Stop it.

Motherf'er, I hate earthquakes.

Okay, say you're in an apartment -- the top of three stories -- in the Outer Richmond (formerly known as The Great Sand Waste). Do you stay inside or run outside?

I need to know these things.

Comments

[Burningbird]

Duck under doorway, or very strong table.

My place is in South Beach -- land fill on the bay. Interesting rolling sensation.

[vilija]

Doorways lead to crushed hands; but then again, my instinct, as witnessed tonight, to hug the nearest wall isn't all that great either...

[robyn]

I know they say you get "used" to the disaster you live with and "prefer" it over any other -- but I'll take the hurricanes here and the tornadoes back home in Oklahoma over earthquakes any day. At least with the other two, you know they're coming!

[Jeff]

The very first memory in my life was being in a 7.5 earthquake just north of LA. It is the 10th strongest quake in the contiguous US.

I remember the park, next to our house, "rolling" down the hill.

About 20 years ago, I was visiting my sister who lived just south of San Jose, when the house started to shake. I instinctively ran for her young daughter. She ran to the stereo. Said it was the only thing that wasn't paid for yet! -g

[Jeff]

Just read about last night's quake and I see it was centered just south of Gilroy. My sister now lives in Gilroy...

Mena, this is a first for me: getting my news from your blog.

[Tish]

I’m on a third floor in North Beach. Yeah, it would be good to know what to do. I just looked at the pile of books, on the shelf, just above my head and thought...oh dear.

[Karin]

Mena and everyone, I took a class called "geohazards" last semester (earthquakes and volcanos) and one of the things the instructor told us was DON'T GO UNDER DOORWAYS. They are prone to collapse; a sturdy table is much, much better.

Also, if the ground is soft or sandy I would vote for going outside...too easy for the whole building to collapse. Not that a nice midwest girl needs to know this stuff, but hey I needed an environmental based class for graduation.

[Christine]

I was born and raised in San Francisco, and have always feared earthquakes... I have lived in Sacramento the last 12 years, that fear is still with me....
Mena, I head for the door.... if I am in a public building I am always aware where the exits are, I still do that here in Sacramento.... I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. Just do what you feel is the best at the time.....

[mihow]

I live in Brooklyn. I moved here about two years ago. And no one warned me about earthquakes in Brooklyn and if they had I would have laughed and then called them crazy.

About two months in my new apartment, I woke up to a lamp falling and cats darting in every direction. The house shook and I just figured it was some kind of electrical surge and so I went right back to sleep. You might think an "electric surge" would cause alarm? pfft, not at 7:30 in the morning.

It turns out it was an earthquake and that the reason Manhattan dips from tall structures (in soho) to small structures and then back to tall again, is because it's built on a fault-line. I did not know this.

So, I recommend sleeping through them and one heavy dose of denial. That seems to help.

[Brent Bigler]

Odd that one isn't supposed to go under doorways. I'd think they're less prone to collapse than a ceiling, as they have more frame to them. Then again, I'm no structural engineer.

The gold standard is getting outside, but you don't always have the time. Perhaps you get under what you can, if only to protect yourself from falling objects. If the whole building collapses, being under a desk ain't gonna help much.

I spent Loma Prieta under my bed at Stanford (the bed was waist-high). By contrast, I spent Northridge IN bed, not quite awake and thinking it would stop soon enough.

This latest SF quake was moderately strong at 5.2. Pray for more just like it, rather than the BIG ones!

[Paul]

My immediate reaction to an earthquake would be, "I'm moving."

Chicago: we don't really have earthquakes - just cold winters, hot summers, and bad baseball teams.

[Nicole]

The weird thing is, I didn't even feel it--I did, however, notice everything shaking. But all the same, living here in the Presidio, in a house built by the army...on sand...

Funny story: my old housemate had a guest from Denmark staying with us when a little trembling started. Her eyes grew very wide and she asked us "What the hell was that?" No one had told her about our earthquakes. She very quickly decided to take a walk for the next five hours, until she was certain there would be no more shaking.

[Christine]

We recently had an earthquake in upstate NY. Talk about people having no idea what to do!! In elementary school we had fire drills and air raid drills (duck & cover! boy those were fun), but no one ever mentioned earthquakes...

[beerconsumer]

There was an earthquake?

[Robert Scoble]

During an earthquake you should first get away from things that can hurt or maim you. The chances that your building will go down are very small. Even if it does, you probably won't be hurt by the building itself. It's usually things falling or breaking that hurt or kill you.

Especially get away from brick work. In 1989 bricks killed several people in Santa Cruz and Los Gatos (in fact, I wouldn't be suprised to learn that bricks caused most of the deaths that happened away from the freeway collapse).

Other things to worry about: glass. A window that breaks, or a picture frame that falls, can do nasty stuff to you.

After you are sure you aren't close to bricks, glass, or other things that could fall and hurt you, then you can think about the structural problems of the building you're in.

Generally, though, by the time you worry about bricks and glass the shaking stops.

The main thing in ALL emergencies is "don't freak out." Why? Cause, you'll probably do something stupid.

For instance, a house burned down after the earthquake the other night. Why did it burn down? Because the family heard the fire, went to the garage, opened the door, and saw the flames and then left the door open.

If you suspect something is going wrong, feel the door for heat. If it's hot, leave it closed. A friend who's a firefighter said that leaving the door closed would have saved the house and probably $50,000 to $100,000 in damage.

Also, by having the instinct to always run outside during an earthquake, you might get hit by falling debris or glass that's popping out of window frames. You're probably far safer inside.

I agree that it's good to take stock of your location at all times and know the escape routes. Look for brick work and glass. Make sure you avoid that.

If you're in an office building, look for things like filing cabinets or book shelves that aren't tied down. They can crush you.

[Dinah]

Right. All that stuff Robert said is exactly in line with what I learned in my preparedness course.

Building collapse is unlikely in a 3 story building on a relatively gradual slope. Given the exit route you would be taking down the stucco covered spiral stairs & out the gate which can only be opened by pushing an inconveniently located button, you are far better off inside.

A doorway is fine in a low building like yours - there's no weight of stories above you to force such a collapse. Your best door frames are those with structural significance - I'm guessing from memory that the bedroom door is one as is your front door.

To avoid crushed fingers, shelter in a door with your back to the hinges - that way if the door swings closed, you'll catch it with your hips & shoulders long before it reaches a tight enough angle to do any harm on the latch side.

Robert is quite correct - your biggest dangers are from small things falling on you - glass breaking, things falling off shelves, bookcases falling over, etc. and from decorative structural pieces falling off buildings. Given the comparative damage of, say, one of those picture frames over your tv and a brick, I'd stay inside. :)

You can do a lot to prevent falling objects. I'll lend you some museum wax and you can use it to secure vases & the like. Very simple to use.

And, I should add, in my coming up on 37 years as a California resident, I have never had anything larger than a small cassette tape rack fall over and the oven door drop open. On the whole, I'll stick with earthquakes over hurricanes, tornados & floods, thank you very much.

[marrije]

There was this guy I once saw on National Geographic (or something) who was an expert on earthquake rescue.
He said whatever you do DON'T hide under a big table, since this will certainly crush you if the house collapses. In stead, find a large, solid piece of furniture (like a dresser) and crouch beside it. If the ceiling falls, the beams & stuff will fall on the dresser and the floor, creating a angle and thus a small space in which you will probably survive.
He showed a lot of footage from Bad Earthquakes in which you could see that there were indeed lots of these spaces, from which a person would stand a fair chance of being rescued.

Moving to The Netherlands might also be an option, though...

[mobius]

You spelled "motherfucker" wrong.

[lynn]

personally, i find earthquakes thrilling...you mustn't mess with mother nature!

i remember seattle in '64 the great earthquake and our bowls of cereal started bouncing across the table and in burst the neighbor lady with her three kids in her arms...what adrenaline!

today, i awake in so.cal to the windows rattling and cats spinning, the hanging plants swinging and know that we must take nothing for granted

[Cecilia]

I was living in Mountain View during the 1989 quake. When I got out of the military I high tailed it out of California because those quakes scare me to death. I live in Denver now. I'd rather have the occasional blizzard.

During the quake in 89 I ran like hell outside then slept with the lights on thinking I'd be safer. Still trying to figure out my rationalization for that.

[Guy Parsons]

If you're on the top floor there's not so much that can fall down and squash you, particularly if you hide under something. Then again, it's a long way down. Tough call!

[Daniel]

The American Red Cross has a handy checklist to prepare for disaster. Just go to the website when the disaster starts and go through the checklist...

[April]

Bah... under a sturdy table.

You have it easy. I used to live in a three-floor town house, and my room was on the first floor, with the bed right underneath where the big ol' upright grand piano was sitting on the second floor. I was always worried that if there was an earthquake while I slept, the heavy mass of wood, fake ivory, and strings would fall on top of me somehow.