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Earthquake Damage to Schools |
This set of slides graphically illustrates the potential danger that major
earthquakes pose to school structures and to the children and adults who happen to
be inside at the time of the earthquake. It includes pictures from 1886 to 1988. The
set includes nine destructive earthquakes that occurred in the U.S. and eight earthquakes
that occurred in foreign countries. These unusual slides show earthquake damage to
school s and university buildings around the world. They graphically illustrate the
potential danger to our schools, and to the welfare of our children, that results
from major earthquakes. The slides range from Algeria, where a collapsed school roof
is held up only by students' desks; to Anchorage, Alaska, where an elementary school
structure has split in half; to California and other areas, where school buildings
have sustained damage to walls, roofs, and chimneys. Interestingly, all the United
States earthquakes depicted in this set of slides occurred either on a holiday or
before or after school hours, except the 1935 tremor in Helena, Montana, which occurred
at 11:35 a.m. It undoubtedly would have caused casualties had the schools not been
closed days earlier by Helena city officials because of a damaging foreshock. Students
in Algeria, the People's Republic of China, Armenia, and other stricken countries
were not so fortunate. This set of slides represents 17 destructive earthquakes that
occurred in 9 countries, and covers more than a century--from 1886 to 1988. Two of
the tremors, both of which occurred in the United States, were magnitude 8+ on the
Richter Scale, and four were magnitude 7-7.9. The events represented by the slides
(see table below) claimed more than a quarter of a million lives. List Of Earthquakes
represented in the slide set are: Algeria: El Asnam, Armenian SSR: Spitak, Australia:
Cadoux, Ecuador: Esmeraldas, Mexico: Veracruz, People's Republic of China: Tangshan,
Peru: Lima, Turkey: Lice, USA: Alaska: Anchorage, California: San Francisco, Long
Beach, Kern County, Coalinga, Montana: Hebgen Lake, Helena, South Carolina: CharlestonIn
the following descriptions of earthquakes the location is only approximate. The damage
is in millions of U.S. dollars.
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