Need info from people living in earthquake zones.

I need some help from those of you who live with the threat of earthquakes. This is for the series of articles I'm writing on Emergency Planning for Pet Owners. I have a friend who lost her house in the Loma Preata(sp?) quake. She said that emergency management in CA kept telling them to have a weeks survival supplies assembled in case of a quake. They did, and they couldn't get at any of it because the house collapsed on top of it. I would like to know what precautions you are being told to take and how to best store your supplies. Would it be better to store survival supplies in a garage or shed, because if that collapsed it would be easier to dig out? Has someone come up with a storage system that is designed for outdoors? Has anyone even addressed this problem?

I have never lived in any quake zone In my opinion, if you have a big backyard, build a small storage in the yard to store the needed supplies. It would be much easier to dig out than having a whole house on the top of it. Some people in tornado zones have small underground shelters near their house. It would also be good to store stuff in there.

If your garage doesn't have a part of your house on the top of it, or better yet it is away from your house, then I would think it is ok for storing supplies. I'd still take backyard storage over garage.

That was my thinking too, but I'm curious to know what the "official" line is.

Due to living in earthquake country it is drummed into you to make sure you have adequate supplies of food and water to last at least 3days.We are also told to make provivsions for our pets as well including food and water for them.I have 18 3ltr bottles of water put away along with dry bags of cat and dog food and bird food.the turtle however does present more of a challenge to say the least.I have not quite figured out how to handle him should that arise.I have pet carriers at the ready put away in the outside shed for the cats.However with the devastating earthquakes that struck Christchurch many people found that they were not allowed to take their pets with them to emergency shelters so this is also something to bear in mind should the unthinkable ever happen.I would like to think that we would survive for a week or more at least.If possible make sure that your pets have i.d. like a micro chip or tag so if they take off and are found hopefully you will be reunited.There are still so many unclaimed animals at the local rescue shelters from the earthquakes.It's also very handy too keep all your pets documents in a water proof zip lock type bag to prevent water or other damage excluding fire of course.

We learned that lasson with Hurricane Katrina. People trying to go back for pets or refusing to evacuate without their pets reached a crisis with that event, so now it is federally mandated that emergency management must include provisions for transporting and housing companion animals. This is neccessary because here in the US the American Red Cross is the agency everyone turns to for sheltering people after disasters. In America, health regulations prohibit pets in places that serve food (service animals excepted). Your dog can dine with you at a sidewalk cafe, but they can not come into the resteraunt. Because the Red Cross shelters prepare and serve food, they must adhere to resteraunt health regulations. So a separate shelter has to be set up for the pets. I volunteer with an organization that can come in and set up and operate these emergency pet shelters. If you haven't had a chance to check out the library section of this site, you might want to . I'm writing a series of articles on Emergency Preparedness for Pet owners. I would be interested on finding out what procedures are in New Zeland, and how the Christchurch quake changes anything (or doesn't).

Yes Karen it would be very interesting indeed to see if anything changes as a result of the Christchurch earthquakes.We had the Red Cross and also the Salvation Army set up emergency accommodation for people but not pets except service animals.The local pound and animal rescue centers became inundated with lost animals that could not be reunited with families.Alot of animals were housed outside of Chch to take the stress off all animal shelters.I shall have a look around and ask some of the organisations about animals and accommodation after a natural disaster.

You might check out http://www.redrover.org. Go to Programs, and click on RedRover Responders. That's the program I mentioned that can come in and set up and operate an emergency pet shelter if the situation has overwhelmed the local resources. We only respond in the US and Canada, but I'm sure they would be happy to share info on what they do and how they work if anyone wanted to set up a similar program in New Zeland. You might also want to check out http://www.hsus.org. Humane Society of the United States has written two booklets: "Disaster Planning For Animal Facilities" and one titles something like disaster planning for the animal community or community planning for pets in disasters. I'm told that these can be downloaded from their site and printed out. If your local animal sheltrs want to get themselves prepared for a disaster, or put togethr a plan for helping the communiry's pets in a disaster, these booklets can help.