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Comment by NalNezumi | Hacker News Reader

Was skiing in Hakuba when it happened, not too far from Ishikawa. It adds to the scare that everyone's phone at the food court started sending off alarm sound in sync.

I'm not sure in the situation, you're supposed to exit the building, or hide under the table? My vague memory says hide under the table (if the building is not old, or close to the sea), but most people rushed for the exit, which quickly got clogged but thankfully not enough panic for Stampede.

My intuition says outdoors, when so close to the slope, is probably more risky with avalanche and land slide risk + vehicles

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Outside next to a building is the worst place to be, as debris can detach and fall from the sides and tops of buildings. If you're indoors, stay indoors. Furniture that can fall over or slide around is supposed to already be secured to the wall or floor, but you will probably want to cover under a desk or something, anyway, in case panels or fixtures fall from the ceiling, or glass shatters.

If you're already outside, stay away from the sides of buildings, walls, power lines, etc. You may want to walk out into the middle of the road (seriously): https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2084030/

I recommend to visit Ikebukuro Life Safety Learning Center in Tokyo or a similar place in other cities. They explain very well what you should do and even have an earthquake simulator. For tourists not speaking Japanese it is also possible to visit it. I was able to experience the 2011 earthquake there and it was horrible.

These are all around the country (we went to Fukuoka Citizen’s Disaster Prevention Center for example, during our 2019 trip) & I can highly recommend visiting one of them - it can be very informative and might even save your or someone elses life!

In Mexico we have a scary alarm system as well but normally we're told to stay near the frame if we can't leave reasonably (i.e. within 5-10 seconds), but otherwise I wouldn't really stay in a building after the quake either so during the big one I was just walking to outside the entire time lol

If it was a really big one, you wouldn't be walking.

I was being very liberal in my use of the word "walking"

This seems to be an area where the simplicity required for public education conflicts with the variety of situations. In New Zealand, we've changed between hiding under a table, standing in a doorway (has stronger framing in wooden houses), and curling up on the floor. But always stay inside if you already are. People have been killed by falling masonry while exiting a building, and by falling rocks while driving home after an earthquake.

During one earthquake, I went for the doorway but then worried that it was in an all-glass interior office wall so maybe the wrong type of building to be following that advice in.

The risk of large buildings defeated by a quake obviously isn't zero, so if there is somehow dozen football fields worth of solid and flat land(in Japan!?) next to where you would be, it makes sense to run out to there and see if the building holds.

If that isn't available, the next best option is to get down and hide under furniture to protect yourself from debris. Glass windows could break and sound deadening parts or small concrete pieces on the ceiling could fall during one, getting hit by those can be fatally uncomfortable, but they're not machine gun bullets and just ordinary tables should be able to stop a lot of them.

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