From: stead@skadi.CSS.GOV (Richard Stead)
Newsgroups: ca.earthquakes
Subject: Re: Running out of the building
Date: 18 Aug 92 21:13:06 GMT
Distribution: ca

In article <Bt5nLL.GJv@well.sf.ca.us>, casey@well.sf.ca.us (Kathleen Creighton) writes:
> 
> You know, it has been my observation that the *first* thing people are going
> to do is "leave the building".  That's what I did.  That's what my
> neighbors did.  That's what everyone's who's posted here did.  And from
> hearing their stories, that's what people in SoCal did, too.  We didn't
> know this until we experienced it ourselves, but wanting *out* of the
> building seems like a natural response.
> 
> So in a moment of high panic, adrenalin pumping, it seems to me that "stay
> in the building" denies outright the fact that most people want to *leave*.
> Wouldn't it make more sense to tell people to have a sense of their
> surroundings (that's what I did in my apartment when the earthquake
> started--I glanced around where I was sitting to make sure nothing on the
> wall was going to come at me) and to proceed only if they perceive those
> surroundings to be safe?  Running out to the middle of a parking lot in
> most cases doesn't strike me as a bad idea, but you wouldn't want to be
> standing within reach of a stanchion, right?  Or power lines.  Or, as in
> the case of downtown San Francisco, on the sidewalk under those buildings,
> especially the older ones.  In fact, the people who walked up to the
> Upper Market area from downtown came up the *middle* of Market Street.
> 
> What do you think?

I think it's a bad idea.

A couple folks have already answered that this is not a good idea (falling
glass from tall buildings, etc.), but let me give an example.
The Whittier Narrows quake caused three deaths.  One was a ditch digger
caught when the crib holding the dirt back collapsed and buried him.  That
was an apparantly unavoidable problem, and I would definitely recommend
running out of any ditch you happen to be in in a quake.  However, the other
two deaths were avoidable.  One man, a recent immigrant from Guatemala,
leapt to his death from his second-floor window.  Best guess is that he
was used to the collapses of structures in Guatemala during quakes and
did what would havebeen the smart thing there.  The third death was a college
woman who tried to run out of a parking garage.  She was hit by a large piece
of decorative concrete that fell from the outside wall.

The point is, by far the most dangerous area in a quake is just outside any
building (on any side, not just where the door is).  This is where the most
stuff and most dangerous stuff falls, and it also falls the furthest.
Stuff is likely to be just raining down out there - it don't take a big 'ol
skyscraper window to guillotine you in half to kill you, one brick from
a few floors up will smash your skull just fine.  What else falls?  Cornices,
outside stairs, balconies, chimneys, porch roofs, and entire exterior walls.
Two children in Idaho were killed when the brick wall of a store they
were standing next to collapsed during the Borah Peak quake.

If you're inside, stay there (unless you have specific and very accurate
information that the building is unsafe, not just a "gut feeling" or whatever).
If you're outside, get clear of the buildings or get some serious cover.
If you're downtown in LA, you should consider running INTO a building - there
is just no good cover out there.  (Getting under a car has been suggested,
but the cars will move during the quake and you would probably have to be
pretty agile to stay with it.  Getting into a car might be ok, but get down,
because a load of bricks will flatten the roof.)  Other outdoor dangers -
wires are bad - snapping around unpredictably and live, telephone poles
and trees can be snapped off, heavy branches will fall, and stay away from
steep or rocky slopes - slides are a big problem.  Also, being in the middle
of a street without skyscrapers is still not safe - it has been estimated
that when those windows blow out of the skyscrapers, they could travel
several blocks before hitting the ground.  If you are within 5 or 6 blocks
of a galss skyscraper, take cover.

(Why are the windows a problem?  They are held on with a force equivalent
to several psi.  If they fail, it is instantaneous, which means there is
now an enormous unbalanced force pushing the window out.  This force is
sufficient to throw an object the weight of the window several blocks.)


--
Richard Stead
Center for Seismic Studies
Arlington, VA
stead@seismo.css.gov