Earthquakes In Israel – How Can We Prepare?

Earthquakes In Israel – How Can We Prepare?

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By Eyal Harel**

There have been earthquakes in Israel and there will be more in the future, based on Geology and our location on the Syrian-African rift valley – a crack between two tectonic plates facing each other and moving in opposite directions (north and south), sometimes releasing pressure called an earthquake.

We must remember that the question isn’t whether or not there will be a massive earthquake, but rather when it will happen in Israel.

Emergency services and governmental offices are preparing for a national scenario of an earthquake in which all the branches involved have a “frame of preparedness”. The scenario entails complex handling of a disaster which will impact different parts of the country, depending on the location of the earthquake, while other parts will be left intact or only partially damaged.

A strong earthquake will cause destruction for buildings and infrastructures, as well as the location of its source and the time it occurs: There’s no comparing an earthquake occurring at 02:00am when citizens are asleep, while buildings collapsing will bury them underneath, to one occurring at 10:00am when most people are at work, roads are busy with traffic, children are at school and national infrastructures are operating in full force. All these affect the level of destruction.

Being Israeli, we are used to having the government giving us some notice, such as with a war or with terrorism, where intelligence services are entrusted with gathering information and analyzing it, offering a chance to prepare in advance and giving notice to civilians to defend themselves against the threat. An earthquake, however, offers no scientific way of anticipating it, only a way of defining the possible threat.

Some companies offer systems that can alert in case of an earthquake happening. Again, there is no way of alerting before one takes place. Systems which don’t exist in Israel yet will be able to offer a few seconds’ alert for more distant areas (depending how fast the force waves spread), which can offer national infrastructures and different facilities to connect to the system and quickly disconnect – either automatically or by an operator – from electricity or gas, thus somewhat reducing the damage.

The ministry of education has installed a local alarm system in schools which will recognize “the first waves of an earthquake” (waves which do not cause damage) and will offer several seconds to run out of the building or enter a secured structure.

Instructions today in case of an earthquake, unlike in the past, are to leave the building quickly instead of crouching under a desk or a doorpost.

Most of the injuries in earthquakes around the world are caused by collapsed buildings (and not Tzunami, which is a side-effect of an earthquake), therefore the country recognizes the need to prepare for such an event and is investing in public education, establishing strict building standards, and establishing emergency protocols for emergency services, local authorities and governmental offices.

It is important that every family in Israel will know how to act in case of a massive earthquake. The Home Front Command is instructing school children on how to act but it is also important to offer information for a scenario where all family members are in the house: How to leave and where to run. Thought should be given to the matter of staying outside the house until it is possible to return to it (a family survival kit). Families should be educated on earthquake scenarios where family members are in different places such as work or school and to decide on a place to meet.

It’s important to note that cellular communications infrastructure will be disabled for several days, making it very hard for citizens who are not used to any other form of communication. Emergency services are preparing to operate plans in which each precinct will have a permanent responsibility determined by prior analysis, and only after understand the “overall situational picture”, can the forces be organized.

The population must be told that in the first several days after an earthquake, no assistance will be provided by official services and every neighbourhood will have to organize initial aid – that is why the national emergency management authority and others are training local emergency teams who will be able to perform basic emergency and rescue procedures.

It should be noted that in every earthquake event in the world, about 97% of survivors were rescued by people passing by rather than by rescue teams arriving after several days and rescuing only a handful of people. Most of the aid to inflicted areas should be medical aid – depending on the country and its preparedness.

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**Eyal Harel was until recently head of the national security council’s division for home and home front security, and was the first manager of the Israeli government’s national crisis management center as well as a member of the interministerial committee for earthquake preparedness.