5 Years Later, Quake Safety Focus Fades

The Northridge earthquake was portrayed by emergency preparedness officials as a great wake-up call for Southern Californians to shore up their homes in preparation for the Big One.

But five years after the earthquake that caused at least 57 deaths, almost 12,000 injuries requiring hospital treatment and more than $40 billion in damage, a large percentage of Southern Californians have apparently put that wake-up call on hold.

No studies have been done to determine the exact degree of readiness of households in the area, but there is anecdotal evidence of widespread indifference.

Last year, Red Cross officials said that they had to cancel several Earthquake Preparedness Month classes because of a lack of interest. Retail emergency supply outlets have reported a sharp decline in inquiries about home earthquake matters. And government funding has dropped off for preparedness projects.

“It’s too frightening for people to face up to,” said Pat Snyder of Tarzana, chairwoman of the state Seismic Safety Commission and former national chairwoman of the Red Cross’ disaster services committee. “It’s like saying to someone, ‘You’re going to get cancer.’ ”

In the months following the Northridge earthquake on Jan. 17, 1994, the interest in preparedness bordered on the obsessive. Government agencies funded programs to strengthen freeway overpasses and make other infrastructure improvements. New construction codes were enacted and automatic gas shut-off valves were mandated for some buildings.

Individuals were likewise galvanized into a preparedness frenzy. “For months I had people lined up around the block to get into my showroom,” said Michael Essrig, owner of Safe-T-Proof, a Westlake Village emergency supply dealer. At the time of the earthquake, his “showroom” was his home garage.

“They camped out on my lawn and the telephone never stopped. I would get calls at 3 a.m. from someone who would say, ‘I’m glad you’re there, I need to talk.’ ”

But interest, especially concerning home preparations, has largely slacked off, experts say. Jill Andrews, outreach director for the Southern California Earthquake Center, blames the pressures of modern life.

“I think people are more worried about paying their bills, holding on to their jobs, avoiding a traffic accident,” she said. “Earthquakes is maybe 20th on the list.”

That doesn’t surprise sociologist Dennis Mileti, who oversaw the most comprehensive study ever into natural disaster preparedness. “Having an earthquake makes preparedness salient for about two years, then people go on with their lives,” said Mileti, chairman of the sociology department at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“The rest of life caves in on us. You’ve got to worry about paying your kids’ tuition.”

To be sure, many people who felt the power of the earthquake remain vigilant in their preparations.

“Every single dish and glass in our china cabinet is stuck down,” said Ann Johnson, a retired special effects technician in Winnetka. “The TV is strapped down, the doors to all the cupboards are secured with rubber bands. We have first aid kits and flashlights and canned food.”

At the time of the earthquake, Emma Morales and her family were living in a garage in Sunland. The family now has a house in the same area, and Morales said she will never again allow her family to be unprepared, no matter what their living situation. “It’s amazing we have to go through a disaster to learn that,” she said. “Now we have water, food, an emergency kit. We have practiced emergency routines and everyone knows how to shut off the gas.”

But many have not taken even basic measures. “I think I have a couple of bottles of water in the refrigerator,” said freelance writer Roxanne Winkler of her preparations, even though her Sherman Oaks home suffered about $50,000 damage in the earthquake.

“All my grandmother’s china broke when my cabinet went over,” she said, but it is still not braced to the wall. “I don’t have anything of value to put in it now.

“I know I should do these things,” she added, “but I sort of figured the odds of an earthquake hitting in the same place again are not much. It’s kind of dumb.”

People in dire financial straits find it particularly hard to prepare. “I am just living from day to day,” said Pacoima resident Judy Williams, who gets food and other provisions from the Meet Each Need With Dignity volunteer group. “It’s not that I have not forgotten the earthquake, but I have to deal with everyday life.”

Snyder, who is a registered nurse, started the Red Cross’ first local earthquake preparedness program in 1978. “I have heard every excuse,” she said. “ ‘I don’t have time,’ ‘I don’t have the money,’ ‘It’s not going to happen here again.’

“The bottom line is that it’s frightening for people to admit that they’re vulnerable to something that could happen at any time.”

The research in the field has borne that out. “Although few people deny risk altogether, most view it as a problem that will not materialize for years,” wrote Mileti and other sociologists in a 1992 article in the journal Environment. They did an extensive study in the Parkfield area on the San Andreas fault after geologists predicted a major earthquake could strike there, with damage expected as far away as Taft, Paso Robles and the Pacific coast.

“For example,” they wrote, “few citizens in California deny the risk of earthquakes, but very few of them expect a damaging quake to strike in the next year or two.”

The occurrence of an earthquake overrides this denial for about two years. “The awareness is at its height [right after] an earthquake hits,” Mileti said in an interview, “and then goes down over that period of time if no factors are introduced to keep it high.”

The only factor that sociologists know will keep the motivation high is a constant flow of precautionary information to the public.

“Information is the key,” said Mileti, “if it’s an ongoing effort from a variety of sources. People have to get brochures in the mail, read about it in newspapers, see it on TV, see it on their grocery bags. And the kids have to bring home earthquake coloring books from school.

“If a campaign is designed correctly, people will prepare.”

Mileti said that an “excellent” example of a public brochure on preparedness is “Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country,” published in 1996 by the Southern California Earthquake Center. Headquartered at USC, the center pools information from nine member universities and is supported mostly by federal funds.

The colorful brochure was given out at earthquake preparedness fairs and other events. But the funding for the entire project, $500,000, allowed for the printing and distribution of only 1.5 million copies. The center serves an area of 15 million inhabitants.

“It took more than a year to raise enough money to get that far,” said Jill Andrews, outreach director for the center. “Now that we are five years away from Northridge, I think the feeling in government is that they have spent quite enough money on research and pamphlets. There are other things they have to do.”

Particularly disappointing to Andrews is that although she was able to fund a Spanish translation of the brochure, she was unable to secure a grant to print it.

“Just try to get someone in Washington to pay attention when you say it’s critical to get something like this printed in Spanish. They don’t have the reference point.”

Pleas to government officials that personal preparedness could save millions and even billions of dollars in relief efforts after an earthquake go only so far, Andrews said.

“Northridge was a wake-up call, but the denial is strong,” she said. “You tell people that in just a few seconds, there could be so much damage that this area’s economy could be changed forever.

“How do you wrap your mind around that?”