Japan

Earthquake, tsunami, nuclear plant meltdown and volcano! I can’t stop watching the news. I’m absolutely heartbroken by what's happening in Japan. We actually know quite a few people that are in Japan right now. We have friends that are working in Yokosuka and friends from the US and Australia that have family living all around the country. Luckily they are all safe.

The hardest thing for me to wrap my head around is that Japan was prepared for a disaster like this. They have always had strict earthquake proof building codes, a tsunami warning system, and informed citizens that are prepared and know what to do before and after a crisis. Their country only exists because of fault lines, so of course they’d be ready, right? But there was so much devastation. Nothing can prepare you for that! 

I live near Seattle. The west coast of the United States is also on a fault line and we have been warned our entire lives about “the big one.” We can get an earthquake as large as the one that just hit Japan. But the U.S. isn’t prepared for something so catastrophic. You would think that after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, all of our emergency systems would be in place. But we aren’t ready. And citizens can’t just rely on the government for disaster readiness. We have to prepare ourselves, our homes and have emergency kits to protect our families.

So, I’m taking this disaster as a wake up call. We have a pretty good emergency kit because our power goes out during storms in the winter. But I don’t have enough to help us survive if we were cut off for weeks, let alone a few days. At 72hours.org and ready.gov, you can get tons of information on how to make or buy an emergency kit for your family, your car and even your pets.

While we are all safe and warm in the comfort of our homes, eating, laughing, watching television and going on the internet, we can all do something small to help out. Just text “Redcross” to 90999 for a $10 donation to support the relief efforts of the Japanese Red Cross. Easy!