Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

The Big One

At 10 a.m. this morning Southern California held a region-wide earthquake drill. Can you picture it? Millions of people in schools, workplaces, at home, and on public transit interrupted their normal lives and pretended that there was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the San Andreas fault, lasting for about three minutes.

I spent a few years in Southern California as a child and I regarded earthquake drills as a major highlight of the school year – but an earthquake drill that everyone takes part in sounds even more fun! The part of me that is still 10 years old knows it would be exciting to participate in something big and important and out of the normal order of things. But, a drill this comprehensive also appeals to my super-responsible inner adult. Now that I'm grown up, I know that when I have to do difficult, stressful things, it really does pay to have had a chance to practice first. And it might be nice to have the experience of practicing for an earthquake with everyone in the whole metro area – neighbors, co-workers, friends and strangers alike. Perhaps we'll get our chance someday.

In the meantime, it's only responsible for me to remind you all that although earthquakes aren't as frequent here in Cascadia as they are along the San Andreas fault, we are prone to them, too.  And furthermore, ice storms, tornadoes, floods and volcanic eruptions have all occurred here within living memory.  The library has dozens of books that can help you hone your survival skills, but if you're interested in understanding why some folks do well in disasters, and other don't; or if you wonder why some disasters are just, well, more disastrous than others, I'd recommend The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes–And Why. Author Amanda Ripley examines past disasters through stories of real people's experiences, and scientific studies of disaster survival and emergency management. Here's one startling conclusion she makes: mass panic in disasters is actually quite rare. For the most part, when unexpected horror arrives, people help each other and act in a way that is outwardly quite calm. And what's Ripley's advice about how you and I can prepare for a calamity? She asserts that one of smartest, most efficient things local government and disaster planning organizations can do to help make disasters less, um, disastrous, is to encourage people to meet their neighbors and co-workers. Give folks a chance to practice a little bit of “safety first” with each other, she says, and not only will they have experience to draw on when it's really important, but may have begun to establish relationships with each other. Basic competence and human cooperation are quite important in surviving the unthinkable, it seems.

If you're more of a historical bent and the news of Southern California's earthquake drill has got you thinking about the past, you might appreciate Denial of Disaster, by Gladys Hansen and Emmet Condon. It's about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, but instead of telling the story with narrative, statistics, or personal stories, it presents hundreds of previously unpublished photographs of the destruction following the earthquake, and of the fire, the looting, and the rebuilding of the city. The pictures are vivid, fascinating, appalling, and beautiful at the same time.