Taking Care of Business

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Where is the safest place to be in L.A. during an earthquake?

It’s a question that quake experts are hesitant to answer because natural disasters defy absolutes. A lot of it depends on a range of variables, from the time that a shaker strikes to the composition of the soil that happens to be under you. But after studying the results of thousands of past earthquakes, some generalizations can be made about the relative safety of various locations.

These are believed the five safest places:

? In your home. “There’s an asterisk there,” said Rich Eisner, regional administrator for the state Office of Emergency Services. “If your home is a wooden structure preferably built in the mid-’70s and your house is bolted to the foundation, you would be OK.”

As a result of the 1973 Uniform Building Code, homes built after 1973 must comply with more stringent codes. Not up to code are masonry buildings those brick structures that lack reinforcement from steel rebars. There are 5,000 of them in Los Angeles County, from artist’s loft districts to the central business district, said Doug Given, geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

Eisner noted that one of the worst places to be is on the sidewalk in front of one of these buildings. “They tend to peel apart and fall onto the sidewalk,” he said. “They don’t fall into themselves, but fall outward.”

? In a hospital. Hospitals must comply with state legislation passed after the 1971 Sylmar quake that mandated strict design codes to ensure patient safety in the event of an earthquake. Many hospitals around the county are still undergoing retrofits to comply, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

? On the beach. Generally considered safe because it tends to be open, with few dangerous things that could fall on you. “That is, it would be nice as long as there’s no tsunami that follows,” said Chuck James, librarian at the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley. “We had a quake up here in the 1930s and the Crescent City waterline rose 60 feet.”

? Anywhere out of doors. The more open the space, free of power poles, buildings, cliff-sides and other things that could topple on you, the better off you are.

? In an airplane. When it comes to earthquake safety, you just can’t beat being in the air. “If you’re flying, you would be lucky. There would be no problem with that scenario,” said Brian Cochran, president of the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California.

Unless, of course, the airport where your plane was scheduled to land were struck and bedlam ensued in the air traffic control booth.

So much for safe places. Asked what are the five most dangerous places to be, experts cited the following:

? On or under a hillside. “That’s the most obvious rule of thumb rumblings trigger mass landslides,” Given said. “There was at least one fatality during the Northridge earthquake because of a landslide.”

? In a non-ductile concrete building. This type of structure is made of brittle concrete that doesn’t bend or give with the rocking motions. Think of the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley, which crumbled during the 1971 Sylmar quake.

“It was a complete loss,” Eisner said. “It was rebuilt in the ’70s and ’80s with steel reinforcements. It performed extremely well in the Northridge earthquake.”

? In a parking structure. “These lots are usually built out of pre-cast concrete versus regular concrete, which is poured and is monolithic,” said Jeff Guu, vice president of EQE International, the nation’s largest structural engineering firm. “When you try to connect the various pre-cast beams, there may be a weak link.”

? In a big-box store. Items can often fly off shelves, striking customers. Injuries from such events, though, are rare.

“I’ve never seen anyone injured in a grocery store. Any shelf lower than six feet isn’t much of a hazard, but if you’re in one of those big-box stores where things are overhead, you may have problems,” Eisner said.

? On or under a freeway overpass. While driving a car may induce a false sense of security because roads are relatively open, it’s a good idea to be mindful of freeway overpasses. Remember the images from the wreckage of the 14 (Antelope Valley) Freeway after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, or the devastation of overpasses in San Francisco and Oakland in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.

“Sure, more and more freeways are being retrofitted, but ultimately, how will they hold up?” Given said. “The 14 and the 5 (Golden State Freeway) fell down in 1971 and 1994, so what will they do next time?

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