Re: Quaking in my boots ? Tips for quakes

[Jean Gayle]

This message is from: Jean Gayle [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Lisa, what you say re remaining in a building is correct to a point.  When
you are in a building and it starts to weave and rock, and things are
falling my first feeling is escape to flat clear surfaces.  Two year ago I
had just come in from seeing the physician (hmmm both of these last times I
have been seeing a physician, maybe it is all my fault!) with blood pressure
of 245 over 115.  I got home, collapsed into my chair and the earthquake
hit!  The fireplace was swinging back and forth, this time we were ten miles
from the epicenter where as the recent one was thirty miles away.  My walls
and doorways were swinging and I got out of there into my field.  Did I
mention I am on a bluff? In other words the home was not a safe place. Same
with the doctors office this time as we were in the flats where they build
on pilings over marsh lands.

I had quite a time opening my door when that first one hit as it was at an
angle.

Certainly the pictures out of Seattle where walls and marquees collapse
shows why in that situation you do not run under something outside.  And the
pictures of people in auditoriums where debris is coming down from the
ceilings,,, I would have been the first one streaking out!

Anyway I defer to your experience and will try when the next one hits, which
we are fatalistically anticipating, to be in a safe place.





Jean Gayle
Aberdeen, WA
[Authoress of The Colonel's Daughter
Occupied Germany 1946 TO 1949 ]
http://www.techline.com/~jgayle
Barnes  Noble Book Stores

Quaking in my boots ? Tips for quakes

[Pedfjords]

This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

  Hi List ! 

  Glad all of you lucky folks in the PNW, got to see first hand what we 
paid for, in Ca. for so long ! g  After living with earthquakes for 20 
years or so, I admit to YAWNing through most of them. The Northridge 
quake at 6.9 got my attention, however.  So happy to hear from most people up 
there, and all appeared to have survived with frayed nerves, not frayed 
buildings. Our horses used to also snooze through the quakes, but I could 
tell that they  felt  themjust no biggie for them also, I guess. My 
deaf / missing one eyed dalmation, Siren ( cause she couldnt hear them ) 
always stood up and shivered before a quakeand Im positive she felt them 
comming. 

   I wanted to share one thing that caught my attention on more than one 
post...and that is the shaking begins...and people race outside of buildings. 
 That fact, is one of the reasons for most of the injuries in a quake ( that 
does not level the entire city, of course. ) Racing out of buildings that 
have to meet quake codes, and are for over 20 years now been built or 
refurbished to withstand quakes, is inviting problems.  Best to take shelter 
IN the building, in a doorway, or even better, under a sturdy desk, ect.  
They drill this in the Ca. schools over and over to the kids, yet on the TV 
news, they always show frightend people, rushing into the streets and being 
hit with flying or dropping debris, glass, each other, tripping and falling 
in the panic, ect. Many fractures and badly cut feet from people NOT staying 
put, but racing out only to step into glass shards , nails ect. I heard that 
there was one death from a heart attack, bet that that poor person, paniced 
and bolted...after not running anywhere for years. How sad.  Panic and 
running, even in a fire is a problem, so better to think, quick safe 
position, wait it out, then make way carefully outside.

   Stats show, over and over, that risk of injurys increase when people go 
out of a safe zone, to the outdoors, so please just keep it in mind.  The 
girl who was standing in a barn that she admitted had not been properly 
attached at the roof, was wise to exit the barn, however. It may serve her 
well for her animals sake, to at least  teko  ( sp ? ) the roof down with 
some steel plates, nailed down at the corner points.  Small investment to 
keep her roof on, and critters safe. 

  Now Im reading that theres a rush to buy drinking water, flashlights, 
batterys and first aid kits.   Business will be booming in those for awhile, 
and again, I think that sometimes  waking us up  to being disaster prepared 
only takes place AFTER a disaster !   As an American Heart Asso. CPR and 
First Aid instructor, Ive been teaching disaster prepardness for 15 years 
now. Must say, that living in UTAH, where most people here store a YEARS 
worth of foodalong with all other nessessitys, is awsome.  Y2K, came and 
went here without a nodas having a generator or being totally solar self 
sufficiant is the norm, not the exception. 

   Still glad that everyone safe and heart rates are returning to normal.  
Usually after a quake of substantial numbers, I would feel a big truck roll 
by, and wonderoh boy, is THIS the big one ? Lisa Pedersen * who's 
home in Norco, still sits almost directly over the San Andrais fault.  ( 
Listing it for sale this summer.Jean, you interested ? )   ;   O