, but don't come knocking on my door when you're in trouble. Figure your own way out.

Or sell your freedom and soul to FEMA for rations of food and water.

[yorkiemom]

The problem with hardcore preppers like you is that you’re way out on the irrelevent end of the probability curve. Your approach is based on the .001% case rather than the 1% case. The latter is what you would focus on if you really were interested in doing the most good for the greatest number of people.

My goal is not the save the greatest number of people.

It is to save myself, my family, and to 'help' some others in my group that are also helping themselves.

You seem to think our goal here is to form a welfare society.

[metmom]

People haven’t learned yet from what Hurricane Sandy did to parts of NYC, have they?

Two weeks didn’t even begin to touch some areas. That’s when the magnitude of what happened was really beginning to sink in.

And compared to the big one hitting CA, that was child’s play.

[A Navy Vet]

Thanks. Went to their site. Although expensive, they look good for larger amount of filtration than my Katadyn pump. However, couldn’t find exactly what they filter out other that flouride.

[A Navy Vet]

"You're forgetting the whistle."

Also forgetting the "panic button" on campus. Oh wait, I don't live on campus. So then, I should get a double-barrel shotgun like Joe Biden suggests. Just have to make sure I shoot up in the air. Pfft!

[Marcella]

“It always take longer for services to come back on line because of all the digging they have to do, no matter how much FEMA can do.”

The Ike hurricane polluted the water in Galveston and north to Houston and it took weeks to do repairs and get good water back. In my area, the newspaper put out an edition every day which was delivered to every household in Conroe free of charge. That paper told us every day if the water was safe and the condition of repairs that had to be made to utilities. One of our water stations was flooded out so all that machinery had to be replaced.

Farther north it was worse than that. The town of Cleveland had no water for weeks - it had to be trucked in and their power was out for weeks. A county that encompasses the San Houston National Forest didn't have power for weeks. Trees in that forest fell and took down lines. States north of us didn't escape, either. Power and water up into those states were out.

Some people here were killed by falling trees and many houses here had trees in them. Some had to leave their houses.

Your earthquake possibility would kill many and you won't be able to get a regular life back for months.

This shows no one knows how bad an event could be until it happens. It is folly to “guess” one won't have such an emergency, that the percentage of the possibility is low, so one does nothing. Depending on FEMA to save one, is double folly.

I don't know if I will get a hurricane this year, so maybe I shouldn't be ready for one. That makes no sense at all, because they do come through here. Maybe our water won't be contaminated or power won't be off long enough for water to stop flowing. I don't know the percentage of the possibility of that, but if it is anything above 0, which it is, then I'm prepared already if it happens.

One more example: Hospitals have backup power so don't worry that they won't be operational. Except when Ike came through, the hospital's main generator did not work. The hospital was in the dark. Critical patients had to be taken to San Antonio, 5 hr. drive away. No operations could be done at our hospital. The non-critical patients were still there in dark, hot rooms.

If you had an accident or illness happen at home then, you better be ready to deal with it because the hospital was out of commission. Who would have thought the generator wouldn't work? What was the percentage the generator would go down? No point in having medical supplies at your house since you could just go the hospital.

When preparing for an emergency, assume NOTHING works that you depend on right now.

I had no power but I had lights that worked, a phone that worked, a TV that worked, fans that worked, radio with TV verbal stations on it that worked, several ways to cook, good fast food needing no cooking and food to cook. My standard of living was pretty much the way it was before power went out. If a hurricane comes this year, I have nothing to fear as long as my house keeps standing.

[Marcella]

“You mean that backpack comes with all that stuff, for $100?”

Yes, it does, give or take a few dollars. If you have just that and nothing else when you head out the door, or have one in your car, you have what you need to get out to a safe place.