HUMAN CONDITION / HOW WE PREPARE FOR TEMBLORS : Do You Shake When the Earth Quakes?

A quick quake quiz. The ground begins to shake. You:

A) Worry but wait to see if it’s a nearby boom box with the bass turned up.

B) Scream and run for the nearest doorway.

C) Toss your head back and order another cappuccino.

Sunday’s temblors--and their many aftershocks--refocus attention on the different ways people react to quakes and on how some try to accept them as facts of California life.

Your reaction--and whether you choose to prepare for quakes in the first place--depends on everything from upbringing to experience.

Many people try to forget or ignore the fact that an uncontrollable force could inflict mass destruction at any time. Not that contemplating destruction would bring much comfort either.

What these people have in common, experts say, is massive denial.

“People have a sense of omnipotence and a feeling of ‘it won’t happen to me,’ ” says psychologist David Appleton. “They think that ‘a quake won’t be as bad as they say’ or ‘I will survive, my gas and electricity won’t be affected, my corner market will still be there.’ People don’t want to think about the possibility of a tragedy. It brings up anxiety.”

Denial keeps most Californians functioning and not moving to Boise. Some denial is healthy, psychologists say.

Yet some natives may be so desensitized to earthquakes that unless the quake is extremely destructive, they may have relatively little reaction. Some even enjoy a good jolt.

“It’s not something I really worry about in advance,” says Los Angeles native Tasha Folsoi, 23. “If it’s not really bad, it’s exciting. A negative charge.”

However, that feeling is soon tempered by fear and the primitive instinct to survive, psychologists say.

“Certain personality types will react in different ways,” says Roberta Falke, a clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma recovery. “A feeling-oriented person might get overwhelmed, while one who is intellectual, who doesn’t have easy access to feelings, won’t allow (himself) to have feelings.”

Falke explains that people who felt secure when they were growing up, and who were raised with a high level of self-esteem and trust, will probably be calmer during an earthquake.

Personality type also dictates how--or even if--you’d prepare for a quake. Although those who need to feel they are in control in an unpredictable and dangerous world might prepare to excess, others live in a fantasy that there is no danger and thus take no action.

Those who have prepared, and those who have not, tend to look at one another with suspicion and disbelief.

The have-prepareds envision the have-nots banging on their garage doors begging for food when the Big One hits, and the have-nots retain a sort of cavalier attitude, viewing the haves as high-strung and paranoid.

“My parents put food and water aside, but I always think it’s kind of dumb,” says Folsoi, a senior at UCLA. “On one level I know it’s not, but on another it seems stupid to have all these old water bottles all over the place waiting for the Big One. If there was a really bad earthquake, I doubt a can of refried beans and some Sparkletts will help that much.”

Suzy Dahlin, 43, has lived in Santa Monica with her husband and two children for eight years and has rigorously prepared for a quake. She has a 55-gallon water tank in her back yard, plus several five-gallon bottles in the garage with water purification tablets and Clorox. She has garbage cans full of dried food and boxes filled with medical supplies, a change of clothes and even candy and stuffed animals for her children.

“I’m ready for something to happen,” says Dahlin, a Chicago native who admits that after each earthquake she considers leaving Los Angeles. “It shocks me that other families don’t have anything. I think about it a lot, especially in a stoplight under an overpass. I try to avoid that situation altogether.” On Sunday, a nervous Dahlin was more concerned with not panicking her children.

Still, she rechecked her supplies.

Between the two camps stand a large number of people who feel they should be doing something about an impending quake but keep putting it off, says a spokeswoman for the California Office of Emergency Services. In fact, many Californians probably are about as prepared for an earthquake as they are for a tidal wave or an invasion from Mars.

This, despite quakes like Sunday’s and the fact that the chances of the Big One hitting within the next 30 years are 60% in Southern California.

Experts say preparation can help, psychologically and practically. Being ready gives people a sense of being in control of nature and of being protected from it. If their surroundings are set up in a certain order, if they take the right actions, they can feel safe.

“Preparing can give people a feeling of control and help abate anxiety prior to the event,” says Calvin Frederick, a clinical psychologist who counseled people who were afraid to go back to work after the 5.9 Whittier quake in 1987.

Meanwhile, safety educators are trying to make the population understand--though not always successfully--the seriousness of the situation.

A California emergency services survey found that a small percentage of people said they tried to catch falling objects during the Whittier quake.

“We as earthquake planners would want to discourage that kind of behavior,” says seismic safety planner Jim Goltz. “That could be quite dangerous.”

Goltz and his department are emphasizing the importance of pre- and post-earthquake behavior, including storing non-perishables and water, bolting down or bracing homes and objects that could easily fall and avoiding falling objects.

Those who live through bad earthquakes may experience a variety of symptoms afterward, referred to as post traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms include fear of going indoors, fear of going outdoors, fear that things will fall on them, flashbacks, forgetfulness or an increase in drug or alcohol use.

The recent shaking, for instance, may give you a lingering fear of swinging chandeliers. Frederick says such feelings are normal--unless they last for weeks--and are completely curable:

“You won’t be disabled the rest of your life, or have to lie on an analyst’s couch for five years and free-associate.”