DISASTER PREPAREDNESS LESSONS FROM JAPAN: “Shops across Tokyo began rationing goods — milk, toilet paper, rice and water — as a run on bottled water coupled with delivery disruptions left shelves bare Thursday nearly two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami to the north.”

So one argument you see among prepper types is the importance of storing water vs. the importance of having a filter. Here, I’m pretty sure that storage wins — will even the fanciest Katadyn filter take out iodine? And, more generally, this supports the notion of having at least a couple of weeks worth of food stored as the U.S. government, et al., recommend.. (For the Japanese, with their cramped living spaces, that kind of preparedness would be much more difficult, of course.)

Anyway, if this kind of thing interests you, there’s lots of discussion over at Bill Quick’s forum, and here’s a list of disaster-preparation gear.

UPDATE: Reader Sean Neves writes:

On iodine in water, I just figured I’d ring to point out that “activated carbon” is the terminology to look for on a water filter. Usually, they are a post-filter element designed to remove iodine and chlorine from filtered water. Iodine and Chlorine are used to kill viruses and bacteria, while the filter removes cysts, protozoa and other nastiness that don’t get killed quickly by the chemicals. Perhaps it’s time for a water treatment thread? Lots of useful technology out there including various filtration and shortwave UV-C light technologies.

My knowledge of water treatment originates in my outdoor recreation pursuits, but has bled over into survival and emergency preparedness. Alas, there is a lot of shared technology between those fields.

Interesting.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here.

WHY THE U.S. MAY BE AHEAD OF JAPAN in disaster preparedness. I’d say we’re somewhat less well-prepared on a government level, but somewhat better prepared on an individual level.

INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? You might want to check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum.

Related: A list of recommended supplies.

INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? Check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum.

Related: List: Recommended survival gear for your car or SUV.

A LOOK AT DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IN KNOX COUNTY:

Among the findings:

42 percent of Knox County adults said they have a three-day supply of water for each household member.

85 percent have a three-day supply of non-perishable food for each household member.

95 percent have a working flashlight and batteries.

11 percent have a written evacuation plan.

All in all, more than 17 percent of Knox Countians considered their household “well-prepared for a large-scale disaster or emergency,” while about a quarter said they’re “not prepared at all.”

Emergency response coordinator Larry Hutsell said he was “pleasantly surprised” that so many people were, at least, thinking about what they’d do in the event of a disaster – something the Health Department and other county and city agencies, working together, have gotten down to a science over the past several years.

Read the whole thing. Not bad, considering. If you’re interested, there’s more info at Bill Quick’s disaster-preparedness forum. And here’s a disaster-preparedness list too.

AN INTERVIEW with longtime blogger Heather Havrilesky about her new book, Disaster Preparedness: A Memoir.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS UPDATE: A free downloadable guide to surviving radiological disasters.

INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? Check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum.

Related: List: Disaster-Preparedness Supplies.

INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? Check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum.

Related: List: Disaster Preparedness gear.

INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? Check out Bill Quick’s discussion forum.

Related: Some recommended hurricane-prep supplies.

When Bill wrote to thank me for plugging his forum a while back, I explained that I want to make sure that any post-apocalyptic world contains a disproportionate number of InstaPundit readers. This is probably more sensible than my old plan involving bikini models.

SERIOUS DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: Planetary Defense Coordination Office Proposed to Fight Asteroids.

INTERESTED IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS? Check out Bill Quick’s new online forum.

Related: Post-Apocalyptic survival gear.

BILL QUICK HAS SET UP A discussion forum on disaster preparedness.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: Is The United States Ready for the Next Big Quake? In a word, no. Lots of disaster-preparedness resources here, plus danger for the midwest. Also, some disaster preparedness lessons from Haiti.

Related: List: Survival Essentials.

UPDATE: Chuck Simmins writes:

Disaster planners overlook some of the dangers of the New Madrid fault that would endanger the entire northeast and probably the entire eastern seaboard.

What happens to all the oil and gas pipelines that cross the Mississippi in the probably quake zone? What happens to the major electrical power lines?

Imagine the Northeast without natural gas and the electrical grid down due to the loss of the high tension power lines. Imagine that in January.

I’d rather not.

FROM READER BRUCE WEBSTER, a one-page disaster preparedness checklist.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: Choosing to be a victim.

ADVICE ON DISASTER PREPAREDNESS from Popular Mechanics.

Unaccountably, however, they’ve omitted the zombie threat.

IN LIGHT OF THE CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES, some disaster preparedness reading: Amanda Ripley’s The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why.

Ripley also has a blog.

UPDATE: Reader Debbie Eberts writes:

Glenn, I’ve read Amanda Ripley’s book. It’s interesting, but a little dry. I also recommend “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why” by Laurence Gonzalez. In it, he looks at more individual cases. For example, 4 people trapped on a raft in the middle of the ocean, why only two survive. Gonzalez’ theory is how your brain responds to severe stress will determine your likelihood of survival. The people best able to endure are those that can bifurcate between their logic and their emotion and not let the emotion overcome the logic. I’m not doing the book justice – it’s a fascinating look at survival and also why seemingly intelligent people do seemingly stupid things when they are in a crisis. (Hint: from their vantage point, it does not seem stupid at all). Thanks for all your great work!

Thanks! I think I posted something on that a while back.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ah, yes, here.

PHOTO: Why you should do your disaster preparedness in advance.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS — PRUDENCE, OR PARANOIA? The latest Ask Dr. Helen column is up!

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: In the wake of the L.A. earthquake — minor, but a reminder — here’s a big roundup on disaster preparedness and survival. And here’s a link to the LAFD earthquake-preparedness manual (PDF) which has lots of useful stuff going beyond just earthquake issues. More on disaster-preparedness here.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.:

Last Friday’s power outage forced the White House to go to backup generators and left a 30-block section of downtown Washington darkened for nearly three hours. The blackout raises anew worries that the nation’s capital still isn’t prepared to respond to an unexpected crisis nearly seven years after 9/11. At the heart of the problem are sluggish responses from public officials and an alert system that can be all but paralyzed by indecision and inaction. This must be fixed now — before there’s a real emergency. . . . Heaven help us if there’s ever a natural catastrophe or major terrorist attack.

Read the whole thing.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS UPDATE: Reader Jim Hogue emails: “Do you have any recommendations for flashlights in a survival kit?”

Well, personally I’m a big fan of the mag-lites. I carry both a mini and a full-size 4-cell in the car, and I keep a few of the big ones around the house. They’re tough, they give great, adjustable light, and they make a pretty good improvised billy club just in case.

On the other hand, you have to keep the batteries up. As it happens, I was just looking at this zombie-attack preparation guide (what is it with the zombies all the time?) and it features this batteryless flashlight. That looks kind of cool; I don’t think it’s as good a flashlight as the maglites, but you don’t need batteries, which also saves on weight. A lot depends on what you think you’ll need it for, and for how long. Or you could always carry this survival tool — pocket knife, magnesium firestarter, and flashlight all in one. BoingBoing liked it! And if you want versatility, here’s a flashlight that uses AA, C, or D batteries, which is pretty versatile. I bought one a while back — it’s not bad, but doesn’t seem especially sturdy.

I have to say that my cheap Timex Ironman watch makes a good emergency flashlight, too. It’s not terribly bright, but it’s enough to find your way around in the dark without bumping into things. I was in the grocery store — in the meat section, about a half-mile from the windows at the front — when the power went out a while back. The place was pitch-dark and it took about 20-30 seconds for the emergency lights to come on. As soon as things went black a woman started screaming — I guess she had claustrophobia issues — and I pushed the light button on my watch. This calmed her immediately, strangely enough. Then a few people opened up cellphones and it was a brief impromptu light show.

The watch is nice, though, because you’ve always got it. (As with cameras, guns, and many other things, the one you’ve got with you is always more important than the one you’ve left in a drawer at home). It’s actually stopped me from buying a more expensive watch, as you can’t get the “indiglo” feature on the fancy watches.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS UPDATE: I mentioned this earlier, but with hurricane season underway people always start thinking about disaster preparedness again — even when they live out of hurricane zones. Anyway, the Popular Mechanics guide to disaster preparedness is now online for your perusal.

Meanwhile, you can find some previous InstaPundit posts on the topic here, here, here, here, and here. And here’s a column I wrote on the subject last year. And a huge disaster preparedness list. And here’s a guide to emergency preparedness from Consumer Reports.

Also, here’s an item from Wired on the topic. One piece of advice: People tend to focus on buying stuff, stockpiling food, etc. That’s good — you won’t be able to run down to Wal-Mart when you really need emergency supplies — but you should also focus on having a plan, and acquiring some skills, for when things go wrong. A full pantry and some radios and flashlights (and guns, and cash, and bottled water) is very important, but it’s what we lawyers call a necessary but not sufficient element of disaster planning. More on that here.

UPDATE: A lot of the stuff on the big list above is out of stock. Try this hurricane preparedness list or this emergency survival kit gear list. Plus, some basic disaster survival items. And Col. Douglas Mortimer emails that no home should be without one of these. Well, duh.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS UPDATE: Popular Mechanics’ big disaster-survival feature is now up on the Web.