Things I've been meaning to post: #1 in a series

[vilakins]

Tomorrow (the 26th) at 9:26am the whole country is meant to do The Big Shakeout to practise for an earthquake. The slogan is "drop, cover, and hold": get down, crawl underneath a piece of furniture, cover your head, and hold on to the furniture. I won't be at work, but if I were I wouldn't be able to resist singing Duck and Cover, the 50s song by Bert the Turtle which was meant to make people think they had a chance in a nuclear war. I originally came across this scary little gem in the film The Atomic Cafe which is blackly funny and worth a watch if you come across it.

Earthquakes are easier to survive, but we don't actually have anything to go under at home, both our tables being glass-topped and a potential source of very sharp glittering daggers, our bed having wooden slats that probably aren't roof-bearing, the spare beds too low to get under, and this computer desk has shelves that would stop me getting in very far. Eh, if a Big One happens, I'll cower in a doorway and cling to the jamb, which is what I used to do in Wellington when a worrying one hit.

Comments

[mab_browne]

They teach turtle safe at preschools and schools for situations where there aren't enough tables and door frames to go around - curl up into as small a ball as possible and cover your head. I remember holding earthquake drills with pre-schoolers - it's an interesting balance getting them to take it seriously without upsetting them.

[vilakins]

Do they! Burt's tips are still good! I'd certainly curl up like that if I had no choice or was outside; same for tornadoes.

[trixieleitz]

I was in a shopping mall in Christchurch when the Dec 23 shake hit - I spent it crouched next to the frame of a shop doorway, which was about 3m tall and surrounded by plate glass, because that was the nearest vaguely sturdy thing I could see :( If stuff had really started to come down, I think I would have curled into a ball.

[gwendraith]

We don't have practices for what to do during an earthquake as we don't generally get serious earthquakes here although we did get a 5.2 one in 2008. We get Counter Terrorist Campaign leaflets through the door instead entitled "It's probably nothing but...." and then a list of things to look out for which all good citizens should pass on to the police :)

[vilakins]

They say that's the best thing to do if there's no other option.

[vilakins]

THat would be pretty scary.

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Our county has an evacuation plan they sent to every household in case the nuclear reactor at Indian Point blows or something. Everyone within a ten mile radius gets evacuated. Our house is one mile out of the evacuation zone. We're safe!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Eep. Auckland is built on volcanoes but we're on a thin isthmus to one north and one south road so an attempt at evacuation would be like the nightmare I used to have as a kid when we lived on Mt Taranaki: the roads were blocked with cars, the lava was rising, and I was up a tree. Of course not a good idea; the tree would burn.

Is that Buchanan? I thought you lived right in NY but that's not far off.

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the one. I'm on the other side of the Hudson and south--just on the NY side of the New York/New Jersey Border. Maybe I'm 2 miles out of the zone :)
The plant is old and a mess--and built near a fault line, though luckily we seldom have even tremors here. The governor wants to shut it down, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or whatever their name is now wants to renew the license in two years.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

[rolls eyes] Typical: profit at any cost. Capitalism has a lot to answer for.