violently this way and up and down which you want to keep you building tied together. these cheep little straps believe it or not work. >> wait a second. we have a question here. >> not a question, a comment. i just want to suggest a caveat that everything you say is absolutely true provided the materials are of blood condition. quite frequently in garage and basements you have rotten seals and post ends and insect damage and that will exacerbate the problems in any earthquake. >> thank you. >> that's why you need an engineer to tell you you have a problem. >> also an engineer or architec will prioritize where your mone is best inveted for return. let's look at her water heater here. she was out of town when i took these pictures. >> sure. >> she has one elevated so the flame is 18 inches off the floo which is required under code

when you're doing renovations o your building. most of these water heaters are strapped. they have different kind of straps but the one on the right has what they call plumer's tape, the one on the left is using a real water heater connections some heavy duty straps and lag bolts , easy to put in. $15.99. it will save you a lot of time and aggravation and may prevent your water heater from falling over and starting a fire. >> when there is an earthquake, you know where your best water source is even if there's no water pressure. you've got a 50 gal water heater, you're going to be drinking the water out of your water heater. you want that standing up. that's 50 gals of water in addition to any other water you supply. the other issue is if these fal over and you don't have a gas valve which we'll talk about

later, it's a great way to burn your house do. >> let's talk about that now. we have two here. >> this one is a pressure valve if you break the gas line, it detects a drop in pressure and turns off. so this doesn't go off in an earthquake. this goes when you break something. the one i have in any house is one of these that goes on the other side of the meter. what they are is a cup with a spring underneath it in the middle of a pipe. in the middle of the cup is a ball bearing heavy enough to keep the spring down. when you have an earthquake and the ground is doing this, the ball bearing rolls out. it's the simplest mechanical device you can imagine. without the ball bearing, the spring pops up the cup and turn off the gas. these are gait. they're about a hundred bruks and takes the numberer an hour

to do. >> and there's no prohibition. they may not like it but there' nothing that says you can't put anytime your house. these are some things that are required in apartment in san francisco, that you have a gas shutoff tool. this is one of the actually mos poorly designed that i've seen. this particular one doesn't hav a hole that you can put a sprin through it. >> so it disappears. >> it also has a little piece o the ends you can put on your water line and shut it off. when you hold it that way there's no way to turn you need another wrench. here's someone showing us where she has her fire extinguisher. in this case it's outside the kitchen in a doorway that leads to a hallway and the fiesh extinguishers should be where you don't have to go through th place most likely to have a fir to get it. you don't want to have it in a

sink because you have to get through the burning kitchen to get it. put it where you can retreat from the fire and put the fire out. by the way, you get a discount on most homeowners insurance if you have proper fire extinguishers if your house. you wonder what kind of food you'll need after an aert quaik but we're talking generally her that you need to be prepared to have enough food and water. >> don't plan on be doing a lot of cooking unless you're going to be cooking in the backyard. you don't want to be burning down the building or your neighborhood because you had a fire. >> so actually, one of the -- and we'll get there in a second one of the things i suggest is that the pro pain barbecues, which people use for their backyard barbecues , are actually a wonderful post earthquake kitchen to boil wate

and cook food. >> outside in the backyard. >> outside in the backyard, not in the house. yes, ma'am. >> question about the fire extinguishers. do they have a lifetime? do they last two years, ten years? how do we find out and what do we do? >> yes. there's two ways of telling whether they are still up to date. one is there's a little tag and you see it hanging from the fiesh extinguishers and you can't see what's on. theoretically you should check them annually. >> they're probably good for five years or so. >> but they also have a little dial and you can see it here. you can see whether it's in the red or green and it's okay. this one's in the green. >> if uyou're in an apartment, they're checked annually. it's automatic in an apartment build. >> a couple other nonstructural

things we're talking about. people have a lot of valuable things to themselves. and there are ways you can attach that stuff so your television or beautiful chinese vase does not fall off the shelf. here, joyce has used a little museum wax and earthquake hold to attach her beautiful vase to her shelf. you take this stuff and roll it around and stick it to the shel and it will prevent the thing from sliding off with any luck. so i'll pass that around. you can -- here's another one. called crystal clear ñrmuseum w you put on the bottom and it makes stuff stick. it's a cheep solution, that's $4.99 for the museum wax. >> yeah. if we have a great earthquake i may not work, but for the

moderate earthquake. >> we have this concept that i' sure you've all heard about it. you should be on your own for 7 hours. >> three days. >> we knowing having watched hurricane katrina that that's nowhere near long enough. prepare to be self-sufficient for a longer period i believe, but a minimum. because if you think someone's going to be coming to your door within the first 72 hours, ther are a ñicouple hundred thousand buildings in san francisco and not a couple hundred thousand people to come here. we're an island. >> i want to point out when san francisco has a significant earthquake, these neighboring chiewnts are not rushing to ou aid. oakland, berkeley, they've got problems of their own. >> worse than us. >> and the people down way,

there may be no freeways to get here. san francisco is an island in the next big earthquake. >> there's an web side called ñi www.72 hours.org and you can print out and review how to build an earthquake quit and make a plan. we have copies there. i also have something over here i think is great, a family disaster supply calendar. here's what you should buy at the grocery store the first wee a gallon of water. i think they go up to 60 weeks. >> it's something easy to cook and gives you some variety, you know. >> so this is a great thing. it makes i felt easy every time you go to -- >> don't put stuff in your freezer because it isn't going to be working. you're not going to have power. your food needs to be dried or

canned. do not count on having frozen pizzas. you need the propane stove. it's not going fob a great time >> i actually went to my basement and this is right out -- you can see the cob webs on it. i have an emergency supply box and tool boxes. and i wrote in magic marker on the top, and it has in it a flash polite, a first aid kit, batteries , candles and so on. let me open it up so you see. it's nothing special, not fancy

spare pair of glasses, flashlight, a junky little radio. here's spare batteries. in here we have the first aid kit, right. okay. we have matches from the cliff house and see gul. you know the sea gul, it's not there anymore, is it? we have candles. be careful with lighting candle until you've dealt with the gas leak or the -- >> or the after shocks. >> after shocks. something i think you really need is note pads and marker. i went somewhere and be back disbloon if you're not there an they come look for you, they're going to kick in your door. >> more markers. >> maybe a little money stashed there. >> now there's other stuff you really should have in here. money, you should go to your at

and get yourself now a couple hundred dollars in 20s and put it and hide it in your house because the atm's aren't going to be working and it will be a cash economy for this 72 hour period. >> at least 72 hour period. >> right. >> i like the idea of buying a couple of cost co's flash light and leaving them in the kit and forgetting about them. >> across the street, here's th whole thing four floork lights with batteries , 9.99. how can you go long. this week's special, 13.99 for mag light. >> you know where the pateries are just put them away. >> i have a separate box in my house like this filled with batteries and we say batteries wheafs do you need?

>> you need to have your number on your building so everyone knows who you are. >> i'm a building inspector and i go looking for your house. half the time, especially commercial places, they don't put the number up and the emergency vehicle can't find you. cheep. these are solid brass , $2.99. make sure your numbers where displayed. i browt a bunge cord and screw eyes. in your garage anything that might fall over, put the screw eyes in the paul and tie it up. my wife is -- >> my wife didn't know this was going on. she was all over me this mornin about my garage being a mess. she said this weekend i want to know where all your earthquake supplies are. it's not just you know where your supplies are, but your entire family. because quite frankly my medica

thing is bigger than that red thing. i've got everything you can imagine. i don't touch it. i leave it in a spat and everyone in the family should know where it is. and the other key thing and we may get to this, you need to have a place to go and you don' need to be thinking you're goin to call someone on the cell phone because the repeaters are all off power. you have to have a plan of wher you're going. in my family, everybody knows even if i've got a building collapse, i'm going home and meeting the family first as a place for everyone to meet. that's the most important place is to have a prearranged meetin place and have everyone know what the plan is. because when the earthquake comes and everyone thinks i've got a cell phone, it -- unless you've got a satellite phone an they haven't gotten small enoug yet, you're not calling anyone. if you think you have a radio,

there's not a line of sight in this city that's going to go more than a couple blocks. >> let me go through some other stuff and i'll tell you what i think you should be doing with your neighborhood. i've got these here. this is an oddity. you want to be able to open you windows. buy some beeswax and put them in the tracks until the window actually work. especially after the building i jerked around a little bit, they're getting jammed. beeswax. fire extring wisher, 9.99. cheep enough. i keep this in the basement. it's dirty, it's a coleman lantern. you cannot reasonably conduct your life by flashlight. you need something that illuminates an area. coleman lantern is good. this one is basically an ad justible table lantern, you can

have it focused or make a broad area. it's a good area illumination s you can sit down and eat. you can't eat with a flashlight >> after about the first day th november ti of the earthquake and the city being black is going to wear off. >> real fast. >> and about the third day you're going to be so sick you won't imagine it. the stuff you put away now is going to be so valuable to you. you cannot expect the fire department to come driver's license, the police department. they're going to be, as they say, taxed to their limit. you need to be able to be self-sufficient in a comfortabl manner, with your neighbors. >> a coil of line -- with your neighbors. yeah, you've got to have line. you've got to be tying stuff up you need to learn how to tie a boland.

i know that's asking a lot but you need to learn how to tie at least one knot and that's a boland. we're having a special seminar on how to tie a boland, not today. it looks like that. it is the king of knots and we'll have a special how to tie safety knots, i'll send you all an e-mail. >> (inaudible). >> your water heater's half ove you tie it over. >> your front door is wracked, your garage door is wracked. you have something failing. >> you want to tie something to the try. >> actually my kit, you can tie something around an area that's dangerous. i actually like the red or blue caution tape you can buy over there. my major office buildings, we have rooms full of stuff. we have tarps, the pry bar is a key thing. you may find your building is wracked over and you want to go

into a room. well, that door is jammed shut. you want to have one of these t pry it open. >> 3.69. >> but that store isn't going t be open, so plan on investing a couple hundred dollars. the gloves and masks are great. >> gloves $1.99. you must have gloves. you need to be wearing shoes. dust masks. i was in coe bay when they had the earthquake ten years ago. they had 100,000 building demolished. the sky was filled with yellow dust and you çócould not walk around without something over your mouth. >> and the guys in new orleans who are coming from the city, the volunteers from the billing department, they're all wearing

res pier aters because of the smell. the smell will not be that great. >> tv straps so your tv doesn't fall off or you won't be watching tv anymore. tv strap, an extension cord. someone found power in your neighborhood you wanted an extension cord , he's got a generator, i've got -- >> wait until you see the price of kill low watt an hour. >> you can buy this double adhesive velcro to fasten stuf down to the wall. it's very strong stuff now. this is great stuff. >> how do you fasten one side o the velcro to the wall? >> it's adhesive , one side you peel the fuzzy side off.

>> while he's doing that, you want multipurpose tools. you know, the leatherman, you want that in there because if you have problems you don't wan to carry around a tool belt. they have cheaper versions of the leatherman. you want to be thinking when that earthquake comes, what do want to have? look at coe bay and new orleans and say what do i want to have if that's me after this event - >> so are we passion at enough about this for you? we are really worried. this is a serious problem. we look at these issues and you have to person lies it. okay. look, velcro. it's stuck up here. it weighs six and a half pounds look at this. this stuff is really strong, industrial strebts velcro. >> there's actually a company i the east bay and you can go on line that sell earthquake kits. one of the things you would wan

to do is get the list and go down the list and check them al off, put them in a box, seal th box. >> okay. we're -- so you have your famil disaster supply calendar is a good thing to do. we have copies back there. every week when you go shopping you buy what it says for this week. i also urgently you to fill in one of these thingst emergency household information chart who and what to call. on the back of this, this is available over driver's license are numbers for all the different emergency places. neighborhood emergency response team, nert is a training progra for neighbors and they've had over 10,000 people through thei training get trained if post earthquake or emergency eevacuation rescue, cpr and not trained for fire suppression,

but you need to deal with entir suppression, post earthquake fire is a potential hazard in san francisco. the fire department cannot attend all fires we expect afte a earthquake so you need some consideration about how you're going to put out fires in your neighborhood. in other countries, like japan, they have neighborhood teams an have their own little fire punc they stick down into the sis tern and usually half of the post earthquake fires in japan are put out in urban areas by volunteer teams with a tiny punch. we're talking about trying to develop a program like that here. the nert is excellent program for general training and i advise you all to sign up 558-3456. they have training programs constantly. >> earthquake preparedness. before the earthquake, retrofit

your house, get your supplies. after the earthquake, have your supplies and be willing to live for maybe a week with no one else but you and your neighbors the stores won't be open, they won't have any power, the gas stations aren't going to be punching gas, they won't have any power. they say 72 hours, that's optimistic. >> so let me recap this. there are three sort of -- ther are three areas of earthquake issues we need to talk about today. the one is how do we prepare to reduce the impacts of an earthquake before it happens? the second the how do we respon to an earthquake? that's a tiny little area but a huge problem. what do we do for the first two weeks. it's dramatic but a small piece of it. the third one is how do we recover?

what is the recovery program? how are we going to rebuild. everybody looks at the two week period after the earthquake and devote all their time, money an energy. we're ready and can respond to the earthquake. that's a small piece. the big piece is how do we reduce the impact. going back to the slide, every time you're doing work in your house, you can incorporate earthquake safety. here's someone doing wiring. while the wall was open, they put up -- >> it's almost impossible when you're seismicking a wood frame house to make it worse by addin plywood or anchor bolts. i don't think i've ever seen a scenario where the strengthenin makes it worse. it's a given on wood homes that adding plywood is an automatic. >> it stiffness the building up every time. here's a guyana doing tile work in the garage there. you have a contractor, you have

to open the wall up. do a little earthquake work,ái every project you do. here we have a building for lease, one of the issues we see commonly, i get a lot of questions how safe is my building. is it safe? no one knows when they lease an apartment or home or whatever they're leasing, how safe it is ask your landlord or homeowner. ask your engineer, how safe is my bill something they assume i the building department let's i be occupied it has to be safe. i want to point out a few other things we have on the table tha you should be taking a look at. there's this wonderful guide book called putting down roots in earthquake country and it wa publish fwid united states geological survey. it was in the paper the other day and it looks like an ad and it was in with a lot of ads, so people tossed them.

i would pick one of these up. we have a lot of information here in the building department you need any help, call our number at 558-6205. we can give you information about whether you're in one of >> if you are get faster at getting ready. that's going to shake harder in the earthquake. >> a lot of people think i have earthquake insurance, i'm safe. well, you don't have a house. it doesn't matter ñrif you don' have insurance. you're also hoping the insuranc company is there to pay off. if you want earthquake insuranc it's fine, but invest the money to also retrofit your house. i did it on mine. i think i spent less than 10 grand and it's the best money invested because when my family comes home, my kids and wife, m house will be damaged. you will have damage even in th most retrofitted house, but my

family will have a place to sta and sleep. if your building is falling over, you adopt want to be sleeping on the sidewalk. >> so how much do you think all this stuff i showed you cost? see all this stuff, i bought it yesterday? what do you think it cost all the stuff we passed out? >> 200 bucks. >> 200 bucks. it cost 200 bucks. congratulations sir. a couple hundred bucks will go really really long way to makin your life both happier after an earthquake and prevent damage. let's take a few questions and we can wrap up. here's a question here. >> which best will be able to tell me whether my building is on the dangerous zone? is it calling. >> this lady knows how to know whether her building is in one of the hazardous zones. you can look on the map and see if your building is in a gray zone, that's easy. if you want to read it be addresses, we can tell you whic

addresses are in those zones, but you can look at the map her and tell that. the question is the department of building inspection do an earthquake inspection of your house before the earthquake? no we do not. that is why you should call either an architect or engineer i would advise you to call the referral service of the structural engineer's association. >> 974-5147. >> say it again. >> 974-5147. >> and that's the structural engineers and they specialize i this kind of issue. they have a eferl service. many ark terkts are experts in this and you might want to chec with the american institute of architect, they have a referral service. most of them will refer you to structural engineer and come ou and take a look at your building, talking about its vulnerables and where to spend

your money. >> i live in the richmond district which is near golden gate park where i've seen the soil is sandy. what are the special problems and issues where the soil is sandy? >> you can do one thing. look at a soil book here that's available that will tell you what the soil conditions are in your neighborhood. generally out there the biggest issue you're going to find is dense i fiation. it was only 15 seconds. that's the shortest magnitude 7 we've had. most are 30 seconds long. as the sand settles your building will settle. you're get dense ification and your building will settle. that's the largest problem you'll get and the fire that

follows it. >> one of the points made earlier exactly where your building is located is important. there's a my grow zonation issue. where your building affects ho the building will respond. thank you for coming today. appreciate it. hope to see you a month from today. thank you. >> coming up on "california country": think this sweet treat just cab't get any better? think again.