All residents in California have or at least should have, an emergency evacuation plan so they know exactly what to do immediately after an earthquake, a First Aid kit it assist in case someone is injured, a stored supply of water where every person in a household can consume a gallon of water per day for three days, and finally, a fire extinguisher if a fire was to take place because of broken gas lines. People in general should think about earthquake insurance and to lower injury risks in the home, and they have to secure their furniture by bolting them to walls and the floor.
Earthquake preparedness drills have been carried out extensively in California to educate people of what to do in the event of an earthquake. Every year, there is a state wide earthquake drill on the 21st of October in California to keep everyone’s memory up to date on their earthquake drills.
Architectures also have been building structures differently since the learnt the threat of the earthquake. They have been using foundation bolts to secure some unstable walls. Also, when building the newer buildings, they use hollow bricks to cause minimal damage; they reinforce the roofs of houses with more concrete so less shaking would take place thus less damage and the reinforce the steel corner foundation pillars to provide strength and flexibility.
Newer high rise buildings are built with a reinforced concrete core and steel braces so in the event of an earthquake, the braces can support the core from swaying. Also in particular buildings, water tanks are placed on the top of the structure so when the buildings actually begins to sway, the water will move in the other direction thus lowering the swaying even more so that the swaying would not even be felt by the occupants and in the water tanks, there are screens that the water passes through to avoid spillage of the water.
In older and historical buildings that are being restored and renovated, they cannot be demolished to reinforce the steel foundations and concrete walls so a new product was invented called Quakewrap. This product is made of carbon and glass weaved together into a microfiber that is glued onto walls of the building. When it is dried, it gets harder than both concrete and steel. This hardness creates less swaying and movement of the walls thus creating less damage on the structure and injuries on the occupants inside and outside the building.
