[californiadisasters] Learning From The Earthquake

Learning From The Earthquake

By Alex Steffen, 18 Apr 06

Worldchanging.com

Learning From The Earthquake

Volunteers Crucial in Disasters

There simply aren't enough professionals available to cover all the emergencies in a disaster. Volunteer rescuers in San Francisco's Marina District on the night of the 1989 earthquake outnumbered professionals three-to-one during the critical first few hours. And it still wasn't enough. Only a small portion of the people present offered emergency help, despite the romanticized press to the contrary.

Considering the amount of money and bureaucracy spent (well spent) on preparing the Bay Area's buildings for earthquakes, it is startling to realize how little is spent on preparing people. The widespread earthquake literature focuses on self-preservation, not on helping others, nor on the niceties of being helped. As a result, volunteer rescuers on October 17 had to make it up as they went – wasting vital time and making unnecessary mistakes.

The city – and a watching world – were quick to praise the volunteers of that night, but no one has asked them what they learned, what they would do differently next time. The event was treated as drama, not as lesson.

Especially valuable is the experience from the Marina, where – thanks to a fatal combination of bad apartment house design and shaky local geology – it was not the Pretty Big One that most people in the Bay Area experienced. In a few square blocks it was 1906 again, a foretaste of the Big One to come for all.

I was lucky enough – I just happened to be driving by at 5:04 p.m. when the earthquake struck – to be a volunteer working at what turned out to be the signature event of the earthquake in San Francisco, the spectacular fire in collapsed apartment buildings at Beach and Divisadero streets in the Marina.

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View entire article here: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004327.html

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