Omigod, Derek! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif So sorry to hear about the burns. I hope you're doing okay.
<font color=blue>So what should you do for safety? Get under a table?</font color=blue>
Well, that's the theory of it. Most quakes strike so quickly that it's over before you can react like that. The greatest danger is from falling debris, so do
not run outside where falling bricks and glass are just coming down and do
not run to the window to get a better look (like I did once /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif). If the building takes a lean and the window frames go out of square for a moment, the glass might very well explode under the pressure. /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif
Even following procedures can backfire on you, as several of us found out during the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. We were in our offices on the 5th (of 6) floor of fairly modern building at the time. It turns out that 6 story buildings are the most likely to "resonate" with the frequency of the quake, which sets them to swaying pretty good. I can vouch for that now.
As the quake began, and it became apparent this wasn't going to be one of those "quickies", I grabbed the engineer I was working with at that moment (kind of a cute li'l gal, actually /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif), and dragged her to the "safety" of a nearby hallway doorframe. This place was all steel construction, and the fires doors (as this one turned out to be) were 10-foot high steel monoliths. No sooner had we braced ourselves against the frame than the power went out, which caused all the magnetic interlocks to let go of the fire doors and let the slam shut (by design). Well, getting whacked by one of them doors wasn't as pleasant as you might think. Furtunately for the li'l gal, I managed to turn my back on it at the last second, so I took the full brunt of the force with my, uh... posterior. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif Knocked me right on top of her (no, don't go there).
We then just tried to hug the walls, but by then the oscillating had ramped up to the point where one second we were pressed against the wall, the next second the wall had move about a foot away, and as we tumbled to catch up with it, it came back to slam into us. A couple of good slams by a friggin' building, and you would have done the same noble thing we did. We just lay spread eagle on the floor and rode it out. To this day I still have marks in my forearm where she was holding onto me for dear life. Like I was going to be any help. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif
And one of the guys, who happened to have the office next to mine, dove under his desk as they teach you in school. Moments later, his 5-foot bookshelf toppled over and crashed onto his desk, hurling its entire contents
under the desk where he was taking "shelter". He was literally buried in Novell Netware manuals (can you imagine anything worse?). He didn't sustain any injuries, but I hear he had to later wash his skivvies before he could
burn them. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
There I went rambling again, but I actually have pictures of the aftermath to back all this up. If anybody's interested, I'll see if I can dig them up.
