Seattle Press on Line - How To Survive An Earthquake

How To Survive An Earthquake

By Dick Falkenbury

Mar 07, 2001 -- It's bad enough that the local media, for the most part, immediately went into warp-speed hyperbolic overdrive after the earthquake, but to have everyone go along for the ride is slightly embarrassing.

Just a couple of thoughts, people:

To the KIRO 710 radio reporter who breathlessly announced that Pioneer Square looked "like a war zone," I ask: Have you ever seen a war zone? Did you really even see Pioneer Square, or were you actually looking at pictures on TV--the lazy reporter's method of gathering "news"?

Some poor soul called up the radio station and suggested that we each have an earthquake kit in our house, and another in our car trunk because, "What if you were trapped in your car like those in the Oakland quake in 1989?" Those people were crushed by a collapsed highway! How would they have gotten to their trunks? And what, pray tell, would they have in there to save themselves--a Jaws of Life?

This guy suggested that we might want a handheld water filter to "pump dirty water from a ditch." I gotta tell you folks, if it ever got so bad that my top choice for water was a dirty ditch, a water pump would not make my day.

And if one more talking head talks about "getting safely out of a building," I am going to join up with John Carlson and institute a new law: "Three stupid words of advice and you're out!" Follow this if you can: Most of the falling things were on the sidewalks downtown--if you had "gotten out of the building" you would've run right into the path of falling bricks. The most dangerous place in an earthquake is the outside of a building, where broken glass, falling brick and downed electrical wires tend to congregate.

Furthermore, you are far more likely to be injured in the stampede to get out than you are by hanging tight and staying cool. Get under a piece of furniture or a doorway (the strongest parts of any structure) and know that new construction methods make it unlikely that anything bad will happen. No one has ever been killed by a crack in the plaster.

The most important part of earthquake preparedness is this: Get to know your neighbors. In a really big disaster, we are going to have to count on each other. There is no way to be ready for any and all emergencies. Start by being a friend to your neighbors: help with yard work, have them over for dinner and then, when you need each other, it will be second nature.

And by the way--the monorail didn't fall down, and it never lost power. It kept right on moving.

Talk to Dick: falkenbury@aol.com.

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