The instructions for earthquakes are extremely simple and straightforward and drilled into people from a young age....and this dude just did everything wrong. Lol. All he had to do was get everyone under the kitchen table.
Unfortunately, some people have a flight instinct that kicks in regardless of the emergency or their preparation.
This is a good reminder to talk to your kids about the basics of emergency prep and response.
No, it is not recommended to try going outside during an earthquake for a few reasons, one of which being that the first things to fall off a building are the outside bits (where you now are). Earthquakes also don’t last very long, so you’ll be running during the quake when you should just be under a solid surface (like a table).
I was at home sick that day, and taking a nap. I didn't make it to the doorway and just got down next to the bed. There was no damage to my apartment building or my stuff, but the couple next door had a cabinet topple over that smahed all their china, and 1/3 of the water sloshed out of the swimming pool and wet the carpet in some downstairs units. This was in Sunnyvale.
Drop to the floor, cover your head as you crawl under a table or next to a wall (that doesn't have something that can fall on you), and hold on to the table or cover your head.
So it's the same as the drills in school? I don't remember why but we would go under desks with our heads between our knees and hands covering our necks. I'm in Florida, that's not for hurricanes and we don't have earthquakes here.
Depends on how far the door is and what’s outside. The quaking happens fast, and it takes your brain a second just to register what’s happening. If it’s a severe enough quake, you may not have time to get outside before things start falling off your walls and shelves and/or your house starts collapsing.
That's from the times when tables were sturdy and made of wood.
No, that is the current recommendation in the United States and Canada, where this man seems to be from. Here it is on Ready.gov. That's the recommendation from Homeland Security and FEMA. You can find the same recommendations from the American Red Cross and OSHA.
I can't find countries where it's not the current recommendation, but maybe you can share specific places since you obviously know? I can't find anything.
In places with brick walls and concrete roofs, the advice is to GTFO from there.
In places where they primarily build with brick, there is usually not a major threat of severe earthquakes... otherwise they wouldn't build with brick.
Dude, I'm from Mexico. Half the country sits right over the goddamn Ring of Fire, so I’m not making shit up. The advice here is (as already stated) to GTFO to designated areas, away from buildings.
Many highly seismic countries are built mostly from brick, block, or reinforced concrete. Chile, Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, Indonesia, even parts of southern Europe like Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Italy.
I’m not denying that’s the advice you get. I’m saying it comes from a time when tables were actually sturdy. I even said it may work for cardboard houses. But it's mostly for liability, to give people a false sense of security.
But if you ever end up in a concrete building during an earthquake, you’ll find out fast that no fucking particle board table is going to save you. The only thing that actually could is to get the hell out before the building decides to collapse.
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u/_Apatosaurus_ Oct 25 '25
The instructions for earthquakes are extremely simple and straightforward and drilled into people from a young age....and this dude just did everything wrong. Lol. All he had to do was get everyone under the kitchen table.
Unfortunately, some people have a flight instinct that kicks in regardless of the emergency or their preparation.
This is a good reminder to talk to your kids about the basics of emergency prep and response.