What Can WE Learn From Japan’s Earthquake To Be Better Prepared?

By Alan on Mar 28 in Blog tagged batteries, blankets, camping equipttment, candles, clothing, comforter, diapers, earthquake, emergency, Family, food, foodd, hand blender, japan, lantern, learn, medicaions, money, prayer, prepared, propane, water, wheat grinder, wood | 1 Comment

This is a letter sent to me. Emily wrote this from Japan to her friends.

Hi Everyone,
We’re doing “fine” here.  Considering what is going on around us.  When the first big quake hit, around 2:45 in the afternoon on Friday, I ran to Gray’s room and grabbed him out of his crib. We’ve had plenty of earthquakes in the 2.5 years we’ve been here, but this one was huge.  Gabe started crying and calling for me –I got him too and we huddled on the stairs away from windows and light fixtures. The two big boys were walking home from school and came in while the house was still shaking.  They thought it was exciting.  I yelled at them to “GET BACK OUTSIDE!” because I’d just been told if you’re outside, you’re supposed to stay outside! I sat on the stairs praying: “Please protect my kids, please protect my kids, please protect my kids…”  It seemed to last forever (around 5 minutes I’ve heard) and then the aftershocks just kept coming and coming.  They’re still coming.

They evacuated the hospital and Doug was able to come home around 4.  [I can't tell you what a relief it was to have my whole entire family safe and together.  And how upsetting it was/is to think of people all over Japan who have family unaccounted for.  It's really hard for me whenever one of the husbands has to leave.]

Since then, the power has been out and we haven’t had any heat or access to phones (to the states) or Internet (except Doug getting one e-mail out from the hospital.)   Friday evening we moved our friends in with us (Tami and Wes and three kids) since they just shipped all of their stuff to the states in preparation for their move in two weeks. It’s been nice to have them around because everyone is on edge and extremely stressed.  (And Tami is very cool under pressure!  She’s amazing.  Me, not so much turns out.)

Yesterday (Saturday) they opened the commissary (No lights, cash only) and we grabbed some extra food, water and diapers. Since we have the standard Mormon “food storage” I wasn’t too worried about running out of food or water, but I didn’t have any spare diapers so was happy to buy three big boxes yesterday for Gray-Gray.  (And yes, I bought two big cans of hot chocolate.  Priorities, people!)

We went to church for a shortened meeting to take the sacrament and get the news today.  All members of the branch have been accounted for and we’ve heard that all the missionaries in Japan are accounted for also.  (Big relief.)

Anyway, evidently Misawa is going to become the base for rescue operations in nearby prefectures.    We were asked at church to see what extra coats, blankets, food and water we can round up to donate to the Japanese people nearby. I feel heart sick thinking of those who’ve lost homes and loved ones. Although you probably know much more than me, I hear the devastation is extremely great.   We were lucky to be so safe on base and grateful our off-base friends and neighbors were okay.

The earthquakes (aftershocks) haven’t stopped and I spent all night last night having nightmares about running from collapsing and buckling buildings. The kids are on edge and tantrums are at an all time high. They keep busy playing during the day, but when it gets dark and we have to ration flashlights and candles it gets extra hard to keep the peace.

A few things I’ve been wanting to tell people and note for the future:

*Get an old school, corded phone. If the power goes out, your cordless wont work.  We were lucky to have a corded phone upstairs which helped Doug coordinate with the Branch President to get accountability of church members.

*Speaking of accountability, in an emergency, if you’re going to leave your house–leave a note on the door saying where you are going so when guys from church or work coming looking, they’ll know where you are.

*When the power went out, people off base couldn’t get their cars out of their garage. Turns out there is a special crank to use but most of our friends didn’t have it or know what it was. Luckily Tami had parked outside and was able to get her kids to our house Friday.

*We’ve been cooking with our camping equipment.  Note to self:  Buy a 20 pack of small propane tanks.  We’ve also used our outdoor BBQ (in the cold) and I’m wishing I had a spare tank of Propane for that. (We still don’t have power and don’t know when it will come back on On Base.  Estimates have said 24 hours (we’re way past that) to 1 week, to indefinite.)

*Do you have an extra refill of your prescriptions in your 72 hour kit? It’s terrifying to imagine running out of the things you take every day.  Also, the thought of my kids getting sick and not having enough Children’s Advil and/or Tylenol made me pretty nervous until I verified we had some of each.

*For ONCE I was glad to be doing Dave Ramsey yesterday when we had plenty of cash on hand to shop at the commissary.  But we also have a cash and yen emergency fund hidden in the house for back-up which was very comforting.

*While I’m making notes to myself:  Buy a hand crank wheat grinder and blender! (We have a freezer full of frozen fruit to make smoothies but no way to blend anything.)

*Flashlights are a pain.  All of our stupid Rayovac crappy batteries that I had stored for an emergency, LEAKED!  So the flashlights are all slowly dying, being over used by the children, and being misplaced.  The best source of light the last two nights has been the pillar candles I’ve had in the cupboard for fancy table settings.  They seem to burn pretty slow and shed a lot of light.  I’ve gone through 3 and have 1 left.  Wish I had a 20 pack of those in my 72 hour pack. It would be nice not to worry about running out.  Small, light weight, energy efficient lanterns would be nice too.

*Also, my next house will have a wood burning fire place. This all would have been much easier if we could have been warm.

*Also, I’m buying all my kids a down comforter. We have one on our bed and we’ve been fine at night, but the kids need 20 blankets piled up to stay warm.  (Actually, the two big boys each have a two layer fleece blanket which is pretty warm, but unfortunately, they’re not very big.)

(Poor little Gray had to spend yesterday in his snow suit to stay warm. The poor little guy must be sensing the stress because he’s been quite out of sorts.  He’s always shivering (even when bundled) and very clingy.  The kids are all confused and upset but mostly hanging in there.  Like I said, it’s been nice to have friends to keep us company.)

A few more random thoughts:
*The last two days this thought kept running through my head “All are safely gathered in.”. I can’t express enough how glad I was/am to have my family around me. Please say a prayer for our many many friends with deployed spouses.  This is a very stressful time here. Also, please pray for all the Japanese people who are missing or displaced.  So sad.

*We were very blessed on base to have running (freezing cold) water.  Off base, sewer lines broke and contaminated the water supply they weren’t even supposed to touch it.

*Today we sang “I Need Thee Every Hour” at church.  Has a lot of meaning right now.

Please pray for us (us being everyone in Japan) and if you feel so inclined, find a way to send some warm blankets to people who’ve lost their homes. Don’t know when I’ll be back on-line again, but hopefully soon.

Thanks to everyone for your concern.  I knew (figured) there were people praying for us back in the states and it helped to think about that.
 -Emily

Note:

“Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to “prepare every needful thing” (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity come, we can care for ourselves and our neighbors and support bishops as they care for others.

“We encourage members world-wide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.

“We ask that you be wise as you store food and water and build your savings. Do not go to extremes; it is not prudent, for example, to go into debt to establish your food storage all at once. With careful planning, you can, over time, establish a home storage supply and a financial reserve.”

—The First Presidency, All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage,

Preparedness / Family Well Being

Paul Warner
For The Family