Along with hurricane season, it's earthquake time in the U.S. In August, Colorado and Virginia were rocked with 5 plus quakes. Yesterday, Los Angeles felt 4.1 rumblings and today, a 7.1 earthquake shook Alaska. Parents, is your family earthquake-ready? Earthquakes are dangerous enough. When they set off a tsunami, like the 9.0 Tohoku earthquake (also called "Great East Japan"), on March 11, they become one of nature's most deadly weapons. To get your family earthquake ready, here are some steps:
* Create a family emergency plan. Just as families establish escape plans in case of fire, you should have an earthquake plan if you live in quake-prone areas.
* Identify a friend's home or safe meeting spot that you all can head for in case of separation. Drill children on earthquake safety. Teach them to drop to the ground and get under a heavy object. Avoid falling objects. In case of flood, it's the opposite: seek high ground.
* Teach them to memorize safety phone numbers, including cellphone numbers or family and friends. Store emergency contact phone numbers on speed dial, so rescue workers can call in emergency. Teach children to use SMS (text messages). Texting is useful in areas where calls can't go through. NOAA has email, desktop and mobile phone weather alert apps. Click here to set up alerts. Here is information for Hurricane Katia and Tropical Storm Lee.
* Create an emergency kit or go bag for each person in the family. Here is a list of supplies to keep in the emergency kit. The most important items are water, protein or energy bars, crank or transistor radio, cellphone or pager (with extra batteries and charger), whistle, flashlight or emergency flares, air filter respirator mask, latex gloves, safety glasses or swim goggles (for eye protection), a helmet or hard hat, matches, duct tape and several large trash bags (for emergency shelter), utility knife or hatchet, cash, water purification tablets, self-activating chemical warming pads and warm clothing.
* Keep a medical kit for each family member with special health needs. Include all medications and special medical equipment (asthma inhalers, Epipens, pacemaker, cane, auto-injectors, insulin, glasses, hearing aid). If possible, keep extra medical supplies on hand for life-threatening or chronic conditions. Store appropriately-sized batteries in the medical go bag.
* Keep basic medical information in your wallet or purse. If children have a medical I.D. bracelet, be sure that information is available. Children don't carry identification; if you are separated from your children, it's important that rescue workers know about special needs.
Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes from 22 years parenting four children and 25 years teaching K-8, homeschool, special needs and adult education.
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