My Earthquake Kit

While others obsess over phony health care protests, we in Southern California have a genuine health concern: earthquakes. Scientists predict that there is more than a 99 percent chance that a major earthquake will strike California within the next 30 years. I have felt at least four earthquakes in less than three years in Southern California and, in contrast to the reactions of many jaded natives, I do not find them amusing. Accordingly, I have done something to prepare for the next big earthquake.

In addition to the supplies I keep in my home -- water, canned food, candles, flashlights, hand-crank radio, simple plug-in telephone (note that cordless phones that require electricity will not work if the power goes out, even if the telephone lines still work), I have purchased a separate "earthquake kit" for my car. The kit arrived the other day from Emergency Essentials. I was most impressed with the very secure packaging in which the kit arrived. The list of the kit's contents can be found here.

Since the emergency kit seemed to be short on food, I also ordered a bunch of military-style Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) from the same company. Chicken and dumplings, mmmm. I also tossed in a jar of peanut butter, and will add some food bars and other snacks. My theory is that, in most cases. I will need no more than 3 days' worth of food and water for a couple of people (although I have considerably more water than that) before some help arrives. Emergency Essentials' website even contains a chart indicating how long the MREs can be expected to last in various temperatures. Even in the trunk of my car in California summers, I can expect the MREs not to expire for more than 4 years.

Hopefully, I will throw out many sets of expiring MREs before ever having to use them!

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Another Earthquake Hits Southern California, Another Chance for Cable News Networks to Lose Their Minds

Maybe I'm jaded because I've just been through my second California earthquake in less than two years, but all I can think about is how the people who run the cable news networks once again proved what asses they are.

This time I knew right away that we were having an earthquake. My vertical blinds starting swaying violently, and it could not have been the wind, since my doors and windows were closed. I kneeled in the nearest doorway. That's probably the closest I'll get to the Catholic praying position (or any other praying position, for that matter). The earthquake was over in about 20 seconds, although my high-rise building kept swaying and creaking for about 15 seconds more. I'm told it's designed to do that.

I immediately got on the U.S. Geological Survey's website, and learned that the quake was centered in Chino Hills, not too far from me, and measured 5.4 on the Richter scale (initial estimates were at 5.6), which is considered moderate. Then I made the mistake of turning on the cable news networks to find out if there was any damage. There were no reports of damage or injuries, but that didn't stop the cable news networks from losing their minds, as usual.

The coverage of the quake was non-stop, even though (1) there were no reports of damage or injuries, and (2) there was other big news that day. In particular, Republican U.S. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska had been indicted for corruption. The indictment of a U.S. Senator is a very big deal. We only have a hundred Senators. But the cable news networks could not cut away from their crucial earthquake coverage, which included aerial shots of an airport that the announcers could not even identify (it turned out to be Burbank), more aerial shots of kids outside of a school (even though it was mid-day and they could have been at recess), and interviews with inarticulate high school students about having to evacuate their building. Actually, the students were downright geniuses compared to the on-air cable newsreaders, who were babbling incoherently and speculating wildly.

Of course, the earthquake was newsworthy given the giant population center involved, but once again, the people in charge of the cable news networks proved that they have no sense of perspective. On the Internet, I could choose from stories about the earthquake, stories about Ted Stevens' indictment, business, foreign and other stories that were taking place at the time. One such story was that Japan had had a much larger earthquake, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, just a few days earlier. How much coverage did that quake merit on cable news? Or how about that Alaska had had an earthquake measuring 5.0 just the day before the California quake? How much did you hear about that quake on the cable news networks? Wouldn't it have been useful for us to know about the Alaska earthquake?

Is there anyone left who tunes into the cable news networks for real news?

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