Miss Jo's San Francisco

SINCE SATURDAY IS THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA’S LAST BIG EARTHQUAKE—a destructive 6.9 in magnitude that killed 63 people and injured 3,000— there’s been a wave of government warnings about getting ready for the next big one.

While the city and state are chipping away at their list of buildings, roads and bridges that need seismic upgrades, citizens are being asked to do their part to prepare for a disaster along the lines of the catastrophic 1906 SF earthquake, a 7.8 on the Richter scale that was followed by a firestorm.

Are Miss Jo and Jeff ready to spring into survival mode if another huge quake rips through town ?

Not really, even with their hot water heater secured, a wrench at the ready to turn off the natural gas and 20 gallons of water, sleeping bags, tent, cans of tuna fish, can opener, toilet paper, rain ponchos and knit caps, stowed in the basement.

Not risk takers by nature, it’s hard for the two Js to explain why they don’t have a more complete earthquake kit and plan, since they know the USGS estimates there’s a 63 percent chance, or odds of 2 in 3, that a powerful quake of 6.7 or stronger will hit the greater Bay Area by 2032.

But one thing’s for sure: their lack of preparedness isn’t because they’re relative newcomers to quake country. The government estimates only half of Bay Area households have quake kits and just 10 percent know where they might go to be safe if they’re out and about, as well as how they’d connect with family after a disaster.

Shockingly, fewer than 10 percent of the region’s 7.5 million people have taken steps at home to gird against quake damage, like bolting home foundations to the ground, securing gas water heaters from tipping and keeping heavy objects off shelves and walls where they might fly off and bean someone.

But how ready can one be for such a life-altering/threatening event ?

Not being ones to tempt fate, the two Js are taking tips from The Big Rumble and 72 Hours, the city’s disaster preparedness websites about what to do before and during all the shaking and how to survive three days on their own in the aftermath. Their new earthquake kit will also include several kinds of bandages, among other essentials.

It’s also all about preparing for the foreseen, yet unexpected, which could happen tomorrow, or maybe decades from now and may or may not affect your home, work or commute— a wobbly line of thinking that’s appealing to human nature’s love of putting things off that aren’t at your doorstep.

In contrast to widespread lack of Bay Area resident readiness, what you can count on in the event of a quake are remarkable displays of strangers helping strangers and acts of incredible heroism—- historical phenomenon related to all disasters that San Francisco author Rebecca Solnit explores in her recent book, “A Paradise Built in Hell.”

Disaster “drags us into emergencies that require we act, and we act altruistically, bravely and with initiative in order to survive or save the neighbors, no matter how we vote or what we do for a living,” Solnit observes.

She also describes another disaster phenomenon of Good Samaritans becoming overcome by euphoria as they undertake extraordinary efforts they couldn’t before have fathomed.

“We don’t even have a language for this emotion, when the wonderful comes wrapped in the terrible, joy in sorrow, courage in fear,” Solnit writes, recalling how living through the Bay Area’s 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake forced her into “an intensely absorbing present,” a state of mind Miss Jo could relate to from when she took care of her mother in the tumult of Alzheimer’s, which is kind of a human earthquake.

“For weeks after the big earthquake of 1989, friendship and love counted for a lot, long-term plans and old anxieties for very little. Life was situated in the here and now and many inessentials had been pared away,” explained Solnit, who revealed in a final chapter of how a form of disaster euphoria played into her own recovery of a severe illness while writing the book.

“Going on being— surviving— was the task at hand, and it was entirely absorbing,” Solnit described her recovery, with which Miss Jo again identified as her mom’s caretaker. “As the illness faded, I found that it had made me fiercer—less willing to waste my time and more urgent about what mattered.”

From their experiences taking care of Miss Jo’s mom, June, the two Js likewise became more focused on what matters and gained a renewed sense of vigor about life’s possibilities.

June was in their charge for almost two years, allowing her to live out life on her own terms, which in her failing condition meant being able to be with her cat in her own place as her dementia unfolded.

At first she and the two Js were condo neighbors in Washington, D.C., and then roommates in San Francisco on the Embarcadero, before moving to Turk Street across from the University of San Francisco.

It was on Turk where they first assembled earthquake boxes, containing fleece pullovers, wool socks and knit caps for everyone to dash out the door in, along with a credit card and umbrellas.

Luckily, their earthquake planning–or lack of–hasn’t been put to the test, and hopefully never will. But they’ll be more prepared, as well as be ready to help their neighbors if/should/when the next big one strikes…..By the by, if you have any earthquake stories, please share them in comments or an email !

Photos of damage from 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that rocked the Bay Area, by SF Fire Department; National Geographic; USGS and Stanford University.