I was in Evanston, Illinois running back and forth between a frat house and my dorm room alternating between watching San Francisco burn on TV and checking my answering machine to see if anyone managed to call me and tell me my brother was alive and fine. The Loma Prieta earthquake had struck during the World Series game between San Francisco and Oakland at Candlestick Park, and it was major national news. Part of the Bay Bridge had collapsed, the Marina was largely on fire or at least rendered uninhabitable, San Francisco was mostly dark without power, the double-decker portion of I-880 had collapsed, the phone lines were overloaded and nobody had a lot of info. My brother finally managed to get a line out and call my grandparents who then relayed the news that he was fine.
I've done everything I can to make sure I remain safe during a quake. I've retrofitted as much of my house as I can, had an earthquake shutoff valve installed on my gas line and prepared emergency kits for the house and the car.
Even if you don't live in earthquake country, I urge you to take a look at
72hours.org or
ready.gov. They have lots of great advice about how to prepare you and your family for a disaster. Make a plan with your loved ones, make sure you have an ICE (in case of emergency) on your mobile phone, make sure you'll survive an outage of services. It never hurts to be prepared.
Thus ends your public service announcement. Be safe y'all.