Hi Diane,

Most people like to insulate themselves in believing bad things can't happen to them. It's rather like believing that everyone else can get cancer, but for some reason they have this protective bubble which makes them immune. So they do what they do and no matter, it happens anyway. For them the event is a disaster because they were never prepared to deal with the possibilities.

Life in a sense is about risks. We have to individually weigh and measure those risks and try to be well informed when we make decisions. But if people refuse to accept that they live in earthquake country and they themselves can be victims of earthquake damage, then there really isn't anything anyone can do. We just have to hope for them that they can survive the outcome.

When a major earthquake strikes and many are dislocated they will be in their own way as bad off as those who suffered through Katrina. It will be one depressing story after another. Some things you cannot change and that is the mind of a person who refuses to accept the truth. They have their own.

I'm proud of you for doing all you have to be prepared. I used to split my earthquake kit and put each half in a place where I thought it would still be accessible and the water was stored around the outside of my house in the shade so I never had to worry about getting to it. I do it a little differently now; but its still good.

Petra