Of all the earthquakes I’ve experienced, none of them has ever occurred while I was at home. The very first one I experienced was when I was in high school, and all the others happened while I was at work.
Whenever the earthquake came it was always one massive panic and scramble. The very first one I went through was back in around 1992 when I was in 2nd form (grade 8). In all the commotion one of my classmates jumped from upstairs a two story building to the ground. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt. I guess it was just one of those moments that took us all off guard.
In the work setting me and my co-workers often found ourselves pushing through the exit and running down the stairs. These days we are advised to just get under our desk when an earthquake comes. So I wonder, what if an earthquake catches you by surprise as usual, but this time you need to pee real badly?
You were in the middle of typing an important response back to a client and was just about to hit ‘send’ when there comes this big rumbling and shaking. You can’t rush to the bathroom because your earthquake survival training taught you to take cover under your desk. So what do you do? How about you just pee on yourself? Sounds like a good idea, but what would happen if it was just a small earthquake, no buildings falling down, no damage period? What happens then?
So the quake is all over now, you come from under your desk and it’s quite obvious to everyone what just went on with you. What do you do? Tell them you knocked your water over on you just as you were about to run under your desk. It could happen ;-).
I guess the moral in all of this is don’t hold your pee so long that by the time you need to go you have to race to get to the toilet and risk peeing on yourself in the process. And while you’re pondering that, you may want to put some additional planning into your earthquake survival preparation. Don’t overlook these basic things.
whatifsometimeslifehappen 