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CASE STUDY -
SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE
1. WHEN?
• 17 October, 1989 5:05pm in the San Francisco Bay area
•
• 6.9 on the Richter scale
• • The area is located on the famous San Andreas Fault line where the
N.American and Pacific plate boundary meet
• • Before the earthquake the plates "stuck" together building up huge amounts
of friction that had to be released
• • The people of San Francisco are waiting for the "Big One" they know that
they are due an enormous quake!
3. RESULT
• • 67 dead
• • This was not the "Big One" that the San Francisco people were afraid of – it
was quite a bit smaller than it could have been!
• • Because they expect quakes and it is a MEDC there are fully equipped and
trained emergency services
• • Again due to anticipation of the event they have a good disaster plan in
place
• • Gas and electricity cables are made to be flexible so they don’t rupture
during a quake
• • Automatic shut down of most gases and electricity supplies in the event of a
quake
• • Building specially designed – steel and concrete absorb shock waves better
than brick, mud, wood