A burning question: what happens to unattended holiday/memorial candles in an earthquake?

(This article is longer than I had intended it to be... I would suggest that if you don�t want to commit to the whole thing, you read the first section, at least scan through the subsequent section headers for whatever might be relevant to your own situations, and then please be sure to read the last section!)

One of the basic rules of living in an earthquake zone is to avoid having loose objects that would cause great danger if they fell, right?  Do you store unsheathed swords sitting loose on the top shelf, or unattended loose boxes of live rattlesnakes on the coffee table, or armed land mines sitting loose on the kitchen counter?  Certainly not.  Got unattended fire on the table while you are in the other room or away from home?  Of course not!  ...Except that many people do, even near earthquake faults, in the form of holiday or commemorative candles.

One poorly timed earthquake, and those people will have to consider themselves lucky if they just burned down their own home and not the entire city block.

Consider: candles in jack-o�-lanterns, candles in menorahs, memorial candles, etc., can change in an earthquake from fun, beauty, and devotion, to destruction and death; not just by falling themselves and starting fires, but also if some other object falls onto the candles and catches on fire.

Catholic votive candle and Jewish
Yahrzeit candle (M. Springer)

Think I'm overly worried?  San Francisco is no stranger to killer fires caused by earthquakes, as much of the city burned after the 1906 earthquake thanks to "broken gas lines and toppled candles and lamps that fueled raging fires" according to historynet.com.  In fact, fires after earthquakes "are often caused by ruptured gas lines, electrical shortages and fallen candles, among other things," according to Dr. Rachel Davidson of the University of Delaware, who is studying how fires start and spread after earthquakes.  It's not new; according to a UC Berkeley study, after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, "several fires broke out, mostly started by cooking fires and candles."  The resulting catastrophic fire burned Lisbon for five days.  The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network points out that "Fire has long been recognized as a major hazard following earthquakes.  Before the 20th Century, earthquakes would often upset burning candles and lamps and stoves and fireplaces with dangerous fuels were common.  Today in the US ruptured gas lines and arcing electrical wires are the most common sources of ignition."  But the candles are still there.

The purpose of this article is to get you thinking about things that you may have taken for granted your entire life, but that could cause a destructive fire in the event of an earthquake; and about strategies for avoiding that risk.

Special note to my readers: An updated video of my presentation is now available

In addition to this month's article (which follows), this is just a quick extra note to let people know that they can now watch a current version of my presentation, Home Preparedness in Earthquake Country, online.  Previously, I had a link available to a UCTV broadcast of a talk that I gave in early 2010, which was not only shown on UCTV's cable network but also remained online for viewing, where it picked up over 200,000 hits over the last 4 years.  However, since 2010, I have been updating the talk to include information about more recent quakes of note, such as the massive Japan quake and our local Napa quake, have found many more informative photos, and have generally streamlined the presentation to remove less useful material to make room for newer and more useful material.

After the Napa quake in August 2014, I gave a special cluster of extra talks at UCSF and in my neighborhood, and the UCSF tech folks made a video of a September 2014 talk that is now accessible online through Vimeo in SD and HD formats.  It doesn't have the professional editing that the UCTV version had, but it is quite sufficient as is and I'd prefer that people watch the 2014 version rather than the 2010 version at this point.  You can access the talk from my main video webpage.

Of course, it is still better to attend the talk in person if you are able to, so that you'll get the most up-to-date material and will be able to ask questions.

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A simple way to keep your flashlight within reach if your bedroom is shaking

My posts tend to range from instructive technical articles and product reviews to advice and philosophy, but today�s article is basically a �hey-look-what-I-did!� article.  I�ve thought every now and then about the flashlight that I keep near my bed, and wondered if it was a problem that an earthquake could make it fall and roll under the bed, or somewhere else, where it would be difficult to find when needed the most.  I have a power failure back-up light in every room, so not having access to the flashlight wouldn�t be that big of a problem if we lost power, but here�s the irony: if we DON�T lose power, then the room will still be dark and I�d like to know where my flashlight is.  So a few months ago, I had an idea that was simple enough that it was worth potentially wasting 10 minutes of my time, and it worked so well that I�ll pass along what I did.

 Basically, I needed to ensure that my flashlight wouldn�t leave the nightstand.  If your nightstand has a drawer, that could be all it takes, but not if the drawer can fly out; and if you occasionally use the flashlight for other purposes while a partner is asleep in the bed, the drawer could be noisy.  What I did was mind-numbingly simple but surprisingly effective.

I had a cheap stretchable fabric belt holster, which came with one of my flashlights, that holds the wider front end of the flashlight snugly but it�s still easy to get it in or out if inserted or removed straight.  I stuck a 3M Command Strip (love those things), the kind that adheres until you pull the tab to stretch it and then it lets go, directly to the flat part of the holster, reinforced it with a few staples, and the stuck down the other face of the Command Strip to my nightstand.  This thing has been around since the 1960s and the surface is pretty marred up, so if I try to remove the strip one of these days and it doesn�t come off perfectly from the wood, that will be ok; but I will be surprised if the 3M strip leaves marks on the wood.  So that the staples won�t scratch up the flashlight (I guess I care more about the flashlight than the nightstand), I took black electrical tape and put a strip on the inside of the flat part to cover the staples, sticking far enough toward the opening that the flashlight can slide along the tape on its way in to the holster.  Voila!

Now the flashlight lives in the holster as shown in the photo, for me to easily get it whenever I want to use it.  Taking it out is simple, and I put it back in the holster by using the front of the flashlight to stretch the opening just a little (see photos above).  I just have it in about halfway and it is secure but easily accessible.  It�s been there for almost 4 months and the holster has shown no signs of loosening despite using the flashlight each night to take the dog on his nightly before-bed bathroom break.  Of course, there are other ways to do this, depending on what you have and how your room is arranged (Velcro, etc.); but the point is that in an earthquake, you want to know that the light is still there on the nightstand.  Now let�s just hope the nightstand is still there by the bed!

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Can you use a portable camping water filter to safely drink tap water after an earthquake in case your emergency water is gone? (Spoiler alert: the answer is no.)

It�s about a week after a major earthquake, and your commercial emergency water bottles, regardless of the date stamped on the side, are all used up.  There is no running water from your faucets, or there is water but your utilities company hasn�t yet managed to confirm that it is safe to drink, and the government is overwhelmed trying to bring in water supplies to a large affected area.  Your water heater and UPPER toilet tank are emptied out.  And even if you are in San Francisco, the potable water hydrants are defunct and haven�t been recertified yet.  What now?

Well, there are the long-known last resorts of using water purification tablets, boiling, diluted bleach, etc.  But there�s a new kid on the block, growing in popularity over the last several years: the personal water filter.

I may be a bit behind the curve on this one, but I�ve only recently become aware of several types of portable, lightweight, hollow fiber membrane water filters that you can use to drink water directly from potentially unsafe ponds and streams.  These filters, the best-known of which are the LifeStraw from Vestergaard and the Sawyer MINI from Sawyer, let you suck water through them directly from the questionable source and drink it.  Last month, a reader inquired as to why they weren�t on my list of emergency supplies, and I decided to investigate.

I was pretty impressed by these devices, at least regarding use in the undisturbed wilderness.  I know that putting one end of a cylinder into a pond with Cryptosporidium and Giardia (which are as bad as they sound), or MONSTER PARASITES THAT EAT YOUR BRAIN (they are probably out there somewhere), and sucking water through the cylinder and DRINKING IT might sound concerning.  However, these hollow fiber filters are quite good at keeping out the bad stuff while letting the water in, and still allowing water to flow quickly enough that you can drink it in real time.  Time Magazine gave LifeStraw their award for Best Invention of 2005.  The LifeStraw and Sawyer filters use FDA-compliant materials and yield water that the companies report to meet US EPA drinking water standards and World Health Organization �highly protective� category standard of safe water.  Hang on, though, we�ll look more closely at these health claims in a minute.

Hollow fiber filter (from Sawyer website)

First, let�s look at how they work (humor me, I'm a scientist).  Inside the cylinders are bundles of tiny hollow fibers with tinier holes in their walls.  The fibers are bent so that both ends are densely packed toward the drinking end of the cylinder, and the middles are facing the water source so that water has to get from outside the fiber to inside the fiber before it can come out the drinking end (or perhaps the other direction, descriptions vary).  The size of the tiny pores determines what gets filtered out.  Because the fibers are so small and there are so many of them, there�s a huge surface area for filtration, and the water flows through the filter fast enough to have a satisfying drink.

They do have a finite lifespan of use, however, with LifeStraw filtering up to 264 gallons (that�s 1000 liters, so it really is a round number) and Sawyer Mini filtering up to 100,000 gallons.  They also store indefinitely.  For a while, LifeStraws were given a storage life of 5 years but this was later revised to indefinite.

LifeStraw

Sawyer MINI

They also come in different forms that have varying advantages depending on what you want to do.  The basic LifeStraw is about 9 inches long and you can see pictures on the web of people lying down to get their faces within 9 inches of the surface of a pond; perhaps not ideal on a muddy shore or one infested with scorpions, but probably not a problem if you have scooped up a bottle of water from a suspicious pond and are drinking that through the filter.  The Sawyer MINI is even shorter, 5 inches including its tips, so it fits better into backpacks, and it has a real straw that attaches to the end that effectively extends it to 12 inches.  They both have the ability to be attached to standard water bottles and you can get them with their own bottles and bags.  Here�s where Sawyer has a nice feature; while they both have bottles that incorporate the basic filter cartridges, these take up space, and the Sawyer has a bag that screws onto the bottom of the cartridge but can be rolled up when empty, taking up practically no space.

Most importantly, what about health?

LifeStraw filters through 0.2 micron pores.  (A micron, or micrometer, is one one-thousandth of a millimeter; the typical bacteria living inside your gut is about 2 microns long and about 0.5 micron wide.)  LifeStraw claims that this yields good drinking water, EPA compliant, etc.  Sawyer filters to 0.1 microns or 0.02 microns depending on the version.  Sawyer states that the 0.1 micron filter takes out 99.99999% of bacteria and 99.9999% of protozoans (like Cryptosporidium and Giardia), but does not remove viruses due to their smaller size.  Sawyer thus considers this filter safe for travel around the North American wilderness but not for third world countries, in which viruses like hepatitis A in the water supply is a big concern.  (Human-infecting viruses do not persist in the wild; their presence in the water is typically from contamination with human waste/sewage.)  They claim that the 0.02 micron filter takes out 99.9997% of viruses and that this exceeds EPA recommendations, although they point out that the 0.02 micron filter takes a longer time to pass water, and suggest that you use the 0.02 micron filter if you will go to a third world country.  Unfortunately, the 0.02 micron Sawyer filter system does not appear to be available in the small portable size, and is much more expensive.

(But wait, LifeStraw makes a big deal about its filters with their 0.2 micron filtration being used in developing countries; they have been partnering with various charities to give free filters to people in various African countries, Haiti after the recent typhoon, etc.; so this contradiction is confusing.)

It�s worth noting that these pore size figures are not the average pore size, with some pores being smaller and some larger; they are absolute pore sizes, so no pore should be larger than the number given.  One more important point is that these are physical filters; they don�t include resins or activated charcoal so they don�t take out chemicals or bad tastes like commercial kitchen water filters do (for example, Brita).  So if you use these to drink from germ-laden disgusting water, you�ll ingest germ-free disgusting water.  And remember, no filter can let you drink saltwater.

Ok, so what about health AFTER AN EARTHQUAKE?

Still, what concerns us most in this article is: what about health in a modern city after an earthquake?  After all, it�s one thing to wander around in the Rocky Mountains drinking from beautiful streams, but what will our water supply look like after an earthquake has potentially compromised our water pipes?  Well, I checked with emergency planners and water quality engineers at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and I have disappointing (not to mention rather disturbing) news from Water Quality Division Engineering Manager Manouchehr Boozarpour.  Normally, our potable water pipes carry potable water, and our sewage pipes contain sewage, and never the twain shall meet... unless both kinds of pipes crack during an earthquake, in which case cross contamination is likely.  Yep, THAT�s what they mean when they say you need to purify tap water after an earthquake, and because the sewage potentially introduces viruses, which are not removed by the 0.2 and 0.1 micron portable filters, the water from your post-quake tap is likely to be more dangerous than the water in the mountain pond.

So, unfortunately, a LifeStraw or Sawyer individual filter tube does NOT offer sufficient protection to drink potentially contaminated tap water after an earthquake in a city.  The options that I can see to decontaminate suspicious tap water are to either pack one of these small filter tubes in your portable emergency kit but to also have water purification tablets packed to treat the water before you suck it through the filter, or to purchase one of the larger systems that would be intended for home use in the aftermath of a major quake but would be more difficult to take with you if you had to leave.   These kits consist either of Sawyer�s 0.02 micron filter that theoretically removes the viruses, but is slow and requires a large pumping mechanism; or a system that includes both a filter and a chemical water treatment step designed to inactive viruses like the Sweetwater purification system.  Note that chemical purification alone does not guarantee killing of Cryptosporidium and Giardia.  Boiling is great, but you can�t assume you�ll have the necessary heating source to do it, and flame is never a good idea around potential gas leaks.

Purification systems that remove or inactivate viruses

But guess what, even making your water non-infectious doesn�t mean it is safe.  If the ground in your local area, or wherever the pipes are buried, has high levels of industrial pollutant chemicals, then these can also get into the water supply after an earthquake.  I would not count on Brita water filters to solve that potential problem, and boiling that water won't make a difference.  Many regions do not have this problem, but some do.  For this reason, I think the best advice I can give here is to be prepared and able to remove/inactivate microorganisms including viruses, BUT to drink only your stored emergency water until you have heard from your own local authorities about what problems are affecting your own local water supply.  It follows, then, that none of these purification systems get you off the hook from having to store emergency water.

The Centers for Disease Control has a very useful and detailed document about emergency water purification that is worth reading.  (Just don�t be surprised to see their comment that you should observe printed expiration dates on commercially bottled water, which contradicts the FDA�s advice about which I wrote last year that you can ignore those dates.  Remember that the FDA is the agency charged with regulating safety of bottled water, so I am comfortable giving priority to their advice on the matter.)  One of the links on that page takes you to another useful guide about relative effectiveness of different chemical purification methods.

Bottom line: I still advise keeping sufficient emergency water supplies handy so that you don�t have to purify tap water in the first place.  Still, we can�t know that a more extended water shortage won�t develop (remember, the Red Cross is recommending TWO weeks of emergency supplies now), so having the ability to remove microorganisms including viruses may still come in handy if the local authorities tell you that you can drink the water if it's been boiled.

I had never realized how much we take our water faucet for granted!

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Reflections on the San Francisco Bay Area�s largest earthquake since 1989

I only post articles here about once a month or less, but I�m posting just a few days after my previous article because the San Francisco Bay Area got woken up last night by a moderately strong earthquake, magnitude 6.0.  This is the largest quake to hit this region since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and the first since then to result in substantial damage to buildings and infrastructure (in Napa and Vallejo, north of the San Francisco Bay).  I don�t have any information about this earthquake that people aren�t already getting from the news, so I haven�t attempted to rush to post something.  Instead, having followed the news out of Napa during the day, a few thoughts have come to mind.

First, ironically, I had just given one of my talks earlier that afternoon, in the library in my own neighborhood.  I�ll bet the people who attended are marveling at my ability to deliver real live examples of my subject matter!

I do have a couple of more substantial observations though.  Nobody wants to experience structural damage and injuries at any level, but these moderately large quakes provide a good reminder of what can occur, if viewed through the appropriate lens.  Some of you may have read my article from 2011 about benefits and dangers of small earthquakes to our preparation for large earthquakes.  The bottom line was that when people who have never experienced a strong earthquake feel some small earthquakes, they might vastly underestimate the potential risks of the larger ones and not feel the urgency to prepare.  This Napa quake, at a 6.0, was roughly 10-fold smaller than the 6.9 Loma Prieta quake that caused substantial damage, injury, and mortality.  The residents in the hardest hit portions of Napa have a very good concept now of what may happen in an even larger quake, but for many of us in San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area, our experience with a 6.0 quake was a rolling in the middle of the night, followed by going back to sleep.  Don�t limit your personal experience with 6.0 earthquakes to what you personally experienced; base it on what they experienced in Napa.

It is also notable that the photos and personal accounts from Napa are consistent with what you have been hearing all along from me and from emergency preparedness organizations: don�t attempt to run out of the building during an earthquake, and get UNDER something stable, not next to it.  The piles of bricks and other rubble directly next to buildings are what you could encounter if you were exiting the building, and the rubble also should remind us of the fallacy of seeking safety next to a sturdy object rather than under it.  Napa residents interviewed by the news described being hit by objects from the wall, and said that everything that could fall did fall; and there were lots of photos from inside people�s homes showing many objects that fell off of shelves or out of kitchen cabinets that swung open.  In fact, much of this interior damage could have been prevented by appropriate bracing, quake-resistant cabinet latches, sticking objects to surfaces with quake putty, etc.

That is, at the risk of hitting you over the head with it, you can greatly reduce the probability of many of the problems encountered in Napa by taking the recommended home preparedness precautions against earthquakes beforehand!

So, I hope that the worst is over for Napa and that they don�t experience strong enough aftershocks to cause more problems.  Nonetheless, we should derive as much benefit as we can from these occasional 6�s by imagining what we might experience in the 7�s and 8�s, and then taking the appropriate precautions now.

As for me, believe it or not, I slept through most of it.  Because I think about earthquakes frequently as I give my talks or write this blog, I occasionally wake up from an earthquake dream that simply consists of the whole room shaking, some of which are darned scary.  For the real thing, by the time I realized something was really going on, it was almost over.  I�m disappointed!

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Most people don�t know about San Francisco�s emergency drinking water hydrants, but it�s probably just as well...

Apologies to most of my readers, but this article is specific to San Francisco.  For decades, I believe, this city has had a separate network of hydrants for drinkable water, in addition to the fire hydrants.  There are about 65 of these hydrants, identifiable by their blue drop logo, spread throughout the city, with the idea that if water supplies were disrupted and people didn�t have enough emergency water stored, they could go to these emergency potable water hydrants and fill up.

That�s a nice idea, but getting information about these theoretical hydrants in the last few years has been like trying to locate unicorns.  We keep hearing about this program, but official information has been next to non-existent.  There was one source for a while, drop2drink.org, that provided a map of the hydrants, but a few years ago, that site mysteriously turned into a Thai wedding site!  (And some emergency info resources still link to that!)  To make matters worse, when I looked around the vicinity of where our closest hydrant was supposed to be, I didn�t see anything obvious.

I thought we had a breakthrough just a few weeks ago when I learned through SFist.com about a new interactive map that had shown up on Foursquare that was really pretty comprehensive.  It even had photos of some of the hydrants like the one at the top of this article, so I really thought we were getting somewhere.

So, imagine my surprise today when I revisited SFist and found a new article in which they had interviewed San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC) emergency planning director Mary Ellen Carroll, who called the program out of date and said that the water in the hydrants should NOT be used after an emergency unless the PUC certifies it as ok, with no guarantee that it would turn out to be ok.  In fact, the article quoted Public Outreach director Amy Sinclair as saying that there's "no way should ANYONE be opening these hydrants except the Fire or Water Departments.�  Ms. Carroll went on to say that �We've been working over the last three years to develop a different plan and to walk away from the blue-dot hydrants for the moment.�  The whole article can be seen here.

Well, I guess if you are being wise and saving emergency water in your home (official recommendation of 1 gallon per person per day for 7 days), you hopefully won�t be missing those hydrants (and if you don�t live or work in San Francisco, you would not have cared about them anyway).  Remember that as I reported last year, the FDA says that unopened commercially-bottled water jugs can be stored indefinitely, and that the �use by� date printed on the jugs is really a best-by date rather than an expiration date.  As for the legendary SF emergency drinking water hydrant program, it sounds like the legend is about all that�s left.

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Choosing the right kinds of batteries for your emergency supplies in the 21st Century

Even though earthquake preparedness is more than just having an emergency kit, your emergency supplies are clearly a crucial factor in how you fare during the first week or more after a large earthquake or other regional disaster.  That�s why several of the recent articles in this blog have focused on expiration dates, or lack thereof, of your emergency food and water supplies.  However, there are other supplies in your kit that expire, like your batteries, so let�s take a closer look at batteries this month and clear up some of the mystery surrounding the increasingly complicated choice of products.  The kind of batteries that you keep in your kit can actually make a difference.

There are so many different kinds of batteries out there with so many chemical names (alkaline, lithium, lithium ion, carbon zinc, silver zinc, nickel cadmium, etc.) that one almost starts to wonder if we should be checking for monosodium glutamate or partially hydrogenated oils!  However, as a consumer with battery-powered radios and flashlights in an emergency kit, you really only have to worry about two of them: alkaline and lithium.

First, it may go without saying, but don�t rely on rechargeable batteries in your kit!  Not only is the whole idea to have batteries that you can use when there is no power to your outlets, but it�s also important to note that rechargeable batteries don�t hold their charge for long.  The website of Energizer batteries estimates a loss of 1% of deliverable energy per day in storage when not being charged, so a fully charged and stored rechargeable battery could be dead just a few months later.

Alkaline batteries are the ones you�ve probably used for most of your life, from Duracell, Energizer, and a variety of other brands.  The most common consumer forms used in radios and flashlights are 1.5V in AAA, AA, and D sizes, and the 9V transistor radio style.  The shelf life of alkaline batteries has improved in recent years, and some of them, such as Duracell�s Quantum line with "Duralock Power Preserve Technology� and Energizer�s MAX line with �Power Seal Technology,� claim to have a storage life of at least 10 years.  They pay someone to come up with names like these, don�t they?

Recently, however, I�ve become very impressed with lithium batteries.  Regardless of shape, lithium batteries used to be primarily 3V and therefore not a good replacement for 1.5V alkalines, but they have shown up in recent years in the familiar 1.5V AA and AAA styles.  Both Duracell and Energizer produce these, as well as the shorter 3V CR123 lithium batteries that power some of the better LED flashlights.  I�m sure there are other good brands out there, but I am focusing on the popular brands that are ubiquitous in stores.  (I have no financial interests in either of these companies, nor in battery technology/sales.)  In fact, I�ve switched all of the batteries in my emergency supplies to Energizer�s �Ultimate Lithium.�  I chose Energizer over Duracell because their lithium batteries are easier to find in the stores that I frequent, and because Consumer Reports gave their top rating to Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries in 2011.

I like lithium for several reasons.  First, they last longer in storage, which means less chance of opening your kit a few years from now and finding weak batteries if you don�t check your supplies regularly, and fewer rounds of replacement if you do check regularly.  The package says that they hold power up to 20 years.  �Up to�?  What does that mean?  Doesn�t 3 years fit the description of �up to 20 years�?  Still, the helpful folks at Batteries Plus Bulbs confirmed for me that lithium batteries should indeed hold a charge in storage considerably longer than alkaline batteries.

Second, the 1.5V lithium batteries are supposed to power devices considerably longer than 1.5V alkalines, even longer for the 3V CR123 style.  Again, with the �up to� caveat, Energizer says its Ultimate Lithium batteries power devices up to 9 times longer than alkalines, and while the 9x figure is unclear, Consumer Reports agrees that lithium has considerably longer run time than alkaline.  This means that your crucial use of battery-powered devices during extended power outages won�t be derailed nearly as often by batteries running out of juice, and you don�t have to store as many of the lithium batteries.

(9/27/14 addendum: I was at the hardware store and noticed that Energizer has two different flavors of lithium batteries: "Advanced Lithium" and "Ultimate Lithium."  Sigh...  well, the Ultimate Lithium batteries are the ones pictured above, supposedly up to 20 years in storage and 9x longer lasting while in use compared with their comparable alkaline batteries; whereas the Advanced Lithium last only up to 12 years in storage and 6x longer use.  Ok, up to you!)

Lithium batteries are considerably more expensive than comparable alkaline batteries, but the increased run time on a charge more than makes up for the added cost of purchase.  Pair some lithium batteries with an LED flashlight and you have a longevity combination that would have Thomas Edison and Alessandro Volta giving each other high fives.

An added benefit of the lithium batteries is that they are significantly lighter in weight than similar sized alkalines, which is a plus when you have them in portable emergency kits that won�t be as heavy.  Furthermore, lithium batteries are less affected by extremes of hot or cold temperature, making them ideal for outdoor use and for unpredictable conditions under which you may need to use them during an emergency.

Lastly, think also about replacing your 9V alkaline smoke detector batteries with 9V lithium batteries, some of which are marketed specifically for that purpose.  They won't need to be changed as often as the alkaline batteries.

While I am not aware of any downsides of using lithium versus alkaline batteries, the folks at Batteries Plus Bulbs told me that you should still try to avoid storing alkaline or lithium batteries in the devices� battery compartments during long periods of non-use, due to increase potential for leaking when the circuit is almost complete.  [1/12/19 update: I was just perusing Energizer's website and it says "Energizer� Ultimate Lithium� Batteries are GUARANTEED NOT TO LEAK. Due to advanced technology, Ultimate lithium� batteries will not leak under normal consumer usage. If you believe that you have a leaking Energizer� Ultimate Lithium� battery, contact 1-800-383-7323 for return instructions."]  They should still be recycled if possible, like alkaline batteries, although neither are as bad for the environment as the rechargeables.  If you dump 3V batteries in a bag haphazardly for storage or a recycling container, the salespeople counseled me to tape the terminals because of the risk of a circuit forming in the bag and consequent overheating.  Finally, just like the alkaline batteries, storage in the freezer or refrigerator is NOT recommended, as it�s an urban legend that these conditions increase shelf life, and the resulting condensation can actually reduce shelf life.

I hope I�ve managed to clear up some of the mystery surrounding modern batteries.  No charge...

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The Honey Quake story: Back up your recipes!

At 4:31 am on January 17, 1994, the earth shook under the Los Angeles metropolitan area, centered underneath the LA community of Reseda (although the nearby district where I grew up, Northridge, was immortalized in the earthquake�s name).  Countless buildings were damaged, lives were lost, vast amounts of personal possessions were destroyed or disappeared.  Among them was a piece of paper in a binder in a Northridge apartment.

Some years later, I wanted to try making my deceased grandmother�s beloved honey cake, which she would bring to just about every family gathering in the 1970s and which was always a big hit.  I didn�t have the recipe, however, and it turned out that along with just about everything my mother owned, that family recipe had been lost in the Northridge earthquake.  I contacted other relatives to find out who had it, only to learn to my distress that nobody else did.  It was gone for good!

I�ve tried many honey cake recipes since then, and while some are pretty good, I have never found one that came close to the dark, rich honey cake of my youth.

That experience was a wake-up call for me, that not only are we at risk of losing expensive artwork, jewelry, or musical instruments, or irreplaceable personal items like photos, we risk losing beloved recipes and other miscellaneous bits of text in a disaster.  After that, I made photocopies (it was the 1990s) of each of my favorite recipes that were on index cards or that were in cookbooks that I felt may not be easily replaceable, as well as any appraisals and other important documents that I had in my files, and kept the copies in a folder at work.

Later (in the 2000s), I scanned all of those documents and included them in the regular back-ups of my laptop computer�s hard disk.  I back up my computer both at home and work, since I bring it back and forth, so these recipes along with my photos, music, contacts/calendars, and other digital documents were backed up in two places.

A couple of years ago, I pushed it up even one more notch and started keeping an alias of that recipe folder in Dropbox.  Now, in addition to being on my computer�s hard disk and backed up to external hard drives in two places, it�s also on the Dropbox servers and on my smartphone.  As an added benefit, if I�m in the grocery store and suddenly decide that I want to make one of these recipes, I have the ingredient list right on my phone; so I�ve added many of my other recipes that might be easy to replace but are still handy to have with me.

What else should you back up?  How about insurance info, birth certificates, or poems or stories that you�ve written?  Here�s a caveat though.  It�s tempting these days, and perhaps wise, to back up some of this to �the cloud,� and this has the advantage that even if your home and work both perish in a Godzilla attack, the data is safe on some server somewhere in the world.  However, as company after company announces that they�ve been hacked and personal information has been accessed, I am nervous about backing up private information to the cloud, and this is something that you�ll have to determine for yourself.

I just made a honey cake from a newspaper recipe a couple of evenings ago and it was pretty good, although not as good as my grandmother�s.  In fact, as I write this article, I�ve got another one in the oven, from a recipe in the Joy of Cooking, and we�ll see how it is but I�m already bracing for disappointment.  I may never taste that awesome honey cake again, but at least I know that all of my other precious recipes are safe for the future, and I hope you will take home a lesson from this experience as well: not backing up whatever is important to you is a recipe for disaster.

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20 things you can do with quake putty � and helpful hints for Quakehold Gel

For this article, let�s take a closer look at one of the more versatile tools in your quake-preparedness toolbox, quake putty.  You�ll find a few variations of this stuff under different names including Quakehold Putty, Museum Putty, Amazing Stuff, Quake Secure, and a few related products like Museum Wax and Quakehold Gel, but they all have one thing in common: they let you non-permanently stick down small objects to prevent them from falling or flying in an earthquake.

Part 1:  At the risk of sounding like a commercial (I have no financial interests in any of these products), that�s not ALL you can do with them.  Here's a list of 20 varied uses I�ve found for this stuff over the years, and a few more as I let my imagination run wild.

1.  Non-permanently attaching posters to the wall (it�s actually sold for that purpose also).*
2.  Similarly, holding in place the lower corners of a framed picture that would otherwise be difficult to keep straight on its hook.*
3.  Holding the lower corners of a framed picture far enough away from the wall that the picture doesn�t tilt downwards too much from a 3D hook.*
       (* For use on painted walls, please see the comments at the end of this article for important caveats.)
4.  Holding random loose parts of things so that they don�t move (like a useless D-ring on the bottom of my violin case that would flip out and interfere with it lying flat until I put a small dab of quake putty behind it; see Figure 1).
 5.  Blocking ants from entering the bathroom through a hole in the tiles.
6.  Covering ugly screws visible in otherwise white plastic; see Figures 2 (before), and 3 (after).
7.  Non-permanently supporting part of cabinet touch latches that stick out over shelves (see my earlier article about touch latches).
8.  Form a barrier.  We had a wireless router on a high shelf a while ago that we didn�t want to stick down, because I had to access the back panel every now and then, but didn�t want it slipping off and crashing onto things below.  I used quake putty to build a 3D ridge between the router and the edge; you couldn�t see it, but it would prevent the router from sliding forward without interfering with the ability to pick it up.
9.  Temporarily stick a recipe to the kitchen cabinet door while cooking.
10.  Hold music to a music stand if you are playing a gig outside (not great for page turns, though).
11.  Stabilize loose parts (such as thermostat covers).
12.  Support loose plugs that aren�t tightly held into their outlets (small bead between the plug plastic and the outlet plate).
13.  Stuff it into extra switches on alarm clocks that you don�t want to mistake for the on/off switch (such as ringer volume).
14.  Make a tiny snowman!  (Figure 4)  And the best part is that you don�t have to stick it down with quake putty; it IS quake putty!  (But don�t give quake putty to children as a toy.)
15.  Use as the equivalent of single-sided Velcro (having some exposed on a surface so that you can occasionally put an object there without it rolling or sliding away).
16.  Temporarily fill gaps, a non-permanent alternative to silicone sealant.
17.  Stop glass shelves resting on metal pegs in display cases from rattling when the door is opened or closed.
18.  Stop a paper plate from flying off the table during a picnic.
19.  Put a dab on your finger to help turn pages (if you are the finger-licking type).
20.  ...and...stick things down for earthquake preparedness!


Part 2:  Quakehold Gel is a great solution but watch out for some little glitches.  This is a nice product and I�m identifying it by name because, to the best of my knowledge, it�s the only such product that is clear, so I�m not endorsing one company over another.  Because it is clear, you can use it to stick down clear objects like glass and crystal that might look ridiculous if stuck down with cream-colored white putty (Figure 5).

(I recommend against using the Museum Wax, which is very strong but is awful to clean up and stains a variety of surfaces.)

One thing to watch out for is that you can�t use this stuff on porous surfaces such as unfinished wood, paper, or fabric.  It also isn�t very effective on rough surfaces because it oozes, unlike the putty which fills gaps and holds them.  This is best used on glass, crystal, plastic, finished wood, tile, etc.

The other thing to watch out for is that, as mentioned above, it oozes.  And I really mean it oozes!  This gel is essentially an extremely viscous liquid.  If you pull a clump out of the jar, there will be a big hole where that clump used to be, but come back an hour later and the edges will have smoothed.  Come back a day later and the hole is gone; it�s a flat surface again, probably with little hazy bubbles.  Come back a week later and it is a pristine clear surface.  So if you put a little too much gel under an object, it might look fine for a day, but a few days later, you might notice that some of it is oozing out, as if you put too much glue under something and pressed down onto a surface.  That�s ok, you can just scrape off the excess with a piece of paper or anything else, and if the remaining edge looks rough, it will smooth out by the next day.  You might find yourself doing this over and over again though, so just try to be sparing with it in the beginning.

One last caution, because of the properties described above, guess what happens if you stick something down onto a surface that is even slightly tilted...it moves!  Really slowly!  Like one centimeter per month!  And it leaves behind a trail of gel that looks like a snail�s slime trail!  Here�s an example of what I encountered when trying to stick down a couple of crystal goblets onto a glass shelf in a display case:

(click for higher resolution)

These goblets have cut-out designs on the bottom (Figure 6), and I wasn�t sure whether it would be better to put a little gel around the rim, which would leave the facets open to reflect light but might end up with an uneven rim, or to completely fill the bottom with gel, reducing the pretty reflection in the facets but keeping everything even.  Well, here�s a photo of my initial attempt to fill it; lots of bubbles (Figure 7).  Over time (like many weeks), the bubbles moved and coalesced, so it didn�t look that bad (Figure 8), but I missed the pretty reflections of the light in the facets.

I then rolled some gel as thinly as possible and gingerly put it in a ring under the outer edge of the bottom of the other goblet, and gently pressed it down.  It started out very unevenly (Figure 9), but by about 2 weeks later, it had evened out (Figure 10), and looks much better than the completely filled alternative in my opinion.

However, it certainly oozed!  Over the next several days, I found myself daily scraping away excess gel that was slowly seeping out from the sides.  I found that a razor blade worked well, since the shelf is glass, or I could take a couple of inches of a plastic drinking straw and flatten it into a mini spatula that could scrape around the edges of the glass.  Again, it looked rough around the edges initially, but smoothed out nicely afterward.

I thought I was done, but a few weeks later, I saw the slime trail!  Sure enough, the glass had crept closer to the front of the shelf (Figure 11).  I scraped that all away, and a week or so later, the glass had crept even closer to the front of the shelf and there was another slime trail.  I confirmed with a level that the shelf was slightly tilted so the front was a little lower than the back, just a bit, but enough to make the glass slide forward in super-slooooo-mooooo (Figure 12).  I put small pieces of dark brown paper under the front corners on the dark brown plastic shelf support, to prop up the front until the level said it was straight, and the glass has not moved since then; looks great.

And yes, I thought about using quake putty to prop up the front, but that white stuff would have looked terrible under the glass!  Sometimes, old fashioned low tech is better.

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Don�t be left in the dark: which kinds of power failure back-up lights work best in an earthquake?

[Note 5/13/19: I have written a follow-up article on this topic, but I recommend that you still read this one first because of the discussion about what features I feel are important in the situation of earthquakes, as opposed to general concerns about power failures.]

What�s worse than being woken up by a large earthquake?  How about being woken
up by a large earthquake in complete darkness because the power went out?  Even
if you were already awake, it�s hard to find your chosen protected spot (UNDER 
something, not next to it) and avoid any tripping hazards like toys on the floor or
even banging into stationary furniture if you can�t see anything.  This is where a
well-placed power failure back-up light in each room can make a huge difference to
your well-being as a quake is occurring.  I�m referring not to flashlights that live in
electrical outlets that are always charged when you need them, but specifically to lights that remain charged and function as dim nightlights as long as the outlet has power, and if the power goes out (or if you unplug the light), a bright emergency light goes on automatically and can last for hours.  The picture shows an older version based on an incandescent bulb; good for illustration but these aren�t available anymore because the LED versions last so much longer on a charge.

I make a point during my talks about having these back-up lights, but if you
actually go to a store or online to find some, you will find a bewildering assortment
of these things; and the sad fact is that I haven�t found any light with which I am
completely satisfied.  However, some are much better for the purpose than others,
and I�m going to report here what I�ve found out over the past few years of looking
for lights that I like.  Some are fine as general power failure back-up lights but are
impractical for earthquakes.  As I always mention, I have no financial ties to any of
these companies and don�t benefit from you choosing any particular brand over
another, but the choice of which to use could make a huge difference in those first
critical seconds of your response during a nighttime earthquake.

I did not consider any back-up light that was bulky, which many of them are.  The
reason is that it makes sense to have one in each room or part of the home in
which being suddenly shaking in pitch dark could be bad; that includes bathrooms.
A bulky light is not going to be practical in many electrical outlets.

While most of these lights provide a constant nightlight when plugged into a
powered outlet and a brighter constant emergency light when there is no power, at
least one product has an emergency light that flashes on and off.  I guess this is
supposed to conserve battery power, but I can�t imagine using this for earthquake
safety.  Picture yourself in a large earthquake, very bewildering and disorienting;
the last thing you need is to add a strobe effect as if you were in a 1970�s disco.
Those of us old enough to remember know how surreal the effect is; if you don�t,
go see American Hustle...  For earthquake emergency back-up, avoid the flashing
lights.

I ended up with three serious contenders, none perfect, and only one that I will
use.  All three have not only a nightlight and emergency back-up light, but also a
real flashlight from a different bulb.  However, don�t choose on the basis of the
flashlight; it�s most important that this functions as a good emergency light and
then you can find your favorite flashlight wherever it normally lives.  First the two
runners-up:

Et�n American Red Cross �Blackout Buddy�:  While this has some admirable
features, I was ultimately disappointed with it.  I liked that it was small and flat,
plugs into one outlet without covering the other, and looks sleek enough to not
detract from your d�cor, with white constant lights.  There was a review on Amazon
about a potential electrical defect that could cause a fire hazard, and I contacted
the company to inquire.  As a result, they responded to the review on Amazon.
According to them, the electrical safety passes standard UL inspection standards,
and the product does indeed have the UL sticker.  Interestingly, I just checked
Amazon and the dialogue is continuing as recently as 2 weeks before this post.  It�s
also been pointed out that some of these products had a moldy smell.  The
manufacturer tells me that the smell was a real problem with one batch but that
has been fixed.

Unfortunately, there are more practical problems with the Blackout Buddy in my
opinion.  The nightlight, despite facing down, casts a very bright cone of light and
would be very distracting in a bedroom.  What�s worse, while it has the brightest
emergency light I�ve seen, which you might think would be a good thing, it
unfortunately faces upward with no diffuser and is blinding to look towards in an
otherwise dark room.  So imagine you are trying to get to a safe place during an
earthquake and being blinded in the process.  No thank you.  I would only use this
in a room in which nobody ever needed to sleep, and in a place where one was only
worried about power outages but not about needing to see during a large
earthquake without being blinded.

(An aside: watch what you put in your living room.  We had a back-up light in our
living room several years ago, which had a nightlight.  We had a guest sleep over,
and months later, I realized that the light had been switched to the complete �off�
position, presumably because it was interfering with the guest�s sleep.  Nothing
wrong with that, although it didn�t get turned back on, so we had actually been
without a back-up light all those months.)

Leviton �rechargeable power failure light�:  This one has a nightlight that is nice and soft, which is good, and leaves one outlet uncovered.  The problem is that the emergency light IS the nightlight; it�s no brighter.  I think it was not intended to cast emergency lighting into a dark room, but instead just to be a floor marker light to help you find your way down a hall.  That�s not good enough for a true emergency situation.  I also found it distracting that the nightlight is amber colored, very pretty but a bit disconcerting late at night in a dark room.

The winner hands down, at least for me, is the Greenlite �LED 3 in 1 Nitelite.�  This also leaves one outlet uncovered, and has a white nightlight that goes on during the dark, with a reasonably bright white emergency light that shines outwardly through a multifaceted lens that spreads the light nicely; no blinding effect while still casting a glow into a dark room.

However, this was not without its problems.  First of all, Amazon has reviews from hundreds of people, some of which love it and some hate it.  Those that hate it mostly complain about bad light sensors, in that the nightlight is supposed to be off when it senses light but some of these would be completely bright during the day, even if a flashlight was shining directly on the light sensor.  My original Greenlites didn�t have this problem, then I ordered more and some did.  My most recent one did not.  I suspect they had some bad batches and the bad reviews are from those who got the bad products.  If you get the Greenlite, be sure to test it for a couple of days before discarding the packaging and be prepared to return it if it is bad in exchange for a new one.

The only problem with all of the Greenlites that I�ve ordered over the last several
years is that the nightlights are too bright in a dark room if you want to sleep;
positively glaring.  However, there�s a work-around, which I think is silly to have to
do but it works nicely.  I may be the only one who�s figured this out because I�ve
never seen it mentioned anywhere.  The light sensor is taking the darkness a little
too seriously and it cranks up the light in a dark room, not nearly as brightly as
when the power cuts out, but enough to be too bright.  The solution is that there�s
a little red LED indicator light to the side of the light sensor that lights up whenever
the product is plugged in.  Believe it or not, by putting an object (your finger or
anything) in front of the red light but not covering it, about a centimeter away, red
light from the indicator bounces off of the object and onto the light sensor, and the
nightlight gets dimmer!  Try it, if the finger gets too close to the red light, the
nightlight doesn�t get dimmer, but as you move farther away from the red light, the
nightlight does get dimmer!

Therefore, I have put a piece of masking tape so that it loops away from the plastic
and then back to it, leaving the sensor completely uncovered and with the red light
just where the tape leaves the plastic so some of it reflects to the sensor.  It�s
easier than it sounds, just look at the photos.  Once in a while, if it is too bright for
me, I adjust the tape.  It doesn�t look fantastic, but if you are really concerned
about it, you can probably find a different kind of tape that will look better.

Feel free to comment on this post if you have any other lights that are worth trying.
I will bend my regular policy of not advertising products if your comment includes
the reasons why a specific product will fulfill the qualities I�ve described above.  I
should emphasize that some of these other lights might be perfectly good power
failure back-up lights in general; the goal here is to have one that doesn�t cause
problems during the confusion of an earthquake (like disorienting or blinding you).
And now hopefully you are no longer in the dark about not getting left in the dark.

[1/25/17 addendum: there is more useful information in the comments that follow]

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