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Such victims actually accounted
for 16% of the total number of deaths (6). Other anecdotal reports suggest the
efficacy of moving to a protected area such as a doorway or under a desk. Clearly, the
behavior of occupants during and immediately after an earthquake has been inadequately
studied (87,88). From the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, anecdotal reports of
little islands of concrete slab perched on the tops of children's school desks while the
rest of the ceiling had collapsed to the floor suggest that earthquake drills might be
worthwhile (89). The real question, of course, is whether the children would have
been able to get under the desks in time to prevent injury if the school had been
occupied. In the best documented study of occupant behavior during earthquakes, the
behavior of 118 employees of a county office building in Imperial County, California, was
studied after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake damaged their building (90). Of interest
here is the finding that 30% of the desks under which people in this building sought
refuge moved away during the shaking, thus exposing the person to possible injury from
falling objects. Following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, Durkin et al. examined the
value of taking protective actions commonly suggested in citizen safety advisories (e.g.,
standing in a doorway or crawling under a desk) (31,79). They found that at least
60% of those injured during the period of shaking were engaged in some form of protective
action at the time of their injury, but those injuries tended to be minor. Durkin's
results suggest that while commonly recommended self-protective actions may enhance
people's safety in total building collapse situations, people who rush to protect
themselves in less hazardous settings may actually be increasing their risk of minor
injury. |