To the Editor,
Re: City prepares to get shaken up, Jan. 20.
The ridiculous picture with Mayor John Ruttan, Karen Lindsay, emergency program manager, and Coun. Loyd Sherry hiding under a folding table showing people how to die in the event of an earthquake is shameful.
If that is the international standard for protecting yourself during an earthquake there is something wrong with the international standard. If any thinking person looks at that picture and imagines walls and floors above that room falling down on those poor people you know there is no way that they could survive.
They would be crushed flatter than the thickness of the table top.
The thing to do during an earthquake is lie down beside a bearing wall, beside a heavy, bulky piece of furniture or appliance because that is where the most protection will be. Walls and ceilings falling will not completely crush those things and triangular air spaces will be created beside them – not underneath them. That is what you see in any pictures of the aftermath of an earthquake.
The emergency program committee needs to do some better research on this subject.
Ken Hall
Nanaimo