Could It Happen Here?

The rescue effort in Soviet Armenia is virtually over. Now, as the nation buries its dead and looks toward rebuilding its devastated cities, people ask the inevitable questions: Why was the destruction so severe? Could rescue missions and shipments of supplies have been better organized? And how would the community of nations respond to a similar disaster in California?

It seems that destruction was widespread not only because of the severity of the quake but also because apartments and factories were built with little steel reinforcement. They pancaked, dooming hundreds of people at a time. In California tougher building codes that incorporate seismic-safety standards provide better protection. But that is no reason for complacency. In Los Angeles not all unreinforced-masonry buildings have been shored up. Many are apartment buildings that house families with low incomes. The state needs to provide financial incentives to make the low-cost housing safer and to preserve it. In addition, the state owns many buildings--especially on college campuses--that need earthquake-related improvements.

Disaster relief would be closer at hand in California than it was in Soviet Armenia, which is so remote from sources of aid and which has fewer airports and a less effective communications network. California cities have emergency response plans and could call on the state Office of Emergency Services if a disaster became too great to handle locally. That office would help decide where scarce resources should be used--for example, the cranes and bulldozers that local contractors would make available for rescue operations. It may be that it is neither practical nor possible, given international politics and national pride, to have a single fast-acting earthquake-response coordinating agency--one that is armed with surveys of available disaster-relief equipment and specialists--but it should at least be discussed. There is no such body today. The United Nations Disaster Relief Organization has the resources but not the speed. Smaller groups like Operation California have the speed but not the resources.

The Pan American Health Organization held talks to try to improve coordination after the Mexico City earthquake in 1985. Latin American specialists in health relief assistance met in Costa Rica in March, 1986. They urged foreign governments to work through the health ministry of the country where the disaster occurred to avoid sending supplies or relief teams that don’t meet local needs. But they also urged each country to assess realistically its own vulnerability to natural disasters and to inventory its own needs if disasters occurred so that their neighbors would know best how to help.

The Costa Rican conferees also urged, rightly, that disaster relief be given higher priority both internationally and within individual governments. An international meeting to consider the lessons of Soviet Armenia would be one step in that direction. In the meantime, Californians can help themselves right here at home by continuing to work to improve the safety of public buildings and private dwellings. The cost of not acting has been made all too tragically clear in the cities and villages of Soviet Armenia.