“Do you remember the Northridge earthquake? Well I do. I put my pillow over my head and when it was over, I went back to sleep. My friend Dinah lives in the San Fernando Valley. She remembers a wall falling over by her house. Her family had to sleep in the front yard that night ’cause their house was messed up. They had to eat popcorn and cookies because they had no other food. Water was selling at three times the regular price.
The Northridge earthquake destroyed many homes, schools, and other structures. I think it is important to realize that in the next earthquake, our homes could be the ones des-troyed so we need to get ready for it.
To find out more about earthquake preparedness, I talked to Eli Morales, 22, a graduate of San Pedro High School. As a volunteer under the American Red Cross AmeriCorps, he teaches earthquake preparedness in many places. The American Red Cross determined many people were unprepared for earthquake in their area. For some, the inability to speak English shut them off from vital information.
Eli showed me the pamphlet they use to teach. It had no words, just pictures of what to do before, during and after an earthquake. beforehand, the pictures showed a family talking, stocking up on canned foods, getting their first aid kit ready, storing flashlights, radios, and water for each person. During the earthquake there was a picture of someone taking pots, putting them in the sink, and turning off the stove. Then there were pictures of people going to safe places: under tables, in corners, doorways etc. I found out that I did the right thing when I put the pillow over my head. Unless your room falls in on you, your bed is a safe place to ride out an earthquake.
I told Eli that if I was cooking, I would leave the stuff on the stove and go find protection from falling things. He said it only takes a few seconds to take pots off the stove and turn it off. If you don’t do that, the hot pot might fall off the stove and leaving the stove on increases the chances of gas leakage and fires.
The next pages of the pamphlet showed pictures of what to do after an earthquake: people checking for injuries, turning off the gas and listening to the radio for information. So I probably shouldn’t have gone back to sleep, I should have gotten up and made sure the house and my family members were okay. Eli said a common mistake is to panic and run out of the house. If there is nothing significantly wrong with your house, you’re safer inside than outside. Outside, poles can fall and you can get an electrical shock from exposed wires.
I asked Eli what AmeriCorps would do in a major earthquake. They would basically help the American Red Cross set up shelters, do damage assessment and family services. This means they would help families get clothes, food and somewhere to stay. The paramedics are the ones who would go looking for bodies and things like that.
I also talked to Ana Estrada, 22, a graduate of Taft High School, and Penny Sakuma, 22, a graduate of Montebello High School and Whittier College. Penny and Ana are volunteers with AmeriCorps too. They explained that it’s a national service program that allows people 17 and older to spend a year improving their communities. Different organizations request funding from AmeriCorps to meet the need in their community. For example, the American Red Cross requested funding for AmeriCorps to teach earthquake preparedness in their community. Each organization gets to decide its own name. This division is called Rapid Response Corps. Each volunteer gets a living allowance of about $666 per month so they can volunteer full-time. This is a really small amount, if you worked full-time at minimum wage you would make a little more than $800 a month. After completing the program each person gets an educational award of $4,725. That money can only be used for schooling purposes.
To become members of AmeriCorps they spent over 300 hours in training. They were trained to deal with disaster training, and administer first aid at-a-glance and CPR. CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) can be used to save the life of someone who has lost consciousness, or has no pulse and breath. It keeps the person alive ’till the paramedics arrive. With proper protection, you won’t catch AIDS. You’re supposed to wear a mask, gloves, and a one-way valve mask. The one-way valve mask lets you give the victim air but doesn’t allow air or other body fluids from the victim to reach you.
The funding for AmeriCorps from Congress is up in the air, but applications are being accepted for next year. To find out how you can join AmeriCorps, call (310) 235-7088 or (800) 94A-CORPS. You also can get trained in first aid and CPR by calling the Red Cross in your area.”
