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• Reputation: 5 Q&A: 0 0 0 5 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0 Robin Friedman

  3 0 "Drop, Cover and Hold" is still the best method for earthquake safety, and is endorsed by the American Red Cross, FEMA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Your past experience in earthquakes may give you a false sense of safety. In some cases you may not have done anything, or you ran outside, and survived with no injuries. Or perhaps you got under your desk and others thought you overreacted. However, you likely have not experienced the kind of strong earthquake shaking that is possible very large earthquakes: sudden and intense back and forth motions of several feet per second will cause the floor or the ground to jerk sideways out from under you, and every unsecured object around you could topple, fall, or become airborne, potentially causing serious injury. This is why you must learn to immediately protect yourself after the first jolt... don't wait to see if the earthquake shaking will be strong! In MOST situations, you will reduce your chance of injury if you: DROP down onto your hands and knees (before the earthquakes knocks you down). This position protects you from falling but allows you to still move if necessary. COVER your head and neck (and your entire body if possible) under a sturdy table or desk. If there is no shelter nearby, only then should you get down near an interior wall (or next to low-lying furniture that won't fall on you), and cover your head and neck with your arms and hands. HOLD ON to your shelter (or to your head and neck) until the shaking stops. Be prepared to move with your shelter if the shaking shifts it around. While images of collapsed structures in earthquakes around the world are frightening and get the most attention from the media, most buildings in the U.S. do not collapse at all, and few completely collapse. Strict building codes have worked to greatly reduce the potential of structure collapse. However, there is the possibility of structural failure in certain building types, especially unreinforced masonry (brick buildings), and in certain structures constructed before the latest building codes. Rescue professionals are trained to understand how these structures collapse in order to identify potential locations of survivors within "survivable void spaces." The main goal of "Drop, Cover, and Hold On" is to protect you from falling and flying debris and other nonstructural hazards, and to increase the chance of your ending up in a survivable void space if the building actually collapses. While a doorway may be an alternate "safe spot" option if you live in old, unreinforced or older woodframe houses, you may not be able to brace yourself in the door during strong shaking. In modern houses, doorways are no stronger than any other part of the house, and the doorway does not protect you from the most likely source of injury- falling or flying objects. You are safer under a sturdy table. Check out this link for additional tips for surviving an earthquake in a number of different locations and situations: http://www.earthquakecountry.info/roots/step5.html Robin Friedman answered in Earthquake! over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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• Reputation: 148 Q&A: 6 0 0 28 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Follow Following 0 Paul Bodin

  1 0 If you are clear-headed enough when you feel a strong earthquake to think "Hmmm. Let's see  ... now, do I stand in a doorway? Or ... maybe get under my desk? Or, no! I should run outside!" then you are a real cool customer and will have no problem surviving anything that happens. The couple of truly large earthquakes I've been in have taught me that my body (and the Earth) will do what they want, and I'm just a passive observer: "Oh my, I'm trying to get out of bed and I keep getting heaved back onto it!" or "Wow! Here I am out of doors..isn't that supposed to be a dumb place to be? How did I get here?". So I'm not the cool analytical sort during an earthquake, apparently. If you happen to be, then here's my prejudiced opinion for you to consider when the next large earrthquake strikes. I think it matters greatly where you are. If you are in a well-constructed office with sturdy furniture, then "Drop, Cover, and Hold" may be for you--protects you from projectile-books and falling ceiling tiles. If you are in an mud-chinked river-rock cabin with turf on the ceiling, then you best get outside ASAP, jumping underneath that flimsy card table isn't going to protect you from the tons of primitive building materials about to come your way. If you have no furniture to jump under and have a nice arched doorway with no door in it and far away from that big picture window in your living room...why then probably you should saunter over there and brace yourself in it. There are some advice videos  from SCEC (the Southern California Earthquake Consortium) available online by clicking here . There are some places I simply feel out of place being in. A parking structure in the city is one, the Alaskan Way Viaduct another, any elevator too. It is my plan not to be in one of those when the earthquake hits. Maybe someone else has good advice for these spots, if you can't avoid them. Paul Bodin answered in Earthquake! over 2 years ago | Report 1 comment by O my captain… 0 0 When my wife and I were in the October 15th, 2006 major quake on the big island of Hawaii, she lept out of bed, wrapped in a sheet and stood in the doorway of our room, ready to exit. I, on the otherhand, exited the other side of the bed, and ran to the balcony plate glass window doors, ready to scale down from the third floor down to the ground. (NOT the best plan. So kudos to my wife for thinking more clearly than I.) Fortunately, the hotel stood it's ground and other than minor physical cosmetic damage, it survived rather well... ten miles south of the epicenter! O my captain commented over 2 years ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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