Revelation of 5.12 Quake, Sichuan, China Part2 Prevention

Supercourse China http://www.SuperCourse.cn/

2008-6-6

Outline

2.1 What should we do before earthquake?2.2 Monitoring and announcement of the

earthquake information2.3 Reservation of emergency supplies2.4 Education For All (EFA)2.5 What else could be done by related

departments?2.6 Summary

2.1 What should we do before earthquake?

PREVENTION AND CONTROL MEASURES

Until earthquake prevention and control measures are adopted and mitigation actions implemented throughout the United States, a single severe earthquake could cause tens of thousands of deaths and serious injuries and economic losses exceeding one hundred billion dollars (5).

Primary Prevention of Earthquakes

Although we can neither prevent earthquakes nor set off small ones to prevent big ones, we should take earthquakes into consideration before undertaking activities known to precipitate earthquakes, such as making deep well injections, filling water impoundments, and discharging nuclear explosives underground.

Recent research findings support the view that preventing structural collapse is the most effective approach to reducing earthquake-related fatalities and serious injuries (5). Engineering interventions have largely been directed to increasing the ability of new buildings to withstand ground shaking or to retrofitting existing hazardous buildings. The most stringent level of seismic security will allow buildings to withstand earthquakes with little or no damage (94).

Safer Construction

Anecdotal evidence from earthquakes in Guatemala (1976), Mexico City (1985), and Armenia (1988) suggests that suffocation from dust inhalation may be a significant factor in the deaths of many people who die without apparent severe external trauma (15,46,97). However, the use of certain building materials and finishes may reduce dust production--for example, plasterboard may produce less dust on collapse than wet applied plaster. Developing and using methods of reducing dust release during a building collapse could perhaps prevent many deaths.

Safer Construction (cont.)

Because of improved building construction codes, land use planning, and preparedness, the losses in the San Francisco Bay area from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and in the Los Angeles area from the 1994 Northridge earthquake were kept much lower than would have occurred in a less well-prepared region.

Development and Enforcement of Seismic Safety Codes

Many injuries and much of the cost and disruption from earthquakes are caused by the contents of buildings, including equipment, machinery, and other nonstructural elements. Therefore, the structural stability and robustness to violent shaking of all of these elements should be reviewed. A room-by-room review is likely to reveal many items that could cause injury to the room's occupants in the event of violent shaking. Although often beyond the purview of building codes (or any reasonable hope of enforcement for that matter), heavy furniture, glass cabinets, appliances, and objects placed where they could fall or be thrown about should be firmly secured to prevent them from striking people in the event of an earthquake. Special precautions must be taken with sources of flame or electric filaments in boilers, heaters, space heaters, pilot lights,cookers,etc.because violent shaking could cause fires.

Nonstructural Measures

2.2 Monitoring and announcement of the earthquake information

Prediction of Earthquakes• The science of predicting the time, place, and

magnitude of an earthquake is still in its infancy (100). Although some major earthquakes have been presaged by foreshocks, changes in groundwater and geothermal activity, and even animal behavior, most major earthquakes have occurred suddenly and without warning. Nevertheless, the theoretical possibility of routine earthquake prediction remains, and if everybody was warned in time and evacuated their buildings, then very few people should be killed by building collapse. Thus, earthquake prediction certainly holds out the possibility of highly effective casualty prevention in the future (101).

Current situation of China Earthquake Monitoring

• China has compiled 4 generations of Earthquake Zoning Map (1957,1978,1990,2001), which played important roles in earthquake prevention and disaster reduction for China during different periods.

• China has kept earthquake records for almost 4000 years. However, effective periods recording and danger evaluation are still not available. Before Tangshan Quake and Wenchuan Quake, there were no strong earthquake records so that prevention level is low by then .

• Recently, China Seismological Bureau has plot out 6 Emergency Response District, carrying out emergency response work in the contained provinces to reinforce the immediate response and rescue within each district.

What we learn：• Districts with no former earthquakes, thus regarded

as low quake risk areas, would unnecessarily have no severe earthquake. It is impossible to evaluate the risk level of a district based on our current scientific recognition.

• So, there should be no distinguished district difference during our earthquake prevention and reduction education, as well as buildings seismic fortification level and emergency supplies.

2.3 Reservation of emergency supplies

2.4 EFA

Drills for Evasive Actions During Earthquakes

Earthquake drills are important. Earthquakes, although sudden, are usually not instantaneous. Building occupants usually have a few seconds to react before the shaking reaches maximum intensity, raising the possibility of taking evasive action to escape injury (50,87,102). Despite the relative lack of data on the efficacy of various evasive actions, it seems worthwhile for people to practice taking some evasive actions particularly since they will have just a few seconds to act when an earthquake strikes.

Drills for Evasive Actions During Earthquakes (cont.)

However, anecdotal stories should not be the basis for responding to an earthquake: there is a distinct need to reassess all such widely accepted citizen safety actions to ensure that they are indeed the best responses (31,79,106). Only by conducting epidemiologic studies of the location of injured and noninjured people can we determine which behaviors are truly most likely to reduce the risk for injury.

2.5 What else could be done by related departments?

Planning Scenarios for Earthquakes

Relative chaos is likely to prevail immediately after a major earthquake. Area residents, cut off from the outside, will initially have to help themselves and their neighbors (16,17). They can best do this if they have already planned their responses to the most likely earthquake scenarios and practiced the necessary skills (107).

On the basis of the earthquake scenario that they develop,

public health officials should devise a response plan.

This plan should include the following:

Disaster Response to Earthquakes

Disaster response to earthquakes is more akin to medical treatment than to prevention, but some aspects of the response may be likened to tertiary prevention in that those responding seek to limit further injury and to control the secondary effects of the earthquake (92). Prompt rescue should improve the outcome of victims, and early medical treatment should lessen the sequelae of the primary injuries (e.g., wound complications, chronic neurological disabilities). Provision of adequate food, water, and shelter should especially help people in vulnerable age groups and those with pre-existing diseases. Effective environmental control measures should prevent secondary environmental health problems. Identification and control of long-term hazards (e.g., asbestos in rubble) should reduce chronic health effects.

2.6 Summary

• It is necessary to link epidemiology with engineering, architecture, social sciences and other medical sciences, which would help us understanding the casualties after the earthquake. It is important for us to better understand these dangerous factors, which enables us to effectively response to the earthquake and make arrangement about the disaster relief materials, equipments and personnel

• One of the most effective measures to improve the efficiency of disaster relief is to reinforce the protection before the disaster. In Disaster-prone areas, the training of first aid and self-help should be one important part of the prevention measures.

• Unfortunately, the frequency of severe earthquake is low, which is a big challenge for public health officers: how to explain to the public the potential danger and whether to take actions before the quake.

• So, as a citizen, it is important to keep being aware of the danger.

Supercourse China has already made more just-in-time PPT about the Sichuan Earthquake, which concerned with self-rescue and mutual-help in the earthquake, public health problems, as well as the first and secondary rescue( including psychological reconstruction ) after the disaster ect. Please visit: http://www.supercourse.cn/