Lesson 26: Trust your Instincts and Be Prepared

Today I experienced what an earthquake feels like.  Living on the US east coast, we do not experience many of them, mostly because the rock structure is knitted tighter and stronger than on the west coast (so the newscaster said today).  Either way, it was a startling experience to feel totally out of control.  At first, we were not sure if it was a gust of wind, but as the house started to shake back and forth, all kinds of thoughts raced through....an earthquake? a terrorist attack (we are so close to 9/11)? an impending tornado (we've been through that before)  a gas leak somewhere? Will my house fall down?  Will we be injured?

My instincts said, "Get to safety."  So, the dogs and hubby and I left the room with the windows where we would not need to worry about shattered glass and went downstairs.  By the time, we reached the space where we could go outside, the tremor stopped.

This event reminded me that we must always be prepared for natural emergencies.  Make sure you have a week's worth of bottled water, canned food with can opener, batteries, flashlights, candles and matches in an easy-to-find location. If you can afford to, purchase a radio that can run on AA batteries, but can also be hand-cranked if you run out.  The American Red Cross endorses an emergency radio that has AM-FM and TV channels, as well as outlets for your cell phone and USB ports.  Hopefully you will never use it, but it's good to have just in case.  We bought ours at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but I honestly do not know if they still sell them. It's been some time. In the old days, before cable, we also had a portable TV, but since you can't get any channels that aren't digitized today, that's a throwaway.

The final instruction for today is to not fret if your cell phone cannot dial out or in due to high utilization or line damage.  In most cases, texting and email will still function so you can still communicate.