When you are iced in for pretty much a full week, as we were last week, there is a lot of time to ponder disaster scenarios.

If 200 ft (61 meters) sequoias topple in your yard (sparing your house with a stroke of luck, while many others in the Portland area saw their houses destroyed or even human life taken) your vulnerability becomes even more the center of attention.

Several trees came down, this the largest – about half of it in view here.

When you have no power for 4 full days, as we did during temperatures in the teens, you focus on what can be done during even worse scenarios: the mega earthquake that is looming on the time horizon for the Pacific Northwest.

I am talking about all this for another reason as well: somehow the prolonged shut-in has also frozen my brain, and so I have no capacity to write about something more interesting. Humor me then with reading a few suggestions for disaster preparedness, and store the links to more detailed instruction for a time when you have room and interest to act on them.

Wrens in action (Zaunkönig)

The most essential needs will be water, food and warmth (See the FEMA instructions for quantities, per head.) Energy bars will do for a few days if you have no means to heat up other dried food. If you have pets remember some emergency rations for them as well (and have a sticker at your door that informs rescue personnel what animals live in your house – they can be ordered on line.) Camping stoves will be useful if a major disaster cuts you off for weeks on end. (And yes, I realize, it is hard to stash all that stuff if you live in an apartment.)

Robins (Rotkehlchen)

Having a bag that contains solid shoes, a change of warm clothes, basic toiletries, first aid kit and some spare meds that are essential, water and energy bars, is helpful if you need to leave for a shelter in a hurry. Flashlights that wrap around the head are useful since they keep your hands free. Include a whistle, so search teams can find you. Matches or lighter. Stash in it photocopies of your drivers license, your insurance name and number, and your prescriptions for medications. Spare power blocks and charging wires for your cell phone should be included.

Thrushes (Drosseln)

If you can stay in your (damaged) house, a cheap tent and sleeping bags come in handy to preserve body heat. We stayed warm(ish) this week and had no water pipes break because we have a wood stove in the basement that heated the adjacent area and kept the house overall in the 40s. Having a crowbar available helps with earthquake debris. A fire extinguisher is helpful.

Sparrows (Spatzen)

Here is the FEMA safety preparation booklet.

Here is a website that offers the FEMA recommendations, with a few highlights for preparing the house/apartment, some relevant links for insurance and building codes, and a detailed listing of the risk to the PDX neighborhoods where we live.

Junkos and Towhees (Winterammern und Grundammern)

This week was a reminder that nature should never be underestimated. And now I’ll go and check out ads for generators…..

Photographs are self explanatory.

Chickadee (Kohlmeise)

Let’s make the music equally melodramatic as the weather: Sviridov’s Snowstorm.