IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING AN EMERGENCY - CALL 911

This blog is for sharing general, educational information. It is not a source of real time disaster updates or reporting. However, there are links to other sites, conveniently located in the Incident Tracker box to the right of your screen (scroll down).

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

SJMN Special Section on the Loma Prieta Earthquake

Especially sobering is the pulitzer prize winning slideshow. One caption, from the disaster relief efforts in SF, said "volunteers outnumbered firefighters 10 to 1". It is great to know we have so many local citizens, potential volunteers (CERTs), who have had some training so that we can be safe while helping others.

Also, near the bottom, is a section about Los Gatos and mountains...there is an article about Jim Yoke (Saratoga CERT and Santa Clara County Fire) inspecting the mayor's house for earthquake readiness where Jim is quoted with THE major take-away message from all these anniversary remembrances:

"Loma Prieta was a big quake, but it wasn't the big quake," says Yoke, Santa Clara Fire Department's burly quake marshal, peeking behind one of the paintings attached to the living room wall with brackets. "I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, 'I'll be all right. My house survived Loma Prieta just fine.' That's the top of the measuring stick in their minds."

Red Cross emergency specific readiness advice

Many sources indicate that we may be in for an El Nino, very wet, storm season. This page at the National Red Cross website offers specific preparedness advice, including landslides, severe thunderstorms, etc. Be sure to see the pdf documents...they offer much more information than the "fast facts" on the left side of the page.