Shaking things up at earthquake fair
Simulator lets people prepare for the Big One
They were giving away free earthquakes in San Francisco on Tuesday, but you had to hold on to the safety bar.
“That was a 7.5-magnitude quake that lasted 43 seconds,” said Jeff Rice, the fellow at the controls.
Rice was inviting allcomers to take a seat inside his earthquake simulator, the must-see exhibit at the San Francisco Earthquake Safety Fair in the Civic Center. It might have been a simulated quake, but the ashen faces of the people as they stepped from the simulator were the real deal.
The idea, Rice said, was that if fair visitors experienced a fake earthquake, they might take all the safety-first advice at the fair just a bit more seriously.
Rice, who sells earthquake safety equipment, could have dialed up a more intense quake than a 7.5, but he was a nice guy and, he said, a 7.5 quake gets the idea across. That’s what it did for one woman who stepped from the simulator and looked as if she were about to part with her breakfast on the Grove Street sidewalk.
“I’m getting the next plane out of town,” said Sandra Falabrino of San Francisco. “That was scary.”
What happens at a quake safety fair is that public safety officials sit at tables inside Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and pass out whistles, flashlights and first-aid kits. At other tables, building contractors try to sign up scared-senseless homeowners for $80,000 earthquake retrofit jobs.
Civic leaders stood on the stage, welcomed all comers and served up the standard litany of quake warnings, most of them of the not-if-but-when variety.
“We know it’s coming, we know it’s coming,” Supervisor Norman Yee said.
“You can never be too prepared,” Police Chief Bill Scott said.
One booth was selling earthquake survival kits. The standard kit comes with a two-day supply of nondescript food squares, while the deluxe kit comes with a two-day supply of beef stroganoff.
Another booth had phone chargers and glow sticks. There were rubber dummies for practicing CPR and there were emergency checklists that advised all San Francisco residents to keep the obvious stuff on hand — like food and water. And to also keep nonobvious stuff on hand — like teddy bears for the kids, a rubber bone for the dog and $50 in cash, all in $1 bills.
“Nobody is going to be able to make change after an earthquake,” said Rob Stengel of the Department of Emergency Management.
The people at the Pacific Gas and Electric booth were passing out miniature foam rubber safety cones. The cone won’t do anything to make your house safer during an earthquake, the PG&E man said, but if you squeeze it during an earthquake, it might relieve your stress.
The city emergency management booth was one of the many places at the fair you could get a free whistle to blow if you find yourself trapped beneath earthquake rubble, providing you are trapped in the same place as the whistle.
Elizabeth Daskarolis took one of the whistles and said she planned to blow it on vacation in Italy, which is where she said she hopes to be when the next San Francisco earthquake hits.
“Anyplace but San Francisco,” she said.
At one table, San Francisco Fire Department inspectors were handing out complimentary smoke alarms, because firefighters believe in smoke alarms, even if smoke alarms aren’t really useful in the event of earthquakes. A 7.5-magnitude earthquake is going to wake you up, said inspector Tomie Kato, no beeping required.
“It’s very possible that there will be fires after an earthquake,” she said, just as there were in 1906 when much of San Francisco that hadn’t fallen down wound up burning down instead. “It’s best to be prepared for everything.”