In an age of same day delivery of virtually anything, it’s easy to forget how quickly our lives can change. One of the things I remember most from the height of Covid was the hit/miss nature of shopping. A walk through Costco became a scavenger hunt. Some trips, we’d find toilet paper and coffee, but no milk or eggs. The next visit, it was the reverse.
We learned to grab what we could, when we could, store the extra in our garage and share the spoils with family & friends. Despite the short-term challenge, stores still (mostly) had what we needed. But what if they didn’t?
It’s been over thirty years since the 1994 Northridge earthquake. If a major earthquake strikes tomorrow and the stores are in shambles, how would you survive? If the water and power are off for a month or more, how would you survive?
This month’s cover story about earthquake preparedness is a reminder that we’re past due for another big one and the time to prepare is now. We hope you find the information useful and remember what Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
A Santa Monica apartment building destroyed by the Northridge earthquake in 1994. Photo by: © Joe Sohm | Dreamstime.com