Originally posted by arbiture
Originally posted by Aggie Man
This is kind of like warning the world of hurricanes, tornadoes, etc...Obviously, everyone knows they are going to happen...the question is where and
when and to what severity. So, with your warning, what do you suggest? That no one enter any structure in a earthquake zone? Move to higher ground? Or
are you simply stating the obvious...strong earthquakes will occur in the future just as they have in the past......
.....
Understanding the nature of natural disasters, One has to prepare based on the local risk. And thats based on where you live. For me we have three
types of natural disasters that can be game changers. It may seem odd, but even as a very young child I was always leary about living near the coast.
When I lived in Australia on Bondi beach, I owned a motor bike. This could take me safely to the blue mountains in an hour. I assumed the roads would
be crammed with cars. Where I come from, and have lived most my life is in the American midwest, the so called upper midwest. We had few things we had
to be concerned about. However...
We do from time to time get some very vicious tornados. My house is built like a bomb shelter. Not that I built it, it was built by an ex SAC General.
In 1975 a tornado utterly destroyed the town of Zenia Ohio. It looked from the air they had droped a nuke. So it happens from time to time. The other
problem we have in Minneapolis is some times the Miss. river over flows its banks. I don't live near the river and so don't worry to much about it.
But I have federal flood insurance in case a watermain breaks. The last one is a blizzard or super cold spell, (we get the later a lot). For that I
supplement my power with solar cells, and I have a generator in my back yard that runs off of natural gas or can run off gasoline from my cars.
So the best thing you can do is to evaluate where you are. What are the likely dangers and how to mitigate them. If your in or around yellowstone, and
it blows, the blast wave at 100mph will over come any chance to escape. You may not want to hear this but its the truth. Another good habit to get
into is to pay special attention to the news. I don't mean local news, at least not most of the time. But the cable news channels. A very good news
source if all you have is radio is your local National Public Radio station.
You did make mention of earthquakes, and I really diden't cover that in my last post. As a general rule, no area on Earth has just one earthquake.
After shocks can exceed the power of the original quake. Your pretty safe if in a magnitude of 7.1 if the building has its load beering structures
reinforced with rebar. Recently we have seen earthquakes much more powerfull by hundreds of times. We just don't have the data as to what happens.
Buildings can twist and contort above 7.2. That can in theory snap the rebar, but oddly I have not seen evidence of that. (I do scan civil engineering
journals after a major event, sometimes very usefull data is not picked up by the main news sources, but their getting better.)
Of course, blocks or bricks stacked up on top of each other with out mortor (good) or rebar (better) is what we saw in Haiti. I think some one could
sneeze and those buildings would fall. In an earthquake you have two major types of ground movement. You have up and down, or thrust forces. And you
have side to side, or shear forces. Construction types can be vulnerable to one over another. If your building your own house and really got money to
burn, I have told people to incorporate earthquake protection into new buildings. An earthquake can happen any where on earth, their just more likely
in some areas. The most powerfull earthquake to hit the US was the New Madrid MO. quake in the early 19th century.
It was mind boggling, perhaps a 9 or greater. It was sparcely populated, and still killed several hundred. To give you an idea how strong, a magnitude
6.5 will knock you to the ground, and you won't be able to stand up untill it's over. Above that objects are thrown up in the air. If you can in
effect build a building that incorporates section isolation, it will wobble but because the main body slides independant of the ground contact, your
building and you will make it. Having auto-shut gas lines is very important. The isolation concept is how the buildings inside NORAD are built on
giant shock absorbers.
If your just not sure how safe it is to go back inside, don't. You need an engineer to check it out. Some fist responders are trained in "structural
integrity, 101" After a massive quake, professionals are going to be scarce. Assuming they survived, they will have their hands full. Its a good idea
to own a sleeping bag, pup tent, and camping stove. You might need them awhile.
