Fair enough. I'm in Wellington and the risk profile here is a lot different to Japan. From a quick read of a BBC article, I see the "megaquake" you were warned

Fair enough. I'm in Wellington and the risk profile here is a lot different to Japan. From a quick read of a BBC article, I see the "megaquake" you were warned about could have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in the worst case scenario. Here in Wellington I've read estimates of up to thousands of deaths in the worst case scenario. But regardless, people here tend to be quite blasé about emergency supplies - perhaps if there was a heightened risk, people might actually check their grab-bags and get their supplies in order.