Drop or run?

Pol Lugo

 SURIGAO City––In Nepal, earthquake awareness in schools have been repeatedly told to the students over and over again: stand beside the door, hide under the disk or bed if there is an earthquake, but don’t run.

Let’s take the case of school children who followed the instruction of “drop, cover and hold on” (DCH) when that earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck in Nepal on April 25, 2015. This is what happened to school kids as revealed by Pradip Besyal of Nepal:

“Kalpana Gajural was preparing for her +2 examination in the front yard of her house in Laharepauwa of Rasuwa District. As soon as the earthquake struck, she ran inside their house and hid under the bed as she was instructed in school. Their house collapsed, the bed crushed her to death.

“Five children who were playing on an open field in kahule of Newakot district went running into their house and hid under a bed when the shaking started. All of them were killed.

“Bil Prashad Shrestha of Aarughat of Gorkha lost his daughter after he wished her long life on her birthday. ‘He’s wife and daughter were upstairs when the house started shaking. His daughter didn’t come down saying she had been told in school to take cover under the bed. Their house collapsed, and there was no one to rescue her. When found, she was already dead.”

These painful stories of what happened to the school children in Nepal who religiously followed teacher’s instructions in school prompted experts to question this method of “Drop, Cover and Hold on” of earthquake safety. After all it is not safe at all.

It was found out that most of those who ran to open areas when that April 25, 2015 earthquake happened in Nepal lived. While those kids who followed their school earthquake awareness program died. Kalo-oy sab.

This DCH method of earthquake safety should take considerations of some factors: the strength of the structure, the flooring and the roof of the house or building are not too heavy and the concrete pillars cannot block people to reach easily to safe open space immediately. There is a policy in Israel that schools’ desks must be able to withstand at least one-ton of weight, and in Japan houses are mostly made of lighter materials. In this case, DCH is useful before one can run.

However, earthquake awareness program in schools and in the communities is very important and necessary in order to inculcate the consciousness of disaster preparedness among the people and school children. It’s better to be prepared than none at all.