Ask HN: How are you trained to deal with earthquakes?

2 points

2 years ago

Here are lots of people in California, which is seismically active region. I wonder how people in California, or Japan, or Chile, or other places, are educated to deal with earthquakes, and how they react when it happens?

If you experience mild/moderate shaking -- no casualties, just cracks in wall finish, for example, what do people do afterwise? Do they freak out, stay outdoors, doomscroll, rush out of the city, go to diviners, etc?

I moved from a seismically stable plain to mountains with active seismicity, and over last 2 months we've had two major earthquakes, felt at 3-4 degrees locally.

Turns out people aren't prepared at all. They run downstairs, during or immediately after the quakes, stay outdoors for hours even in winter cold (it's 0..-5°C here), spread rumors.

The most discussed topic is: why Google app didn't warn ahead, or SMS notification from emergency ministry didn't come on time. And whether/how the outdoor sirens & loudspeakers worked. (Of course few will trust the seismologists anyway.) The most ridiculous question that people seriously talk: which pet to get, that'll warn you hours/minutes ahead.

Kudos to journalists, they don't support that, but the discussions make me sad. (20 years ago I experienced 2-3-degree shakes, and educated myself minimally -- looked up some data on USGS [1], later watched what happened in Japan, talked to architects and a geophysicist.)

I wonder how developed nations cope with this, and how well it works.

[1] https://earthquake.usgs.gov/