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The 1933 earthquake in Long
Beach, California, caused significant damage to school buildings but no deaths because it
occurred at a time when school was not in session (57). In Guatemala, the 1976
quake, which killed 24,000 people, occurred at 3:05 AM while everyone was asleep. If the
same quake had occurred later in the day, many more people would have been outside and
thus would not have been injured (58). On the other hand, the 1994 Northridge
earthquake in southern California killed about 60 people (9,59), yet the number of
injuries and deaths among the 700,000 school children and 6 million commuters likely would
have been much worse if the earthquake had occurred at 9:31 AM on a school and work day
instead of 4:31 AM on a holiday. Thus, the time of day that an earthquake occurs is a
crucial factor in the number of casualties. |