Nearly 12 million households in the US own pet fresh water fish. Aquariums are a great way to enjoy their remarkable beauty and variety. However, aquariums can weigh hundreds of pounds. The water alone in a 60 gallon aquarium weighs around 500 pounds. Normally people know better than to store 500 pound objects on tipsy stands, whether they live in earthquake country or not. It is easy to overlook the weight of aquariums because they are light when they are empty. Setting your aquarium on a stand and just hoping for the best isn’t good idea. When that thing falls over, it’s going to fall hard and unleash a torrent of water just like in the “Will It Shake” video.

Securing your aquarium can be as easy as using some stick-on nylon earthquake safety straps. You need to secure both the stand and the aquarium to the studs in your wall. The straps come with the needed installation hardware but you’ll need a stud finder or strong magnet to find the studs in your walls, a drill, and screwdriver or screw driver bit for your drill. The steps for securing the stand and the aquarium are essentially the same:

• Get nylon furniture straps for the stand and the tank.
• Use a stud finder to find the studs in your walls.
• Drill pilot hole with a drill then screw the straps to the studs in your wall.
• Stick the straps to the stand or aquarium after first cleaning with the supplied swab.
• Congratulate yourself on a job well done.

Secure your aquarium and your fish will thank you. Oh, sure, they can’t talk, but you know that open mouth is them saying “Thanks.” Plus you’ll not only potentially save yourself thousands of dollars in water damage, you also earn a Totally Unprepared merit badge/bingo token (well, technically, that’s the “Pet Emergency Kit” bingo token, but we think this is vital emergency prep for fish – that and keep some extra fish food around). All that for a few dollars in earthquake safety straps. The merit badge alone is priceless! No time like the present. Secure your tank now and you’ll have one more thing to feel confident about.

If you live in an older home there are a few things you’ll want to know before you start installing your straps. One is “Paper or Plaster?” That is, you’ll want to know if  your walls are made of modern wallboard, which is like a big cardboard Oreo with powdery gypsum filling, or if they are plaster over wood lath, a fine cement-like coating used before the early 1940′s and occasionally up through the 1950′s.

You need to attach your furniture to the strong vertical studs inside the walls. You can use magnets or magnetic stud finders to find the nails or screws in the studs with either kind of wall. A regular electronic stud detector works on wallboard but not on plaster due to the uneven thickness of plaster walls.

How can you tell the difference between wallboard and plaster? Here’s one way:

Before you actually try putting your hammer through your walls, there is another way to tell what kind of walls you have. Plaster is harder, colder to the touch and makes less noise when you knock on it. It is more like rock, which also means it is also harder to push a push pin in to it. Wallboard is soft, it can dent and often sounds boomy or hollow when you knock on it. Push pins go in fairly easily. If your electronic stud finder doesn’t work you might have plaster walls.

You can also try turning your electricity off at the circuit breaker and then looking at the wall by removing a wall plate or switch cover and seeing if you can see wallboard. Plaster often fits much tighter around the electric boxes.  Of course, you could ask your landlord, or a handy man to come give you that hand figuring it out too.

Once you know whether you have wallboard or plaster, installing the straps works pretty much the same. Drill pilot holes, then screw the straps to the studs and secure them to your furniture. With plaster you may want to put some painter’s tape on the wall over where you want to drill to help keep the plaster intact and the outer hole a bit smaller, but it doesn’t matter too much since you’ll be covering the hole with an earthquake strap. You may also wish to use a multi-mode stud finder to check for metal (pipes, conduit, wires) and electrical current before drilling holes in your walls.

Whether you have wallboard or plaster walls, installing nylon earthquake safety straps is easy and a great idea. And now you know you can install safety straps to either kind of wall and get the same secure results.

You should have at least 3-14 days worth of water and food per person on hand for emergencies so you can be self-sufficient while you get back to normal as quickly as possible. A basic days worth of water is simple: 1 gallon per person. Having 3 gallons per person on hand is a good start and easy to do with supermarket water, which is very reliable emergency water. Even a week’s worth at 14 gallons isn’t hard to do for a single person. But if you’ve got a family of 4, that’s 56 gallons and more if you have pets. You could do that with supermarket water, but it may be more convenient for you to use a water barrel.

You can store water in a variety of commercial containers. You can buy special water canisters from 1 to 10 or so gallons at sporting goods retailers. And you can buy heavy duty plastic water storage barrels from 15 to 60 gallons with appropriate fittings from many retailers including emergency supply stores. The main considerations are making sure the water and containers are clean and opaque so the water will store well, and the weight and ease of handling and storage of the filled containers.

The large water barrels are filled from the top. They weigh a lot when filled, so you’ll need a potable water hose (such as a marine or RV hose) to fill it and a hand pump to dispense water from it.  You can buy the water barrels in a kit with the needed screw tops, wrench and hand pump for around $100-150 from a variety of suppliers. Don’t forget to prep like a pirate, and lash that water barrel down. The methods for securing water heaters against earthquakes should give you a good idea of how to secure them.

New, commercial containers should be washed out with soap and rinsed clean. If you have chlorinated municipal water you don’t need to add anything to treat the water for normal storage. Self-bottled water should be replaced every six months according to FEMA. FDA registered water treatments are available to make the water last longer.

Cargo on board ship was packed tightly and lashed down so it couldn’t move even in heavy storms. In the mess (the kitchen) shelves had boards in front to keep items from falling off. Lanterns were hung or on gimbals so they couldn’t fall over and set the ship on fire. Water and sand buckets were on hand to put out fires.

These all apply to your home if you live in earthquake country. You should secure your furniture so it can’t fall over in an earthquake. Heavy items should be stored low. Cabinets should have latches on the doors so they can’t swing open and dump their contents. And you should be very careful with candles, which can be knocked over during quakes. Be sure to have a fire extinguisher on hand.

Sailing ships plying the great trade routes had to keep months of provisions on hand. Ships in the 1800′s didn’t have a lot of choice of provisions that would last. Fresh water was stored in oak barrels and could go bad during a voyage. They didn’t have ways to disinfect water to preserve it. So they checked it and restocked water when they could.

You should keep your water fresh, too. You should have at least a gallon of water per person on hand for 3 to 14 days. FEMA recommends you replace commercially bottled water based on the bottlers’ expiration date. If you filled your own bottles then you should change them every six months.

Food on ship was very basic. Fresh food was stocked in port and eaten first once the ship was out to sea. Then it was on to the long-term food. The basic staples were cheese, hard-baked flour and water biscuits and 4 pound slabs of salt-preserved meat packed in brine. The meat was saltier than seawater and had to be soaked before cooking.

The sailor’s strategy of eat fresh while you can applies to modern day earthquake preparedness, too. If the power goes out and you have access to your kitchen eat the food in the refrigerator first. Keep the door shut as much as possible. Then raid the freezer. FEMA says, “Thawed food usually can be eaten if it is still ‘refrigerator cold.’ It can be re-frozen if it still contains ice crystals. To be safe, remember, ‘When in doubt, throw it out.’”After that, you have the shelf-stable food in your pantry and emergency kit, such as canned food, dry food, cereal, etc. You have a lot more choices than sailors did. In addition to regular pantry food, you can keep sealed pouch type food (essentially just canned food in lighter packages) and freeze-dried food (which can last for 5+ years) on hand.

Next time you read a sailing adventure or watch a swashbuckling pirate movie, remember, those guys are preppers. See if you can pick up any good tips.

Securing your stuff so it won’t fall down is pretty easy. Check our Get Ready Quick Guide for the skinny on how to  secure refrigerators, bookcases, televisions, entertainment centers, aquariums, cabinets, computer monitors, wine racks and more using easy to install, reasonably priced nylon straps. You can watch Totally Unprepared co-host Ron Harlason show just how quickly those straps can be installed using a handy cordless  driver/drill. But, is there an even cheaper way to safely secure tall furniture? The answer is “Yes!”

Instead of nylon straps you can use L-brackets from any hardware store. And if you really want to see how inexpensively you can install them you can even try a hand drill to drill the pilot holes for the wall screws. Just find the studs, screw the L-brackets to the studs and the top of the furniture and you are done. For extra panache you can paint the brackets to match the furniture or wall. You can also install the brackets in the downward direction so they are behind the furniture, out of sight.

Is It Worth It to Go Cheap?

L-Brackets

It is cheaper to use L-brackets. And when installed facing downward and painted they can be just as unobtrusive as the nylon straps. The nylon straps are nice because they only require one screw per strap, come in different colors and don’t put holes in your furniture. Plus, with the slack provided by the nylon straps you have a little extra wiggle room to get at that “You have already won!” sweepstakes letter  your cat knocked behind your bookcase.

Hand Drill and Screwdriver

The hand drill works great for drilling small holes in soft wood like wall studs. It was almost as fast as the cordless driver/drill. The screwdriver, on the other hand, took a lot more time and a lot more elbow grease than using a driver/drill. A 2 inch #12 screw took 18 seconds and very little effort with the driver/drill. The same screw took 2 minutes and 15 seconds with a screwdriver, two hands and a lot of effort. The screws we used had hex heads on them so we could have used a ratchet wrench on them to get more leverage. Even so, whether driving the screws by hand is worth it really depends on what you like doing. There is a certain satisfaction in doing something entirely without electricity but there is also a certain satisfaction in watching a cordless driver/drill make quick work of a 2 inch screw. Check out our cool earthquake preparedness toys post for more information on cordless driver/drills.

You really can secure your furniture cheaply and easily. How much you spend is up to you, so no more excuses. It’s time to get out there and secure your stuff

Oh sure, you can do earthquake preparedness inexpensively, but you can also buy helpful toys to make preparedness easier. Today’s toy: the cordless driver drill.

Securing furniture is a breeze with an easy-to-use cordless driver drill like this one. It's for earthquake safety, really...

If you’ve watched the Totally Unprepared TV show you’ve probably already seen one in action securing furniture. Check out Totally Unprepared co-host Ron Haralson securing bookshelves, showing just how easy it is to do with the help of one of these useful gadgets.

 A cordless driver drill is a handy tool that is both a drill and an electric screwdriver. If you have more than once piece of furniture to secure, you’ll need to drive a lot of long screws. That’s not only a lot of turns, those screws can be hard to twist with a hand-held screwdriver. A cordless driver drill makes it easy. You can drill holes all day. You can screw and unscrew all sorts of things things and even mix paint with the right accessories. You can secure refrigerators, pictures, bookcases, televisions, entertainment centers, aquariums, cabinets, wine racks and more. A driver drill is a great tool for anyone to have in their home tool kit.

What makes a drill a driver drill? Driver drills generally have an adjustable clutch which is designed to slip when the drill tries to twist harder than a certain amount. This helps keep you from stripping screw heads and it allows you to drive lots of screws to the same depth over and over.

Cordless driver drills vary in size from compact to large sizes that are good for contractors but may be unwieldy for ordinary homeowners. There are lots to choose from. Prices vary widely, from as little $50 for decent models to hundreds of dollars. You can get driver drills for a bit less money if you are willing to sacrifice features and quality. Good ones have variable speeds, typically from 0 to 1200 RPM, a reverse feature for backing out screws and drill bits, and removable batteries. High end models have lithium ion batteries which are smaller than the cheaper nickel cadmium batteries and hold a charge longer.

Other features to look for are a second battery, a quick charger and a larger chuck. The chuck is the thing that hold the drill bits and screwdriver bits. Larger ones can hold larger drill bits. Cheap drills generally have smaller chucks since they don’t have the torque to drive big diameter drill bits.

Things to stay away from: single speed drills. The speed that is good for driving screws is slower than the speed for drilling holes. Single speed drills are very limited.

You can also buy a cordless screwdriver that just drives screws and doesn’t drill holes. These can be handy for smaller jobs, however some screws need a pilot hole drilled so a driver drill is more versatile.

There are more gadgets where that one comes from! Next time you want one just say “It’s for earthquake safety.”

After a disaster, germs are your enemy. You want to get back to normal as quickly as possible, and getting sick isn’t on the plan. Bleach kills germs. So bleach is your friend–your caustic, “handle with care,” friend.

Here are some of the things you can do with bleach:

• Sanitize containers for bottling emergency water
• Sanitize food preparation surfaces
• Disinfect water
• Clean mold and mildew from damaged homes

To get all the benefits from this handy, multipurpose chemical you need to use the unscented stuff–bleach without any extra additives. Also, household bleach has recently been super-sized–well, sort of. It is now sold in “concentrated” form with more active ingredient. That means you may use just a bit less of it when using it to sanitize things or purify water. Make sure you know if you have regular or “concentrated” bleach.

Sanitizing Water Containers

• Clean the bottles first if needed
• Make a solution of 1 teaspoon of un-scented bleach and 1 quart (32 ounces or a liter) of water.
• Pour the bleach solution it to the bottle, shake well and let sit for 30 seconds so the bleach can do its thing. Make sure to coat the bottle threads, too.
• Rinse the bottle and threads with clean water

Disinfecting Water

Yes, we know that you know to have 3-14 days of water per person in your home emergency kit, but it is possible you may not have easy access to it. In that case you may need to disinfect water. The chlorine in regular household bleach is pretty darned effective, though it can’t kill some kinds of parasites, such as Cryptosporidium. Boiling is the most thorough way to disinfect water. And there are special treatments that work very well. However, household bleach is great because most everybody has it at home.

The EPA tells us how much bleach to use for emergency disinfection of water:

If the water isn’t clear to begin with it may need to be strained in advance. Cloudy water take may extra bleach.

Mix the treated water thoroughly and allow it to stand, preferably covered, for 30 minutes. The water should have a slight chlorine odor. If not, repeat the dosage and allow the water to stand for an additional 15 minutes. If the treated water has too strong a chlorine taste, allow the water to stand exposed to the air for a few hours or pour it from one clean container to another several times.

Check the EPA or The Red Cross for details.

The CDC has more tips on how you can clean and sanitize with bleach.

The caveats: Anything that can hurt germs can hurt you, too, if you don’t follow directions. That is as true of boiling water as it is of bleach. When using bleach, wear gloves and eye protection. Rinse off any spills on skin immediately regardless of whether you feel a burning sensation. Do not mix bleach with other cleaning chemicals. Check the bleach bottle for more safety instructions.

Bonus for the Interminably Curious

Clorox has increased the strength of bleach in the past. In 2000, Clorox increased the standard 5.25% concentration of sodium hypochlorite to 6% in their product “Ultra Clorox.” They also added sodium hydroxide. The new “Concentrated” bleach is an additional increase in concentration above the 6% sodium hypochlorite to 8.25%.

You should have a minimum of a gallon of water a day per person for least 3 days, preferably 14 days. And enough food to last the same amount of time. Extra if you have pets.

Do you need fancy, giant barrels? Maybe your own cistern? Well, those could be useful for some folks. For most of us the best option is ordinary commercial bottled water in sturdy screw-top bottles.

And we’re done. Good night everybody!

Ok, there’s a little more to it than that, but not much more. The CDC says that “Unopened commercially bottled water is the safest and most reliable emergency water supply.”  Commercial bottled water is readily available, comes in various sized bottles that are light enough to carry, and keeps well.

Factory sealed bottles of water, according to the FDA, can last indefinitely if packaged according to proper procedures. To be on the safe side FEMA recommends you observe the bottler’s expiration date. Store the water unopened, out of heat and sunlight.

Don’t forget to rotate the water. No need to let it expire and throw it out. You can drink that emergency water as you need it. Take a bottle of the water with you on outings, maybe show it the watershed where it came from, use it at home, etc. Drink the older water first and replace it with fresh bottles. That way you’ll always be ready.

Water bottles in flats or boxes make for easier storage of larger quantities of water for emergency preparedness.

A three-day supply for one person is easy to store. Two weeks worth for an individual or a family is a bit more challenging. A family of four should store 12 to 56 gallons, which is a lot to store in loose bottles that don’t stack.

Other commercial bottled water  options including buying bottles that are packaged in flats or boxes for easy stacking. Or commercial 3 or 5 gallon bottles meant for dispensers. Keep in mind that the 3 and 5 gallon commercially filled bottles can be hard to use if you don’t have a matching dispenser. They are meant to be inverted and don’t have easy pour openings.

Storing some emergency water is an easy start to being prepared. For more information on how to be prepared check out our Get Ready Quick guides and our Home Earthquake Kit page.

What’s a Go Bag?

A go bag is light-weight bag with just the bare essentials you’ll need if you have to dash out of your home after an earthquake. During an earthquake, you should Drop, Cover and Hold On. Afterwards you may need to evacuate quickly without having time to search for stuff.

Don’t like running around naked outside your house? Well, a go bag can help you with that. Your go bag is stored near your bed so that if an earthquake happens you can easily grab it and have immediate access to the stuff you need most. You can put clothes, work gloves and and comfortable closed-toed shoes in it to help you get out of a damaged house without getting cut by rubble. Here are some basic suggestions:

• Bag – kind of essential for a “go bag”. You can can use a backpack or other bag or you can get creative and make a bag that goes with your bedroom decor.
• A way to secure the bag to your bed so it doesn’t slide somewhere you can’t get to.
• Flashlight and spare batteries.
• Shoes that are comfortable for walking over rubble in.
• Socks
• Work gloves
• Sweats or other basic clothes to put on over whatever you went to bed in.
• Whistle to alert rescuers

This is your go bag. So you get to put whatever you want in it. Just remember it needs to be easy to access and light enough to grab and carry in a pinch. Some other items you might want to put in your bag:

• Battery or crank powered radio
• Solar/crank/battery charger for your cell phone
• Plush monster
• Emergency cash in small, unmarked bills
• A first aid kit
• Emergency contact information
• Special medications
• Dust mask/bandanna
• Protective goggles
• Bottled Water
• Snacks

You probably have everything you need for the bag already! And even if you don’t you can put the bits you do have together right now. So, no time like the present. A go bag with the bare essentials will help keep you from having to run around in yours after an earthquake. When you’ve completed your kit you’ll know there is something lurking under your bed, a good something.

You can also put together a home kit with a larger assortment of essentials, including food and water for at least 3 days, preferably 14.

One thing some Japanese earthquake bags have going for them is that they are awfully cute. The San-X chara shop released a number of emergency preparedness kits in plush backpacks, including  Hello Kitty, the popular Rirakumma bear and Tare panda. The kits are shown with a modicum of supplies, including water, dust masks, a radio and other go bag staples. If you think these are adorable, you can make your own by creating a personal earthquake kit for yourself or your kids in a plush backpack.

A commercial Japanese earthquake preparedness kit from Bousai Shop.

Rather than being cute plush most Japanese earthquake bags are fire retardant, such as this one from a Japanese emergency preparedness kit maker. The kit includes:

Fire Retardant Association certified bag…Battery Radio Mobile Charger, Set of 9 emergency first aid, toilet bag: 3, alcohol gel disinfectant, Campan save: 5 years can 110g3, Wed Save: 4 500ml × for stockpiling this disaster, large aluminum blanket, survival knife, air pillows, bags & food heating heating agent, emergency water supply back: 3 liters, “whistle” Emergency: with ID cards, leisure sheet, gloves: slip with anti-two, raincoat & Hokkairo [chemical hand warmers], contact sheet cloth duct tape, sling, slippers, eye mask and ear plugs, batteries, mask, emergency, disaster prevention advice [Google Translation]

Ordinary stuff. Food, water, first aid supplies, tools, and things to keep you warm and dry. Nothing from the Japanese version of Q Branch…  Ok, so it is a little disappointing that the Japanese kits have much the same stuff you’d expect in an American earthquake kit. It’s also reassuring to know we are on the same page with the Japanese. Your personal earthquake kit is meant to help you be self-sufficient for at least three days. You can stock extra supplies in your home earthquake kit, including additional food and water for two weeks.

There are a few notable differences between Japanese kits and American kits besides the packaging. Mostly small things, such as choice of food. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Earthquake Survival Manual suggests crackers, instant noodles and retort rice (shelf stable pre-cooked rice). All good choices that many Americans would go for, too. The BBC posted an article about Japanese earthquake kits, detailing the contents of an earthquake kit. Sarah Ono tells the BBC her kit includes portable toilets, something US recommendations sometimes refer to obliquely when they suggest you have plastic bags for “sanitation” (impromptu toilets are one of many uses for plastic bags in emergencies).

And as we look to Japan’s kits, they are looking at ours, noting “America leads the way for variety of Emergency kit.”

There are no magic ingredients needed for earthquake kits. Earthquake kits are simple things and you can buy one or put together your own. You probably already have most of what you need, so check out our Get Ready Quick page and put together one of your own. We’re sure you can make one as cool as the Japanese kits