Old house Earthquake safety

23 comments

1. You probably won’t have time to run outside. I duck for cover under the dining table or my desk if I’m downstairs. Both of those are pretty sturdy. If I’m upstairs I just pray.

2. Getting outside to the field is good for potential aftershocks but you most likely won’t have the time or ability get out during a really big one. Better to focus on protecting your head. I was not here for 3/11 but I’ve been here for a couple big ones and there is a 2 fold thing of surprise and disorientation. My local summer festival has an earthquake simulator truck. I’d recommend trying it if you see one sometime.

3. Did you experience any earthquakes yet ? For me, I am still not used to the alarm on the mobile phone. So when I hear it , I start looking for the device, oh what is it this time ? and then the house already shakes. While shaking it is difficult to move and it is better to take cover and if you think it continues, run out before the aftershocks.

4. Look up videos of strong earthquake simulations. You physically cannot even stand up during a strong earthquake, much less walk or run. All you’ll end up doing is tripping and falling and possibly hurting yourself in the process. Hide under something and protect your head.

5. Yeah fuck that, those old houses are all top heavy, terracotta on top, cardboard on the bottom.

   I am a woodworker, I sometimes work with Sugi that shit breaks easily. Soft ass wood but has good flexibility.

6. You are supposed to stay in house during the shakes. Falling glass and other objects are the most dangerous.

7. I would recommend going to one of the simulation centers or the mobile trucks. I’m pretty sure it goes to 震度7.

   Best to prepare beforehand that nothing falls on you, because you’re probably not moving much under your own power.

8. You could get one of those earthquake proof beds that swallow you. 😊

9. I’ve lived through a magnitude 8.4 earthquake that pretty much destroyed my hometown and a 3 1/2 minute magnitude 8 one some years later, both times it felt like the world was ending and many houses/buildings just gave out.

   One thing they teach us back home, where most buildings are not earthquake safe, is that first you put some distance between yourself and windows/shelves and then get the hell out of the building itself as fast as possible. The longer you wait the more you risk it collapsing on top of you. I believe the thing they say about waiting under a desk is mostly useful if you’re in a newer building with low chances of getting destroyed during the earthquake, or maybe just places like 10 story apartments where there’s just no way you’ll get out on time.

   So I think that if you know your house is old and might collapse it might be better to just get out asap.

10. I lived in a 2 story wooden house and was told the second floor was safer as the house was designed to fall like a domino keeping the 2nd floor intact and the first floor falling over to one side

11. Completely unrelated, but “Old House Quake” would make a great EDM band name.

12. My house is 3 stories and is 25 years old. It has concrete supported walls on the 1st floor and we’re on the edge of a bluff in Yokohama. My office is on the 3rd floor. In 25 years I have fled the house to the nearby park twice after grabbing my passport and wallet. No, during the Fukushima quake I got my family out then went back inside for my dogs in between secondary quakes. There is no way I’d stay in the house during a big one.

13. I used to live in a two-storey house built in 1997. I experienced a Shindo 7 in it back in 2016. I truly thought it was going to collapse. But it didn’t. Yeah, I ran outside and even slept in my car for two nights. 

14. Focus on giving yourself options to remain inside safely; unless you get a decent warning you won’t make it out in time. Choose study furniture you can get under in most rooms if possible.

    I am no expert and am new to Japan but I do think it’s unlikely you get more than 20s notice of a quake, and a strong Shindo often means you’re close to the epicenter so there is even less or no time to run outside.

    If you are renting maybe you can move to a more modern place eventually, if you own, there are remediation works available that can strengthen and improve your house and evaluate the risk level.

15. Just to throw this out there: If your house is “old”, it has been through a few earthquakes. Still got plumb walls and flat floors? That should be reassuring to some extent. The house I’m in survived the great Hanshin earthquake. That guarantees nothing of course, but I’d rather be tucked in a doorway inside, than trying to stagger outside where roofing tiles, exploding windows, power lines, telephone poles, etc. are everywhere. Once the shaking stopped, I’d definitely be hightailing it for the nearest field.

    I just hope I don’t have to find out the hard way that whatever choice I make is the wrong one.

16. Pro Life Tip: Stop trying to outsmart experts. You do not have as much knowledge as they do and you never will.

    There’s massive amounts of free earthquake saftey information at your ku/shi-yakusho. Go get it and do everything it says. Right now you aren’t focusing on the things under your control and what is actually likely to kill you.

17. If it’s big enough to take down the house, you won’t be able to run. Crawl, maybe.

    I think your best bet is to shelter under a table.

    I hate to say it, but take care of yourself first. Unless your kids & pets are in your arms, don’t bother getting them. Who is going to dig them out of rubble if you have been knocked unconscious? Get under the table or cover your head, and at best, call to them.

    BTW, standing in the doorway is a myth, unless you live in an adobe house. Propping the doorway open is not a bad idea, but protecting your head and not running during the shaking should be priority #1.

18. in the 20 years I’ve lived here, virtually every story I can think of about people dying in earthquakes came from outside walls, tiles, or other heavy objects falling on them; I can’t think of any that died because their house collapsed

    that’s purely apocryphal, I’m sure I’m missing some (also, I’m ignoring people who died in landslides caused by quakes), but Japan is pretty serious about the science behind their safety rules.

    If they recommend staying inside, that’s what I would do personally.

19. Ok random question. I live at the top of an old apartment block which is the 6-th floor. There is no elevator on the way down I would have to run down 6 stories of winding narrow stair cases.

    Would people still recommend me to try to make my way down or hide under a desk in my room? I just feel like my chances would be better if I remained inside.

20. If the public alarm goes off, you have a minute if you’re lucky before the tremors can become too large for you to even stand.
    But indeed, the old-style wood buildings with heavy, anti-typhoon roofs tend to twist and then pancake, crushing whomever is inside.

21. How old? The last major revision to earthquake regs was in 1981. If your house was designed to those specs, you’re already in decent shape. If older and you own it, you could try getting quotes on remediation and such.

    I’m not sure what minor revisions to the regs exist, nor how much they vary, for houses built to the last major version.

22. My house is 100 years old, the landlord added metal bars to give extra support. If you live in a crowded city with narrow street it’s much worse outside, if you’re in the inaka you could try make a dash for it but things happen so fast by the time you realize it’s an earthquake it’s already over. Either way there’s no fighting against Mother Nature.

23. I being in couple of mid and high mag 6 while I was sleeping,luckily for me it was a short ones. By the time I woke up and realised it was earthquake, it’s had stop. But the larger one than went up and down rather than the usual side by side. I was almost thrown off my bed, so yeah not going to be able to get out of the room if it went on longer.