Emergency Preparedness

The Selfoss Branch was hit hard last May when an earthquake hit near the city of Hveregarði about 10 km from Selfoss. Most of our members live in Hveregarði. Then in October Iceland was hit hard with their economic crisis which has caused shortages and high inflation. Our mission president asked the branches to have preparedness meetings to help the members. The first was held as a joint meeting last November and it was an excellent meeting on purchasing food and how to use bulk foods. The Selfoss Branch conducted the second meeting around what do you do in an emergency and having both a 72 hour kit and food storage. We started with a sister describing the challenge they had during the earthquake and not being able to get into their house or garage to get anything they needed. We were asked to present a 72 hour kit which was fun trying to put together when you don´t know where to find those things. But we put together a good kit as a starting point. Then our Relief Society President put together a demonstration on the minimum foods required per person. There was a good discussion by all and a good start for the branch to keep focused on preparedness.

If you click on the title you will be linked to a site that shows the earthquakes that have taken place in our area over the last 48 hours. Luckily they are all very small so no damage but it is interesting to see how many take place in this area. The city of Hveregarði is just above the "e" in the city name and the city of Selfoss is just above the last "s" in the city name. We are hoping the constant quakes are what will keep us from experiencing a big one while we are here. One of the blue dotes is just about on top of where we live. We have also been told the magnum is building in the the volcanoes so again the need to be prepared.