Store food & water–or secure your furniture? Maybe do both…

National Public Radio’s Lucy Craft has a number of interesting posts about life in Japan post last year’s tsunami and earthquake. Today’s post, “After The Quake, Japanese Shop For Survival”, notes that local stores are selling lots of all-in-one emergency flashlights-radios-etc. – but concludes with the observation from one survivor of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, “city dwellers should focus on how to keep their furniture from crushing them alive” – not storing food as that will quickly arrive.

While less true for isolated Vashon, it still makes me wonder if we’re doing enough to promote anti-skid mats (a tip from Tim Walsh’s recent talk), straps and other simple steps to secure our homes from flying debris. Reducing likely sources of injury should be part of everyone’s short list of spring projects!