Here's Your Risk Of Becoming A Victim Of A Natural Disaster

Duck and cover overlord, duck and cover!

Australia looks pretty sweet though.

Anyway, on September 4th 2010 at 4:24 in the morning all hell broke loose. The night before we were watching the movie 2012(I kid you not !!).
We were  woken by a deafening rumbling, followed by sharp shaking that made the block walls of our flat bow like cardboard.Image Jenga blocks that sway but instead of small wooden blocks they are 30cm x 10cm heavy concrete blocks.
There was a very large window in our room that was on the verge of shattering,but couldn't really get out of bed and stand up because of the shaking. 
The shaking stops, and we are left in the ominously quiet dark on the verge of having heart attacks.Try the light switch but there's no power.The first thing I did was reach for my shortwave dynamo radio. We wanted to know what was going on sooner rather than later, as we weren't far from the Pacific coast, and that quake felt like it was out to sea, hence Tsunami threat.
All local stations were off air but I managed to pick up ABC in Sydney over the short wave. Reports coming out of Sydney that the South Island of N.Z had been hit by a major earthquake. Sydney knew what was going on before Wellington or Auckland did.
After 10 mins of loading up our car with emergency gear, food , clothing, and valuable documents we were ready to get out to higher ground if needed. But to cut a long story short there was no Tsunami threat BUT WE WERE READY TO ROLL JUST IN CASE.
My mother only lived 10 mins around the corner so her welfare was paramount as we brought her back to our place.
As there was no Tsunami threat we stayed put at out flat with my gas cooker and supplies listening to the radio, staying informed was absolutely crucial.( Dynamo Solar SW radios are worth their weight in gold, and you will not regret parting with $60 for one).

That was the September 2010 quake, which we got off quite lightly, no loss of lives during that event.
Feb 22nd , 2011 was a different story though. We were relaxing on our bed just chatting before I went to work that evening.At 12:51pm there was a deep rumble, then extremely violent jarring shaking. We were pinned to the bed and could not move, praying that the double glazed window above our bed did not break. If it did we would have been goners. I remember trying to calm my wife who was hysterical at this point. When the shaking stopped we waded through the toppled furniture to the door of our bedroom then opened the front door only to see water and silt bubbling out of the ground.When another after shock rolled through, all I could hear was people screaming all over the neighbourhood. It was just like one of those scary 70s B grade movies, but instead this was the reality we were now facing.
First mistake we made was leave the house an try and reach my mother's place.Do not leave your house during an emergency, as you won't be going anywhere fast due a panicked population who are all trying to do the same thing.Only leave your house if your life is at risk,depends on the type of disaster too. Have plenty of water, and canned food.Closed supermarkets are no fun, neither is lining up at the Servo for 3 hours to get fuel. Helping others is very important.Good will to strangers goes a long way in building trust.I've seen people who would never normally associate with each other work together for the common good.We checked on our elderly neighbours who we had met only once after moving in a month earlier.They really appreciate being comforted and looked out for as they had no family in the city.I believe we have an obligation as Preppers to help others if it is in our power to do so.