I live in the land of earthquakes. We never know for certain when once is going to hit, how big it is going to be, or what kind of damage we will sustain. Because I live in the land of earthquakes, my family and I are always prepared for a disaster. We try to make certain our gas tanks are full. We keep a secret stash of cash around. Each of our cars has a couple of jugs of drinking water, and earthquake stores. There are band aids, a manual can opener, Tylenol, snacks, canned food, candles and batteries in each of our trunks.
I don’t know that most people in the Northeast are prepared for these types of disasters. I worry when storms and earthquakes hit that region of the country.Here in California, we build our homes to withstand earthquakes, and now building codes in the South East have been modified to make homes safer in high wind and flooding conditions. Homes in New Orleans are built on taller basements, or even on stilts. Windows all over Florida now have special hurricance shutters. I can site many examples. But I don’t believe that to be the case back in the North East.
Maybe it is time to build homes everywhere in the country that will be able to withstand natural disasters better than they are able to now. And perhaps it would be good practice to do more research into developing building materials which are more apt to stand up to strong winds. I think with so many advances in materials, we should be able to do a better job of anticipating these weather driven events before they happen, instead of having to spend years rebuilding our towns and our lives every time one hits.
social-cindy
