Earthquake Safety Plan

Over this unit we learned a lot about earthquakes now we are learning about how, if we ever find ourselves in one, we can keep ourselves safe in one. If you find yourself in an earthquake some steps you should follow include:

• If you are inside the house you must drop, cover and hold. Meaning take cover under something sturdy like a table or desk. Hold onto the legs for stability and keep your head down.
• Avoid taking cover near heavy object, mirrors or windows because these things could potentially fall and shatter.
• If you are cooking quickly switch off the stove to prevent a fire and take cover.
• If you are outdoors move to an open area where things are not able to fall on you, away from power lines, trees and buildings.
• If an earthquake ever hits while you are driving make sure to pull over smoothly. Avoid bridges and overpasses and other heavier objects. Stay in car.

What should you do after an earthquake?

• Check and attend to injuries and ensure the safety of people around you.
• Check for damage and if your building is badly damaged then leave immediately.
• If you smell or hear a gas leak leave and open all the windows and doors.

What can you do to prepare for an earthquake:

• Learn the drop, cover and hold.
• Teach all the members of your family about earthquake safety.
• Stock up on emergency supplies. These include: battery operated radio (and extra batteries), flashlights (and extra batteries), first aid kit, bottled water, two weeks food and medical supplies, blankets, cooking fuel, tools needed to turn off your gas, water and electric utilities.
• Arrange your home for safety I will show you how I altered my house later on.
• Store flammable liquids somewhere safe.
• Learn where the main turn-offs for energy are in your house.

So I looked through the ground floor of my house and decided what I could change:

• If an earthquake strikes there would be no where for anyone to drop, cover and hold. So either we would have to buy sturdier tables that we would be able to take cover under. If we weren't able to purchase tables we could find safety underneath our door frames.
• There are multiple glass doors in my house so when finding a place to take cover we would have to watch for flying glass.
• I am not sure but I think that all the shelves we have are not attached to the wall with brackets so I think to make our house safer we would have to add brackets to all the shelves so that they would not topple and crush anyone.
• Another bad thing in my house is the windows because they could break and the flying glass could easily hurt someone trying to take cover or running by.

A good visual to base your house off:

http://www.eq-iq.org.nz/quakehouse

A video that shows how brackets can help shelves from falling over:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-fm_AXlJ-M