Quaked, not Shaken!

A little after three this morning, my wife and I awoke with a start to the sound of some banging. I jumped out of bed, thinking someone was trying to break into our apartment from somewhere. I rushed around checking all entrances, looking for the intercom to call security...

Nothing. Then I noticed a metal grill hanging from the Bar in my living room shaking - Exactly as it had when the earthquake hit us on 8th October this year!

But everything had settled now, and the grill came to a standstill. I called Security at the gate, but they had felt nothing, knew nothing, and clarified no one had come out of their homes like last time.

I switched on the news, and sure enough, there it was in five minutes - a quake of 6.5 on the Richter scale had hit J&K, with tremors being felt in the NCR as well!

If it hadn't been for the rocking bar, we too would have slept through the tremors - like all the others at Belvedere Towers had!

I also realized, we had not followed through with certain things we'd said we'd do in our home, to prepare for emergencies:

1. Keep all our wallets, cellphones, car and house keys in one place, which is easily accessible if we need to leave the house in a hurry
2. Jackets, shoes and spectacles/contact lenses, close at hand
3. All important asset papers which are kept at home, in one folder, in one place.
4. A First Aid kit in each one of our cars parked below

The above list of things would be picked up, depending on the time at hand, and the seriousness of the situation.

Without sounding grave, I think it's a great idea for all of us to consider the above list.

I also think we need to get some kind of automatic alarm in the condominium to alert us of earthquakes, just like our fire and smoke alarms. Ideas anyone?