2 Earthquakes Hit Southwestern Sumatra

At 07:15 PM this evening, two earthquakes hit the south-western area of Sumatra in the Bengkulu area - 7.9 and 8.4 on the Richter scale. Each earthquakes is quite powerful on its own and when both hit almost within a 5-minute gap, that really raises a number of alarm bells.

Buildings in the CBD area were swaying and tenants who were still working at the time were instructed to evacuate the buildings. Is that the correct advice to give to people during an earthquake? I wonder because the very act of evacuating the building and assembling downstairs could instead pose more problems than good. What is the fear during a tremor? Isn't it that the building may collapse as a result of the loosening of the building foundations? And yet there are some (I would think majority) building management still ignorant of this and just as in a fire evacuation, instruct all tenants to leave by the staircase.

I should think everyone should learn from nations that are faced with very frequent earthquakes to find out how they prepare and educate their people. I recall I was on the 33rd floor of Arkmori Tower in Tokyo back in 1985 when a major earthquake (I think it was a 6.9 magnitude) hit Tokyo at around 3:30PM. I was conducting a workshop at that time and thinking that I was tired from jetlag and ignorant of earthquakes, I grabbed hold of the edge of the instructor's head-table and innocently asked my Japanese students what was happening.

All of them were busy looking out of the meeting room windows at the neighboring buildings swaying and they were applauding as they watched. So, ignorant as i was, I started to panic and asked them what I should be doing. They pointed me to the bottom of the table to locate the hard-hat, the torchlight and the bottle of mineral water and that I should duck for cover under the table if I don't feel comfortable. Well, seeing them having so much fun watching the buildings I soon decided to drop my fears and join them admiring the swaying movements.

Now that was a 6.9 and it was in 1985. Office tables in those days were still made of solid wood and they had proper legs and set of drawers and there is a space in between the legs where one can easily scurry into and take cover and with solid table legs, that can provide an airwell even if the buildings were to collapse and the structures were to come crashing down. To quote them, it is safer to stay under the table than to evacuate and get knocked down by debris.

So important lesson I learnt then and still stuck in my head - never panic in an earthquake and to look for a good strong corner to take cover - under solid tables or under the door frames would be helpful. I still cannot fathom the instructions given by anxious building security personnel to evacuate and then leave the tenants to get hit on the head by falling masonry. I guess they are not to be blamed as that is probably the only set of instructions they had been given. So by instinct, they will tell you to 'evacuate the building'.

It is time the SCDF comes forward and give proper training to the general public on what to do if they felt tremors during an earthquake, albeit far away in Java or Sumatra.