Pets

Pets may not be allowed into shelters after a quake, for health and space reasons. It´s not a bad idea to have an emergency pen prepared for pets in your home that includes, at least, a 3 day water supply and dry food.

Developing Safe Outdoor Locations

Locate safe places outdoors ahead of time. Someplace out in the open is best, away from buildings, trees, telephone and electrical lines, overpasses, or elevated highways.

Aristotle

Aristotle working with the 4 elements of the universe as conceived in his time- air, earth, fire, and water- pictured large masses of air or gases contained in subterranean cavities and heated to the point that they struggled to escape. This struggle and occasional escape, he believed, caused the shaking of the ground that produced earthquakes. Aristotle further expanded on the idea that prior to an earthquake the atmosphere became stifling because the air had been forced or taken into earth cavities in abnormal amounts. This led to the notion that the stuffiness that sometimes accompanies high humidity was a warning of an impending earthquake. The idea that there is such a thing as "earthquake weather" is still studied today yet, so far, there is no basis in scientific fact for this belief.

Earthquake Prediction

Scientists can not accurately predict when earthquakes will happen. Progress in recent decades, however, allows them to predict the probability of a quake occurring on a particular fault line.

Scientists gather data concerning activity on fault lines in recent history and can now come up with a prediction of a quake happening within the next few decades. While that doesn't seem to mean a lot when it comes to saving lives, it does allow the "target areas" to at least be prepared with education about dealing with the steps to take when the quake actually hits.

Gum Disease

About 3/4 people over the age of 34 will develop gum disease. If you let it go to long, you can develop pariodontitus, a bacterial infection that may cause teeth to loosen and fall out. Bacteria is the cause of gum disease. It spreads to the deep tissue around the roots of the teeth, eventually eroding the ligaments and bone. Here are the rules: 1. Be sure your dentist checks your gums, x-rays for bone loss, and probe gum lines. 2. Pockets of the gum should be measured each visit, and documented. Discover of periodontitis should be treated with root planing and scaling, or antibiotic fibers in the affected pockets.