Quake-ready California can point the way for China

• Source: Global Times
• [21:14 April 22 2010]
• Comments

Once a major disaster breaks out, the Ministry of Civil Affairs can usually get the information within two hours and quickly respond according to emergency plans.

It is evident that China has established relevant agencies and emergency plans. Howev-er, has the effectiveness of these agencies and plans been tested? Do citizens know how to react to emergencies? What do they need to prepare? How to maintain contact with their families? Where is the safest place? Do local governments and agencies know how to rescue people in case of broken roads and bridges, and paralyzed commu-nication? Do they have enough equipment and tools?

In the US, the governments conduct regular inspections of emergency preparation.

Since the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, the California state government has developed a variety of earthquake precautions, with amendments to building standards as the first priority.

Moreover, precautions have been modified or enriched after each earthquake to reduce the harm done by the next one. In the magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Northridge in 1994, 11 hospitals were damaged and could not provide service.

Then the California legislature passed bills to require hospitals to facilitate ICUs and emergency rooms to be made shockproof before a given deadline.

As for China, after the Wenchuan earthquake, Chinese government issued some regu-lations to enhance the seismic proof capacity of primary and secondary school buildings, but there is a lack of a sense of urgency and financial support.

Seeing the collapsed school buildings in the Yushu earthquake, many people will inevitably ask why it's schools, yet again, that have collapsed. If school buildings had been made properly shockproof, the situation would be different.

Comparing the rescue process of Wenchuan earthquake, Yushu earthquake and California's history of earthquake precautions, we can see big progress in China's rescue efforts. But there are still some deficiencies. For example, if earthquake drills have been held in the Yushu area before, would the losses have been reduced?

The US earthquake precautions are certainly not perfect. However, if Chinese can learn from the US practice of emergency preparations, some of our remaining weaknesses in disaster preparation can be connected.

The author is a US-based Chinese journalist. forum@globaltimes. com.cn