…But here in Santa Barbara we were lucky. No real effects of the waves except a bit of high surf. But the earthquake in Japan and the horrific tsunami there did make me say to Michael, for the 100th time, “Are we prepared for an emergency?”
We came close to having to evacuate a couple of years ago when a wildfire raged dangerously close to us. We’ve certainly experienced our share of small quakes. And several years ago, at the suggestion of a friend, we went online and ordered a pair of “Ready Freddy’s.”
They’re knapsacks that come with all kinds of emergency gadgets like a battery-powered charger for a cell phone, a flashlight, a transistor radio, a compartment for important documents and another for medications, even dried food of the type that astronauts take on their missions in space. (Check out ReadyFreddy.com and you’ll see how cool they are.)
The problem is we haven’t updated our supplies. The dried food has probably disintegrated by now. The batteries in the battery-operated gizmos have undoubtedly died. And our important papers? They were important seven years ago but we haven’t replaced them with new papers.
The truth is we’ve gotten complacent. An earthquake of the magnitude that hit Japan could hit us and we’d be utterly helpless. So I vow right here and now to do something about that. If I don’t, feel free to nag me.