The Press-Democrat has a good editorial on the Hazmat spill that closed Highway 101 yesterday in both directions for many hours. It pointed out that the railway was parallel and close to the road where the spill occurred, having the potential to close all incoming and outgoing traffic and freight shipping on both road and rail.

If we had an earthquake ( No, WHEN WE HAVE AN EARTHQUAKE) there is good potential for many of our supplies to be cut off if 101 or the rail is damaged.

I had a good talk with Chris Godley, the Sonoma County Office of Emergency Services preparedness guy, last week. He said that they recommend that everyone stock at least 1-2 weeks of needed food, water, medical etc. He also said that in the event of the big earthquake that their efforts will first be to help the 101 corridor, so that west county folks better plan that they are not even going to SEE OES help for two weeks.

This is all the more reason for us to prepare here. All you need to do is cut off 101 to seriously interrupt our food and supply chain. Think about this in context of Y2k.

The OES office is going to get 1000 copies of the state bulletin on Y2k, which is really quite good. You can call them at 527-1152 and they will send you some by mail, or you can pick up larger quantities at their office. These brochures are very good for neighbors and all sorts of people, as they are an official state publication, nicely printed, free, and well written.

-- seraphima (seraphima@aol.com), July 16, 1999