January 2014 Newsletter

Is your Home Ready for an Earthquake?  If you live in a home that was built within the last 20 years or so your home should be pretty structurally sound.  But if we are ever struck by a very large, catastrophic earthquake there will still be some major damage.  Even if your home’s foundation fairs well you can still be seriously injured or even killed by falling objects.  This month, as a family go around the entire house and assess the biggest dangers to your family members by falling objects.  Things like large mirrors, paintings, dressers and bookcases should be securely attached to walls.  You should not have anything very heavy hanging directly above where anyone sleeps that could fall on a child if there was an earthquake.  There are several different options you can use to secure these objects.  All of these things can be found at your local hardware store.  You are welcome to come to our home and see what we have done to secure many things to the walls, most are not even very visible.  As for about anything anymore you can also look for ideas online.  One kit we bought to secure several items in our home I will highlight below.

Product Highlight of the month: Quakehold brand fastening products

These can be found here in the Salt Lake Valley at most Lowe’s and Home Depot Stores.  The Quakehold product display is near the hardware desk.  They have several different items in their product line.  Most items are $10 or less per kit.  The kits were fairly easy to use. Honestly the most time-consuming part of doing this project was to take things off of the book shelf, move the shelf slightly and the reloading of the books afterwards.

            

Other things to make a habit of incase of an earthquake: (For people away from Utah, this works for Tornado Alley too).

Always keep a pair of shoes by your bed.

Keep a working flashlight in a drawer by the bed or hanging on a string from a bed post.

Fill up your car every time you are down to ¼ of a tank of gas.

Decide as a family where your meeting place will be away from the house and practice meeting there.  This could be the mailbox or a neighbor’s house.

Know where the gas shut-off valve is and how to turn it off.  Do not actually turn it off though.  It costs about $100 to have it turned back on.

Attach a gas bung tool to this valve.

Have at least 14 gallons of water stored per person in your home.

Have some food storage on hand.  Some should be non-perishable and easy to prepare.

Have a 72 hr/3 day kit for EACH person in your home.  Some people call these a grab-and-go-bag.

Are you prepared to function without power for an extended amount of time?  You need to be.