Friend of the blog ,Rawles over at SurvivalBlog has a link to a really cool .pdf manual put out by the Japanese. Living on the terrestrial equivalent of Jell-O, they take preps for earthquakes pretty seriously. (The fact that the NorKs are only a missle-launch away probably factors in as well.)

Not only is it a fairly good manual on what to do before, during, and after a disaster, it also gives a glimpse into Japan’s rather impressive preparedness programs. I am especially enamored with their ‘disaster parks’….open spaces that look like public parks but are actually carefully constructed rally points and staging areas for relief projects. (This article describing the disaster parks is inspiring and disappointing at the same time. Inspiring because its a brilliant idea and an actual project worthy of local government, disappointing because we don’t do it.)