Posted by Scott Barnum, a resident of the Atherton: other neighborhood, on Dec 20, 2010 at 3:38 pm

This could have been worse...

Sooner or later an earthquake of significant magnitude will likely hit in our area. If folks think we're "immune" or it can't/won't happen here then they should check with the USGS in Menlo Park to get their latest projections. They are sobering.

While the state, county and many of the Peninsula's local municipal governments have made good progress in preparing for a major natural disaster, most individual homeowners have not done enough, if any, planning for an emergency like an earthquake. The experts now say that individual households need to be ready to survive on their own without utilities and services for seven days and nights.

As individual citizen-residents, we should prepare our homes and families as if the professional responders (e.g., fire/police/EMT's) won't be able to help us at all in the event of an major earthquake. Indeed, should the big one hit, it is highly likely that the first responder will be a neighbor, not a policeman. Many of our local police and fire personnel don't live locally and may not even be able to get to our towns given traffic or the road conditions. Even if they are local, they will likely respond to major problems and events first (e.g., fires, explosions, accidents) and will need to employ some form of triage.

The more we are prepared as individual households and the less dependent we are on municipal services in the time of an emergency, the better off we will be and the faster we can rebound. We can do our families and our police/fire departments and our towns a great service by being better prepared for a major disaster...

For more information on how you can better prepare your home and family for a major emergency or to volunteer to help, please contact ADAPT (Atherton Disaster and Preparedness Team)a volunteer group of concerned Atherton residents working together with emergency authorities to educate and engage citizens in preparing for natural disasters, pandemics and significant emergency situations at: microbarny@msn.com.