Friday, January 15, 2010

Plates colliding.....

Life just never seems to let up. I shouldn't complain though, considering I have a roof over my head, I have plenty of food and water, and I haven't lost anyone in a bad earthquake.

Growing up in earthquake territory, I do feel for the people of Haiti. No fun at all. The only good thing about earthquakes compared to a few other natural disasters is that they are without any panicked buildup or warning. Add to it that they are over rather quickly (relatively) and are done. Fires you see coming for quite some time and they destroy things pretty completely.
Floods slowly build, ruin, then slowly recede. Then you have worse things that linger like mud, mold, and mildew.

The worst part about earthquakes is rubble, and land shifts. If it rains in Haiti, flooding and muddy landslides could happen.

Having lived with a mother who survived the 1964 Alaska Good Friday earthquake, I suspect that I have a fair bit of latent phobia about being water / food-less. My pantry is huge. It has enough food for us to last probably a week or so from. More than I suspect many of my peers have. We don't have enough water on hand. That is always troubling. Where do you store it? How do you keep it? Do you rotate it out? Egads. Its maddening to think about.

All that being said, what about people that take daily medications? What if you were 3 days before you next 30 day refill? Bam. Now what? You have 3 days. Then you have to decide if you can make it beyond the 3 days. Will there even be a pharmacy open?

Water, food deliveries, basic necessities. Those will all be forthcoming. But who knows how long that might take too?

In the US, we have the luxury of a Walgreens or other retailer on nearly every block, in our big cities.

Not everyone is so lucky.

Think about that.

If you have $10 to give, give it. If you can't, thats ok too. At lest think good thoughts.
It could have been us.



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