This is a drill..

This morning at 9am I received a phone call. "Hello, this is EL - there's been an emergency, a 7.3 earthquake - the epicenter is located in Sandy, there are bridges down everywhere, and there's been an explosion at the Flying J in NSL. Is your family accounted for?" Playing along with the drill I responded "Oh, EL, I'm so glad you called - I can't find M, I don't know if Tim is safe, he's in Layton, my food storage is buried under the rubble of the house" She asks "where is your water?" I responded "outside in barrels". "Ok" she replies "we'll get right on it - what is the state or your house?" "Demolished!"

And the call ended. Fortunately this was only a drill to test the communication system that our area has in place. Had this been a real emergency I'm sure that they would be traveling door to door to check on people because the phones would be down. I wouldn't be sitting at my computer and giggling silently while answering such a grave call. I would probably be making sure my family was safe and then helping to check on my neighbors.

The scary thing is that something like this really could happen in our area. I THINK I'm prepared, but I guess I won't really know until it comes right down to it. I'm grateful for the things we do have in place. Maybe it's time to discuss earthquake safety with the kids -what do you think?