Dear God in Heaven. Look at this picture.

That's China today.

These people have been told that several lakes nearby are on the verge of flooding the region. There are still thousands of bodies buried in the rubble. If water floods through there, it will start a cholera epidemic within the week.

They're running for their lives again.

Look at the buildings behind them.

This picture is what it's going to look like five minutes before the end of the world.

Horrifying.

they don't have a very good evacuation infrastructure either... (at least from that picture)

Oh and we are nobody to lecture the world on this either

The last time there was a tsunami warning here, I heard it on DU first. We didn't get it via local stations until 15 MINUTES BEFORE THE EVENT because a FAX MACHINE at the Hall of Justice wasn't being monitored.

Oh -- but the city did post a "tsunami evacuation route" sign down the block from me since then. :shrug:

and why I said, we have no room to lecture anyone...

And there was a time when we did. Hell, I learned a lot of what I know from AMERICAN specialists... but these days nobody will
take their offers of training... not after Katrina

By the way... those stories of fax machines not monitored are extremely common....

When I help set the infrastructure we included communications with more than just one link

if the San Andreas dances again.

There is no plan in place that I know of. There is a six week course you can take to get ready but most people don't have six weeks open while they try to keep their jobs, homes and kids in sneakers.

We're a disaster on the level of Katrina just waiting to happen.

there are not only plans, but exercises and simulations.

Hell, one of the common things pros have to do (at least when I trained) was to go out into the field, and set up a camp. Nope, you are not processing anyone, but get a good idea of how to physically do this. And good lord, those tents are a bitch to move!

But there is a plan... you can count on it... now whether it will be implemented, or whether they know where they filed it... that is a whole different question

And WHEN, not IF, the San Andreas dances, I live in an area that will also liquify.

Reality is... it will also be beach property in my lifetime due to global warming

Now the six week course is for civies, and they are a great idea, but as you said, who has time?

but not any more.

All I can think to do is to get to know all the opinion leaders in my neighborhood and strike up a conversation that is ongoing. And by the same token, get to know the folks with mobility or other health problems that will need special care while evaluating the resources we have that will survive a quake or tsunami. We're in a pretty temperate climate so shelter won't be as important as water and quick and dirty medical care. But the whole situation is sort of surreal, like those SciFi novels about the end of the world, as Will says.

I remember when having turquoise tile was a big tech gain. Getting access to drinking water in an emergency is a long way from that.

Emergency Crank Radio

for my girl in San Fran, but the darn thing is laying here in her birthday box, waiting for the extra to ship it. Your instincts of "classic earthquake weather" had better not come true! I'd never forgive myself, cause I thought she should have one on the day she moved down there, more than a year ago!

It's probably nothing. But, any day that we can get a little more prepared is a good day. :)

I got a great plug in for Firefox that shakes my monitor screen when there is a quake over a specified intensity. I live not too far from the San Andreas Fault. There are lots of minor quakes every day around the Pacific Plate. Most are in Alaska. But very little on the San Andreas. I understand that it is *stuck* by the bend near San Bernardino. That makes the likelihood or a really big earthquake more likely than lots of smaller ones as in Alaska. When the LA Basin starts the big shake it will make Chinas look like childs play. Bob

http://www.freebookzone.com/exec.php?cmd=firefox_addon

I had bought 4 Swiss-military-surplus backpacks about couple of years ago. Why four, you ask? Because that's how they were sold. 4 for $24.99.

So I've been building it up and now I'm almost done. Took some of my stimulus package money and bought a ten-pack of German military surpus mess kits (10 for $19.99, anybody want a friggin' mess kit????) and silverware sets (4 for $19.99), some NATO-approved all-weather matches, a pack of USCG-approved strobe lights, and combined a bunch of other stuff into a backpack that sits in my closet.

A bunch of Chef Boyardee, 20 half-liter bottles of water, two mess kits filled with matches and glowsticks and ponchos, two silverware sets, a compass, a strobe light, emergency blankets (those silvery ones) and some other stuff, including a knife on a lanyard and one of those magnesium firestarter things. Even got me a Swiss-military-surplus bayonet: 9" of stainless steel that will make a dandy tent stake, spear tip, or... whatever.

I need to buy a first-aid kit, a roll of duct tape, some cordage, a wind-up radio/flashlight, and pack some clothes (and a towel, of course!) and I'm basically good to go for me and my son. Oh, and I have a folding spade in my car that I can grab.


I live in Minnesota, so I don't have to worry about earthquakes or hurricanes. But I also live right by a railroad crossing (train derailment with toxic chemicals, anyone?) and a very modest river, and god knows what else is around me that might suddenly go awry. So, I'm ready.

The only thing that's perishable is the food, and that's, what, about $15 worth?

Of course, it's damn heavy, but in an emergency I suspect I'll manage.

...copies or orignals (where practical) of:
*Passport
*Driver's License (in case you forget your wallet!)
*Birth Certificates (for your children)
*List of account numbers (with 800 numbers to call your bank/credit company)
*List of phone numbers/email of family members
*Lease (if renting) & Landlords email/phone

Extra gear to keep in grab bag:
*As much cash as you can afford to keep handy (But at least $100-$200! In small bills!)
*Face masks (cheap dust filter ones at least - bio/chemical if you are rich)
*Towels (1 large, 2 medium, 3 hand)

It seems stupid to keep this stuff handy, until the shit hits the fan and you've gotta get out of your house/neighborhood/city in a hurry...

...and you realize the debit/credit cards aren't working (or banks have frozen all accounts).
...and you fear the clouds of dust/smoke might not be so good to breath with out minimal filtering.
...you have nothing to clean/dry yourself off with after several days of being filthy but then finding water to wash with.
...the authorities are challenging you on whether the child you have is really yours.
...the authorities won't let you pass some check point with out proof of citizenship/address/id.
...you get to a phone but can't remember anyone's phone numbers because they are all stored in your cell phone which is now dead.
...etc., etc., etc...

I keep the vital stuff in a fireproof little safe, which is near the backpack, so that's good. Guess I'd better put them in a zip-lock bag and be ready to throw the bag sans safe in my backpack as well.

The Emergency Food Kit (275 servings in a weather-proof bucket, 20 year shelf life, $79.99) and the Emergency Supply Kit ($74.99, 20 year shelf life, weather proof bucket, includes radio and water filtration system)

I have been trying without success to make my own kits -- for one thing, the canned goods kept expiring over time -- ever since the Loma Prieta earthquake, so these are a godsend. The food is dried. The fact that they are in buckets means I can stack them in a closet in the house and have some chance of finding them again. The buckets are about the size of laundry detergent or cat-litter buckets.

I saw these in a Costco 150 miles from home, and knew they were exactly what I wanted. Our local warehouse doesn't carry them, so seeing them in the online catalog was great.

As soon as we get some time Mr. H and I will open up the buckets and look everything over.

Our location on the Central Coast (Santa Barbara vicinity) is geographically vulnerable to natural and manmade disasters, and the message of the Drowning of New Orleans was "You're on your own, suckers." Even if FEMA is restored to its former competence we still need to be able to take care of ourselves for awhile if we survive the Big One.

I am so sorry for the troubles in China and Burma right now. Those poor folks are just screwed. Apparently China has good building codes on the books, but the frenzy of construction over the past decade or so has left a lot of that by the wayside. I'm just not seeing much rebar in all that shattered concrete. Otoh, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake will level just about any human structure.

Hekate

http://www.costco.com/Common/Search.aspx?Dx=mode+matchallpartial&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&N=5000043&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&Ntk=Text_Search&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price%7C1%7C%7CP_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&D=EFood0409&search=EFood0409&Ntt=EFood0409&topnav=

Douglas Adams would approve. :)

of an order to clear the entire area immediately, this morning 7am British Summer Time , because of the risk of an articial lake breaching its banks - that was when Yahoo posted it from Reuters. Not sure what the time would've been in China. You would have had no other means of knowing that so I can understand your comment. The artificial lake had been created by the earthquake itself causing damms to a number of rivers.

Overall the Chinese seem to coping as well as could be expected given the scale of the catastrophe.

responder, a disaster specialist.

From the PHOTO, and that is all the info I am going by right now... it does look like they don't have
the infrastructure. That would include busses, and other evacuation media... on roads that were damaged


As I said, going from PHOTO

Now kudos to China... for allowing teams from even Taiwan in

people are also fleeing towns because the dead are so many, the smell is unbearable. :(

Rogue, with the planned earthen dams holding back all that toxic waste water. Do you suppose these images and threatened dam breaks give Northern Dynasties any pause? ... Probably not.

money. the dead are factored into their bottom expenditure line. :(

one child program and now parents have no one. awful beyond words.

caused some serious cracks to appear in a few dams.

That's why they're all running for their lives, heading for higher ground.

At times structural damage is a bitch to detect

http://www.komotv.com/news/18941134.html

~snip~

"Damage to the two-year-old Zipingpu Dam threatened downstream communities still digging out from the quake. Some 2,000 soldiers were sent to the dam, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Four-inch cracks scarred the top of the dam, and landslides had poured down the surrounding hills, the business news magazine Caijing said on its Web site in a report from the scene.

Although the government pronounced the dam safe late Tuesday after an inspection, Caijing said its waters were being emptied to relieve pressure. The Ministry of Water Resources issued a notice to check reservoirs nationwide, while the economic planning agency said nearly 400 dams, most of them small, were damaged by the quake."




I don't know which artificial lake the ones in the pic are running from, but national evening news on Thursday said some areas were now newly threatened by weakened dams.

The dam is miles away and the 6 wasn't until later in the day anyway.

They'd instructed to evacuate immediately because a huge articial lake which had formed when the first earthquake dammed a number of rivers was thought to be about to break its banks.

behind in their fear that can't get out? this is appalling. I hope their weather is cooperating. this could have been winter.

:(

I have lived through some big-assed earthquakes but holy shit! That is terrible.

Funny how it is always hot (seems to be) when we have a big-un.

it sure gets your spidey sense mobile.

And it's kind of scary since we haven't had a big one in more than a decade.

destroyed here. 5 minutes of quake. it runs right behind providence hospital. we're overdue. my area doesn't seem to get too badly harmed, knock on wood.

Looking, also.


1989 7.1 San Francisco CA


Tikki

exactly at that time but for my admittance to a Cal grad program that Fall.

As it was, my house in Berkeley slid on its foundation and 300 freshman nearly trampled me in Wheeler Hall.

It was a day much like this one.

is more powerful than Mother Nature...and I think she is getting very pissed.

That brings it all home, doesn't it? Damn.

I understand that a great many buildings collapsed due to lax building codes, or to the codes not being enforced...

I am very sorry for what's happening there...

They are in an awful place, literally and figuratively...

K&R

Yes Will ... This in an image that captures the age old tradition of 'running for your life' .... and the skewed structures thrown down reveal how little human beings control their world, no matter how pompous the assertion ....

Man will always be naked ....

Yet it is scary to think that they may have a great distance to travel to safety and are leaving on a moment's notice with nothing. How many can run far enough and fast enough?

I pray for them.

old tiny frail mother in a basket on his back. I loved that man at that moment. He was a hero and beautiful. I pray for them both.

I never saw so many dust masks in my life until I visited Manila.

It is the end of the world as they knew it. They will never forget this week.

I would have run away in panic days ago.

BTW those are some pretty substantial looking buildings to be so trashed. That must've been a ginormous quake.

Mother Nature doesn't play and I don't want to get in her way.

Large concrete buildings need to have rebar reinforcing them so they do not crumble like this. Many developing nations have substandard or lax enforcement of building codes. Many of the deaths in Turkey's quake were caused by the same reason. I've already heard reports that China will be conducting investigations into this and you can guarantee that they will be executing some people for this.

These palm trees stood tall over the town plaza!

There was no warning!

1970 Ancash earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Ancash_earthquake

The quake destabilized the northern wall of Mount Huascarán, causing a rock, ice and snow avalanche and burying the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca. The avalanche started as a sliding mass of glacial ice and rock about 3,000 feet wide and one mile long. It advanced about 11 miles to the village of Yungay at an average speed of more than 100 miles per hour. The fast-moving mass picked up glacial deposits and by the time it reached Yungay, it is estimated to have consisted of about 80 million cubic meters (61,000,000 m³) of water, mud, and rocks.

amazingly beautiful country suffered so much loss.

magnitudes (strengths) get stronger exponentially

Tikki

I worked in Peru for 2 years, and it became a second home in many ways.

praying for them to get out safely.

:cry:

We are so screwn!

:(

She is my only grandchild, I have two sons. One 30 and one 35. I tell my youngest not to have children. He isn't married and I don't encourage him.

My guys are about the same age as you, btw.

They seem to know what they're doing and, hopefully, will know better and do better than I have. :)

he is cool with being single. I am glad for that! My oldest only had the one child and she is a joy! Very smart and extremely polite. So I am happy for that. I am sad that they will probably suffer for the greedy element of this World.

Watching those parents standing beside the heaps of concrete that were the school buildings their kids died in...it was almost more than I could bear to watch, such despair...losing your only child after sending them off to school!

As the parent of only one, I feel such anguish for those still waiting to hear the news they know must be coming. And the survivors may be facing hardships for years to come.

With something like five million homes destroyed, this tragedy is unimaginable. How can any of us prepare for something of this magnitude?

:cry:

they have no one now.

about stress on the planet and then suddenly lose all you've got, due to stress on the planet

My adult child has a dog as her daughter, with no desire to add to over-population, in the least. It's a hard life ahead for us all.

I have been saying for a while, why are they building the world's biggest dams in one of the most earthquake prone spots on the planet?

people living in them.

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:cry: just heartbreaking!

measuring 6. Damn!! How do you cope in those surroundings.

:hug: it's-- grab a loved one, or anyone for that matter
and run, like hell,,for your lives...

:hide: I can only hope, I would be as brave, in their situation...

I saw them rescuing the children :cry:
they are so brave--like our firefighters... :grouphug:

That is just awful. I feel for these people.

industrial revolution ---

Without which we'd still have a planet and nature --- and futures ---

Sorry but I don't get it...

wonder where they are?

If it is determined that contractors cut corners on building the most recent structures, esp. schools, some may be executed.

Go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3295731

When the rest of China was starving during one of Mao's experiments, the government of Sichuan came up with the experiments in household responsibility farming that ended the famines.

More recently, Sichuan has pioneered in water pollution control, land use reform and reforestation.

It's terrible to hear and read about this happening to them.

"hep" them out!! My bad, that was Burma she's gonna help.