Preparedness and Resilience

We often urge people to be prepared for earthquakes.  That usually means having your home ready and supplies on hand, and knowing what to do before, during, and after the earthquake. There are many resources on the web that can help.  Here is one useful site, maintained by the US Geological Survey:  

http://earthquakes.usgs.gov/learning/preparedness.php 

Resilience goes beyond preparedness.  Resilience is measured by how quickly after an earthquake you are able to resume normal activities.  

Resilience is vital for business and communities.  Imagine a hardware store that is not resilient - not able to reopen right after an earthquake, at the very time that many people in the community need parts to repair earthquake damage.  Their lack of resilience not only hurts themselves, but also hurts the entire community that depends on them as they try to make repairs and get back to normal.    So we urge individuals, businesses, and communities to aim for a high level of resilience to earthquakes and other disasters.

The US Geological Survey web site has some links that emphasize steps that go beyond preparedness and help to be more resilient.

Why this blog?

I started this while I was visiting the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo. One goal of this visit is to see what I can learn about earthquake preparedness and earthquake resilience, while in Japan, that might help in my home state of Nevada. My goal is to keep posts here simple to understand discussions of earthquake hazards and how to increase resiliance.

Original posted July 7, 2009

Revised March 30, 2011