San Francisco earthquake emergency plan, what do I need if I'm caught in the City during a shaker? 2 things mainly

It can happen again in the flash of a second.

One of my grandson's and I were having a conversation yesterday about emergency preparedness, what  emergency food, water and equipment to have on hand in the case of a nuclear bomb dropping on us. Our conversation took a different direction, it started when I asked him "if you were in San Francisco walking around Fisherman's wharf, and the "Big One" struck what would you do?" He is 20 years old, he will be 21 in November, I remember when I was 21. I was not worried about too much especially an earthquake in California. Apparently he is not very interested in it either, his answer was simply "I'd get out of town." I told him that at least 1 million other people would have the same idea, they would all be heading for one of three ways out, 1) The Bay Bridge. 2) The Golden Gate Bridge. 3) Highway 101 through South San Francisco, all a parking lot during a normal work week, it would become a petrified forest in an emergency evacuation. There is a fourth way out, I don't know for sure if the ferry's would be running so I did not include them. It's my belief that with many people hitting the roads to evacuated the first 10,000 vehicles may make it out before breakdowns, accidents and road rage all take effect. The highways

Here's one way out of town, there is two others across town.

may be unusable, I wonder where everyone would be going anyway, somewhere else is all I can figure. My grandson said he would walk out over the Bay Bridge, I asked him where to Oakland? I then told him that may very well be the only way out, however he would have to walk to my house 50 miles NE of San Francisco. We live on the Great California Delta, the river system that feeds San Francisco Bay and waters all of Southern California. On occasion my grand kids will take the Bart to the City for the day when they are visiting us, they are all 18 years old plus when they go. I told my grandson before he starts his 50 mile hike home there are two things he should make sure is covered first.
 1) Call our contact number, we have put together an earthquake emergency plan as recommended by survival experts and FEMA. In the plan we included an earthquake evacuation plan as well, each member of the family (and those staying with us) has a copy of the plan with instructions on what actions to take if they are either at home or away. It is prudent to make sure in your preparedness plan to include a "contact number", this is a friend or relative to contact and leave a "I'm OK in Madera" message. The contact number must be someone out of the area, the local lines will most likely be all jammed up, long distance will be open. When people call a telephone number a normal human reaction to a "busy" line is to hang up and immediate call again. During a disaster event this adds to the congestion of the lines, and is many times the reason no one is able to call anyone, but we keep trying. Call out of area, leave a message to pass on, then call again in about 4 hours, tell your contact when you will be calling back. This person will pass messages to other family members and co-ordinate activities as he/she is able to help out.

Water, the most important commodity during an emergency.

2) Immediately after the quake strikes go to a store and get at least two gallons of water, I suggest two gallons because in a 50 mile walk at 3 miles an hour with breaks and rest stops will take 20 hours to complete. We need to drink 1/2 gallon of water daily to survive, without it we will live maybe 5 days, we can live 3 weeks without food. 3 days is normally the expected survival length of time with no water, some people have lived for as long as 8-10 days however this is not the norm. A gallon of water weighs about 9 pounds, the good part of that is the more that we drink the lighter the load becomes. I also told him the further from the city he gets the scarcer water and food supplies would become due to the time elapsed between the strike and where he is now. He would meet people with no water on the hike, that's the reason for having twice the amount he may need, however if the ambient is above 80 F, he will drink a gallon a day. If he is able I suggested to him to also purchase granola or granola bars, a 20 hour hike takes a lot of energy and it will have to be reclaimed during the hike. I told him he will most likely spend the night in the wild, that is the wild surburban area which is emense in this area,
  When visiting the city for a day or attending one of the many festivities occurring there every week the possibility of a major earthquake is always present. I have seen the San Andreas fault in San Francisco down into and past Palm Springs and as far South as Puerto Vallarta long, power full and active. That's only one fault, there are many others running in every direction. So when visiting the city for a day are there any precautions we should take? Yes there is we should have on our person two one pint containers of water at least, two one quart (liter) containers of water would be even better. Take a couple of granola bars from the home pantry, put them in your pockets, fanny pack or back pack and forget about them, only break them out when you need them. I wonder if a person should have his/her fema preparedness kit on their person as well.
  An earthquake in our area can occur at a moment's notice, there is never a reliable warning or heads up. Monitoring is taking place, we hear reports on earthquake predicting quite often, mostly that science is getting "closer" to better understand them. In the event we have a major quake, say 9-10 on the Richter scale, buildings will collapse, bridges fall in and many structure fires will occur. I told my grandson on his way out of Dodge he may very well be recruited to help with emergency efforts, something else to report to the contact number.

You may be recruited to help, the young ones are extremely helpful in these
situations. 

  I'm not sure how prudent it would be to take our earthquake emergency kit into the city for the day with us. It may make sense to take it along on the trip if the person is driving to fisherman's wharf or the Giants game for example. An earthquake emergency preparedness kit when loaded with jackets and extra clothing can become heavy and awkward to carry when sight seeing. Unless a kit is in a trunk or some sort of a handy wheeled carrier, the emergency preparedness kit should be left in the at home, instead put together a smaller one. Call it the "escape kit", water, flashlight, a jacket and hat, along with something to eat, it can fit in a small messenger bag making it easy to attend to. The "escape kit" can be used at home as well, sometimes for example such as a wild fire a person has minimal time to escape, then has to walk several or many miles to get to a muster or relief station, a light kit will make the walk easier.
  The chances of suffering an earthquake during a brief visit to any city would be considered a rare occurrence, it does happen however. Does it happen often enough for us to be overly concerned about it? No not overly, but a healthy concern is warranted and to have a small escape kit on your belt may be prudent. Water is an absolute, above and beyond all else we must have water.

Make sure everyone has input when making your earthquake
emergency preparedness kit  as well as your
earthquake emergency plans.

I don't expect any of my grand kids to be stranded in the city after an earthquake, but it's like when I was taught CPR at a place of employment. A large portion of the crew was in attendance, the office manager, a lady, was in attendance and contrary to most of the attendees had never learned CPR before this time, she was in her late 40's. That evening she had a tennis lesson during which a person at another court collapsed and stopped breathing, she administered CPR and mouth to mouth saving the person's life within 4 hours of taking the class. That sort of occurrence is quite common, I can think of at least 3 other incidences of  learning something then within hours having to use it. So these conversations are important to have, especially when centered around your earthquake emergency plan, and your earthquake evacuation plan which should be a separate plan attached to your main emergency plan. Both plans should have spelled out what actions to take in the event they are either home alone or out and about (as our example of being in San Francisco.) Make sure all members of the family know the plan and understands it perfectly, the preferred way is to make sure all family members have input into both plans. Practice the plans, go over them verbally and physically, where are the  evacuation kits, who takes what, who's responsible for the dog or grandma? All of it is important, as well as spelling out what to do if an earthquake strands you in a big city.
  Thanks for reading please leave a comment or suggestion, I enjoy hearing from you all.

jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com