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Comment by ZDurmPhoto | Hacker News Reader

I live in Portland and have a slide-in truck camper on my property. I use it for camping of course, but it is also part of my earthquake preparation plan. It is solar powered but also has a built-in propane generator. It is fully self-contained with all the comforts of home including fresh water storage, a galley with oven, stove, freezer and fridge. A bathroom plus a hot shower, comfortable bed, large pantry, closet, etc.

It sits on a 3500 diesel truck that can go just about anywhere.

I know this solution is not practical for everyone. But it is always fully fueled, fully stocked and offers considerable peace of mind. If you have been on the fence about buying an RV, think of it from this angle.

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This type of stuff is what always made the west coast unappealing. Where I live, disaster is a bad ice storm, blizzard or localized flooding.

Complete devastation just isn’t my thing.

Yeah, but this isn't like living in Tornado alley or the east coast where there is a hurricane season. I live in Portland and we don't have any natural disasters unless a major earthquake does happen or a volcano comes to life. But let's be realistic, what are the chances of that happening in our lifetimes? It's not like this is an every year thing like tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, etc. Complete devastation from hurricanes and tornadoes and flooding is much more likely than huge earthquakes and volcanoes.

Tornadoes are pretty rare (and localized) outside of certain areas. Blizzards--other than a bad one if you live on the coast--are mostly a stay at home until it's over event. Hurricanes/floods are definitely in the southeast and can come up the coast as in Sandy. But this again mostly involves having a house somewhere that's not overly exposed to flooding if there's a lot of rain.

But yes. There's some balancing of unlikely but major natural disasters and fairly routine bad weather events.

From a natural disaster perspective you're probably best off in the desert Southwest.

I wish it kept more people away.

Our sailboat is our earthquake kit. It only holds* 15 gallons of freshwater, but has a functional kitchen and bathroom, and we can go 1000 miles north or south of here in a week, regardless of fuel or road conditions.

If covid had gotten India/Italy bad, our plan was to evacuate to Hawaii or Mexico.

*not including extra packaged water, boats can hold quite a bit

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