What I Was Thinking as We Were Sinking
The things that go through your head during a disaster.
What I Was Thinking as We Were SinkingThe things that go through your head during a disaster.On This Week’s Episode:It’s funny the things that go through your head during a disaster.This is a re-run of an episode that first aired in April 2023.
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What I Was Thinking as We Were Sinking
The things that go through your head during a disaster.
On January 26, 2000 Episode:
It’s funny the things that go through your head during a disaster.
This is a re-run of an episode that first aired in April 14, 2000.
disasters can strike at any time, even while at work. it is of the utmost importance to be prepared in case a disaster were to strike our area. over the next year, employees of the department of internal medicine will follow steps to create a grab and go emergency kit and a personal emergency plan that they can utilize at work and at home. each step will be posted on a bi monthly basis, ensuring that all employees have two months to complete each step in the emergency preparedness plan. on wednesday, march 18, 2020, a 5.7 earthquake shook salt lake city and surrounding regions. earthquakes like this can occur suddenly and without warning, so a few tips and tricks have been assembled to help prepare employees for the next "big shake." earthquakes can often be so violent that it is impossible to walk or crawl, but your best defense is to immediately protect yourself as best as possible where you are. most earthquake related injuries within the united states do not occur from collapsing structures, but from flying debris. be sure to avoid areas where things might fall off walls, and do not go outside during the quake if you are indoors (the area near exterior walls of a building is the most dangerous place to be), and protect your head and your neck. in some situations, you might not be able to use drop, cover & hold. review these situations and alternative methods to stay safe during an earthquake. for more detailed and specific instructions on how to handle earthquakes in various circumstances, please visit the great utah shakeout website or earthquakecountry.org/step5 in the event of a significant earthquake, you may need to evacuate your home and building for some time. we encourage employees to review this website to put together 96 hour kits for both home and office. 30 north mario capecchi dr, 3rd floor salt lake city, utah 84112

global interagency security forum published: october 7, 2019 share this: by: meredith moore by meredith moore, founder and ceo greylake training solutions what is going on in our brain when we are confronted with a threat to our survival? and more importantly, why is it happening? understanding these answers can boost our odds for survival when we are faced with a threatening situation or an emergency and help leaders prepare, anticipate and prevent these challenges for their workforce. all living things have a fear response that originates in a very ancient part of our brain called the limbic system. a specific component of the limbic system is the amygdala, which many know as the part of the brain that houses our fear response; and the freeze, flight or fight reaction. recently, neuroscientists have discovered the amygdala is also a critical part of how we process memory, emotion, and attention. this explains some of the sensations we experience in an emergency when our amygdala is activated, specifically those affecting our perceptions of time, how we remember details and how we either become hyper focused or lose all focus. if we look at the basic function of the limbic system during a frightening stimulus, it looks something like this, all of this happens in a millisecond and is driven by our “unconscious” brain. the hormones, adrenaline, and cortisol produce dynamic changes in our body. these changes affect our senses in a number of ways. the ears begin to ring to block out distractions and help focus on survival. our vision narrows and produces a tunnel effect so we can hone in on the only thing that matters, the dangerous situation. our respiratory system kicks into high gear and raises our heart rate, pumping blood to vital organs and pushing glucose into the bloodstream to provide the body with a jolt of energy, preparing us to run or fight for our lives. the elevated heart rate subsequently produces shortness of breath, dry mouth, and sweating. non critical functions like digestion slow when we are confronted with a threat; this is why we often experience an upset stomach or diarrhoea under duress because our body has stopped the digestion process. a whole spectrum of changes occurs, involving virtually all of our body’s systems and organs. all these changes are happening without our conscious thinking. knowing and understanding what is happening to our brain and body during a threat is important to help us control and condition the fear response. people who act without hesitation during an emergency, like nurses, firefighters, soldiers, and police officers, have rewired the circuitry in their brains to control the fear response. their secret? experience and repetition. we rely on our past experiences to help us make decisions in our everyday lives. an emergency is a novel situation, not something we deal with on a regular basis. therefore, we don’t have a “mental script” on how to handle the situation. those who work under pressure in high stakes environments have that mental playbook on how to act; it becomes automatic. this is a powerful skill to have and one you can learn, one that leaders can train teams to acquire. being able to better react to a threat or emergency can save your life or the life of someone else. i’ll continue to examine the ways in which we can apply these skills in our everyday lives and what it looks like in resilient organisations, communities and corporations. i look forward to diving into more topics about how we can apply an understanding of neuroscience and behavioural psychology to resiliency, personal safety, and risk, and crisis management. until next time. the aid sector will be ‘celebrating’ the world humanitarian day with four level 3 emergencies. on a day that commemorates the bombing of the canal hotel in baghdad we should be asking ourselves, do we need more humanitarian heroes, or do we need better responses (and better security managed assistance) to… gisf new briefing paper security risk management and religion: faith and secularism in humanitarian assistance examines the impact that religion has on security risk management for humanitarian agencies, and considers whether a better understanding of religion can improve the security of organisations and individuals in the field. on tuesday 8th july representatives from academia, ingos, the private sector, journalists and other interested parties gathered at king’s college london to discuss key issues around new actors and the changing humanitarian space and how they will impact on security risk management (srm). the focal point of the evening was… gisf cic,romero house,55 westminster bridge road,london,se1 7jbcontact us

being prepared for any emergency is as simple as planning ahead. this begins with thinking about your daily activities, the people you care for or who rely on you, and how a disaster would change the way you get things done. use the information in this section to learn how to plan for your own safety and needs, along with those of your family and pets. if someone in your family relies on special equipment or medications make sure your planning includes how to make sure those special needs will be dealt with. learn how to get prepared for disasters by viewing the infographic below. you can also print a fillable disaster plan template. when the earth shakes, drop to the ground, take cover under a desk or table and hold on to the desk or table so it doesn't bounce away. stay there until the shaking stops. studies show that most earthquake injuries in the united states are caused by falling objects or people losing their footing during the shaking. safety during an earthquake comes from taking quick action and finding a "quake safe" place within 3 to 4 seconds. if you are in a place without a table your goal is to make sure that your head is not the tallest thing in the room. start by getting low. if there is no table around you to get beneath, then think beside (an inside wall or heavy furniture), or between (rows of chairs) and take a quake safe action quickly! myth buster! despite what some of us learned as children, doorways are not considered a safe place to be in an earthquake. why? it's hard to stay in the doorway during the shaking and typically there is a door in the doorway, which swings open and closed during the shaking, hitting whoever might taking refuge there. best to get low, cover your head and hang on! additional information about 'staying safe in an earthquake' staying safe in an earthquake   brochure how to be safe in an earthquake   1 page handout triangle of life   dangerous misinformationthe "triangle of life" is an alternative safety concept that is inappropriate for earthquakes in the united states and dangerous to follow.the concept comes around the emergency management community every few years, and we do our best to de bunk it. because building codes here in the united states are among the best in the world, most injuries and deaths in the u.s. from earthquakes occur from non structural threats (stuff inside the building), not from structural threats (the building itself). the best way to react to an earthquake is to "drop"   get under a table, desk or countertop, "cover"   protect your head and neck, and "hold on"   to a table leg or to that cover, until 30 seconds after the shaking stops. we encourage you to disregard the triangle of life message   it is dangerous misinformation.for correct information for the u.s., go to: www.earthquakecountry.org/dropcoverholdon there, you'll find links and statements from the washington state emergency management division, king county emergency management, as well as other pertinent news stories. skill classes are offered in simple search and rescue, disaster first aid and becoming an amateur radio operator. putting together an emergency kit does not have to be difficult or expensive. we recommend that your kit has enough supplies to last you seven to 10 days. it's also good to have a smaller to go kit in case you need to quickly leave your home. having kits at work and in your car is also a good idea. to get you started, here are five things that are absolutely necessary to have in an emergency kit. after the five basics, what you stock in your kit is up to you. the information below will give you a number of things you can add to your kit and some fun and easy ways to put them together, not only for your home, but your car, workplace and school. the most important thing is to start. don't be one of the people who after the disaster says, "i wish i had put a kit together." download information and brochures family emergency kit and family plan (pdf) car supply kit (pdf) work and school safety supply kit (pdf) we offer hands on training for people interested in gaining the knowledge and skills needed to respond to disasters. our classes focus on the three priority responses we encourage everyone to take after a major incident   control utilities and small fires, search for and help others, and care for injuries. small fire suppression and utility control: learning how to use a fire extinguisher and when and how to turn off your utilities are two of the most important skills you can have. we combine these two topics in one class. for handout materials click on the topic you are interested in. control utilities & how to use a fire extinguisher light search and rescue: this hands on class provides instruction on how to safely conduct a search and rescue operation after a disaster. participants will practice safe lifting techniques, how to leverage heavy objects, and how to search a room. to see a listing of upcoming classes view our events calendar watch one of our youtube videos for a quick tutorial on controlling utilities and using a fire extinguisher controlling gas controlling water and accessing water heater using a fire extinguisher after a disaster, bathroom facilities may not be available if water and sewer lines have been disrupted. because cleanliness is essential to maintaining good health, it is important to know how to improvise emergency sanitation facilities. have emergency sanitation supplies on hand: water is essential for life. after a disaster, safe drinking water can be in short supply and those without it may find themselves waiting in long lines to get it. we recommend that every household store enough water for at least 7 to 10 days. each person in your house requires 1 gallon per day. half of that is for drinking, the other half is for cooking and sanitation. before you do the math, remember you have a lot of water already stored in your house, which will be available if you have strapped down your water heater and turn off the water service to the house if there are broken water pipes. even with that source, you should still store water. storing water can be as easy as buying an extra case or two the next time you are at the store. you can also use old pop bottles, which are great for storing water. if you decide on this you should follow the steps outlined below to ensure that the water remains drinkable. follow this link (deaf & hard of hearing) to find information on: download print friendly version follow this link (low vision/blind) to find information about: download print friendly version follow this link (medical needs) to find information about: print friendly version follow this link (low mobility) to find information about: download a print friendly version follow this link (seniors) to find information about:assessing how a disaster can impact your day to day routines for more information download preparing makes sense for older adults if you rely on a service animal it is very important that you develop a plan for making sure your service animal is as prepared for the disaster as you are.some key actions to take prior to the disaster are: curry mayer, director address: 105 5th ave s, suite 300, seattle, wa, 98104 mailing address: po box 34986, seattle, wa, 98124 4986 phone: (206) 233 5076 fax: (206) 684 5998 email: oem@seattle.gov newsletter updates sign up for the latest updates from emergency management the seattle office of emergency management partners with the community to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. during an emergency go to www.seattle.gov for the latest informationemergency: dial 911 | non emergency police: 206 625 5011 | non emergency fire: 206 386 1400

below please find information about natural disasters: in modern buildings, falling down or being struck by falling objects causes most earthquake related injuries. drop, cover, and hold on immediately. all lightning can be deadly. when you hear thunder or see lightning, go indoors. in addition to potentially deadly lightning, a severe thunderstorm also has wind greater than 58 mph (50 knots), hail 1 inch or larger, and/or a tornado. a watch means that conditions are favorable for the development of severe weather in the watch area. pay attention to broadcasts and prepare to take action. a warning is an urgent announcement that hazardous weather is occurring or is imminent. take immediate action to protect life and property! in the event of a tornado warning, or if a funnel cloud is reported if you hear thunder: unlike other natural disasters, a hurricane is usually preceded by hours or days of notice and warning, allowing you to prepare. tufts university police: 617 627 6911boston: 617 636 6911grafton: 617 627 6911medford/somerville: 617 627 6911fire (boston health sciences & smfa): 911off campus: 911 boston health sciences: 617 636 6610boston smfa: 617 636 6610grafton: 508 887 4900medford/somerville: 617 627 3030 emergency medical servicesindustrial hygienelaboratory safetypublic safetytufts university police

create a website account   manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more. as part of the great washington shake out, at 10:20 today take the time to practice what you will do when an earthquake occurs. trying to move during shaking puts you at risk: earthquakes occur without any warning and may be so violent that you cannot run or crawl; you, therefore, will most likely be knocked to the ground where you happen to be. so it is best to drop before the earthquake drops you, and find nearby shelter or use your arms and hands to protect your head and neck. "drop, cover, and hold on" gives you the best overall chance of quickly protecting yourself during an earthquake... even during quakes that cause furniture to move about rooms, and even in buildings that might ultimately collapse. the greatest danger is from falling and flying objects: studies of injuries and deaths caused by earthquakes over the last several decades show that you are much more likely to be injured by falling or flying objects (tvs, lamps, glass, bookcases, etc.) than to die in a collapsed building. "drop, cover, and hold on" (as described above) will protect you from most of these injuries. if there is no furniture nearby, you can still reduce the chance of injury from falling objects by getting down next to an interior wall and covering your head and neck with your arms (exterior walls are more likely to collapse and have windows that may break). if you are in bed, the best thing to do is to stay there and cover your head with a pillow. studies of injuries in earthquakes show that people who moved from their beds would not have been injured if they had remained in bed. you can also reduce your chance of injury or damage to your belongings by securing them in the first place. secure top heavy furniture to walls with flexible straps. use earthquake putty or velcro fasteners for objects on tables, shelves, or other furniture. install safety latches on cabinets to keep them closed. instructions on how to "secure your space" are at www.earthquakecountry.org/step1. building collapse is less of a danger: while images of collapsed structures in earthquakes around the world are frightening and get the most attention from the media, most buildings do not collapse at all, and few completely collapse. in earthquake prone areas of the u.s. and in many other countries, strict building codes have worked to greatly reduce the potential of structure collapse. however, there is the possibility of structural failure in certain building types, especially unreinforced masonry (brick buildings), and in certain structures constructed before the latest building codes. rescue professionals are trained to understand how these structures collapse in order to identify potential locations of survivors within "survivable void spaces." the main goal of "drop, cover, and hold on" is to protect you from falling and flying debris and other nonstructural hazards, and to increase the chance of your ending up in a survivable void space if the building actually collapses. the space under a sturdy table or desk is likely to remain even if the building collapses  pictures from around the world show tables and desks standing with rubble all around them and even holding up floors that have collapsed. experienced rescuers agree that successfully predicting other safe locations in advance is nearly impossible, as where these voids will depend on the direction of the shaking and many other factors. (see "triangle of life" below.) the only exception to the "drop, cover and hold on" rule is if you are in a country with unengineered construction, and if you are on the ground floor of an unreinforced mud brick (adobe) building, with a heavy ceiling. in that case, you should try to move quickly outside to an open space. this cannot be recommended as a substitute for building earthquake resistant structures in the first place! based on years of research about how people are injured or killed during earthquakes, and the experiences of u.s. and international search and rescue teams, these three actions are not recommended to protect yourself during earthquakes: some other recommendations for the "triangle of life" are also based on wrong assumptions and very hazardous. for example, the recommendation to get out of your car during an earthquake and lie down next to it assumes that there is always an elevated freeway above you that will fall and crush your car. of course, there are very few elevated freeways, and lying next to your car is very dangerous because the car can move and crush you, and other drivers may not see you on the ground! when it comes to disaster, there are simple things you can do to make yourself safer. the information on this page is designed as a step by step guide to give you details on what to do before, during, and after an earthquake. start with the simple tips within each step so that you can build on your accomplishments. an example of this in step 1 is moving heavy, unsecured objects from top shelves onto lower ones. this will only take minutes to complete and you are safer from that hazard! the information in the steps linked below will help you learn how to better prepare to survive and recover, wherever you live, work, or travel. step 1: secure your space by identifying hazards and securing moveable item step 5: drop, cover, and hold on when the earthquake shakes step 2: plan to be safe by creating a disaster plan and deciding how you will communicate in an emergency. step 6: improve safety after earthquakes by evacuating if necessary, helping the injured, and preventing further injuries or damage. step 3: organize disaster supplies in convenient locations. step 4: minimize financial hardship by organizing important documents, strengthening your property, and considering insurance. step 7: reconnect and restore   restore daily life by reconnecting with others, repairing damage, and rebuilding community have a great day and be safe! i am always available for questions! eric eric brooksisland countydepartment of emergency management city of oak harbor865 se barrington driveoak harbor, wa 98277 phone: 360 279 4500 staff directory

afrankelmay 4, 2011survival, survival gear all things being equal, you can go weeks without food, days without water, minutes without air, but only seconds without sense. life is a survival situation. every day you must make a decision to get out of bed and keep going   some days are easier than others. taking a deep breath and really thinking about what you are doing applies to everything in life, especially survival. the single most important thing you can do in a survival situation is to take a deep breath and keep a clear head. action without thought is a recipe for disaster. disasters, especially the dramatic ones with lots of news coverage, send people to the stores buying up everything they can get their hands on. mostly, this is done with little thought, lots of haste, and almost no understanding of the issue or the solutions. at the time of writing this, panicked people are reacting to a disaster thousands of miles away from them, in japan. they are buying gas masks that will do absolutely nothing for them should radiation waft their way, chemical suits that are more likely to cause the owners heat stroke than prevent radiation sickness, and taking iodine tablets for no reason. knee jerk survivalists are the most likely to fall back asleep after the threat of a disaster has passed. the dramatic forces them out of their normalcy bias, and their heads out of the sand. those who simply react, forever stay in a cycle of hyper sensitivity and complete unawareness. if you are focusing on a single crisis, you are working yourself into a lather, and that is never beneficial. although not as sexy as preparing for aliens to attack, or an asteroid to smash into earth, preparing at a slow methodical pace is infinitely more likely to be time well spent. a couple of years ago i emailed neil asking his thoughts on a special piece of medical gear called a mark i kit. mark i kits are highly regulated, auto inject syringes for very extreme cases of biological attacks. thankfully, neil pointed out that the chances of an event requiring such a kit were so small it was not worth the cost and trouble of obtaining one. it kept me from spending a lot of money and breaking a few federal laws on something i completely didn’t need. new preppers often start off worrying about the most extreme, and fretting over whether they are prepared for every possible catastrophe. instead, follow the disaster matrix and work your way up. the disaster matrix is the inverse relationship between the size of devastation, and the likelihood of that event occurring. simply put, the larger and scarier the catastrophe, the less likely it is to happen. stand up and draw an imaginary circle around your feet, making a 2’ diameter circle. this is where the most likely disaster is going to occur   your life. prepare in such a way that you are ready to face life’s most likely issues: job loss, illness, a death in the family, and natural disasters. in addition to acquiring skills, i recommend storing some items in preparation for likely occurrences. practical storage: a personal motto of mine is, “only buy what you know how to use.” the exception to this is if i need a particular item, i’ll learn how to use it. take suture kits for example. to learn how to use one effectively, i would actually have to buy one. if i was not going to actively be practicing in the immediate future, there would be no reason for me to purchase them. i have a bad habit of buying a ton of books, then never reading them. it doesn’t matter if it is pua, survival, or any of the hundred other topics that tickle my fancy   seriously i have too many interests. it’s not that i lose interest, it’s that i simply end up with too many books and forget about them. the same applies to survival gear. obtain one thing at a time, learn how to use it, and then move on to the next. why not just buy it all, have it, and learn when you learn? if you genuinely have the funds to do this, then sure. however, prepping should not mean going into debt acquiring tons of survival stuff. part of your preps should be getting to the point of zero debt. the only way to do that is by responsibly purchasing your gear. finally, focus on skill rather than gear. you can always lose or break gear, but as long as your head is firmly attached to your body and it is filled with knowledge, you can work your way through nearly any situation. * related stories from the inner circle dangerous knowledge cert: emergency response training for the masses how to build a blackout kit enjoy weekly wisdom from neil, along with: tags:bugging out, disaster management, disaster preparedness, disaster survival, emergency preparations, survival tips the quick start guide to healing trauma and psychological wounds 312 comments how to break up 253 comments stop complaining: a 30 day challenge 213 comments miracle fruit: throwing a party to remember 261 comments first time reader? © 2015 neil strauss. all rights reserved.

jump to navigation earthquakes in the bay area may be inevitable, but damage from them is not. the steps you take before, during and after an earthquake will help make you safer and reduce injuries, damage and losses. first and foremost, plan for the personal safety of you and your loved ones. by having a solid personal safety plan in place, you will be better able to help the university if you are not worrying about your loved ones. the resource section of this guide contains links to a variety of sites which will help you to better prepare for an earthquake. note: wheelchair users: apply the brake. cover your head with your arms to help protect against falling objects. ask for assistance. directions careers © stanford university, stanford, california 94305. copyright complaints

unlike other natural disasters, a hurricane is usually preceded by hours or days of fore notice and warning, allowing you to prepare. all lightning can be deadly. when you hear thunder or see lightning, go indoors. in addition to potentially deadly lightning, a severe thunderstorm also has wind greater than 58 mph (50 knots), hail 1″ or larger, and/or a tornado. a watch means that conditions are favorable for the development of severe weather in the watch area. pay attention to broadcasts, and prepare to take action. a warning is an urgent announcement that hazardous weather is happening, or is imminent. take immediate action to protect life and property! in the event of a tornado warning, or if a funnel cloud is reported: if you hear thunder: in modern buildings, falling down, or being struck by falling objects causes most earthquake related injuries. drop, cover and hold on immediately. tufts university police: 617 627 6911boston: 617 636 6911grafton: 617 627 6911medford/somerville: 617 627 6911fire (boston health sciences & smfa): 911off campus: 911 boston health sciences: 617 636 6610boston smfa: 617 636 6610grafton: 508 887 4900medford/somerville: 617 627 3030 emergency medical servicesindustrial hygienelaboratory safetypublic safetytufts university police

federal, state, and local emergency management experts and other official preparedness organizations all agree that "drop, cover, and hold on" is the appropriate action to reduce injury and death during earthquakes (learn why here). the shakeout is our opportunity to practice how to protect ourselves during earthquakes. this page explains what to do   and what not to do. protect yourself. spread the word your past experience in earthquakes may give you a false sense of safety; you didn't do anything, or you ran outside, yet you survived with no injuries. or perhaps you got under your desk and others thought you overreacted. however, you likely have never experienced the kind of strong earthquake shaking that is possible in much larger earthquakes: sudden and intense back and forth motions of several feet per second will cause the floor or the ground to jerk sideways out from under you, and every unsecured object around you could topple, fall, or become airborne, potentially causing serious injury. this is why you must learn to immediately protect yourself after the first jolt... don't wait to see if the earthquake shaking will be strong! in most situations, if you feel shaking or get an earthquake alert, immediately: drop where you are, onto your hands and knees. this position protects you from being knocked down and reduces your chances of being hit by falling or flying objects. cover your head and neck with one arm and hand. hold on until the shaking stops. or adapt to your situation. if you have difficulty getting onto the ground, or cannot get back up again without help, then follow these recommendations: if you use a cane: drop, cover, and hold on or sit on a chair, bed, etc. and cover your head and neck with both hands. keep your cane near you so it can be used when the shaking stops. if you use a walker or wheelchair: lock your wheels (if applicable). if using a walker carefully get as low as possible. bend over and cover your head/neck with your arms, a book, or a pillow. then hold on until the shaking stops. for other accessibility recommendations see earthquakecountry.org/accessibility. all of this information and more can be found in our key earthquake safety accessibility tips pdf, also available in other languages. taking the proper actions described in this page, above and below, can save lives and reduce the risk of injury. everyone, everywhere, should learn and practice what to do during an earthquake, whether at home, work, school, or traveling. why drop, cover, and hold on? our special report explains why official rescue teams, emergency preparedness experts, and others recommend "drop, cover, and hold on" as the best way, in most situations, to protect yourself during earthquake shaking. the report also describes why running outside, standing in a doorway, or the "triangle of life" are dangerous or out dated recommendations. wherever you are, protect yourself! it is important to think about what you will do to protect yourself wherever you are. what if you are driving, in a theater, in bed, at the beach, etc.? step 5 of the seven steps to earthquake safety describes what to do in various situations, no matter where you are when you feel earthquake shaking. for an overview of the following information, download our recommended earthquake safety actions pdf, also available in multiple languages. the main point is to not try to move but to immediately protect yourself as best as possible where you are. earthquakes occur without any warning and may be so violent that you cannot run or crawl; you therefore will most likely be knocked to the ground where you happen to be. you will never know if the initial jolt will turn out to be the start of the big one. you should drop, cover, and hold on immediately! in addition, studies of injuries and deaths caused by earthquakes in the u.s. over the last several decades indicate that you are much more likely to be injured by falling or flying objects (tvs, lamps, glass, bookcases, etc.) than to die in a collapsed building. drop, cover, and hold on offers the best overall level of protection in most situations. as with anything, practice makes perfect. to be ready to protect yourself immediately when the ground begins to shake, practice drop, cover, and hold on as children do in school at least once each year. what not to do: do not get in a doorway! an early earthquake photo is a collapsed adobe home with the door frame as the only standing part. from this came our belief that a doorway is the safest place to be during an earthquake. in modern houses and buildings, doorways are no safer, and they do not protect you from flying or falling objects. get under a table instead! do not run outside! trying to run in an earthquake is dangerous, as the ground is moving and you can easily fall or be injured by debris or glass. running outside is especially dangerous, as glass, bricks, or other building components may be falling. you are much safer to stay inside and get under a table. do not believe the so called "triangle of life"! in recent years, an e mail has circulated which recommends potentially life threatening actions, and the source has been discredited by leading experts. read our special report to learn more.

an official website of the united states government official websites use .gov a .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the united states. secure .gov websites use https a lock ( lock locked padlock icon ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. primary site navigation logged in as: alessandro massazza, research department of clinical, educational and health psychology, university college london, 26 bedford way, london wc1h 0ap, uk. email: alessandro.massazza.13@ucl.ac.uk issue date 2021 jan. this article is distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the sage and open access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en us/nam/open access at sage). thoughts, feelings, and behaviors during traumatic events, that is, peritraumatic reactions, are key to post trauma psychopathology development. qualitative research is required to investigate whether existing quantitative methods capture the range and complexity of peritraumatic reactions as described by survivors. semi structured interviews were conducted with 104 earthquake survivors. participants reported experiencing various peritraumatic reactions (m = 21, range = 6 43). the survivors’ accounts confirmed presence and overall phenomenological characteristics of commonly studied peritraumatic reactions such as dissociation, distress, mental defeat, and immobility. in addition, novel and understudied reactions were identified: cognitive overload, hyperfocus, and emotion regulation, as well as positive affect. finally, a number of cross cutting phenomena were identified such as the social nature of many reactions and survivors evaluating their reactions as difficult to put into words. these findings have implications for the conceptualization of peritraumatic reactions, for trauma focused psychotherapeutic interventions, and for the wellbeing of disaster survivors. keywords: peritraumatic, trauma, ptsd, disaster, earthquake, 2016 2017 central italy earthquakes, qualitative, italy the field of trauma and post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd1) has highlighted the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors people experience during or immediately after exposure to traumatic events (bovin & marx, 2011). these phenomena have been collectively named “peritraumatic reactions.” from janet’s studies on dissociation in hysteria onwards (janet, 1889), peritraumatic reactions have occupied a central role in defining the experience of trauma and post trauma psychopathology (van der kolk & fisler, 1995). the most influential theories on the development of ptsd suggest that what happens at the time of the traumatic event and its consequences for the encoding of traumatic memories is key to understanding the condition (brewin et al., 1996; ehlers & clark, 2000). a large volume of literature has been devoted to understanding the link between peritraumatic reactions and post trauma psychopathology (gorman et al., 2016). the systematic study of peritraumatic reactions began with marmar et al.’s (1994) study of peritraumatic dissociation at the end of the 1990s and with the inclusion of criterion a2 (i.e., traumatic event had to be accompanied by “intense fear, helplessness, and horror”) in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.; dsm iv; american psychiatric association, 1994) ptsd diagnosis in 1994. since then, the literature on peritraumatic phenomena has been growing steadily with more than 800 papers published on the topic each year in the past few years.2 meta analytic studies of risk factors for ptsd prior, during, and following the traumatic event have identified peritraumatic reactions as some of the most important risk factors for ptsd development (brewin et al., 2000; ozer et al., 2003). the reactions that have received the most attention are peritraumatic dissociation, both in its psychic (candel & merckelbach, 2004; nobakht et al., 2019) and somatoform (nijenhuis, 2004) presentations, distress (brunet et al., 2001; kannis dymand et al., 2019), tonic immobility (hagenaars & hagenaars, 2020; marx et al., 2008), panic attacks (nixon & bryant, 2003), data driven processing (halligan et al., 2002), and mental defeat (dunmore et al., 2001). while these reactions are believed to be somewhat phenomenologically distinct from one another (massazza et al., 2020), they tend to be associated with higher levels of post trauma psychopathology, most commonly ptsd (vance et al., 2018), but also depression (bunnell et al., 2018). the existing work on peritraumatic phenomena has based the identification of different peritraumatic reactions mainly on accounts from clinical experience (e.g., dissociation), and insights from animal models (e.g., tonic immobility) or psychological theory (e.g., data driven processing). while these are reasonable methods to determine the presence of such reactions, inductive, systematic qualitative work is needed to provide a naturalistic and scientifically accurate account of the lived experience of peritraumatic reactions among trauma survivors (tatano beck, 2011). in addition, the current approach to studying peritraumatic reactions is largely based on the use of standardized questionnaires such as the peritraumatic dissociative experiences questionnaire (marmar et al., 1994) and the peritraumatic distress inventory (brunet et al., 2001). this deductive method is inevitably bound to confirm the presence of these reactions by enquiring specifically about them, possibly missing important, clinically relevant experiences. indeed, when more inductive qualitative approaches have been used to explore survivors’ recollections of reactions during traumatic events, the findings have suggested a more nuanced and complex range of experiences to those identified in the peritraumatic literature. in the largest qualitative study to use interviews to investigate spontaneously reported reactions during traumatic events, 125 survivors of various disasters across different european countries were asked to recall in a free narrative their own reactions (grimm et al., 2014). across the sample, the most frequently reported emotions and cognitions were fear, panic (as in amplification of “fear” rather than mass panic or panic attacks), and perceptions of high risk. conversely, the most frequently reported behaviors were extending support to others and attempting to save lives. qualitative studies among survivors of various emergencies also provide evidence for survivors spontaneously comforting and supporting or cooperating with each other during traumatic events (drury, 2018; wilson et al., 2012). furthermore, approximately half of the sample reported that they reacted in a calm and rational manner, while the other half reported acting at an instinctual and automatic level. a minority described not reacting at all due to resignation. other reactions that were identified included detachment, relief, emotion regulation, nervousness, dissociation, seeking information, and preparing for evacuation. however the study was limited by a considerable time lag between the events and the retrospective accounts, that is, an average of 4 years, by the lack of homogeneity between the different traumatic events among participants, and by most interviews being conducted in focus groups, which are not ideal settings for openly discussing some peritraumatic reactions (e.g., guilt, shame) due to social desirability bias. qualitative studies examining peritraumatic reactions specifically during earthquakes have also confirmed a more diverse range of reactions than those identified in the psychotraumatology literature (kannis dymand et al., 2015; o’toole, 2017; prati et al., 2012). in a qualitative study among teachers (n = 20) during the 2011 christchurch earthquake, many engaged in various emotional regulation techniques such as self talk and deep breathing, and problem focused coping to give an impression of calm while prioritizing the wellbeing of their students (o’toole, 2017). these emotional reduction and disengagement mechanisms have received some attention in the first responders literature (hammock et al., 2019; levy gigi et al., 2016), but have not been addressed in peritraumatic work. the current focus of the psychotraumatology literature on a small subset of negative peritraumatic reactions therefore appears incomplete when compared with the more nuanced and complex picture provided by experiential accounts of disaster survivors. the current study will attempt to address these limitations and provide a naturalistic account of the lived experience of peritraumatic reactions by taking a more inductive, qualitative approach and asking participants to spontaneously report feelings, thoughts, and behaviors experienced during key distressing moments of the same traumatic event. all participants were survivors of the 2016 2017 central italy earthquakes. a purposive sampling strategy was used to identify a sample that reflected the demographic distribution of the population as a whole in terms of gender and age as per the 2016 census data (istituto nazionale di statistica, 2016). the recruitment process was aided by the local health center and municipality. participants were contacted either by phone or approached face to face. in addition, participants who had participated in a previous study (massazza et al., 2019) were reinvited to participate in the current wave of data collection. the recruitment was aided by the trusting relationship the authors had built with the population during previous research, which has been highlighted as an important basis of access in rural areas (hamilton, 2020). semi structured interviews were conducted in italian with 104 survivors. participants were asked to identify key distressing moments they had experienced as part of the earthquake’s sequence. they were then presented with the following standard prompt: i would now like you to try and go back in memory to the moments of the events that correspond to the memory you have just described [refer to the moments described in the memory] and try and describe in as much detail as you can what you felt, thought and did in those moments. it is important that you think back to what happened in the exact moments described by the memory. at the end of the interview, the additional prompt was presented: “is there anything else you did, thought or felt?.” the interviewer did not use an interview guide or inject any external content related to preidentified peritraumatic reactions to allow the participant’s narrative to form freely and naturalistically. interviews lasted an average of 1 hour and were tape recorded. the use of interviews was deemed necessary to address our research questions as the use of standard peritraumatic surveys would have only allowed for a number of predefined peritraumatic reactions to emerge and would have not provided detailed phenomenological data on each reaction (but see massazza et al., 2020 for a study on the same population using standard peritraumatic measures). data collection took place across 3 months in may, june, and july 2018. this was 20 months following the august 2016 earthquake and 15 months after the january 2017 earthquake. the ucl research ethics committee approved a larger mixed methods study of which this project was a subcomponent with the project id: 10517/001. prior to taking part, participants read an information sheet and provided written informed consent. participants were made aware of their right to withdraw from the study at any point, although no participant expressed a desire to do so. all 104 interviews were transcribed verbatim in italian. we followed the methodological framework for thematic analysis as described by joffe (2012). while transcribing, recurring peritraumatic reactions were noted down to create a preliminary thematic framework. the various codes corresponding to different peritraumatic reactions were then clustered into thematically related groups of codes to facilitate the analysis. the assignment of codes to particular groups/clusters followed from discussions among the authors and from inspection of code co occurrence tables to assess which codes spontaneously appeared most in association with other codes (contreras, 2011). following the methodological framework described by fereday and muir cochrane (2006), we used a hybrid approach encompassing a largely inductive framework with the inclusion of some theory driven constructs (e.g., dissociation, mental defeat, cognitive overload). this was justified by the fact that while we were interested in letting new themes emerge spontaneously from the participants’ narratives, we also wanted to explore whether and how commonly researched peritraumatic reactions would have been reported by participants when unprompted. however, we tried to remain as close as possible to the specific wording used by participants whenever appropriate (e.g., only coding for “panic” when participant specifically spoke of “panic”). to assess the reliability of the coding frame, the authors explained the framework to a second coder who was naïve to the field of peritraumatic reactions and blindly coded approximately 5% of the entire data set (o’connor & joffe, 2020). a substantial intercoder reliability rate was achieved between coders, with an average kappa of .73. discrepancies were discussed and resolved. following discussion among the authors, the thematic framework was finalized. distressing moments were accepted only if they had happened between the moment of the earthquake shock on the 24th of august and the state funerals that took place on the 30th of august or during the earthquake shocks of the 30th of october and 18th of january as per definition of peritraumatic, that is, occurring during or immediately after the traumatic event (gorman et al., 2016). all sections corresponding to the peritraumatic time frame were then thematically analyzed to explore the most frequent themes in depth. our thematic analysis was grounded in a phenomenological epistemological framework as we set out to analyze and report on the experiences, meanings, and reality as discussed by the participants themselves to represent the lived experiences of these reactions. while all authors had expertise in the field of peritraumatic reactions, we attempted to approach the data without preconceived assumptions and remain as close as possible to the specific wording used by participants. the substantial intercoder reliability rate achieved with a second coder naïve to the field of peritraumatic reactions is reassuring in this respect. the analysis was conducted using atlas.ti (version 7). demographic information on the current sample is provided in table a in supplemental materials. participants identified various key distressing moments during the semi structured interviews. the most commonly reported events are presented in table 1. a number of key distressing moments, and their corresponding peritraumatic reactions, were excluded from the thematic analysis as they took place outside of the peritraumatic time frame. content of key distressing moments identified by participants, in order of prevalence. note. distressing moments mentioned less than 4 times are not included in this table. a total of 85 different peritraumatic reactions were identified in the interviews (see table 2). each code was assigned to one of the seven groups of codes: emotional distress; action, hyperfocus, and emotion regulation; cognitive overload; dissociation; mental defeat and loss of control; immobility and somatic reactions; and positive affect. some codes could have belonged to various groups and were therefore placed in the group to which they most aligned according to how they were discussed by participants. most participants (81%) also described the reactions of other people around them during interviews. in addition, more than half of the participants (53%) mentioned struggling to describe certain reactions in their own words and 25% of participant described their reactions as “strange.” finally, 19% of participants reported experiencing several different, at times contradictory, reactions at the same time. each participant reported experiencing a mean of 21 different reactions at the time of the traumatic event (range = 6 43), indicating considerable fluctuations between different types of peritraumatic reactions. due to the volume of peritraumatic reactions identified, only those spontaneously reported by at least 25% of the sample are described qualitatively below, but all are mentioned in table 2. each group of peritraumatic codes will be presented separately, in order of prevalence. descriptive information on codes under each code group in order of prevalence. note. the number in brackets corresponds to the percentage of the total sample that reported experiencing the reaction.3 the code groups are presented in order of prevalence, calculated by summing together the percentages of each code within each group. certain reactions did not belong to any specific group such as “appealing to god” or “religious coping” (18% of the total sample), “over identification with other people” (15%), “avoiding distressing scenes” (14%), “being in physical pain” (7%), “feeling a sense of injustice” (5%), and “smoking tobacco” (5%). therefore, when these reactions are reported in a certain section (e.g., “appealing to god” in the “emotional distress” section), it does not imply they were not also associated with other peritraumatic groups. the majority of participants mentioned fear as the predominant emotion experienced during the earthquakes. however, fear for the safety of others was reported by more participants (78% of the total sample) than fear for one’s own safety (70% of the total sample). fear was conceptualized by participants as a social emotion often held in relation to significant others, especially family members not physically present at the scene. the first actions and thoughts of participants were often social in nature, with participants either calling by phone or actively going to search for significant others. even when in extreme danger or distress, the thoughts of some participants were directed toward others. one participant who had remained stuck under debris described how: i remember that i was there in the middle of all this debris and i thought, now i will die, and my family will die in another place, and i will die here on my own, i thought of my nephews, i thought of the people in my family, the people that i love that maybe were dying far away from me [cries]. [female, 60 years] following fear for others, fear for one’s own safety was the most commonly reported emotion. fear was often described as an overwhelming emotion, experienced in a “pure”4 form, absorbing all other cognitive and emotional resources by completely occupying one’s mental space. participants described how their brains, used as a symbol for rationality, were emptied, zeroed, or blocked by fear. participants variously described fear as clinging to them, taking control of them, or possessing them. my first emotion was fear, an incredibly strong fear, a terrible fear, maybe the worst fear that i have ever experienced in my life, so much fear, terror, i was terrified, you know like when you go and watch an horror movie that you are not used to watching and you are scared even of small things like the sound of wind through the trees, it was pure terror, it was unbelievable. [male, 52 years] fear was at times associated with participants holding catastrophic beliefs. these ranged from thinking that everyone they knew was dying or was going to die, that the earth was going to split under their feet and swallow them, or that the apocalypse was taking place. i was terrified that the earth was going to split and open up, and that we were all going to be swallowed up by it, and i kept crying. [female, 18 years] fear was associated with thoughts of death. thoughts of dying and the possibility of experiencing a painful death were most fear provoking and distressing to participants. when faced with the possibility of death, some participants described appealing to god or other religious figures. religious figures were evoked generally to plead for survival but, in some cases, also for comfort when getting ready to die or when praying for a quick and painless death. an elderly woman recalled how: i thought that now the ground will open up and i will go down, i was resigned to death, i made the sign of the cross and i waited for death [. . . ]“for all my sins” i said “please help me”, god will welcome me. [female, 74 years] behaviorally, the emotion of fear was often associated with flight responses. a considerable number of participants described experiencing an urge to flee during the earthquake shocks. this instinct was generally triggered by the feeling of being trapped when inside built structures. it was described as a sudden, rushed, and not necessarily reasoned reaction, such as participants taking the stairs without checking they were intact. houses and internal structures were generally conceptualized as spaces of risk one had to flee rather than as safe and solid refuges inside which one felt protected. some houses were perceived as being so unsafe that a number of participants jumped from windows to get out of them. another commonly reported negative emotion was anxiety, often connected to feeling in a state of uncertainty. in addition, some participants reported having anxious thoughts concerning their future, such as what was going to happen to their lives and how they were going to continue living without family members, houses, and jobs. other emotions such as sadness, anger, guilt, and shame were also mentioned. sadness, melancholy, crying, desperation, and emotional pain were feelings and behaviors associated with loss, often following the realization of the death of friends, family members, and acquaintances. this emotional pain was described as deep, excruciating, and insurmountable as well as being associated with feelings of unbridgeable void. the loss of people, in particular children, created gaping holes within the close knit pre earthquake social fabric, which participants felt could not be mended. a number of participants also reported reacting to the events with anger, irritability, and frustration. anger was often fueled by a perceived sense of injustice concerning the event. participants often mentioned that what had happened was unfair, alluding to a tacit universal moral structure that had suddenly shattered. people reported asking themselves why such a thing had happened to them and what they had done to deserve so much pain. participants reported experiencing a considerable number of agency driven reactions indicating orientation toward action, focus, and attempts at managing one’s emotions while in distress. some participants reported quickly gaining full understanding of what was happening. others described progressively initiating a process of making sense of the event and “putting things into focus” in the subsequent hours and days following a period of initial confusion. the process of gaining awareness of what was happening was generally followed by a shift to actions oriented toward a goal. these actions were both directed toward the external environment, for example when providing support to others, and also toward oneself, such as by regulating one’s reactions. participants reported “switching” to an operational mode by “unblocking” or “activating” oneself and “springing” into action. some participants described this shift from confusion to action as that of resetting a frozen computer or phone. it was only a moment of confusion, one second, then i saw the stones on the ground and i thought “shit, it’s the earthquake”, it was as if i had re set my brain, and i went along with mechanical memory, i mean i had identified priorities 1, 2 and 3 and until i hadn’t completed all of these priorities i didn’t stop. [female, 25 years] a large number of different actions oriented toward a goal were described by most participants (72% of the total sample). the most commonly reported external action was that of providing both practical and emotional support to other people in need (64% of the total sample). practical support ranged from offering food and water, giving people clothes and bedcovers, to providing first aid and rescuing people from under the debris. at times, participants reported putting their own safety at risk to help others. people often reported that what pushed them to provide practical support to members of their community as well as to strangers was the need to feel useful and take agency in relation to the situation together with an identification with the suffering of others during the event. i put myself in the background in order to help others, i instinctively annihilated my ego, i considered the life of another person from amatrice just as important as my own life. [male, 28 years] participants also reported providing emotional support to others. this included calming and comforting others as well as being strong for people around them. one participant recalled his attempts to try and protect his elderly mother from the awareness of the loss of her town by telling her they were starring as background actors in a disaster movie and that everything she was witnessing was simply part of the movie set. the act of providing emotional support was often associated with an attempt to put one’s emotions on hold to concentrate on the suffering of others. participants reported engaging in various kinds of emotional labor to regulate, postpone, and control their emotions. the function of this emotional labor was often that of projecting and constructing an exterior impression of calm for others, sometimes actively “lying to oneself” due to internal turmoil. participants conceptualized other survivors as open containers within which one could inject calmness, rationality, and tranquility. emotions were described as communicable entities. participants reported having been able to maintain a state of calmness and detachment by “freezing” and “turning off” their feelings. this emotional blunting was at times identified as a “defense mechanism” to handle particularly distressing scenes such as removing corpses from the debris. i remember that every time that i heard of the death of someone i thought ok, in two or three days i will cry about the death of these people but now i have to try and help other people knowing that if i had let emotions take hold they might have stopped my action of helping others. [male, 28 years] some participants also reported being strong, firm, and courageous, often to their surprise. a process that entailed an active search and buildup of internal strength and courage within oneself was at times described in terms of “working up courage.” one participant who had remained stuck under debris described how: generally i am a bit of a chicken, i faint, i am afraid of driving the car, i am afraid of everything, but when i was under there i felt such a strength, because you want to live and so you do everything in order to live. [female, 60 years] at the cognitive level, participants also described a particular state of enhanced focus on action. this was a state characterized by heightened levels of concentration and problem solving, enhanced awareness and perceived rationality, mental lucidity and clarity, concrete thinking, and narrowing of attention to a specific aim. participants recalled having few particular thoughts but rather being completely immersed in an action. the actions that participants were engaged in appeared to function as mental black holes, totally absorbing the cognitive capacities of the individual. participants described this state of hyperfocus as similar to being in a state of trance. my head was completely empty, i was only focused on acting [. . .], it’s not that while i was lifting the debris i was thinking about things, i didn’t think about anything, it was similar as when i go running and i focus on the run itself, on my breathing. [male, 31 years] the overwhelming intensity of thoughts, feelings, and sensory stimuli experienced during the traumatic event led some participants to enter a state of cognitive overload, a reaction consisting of moderate to severe disruption in how they processed information around them. this often led participants to feel confused during certain moments of the earthquakes. participants described this reaction as feeling dazed or stunned and as not being able to fully take in, process, or understand what was happening. external and internal stimuli were described as being too intense and too fast moving for cognitive capacities to keep up with them and assimilate them. the detachment from cognitive resources was described metaphorically by participants as being out of one’s mind, feeling absent, like a zombie, struck by lightning or drunk, and acting “without cognition.” this state was often heightened when participants reported being woken up by the strong shaking and failing to understand what was happening. cognitive capacities were conceptualized by participants as being a finite container that was overflowing with powerful internal and external stimuli, leading to confusion. participants often compared their brains and minds with computers or mobile phones that were struggling to process the information received. participants variously described their brain and minds as going into overload, haywire, or standby; as having to be reset or shut down; or as not connecting and stalling. i had this phase of momentary blackout [. . .] i was blocked, i really couldn’t understand what i needed to do. in that moment everything is annihilated, it is as if you are a computer that has been reset, in that moment all the data in your brain have been zeroed by fear. [female, 19 years] the two core underlying triggers for this state of cognitive overload were identified by participants as feeling overwhelmed by emotions and feeling flooded by sensory stimuli, as if both the quantity and intensity of internal and external stimuli exceeded their psychological resources to process them. two participants reported feeling as if this emotional load was making them “explode,” while others used the metaphors of being physically engulfed by an avalanche of emotions or “submerged” by emotions. at the beginning you have too many emotions to manage and so your brain sort of goes in overdrive. [female, 28 years] participants also reported that the amount and the intensity of sights, sounds, and smells contributed to the feeling of cognitive overload. virtually every participant clearly recalled the darkness, the stench of gas, the taste of dust in one’s throat, the sound of people calling for help from under the debris, and the deafening rumble of the earthquake and of houses collapsing, together with the feeling of broken glass and sharp materials under one’s feet. i remember this infernal heat, this heat that was suffocating me, mixed with the dust, and these deafening sounds of the ambulances, of the police cars, the sound of helicopters [. . .], this huge chaos, it disoriented me, it stunned me. [female, 32 years] participants reported that thoughts appeared disorganized, racing, and disconnected one from another. thoughts were described as possessing a materiality and a mass that caused them to “crowd,” “pile up,” “cram,” and “condense” in one’s mind. in addition, thoughts acquired a “stickiness” that made them clump together and made it difficult for participants to distinguish one thought from the other. interestingly, while some participants reported an overabundance of thoughts during cognitive overload, others also described an opposite state of thought vacuum and cognitive void where they reported experiencing no thoughts. in the first moments i couldn’t divide different thoughts one from another, i couldn’t think rationally at only one thing at a time, in that moment they were all clumped together and i couldn’t manage to divide them. [male, 20 years] some participants reported that while their basic functions such as perception kept working, they would fail to be integrated at a higher cognitive level with thoughts and beliefs. one participant described this as “seeing without understanding” and another participant as “the mind being outside of what the eye sees.” i didn’t immediately gain awareness of the severity of the earthquake, i saw the stones of the school in the middle of the road but even there i didn’t really realize, i mean i saw them but it was as if i hadn’t seen them, it was a sort of seeing them but not thinking about it. [female, 59 years] this state of cognitive overload also led to disruptions in carrying out goal oriented behaviors as participants reported not knowing what to do and how to react during and immediately after the events. as with emotional distress, the initial phase of cognitive overload was, in some participants, followed by the ability to gather one’s cognitive resources and enter a more reactive and focused state. others reported fluctuating between moments of cognitive overload and moments of rationality. conversely, a minority of participants reported exiting this state of confusion and overload only days following the event. participants reported experiencing a variety of peritraumatic dissociative reactions. these reactions clustered around three key phenomena: distortions in one’s sense of reality (i.e., derealization), distortions in one’s sense of self (i.e., depersonalization), and emotional numbness. the most commonly reported dissociative reaction was experiencing distortions in one’s sense of reality (51% of the entire sample). the disaster experience was permeated by a profound perception of “un reality.” some of the most common adjectives participants used to describe what they experienced were “surreal,” “absurd,” “impossible,” and “unbelievable” to indicate the disintegration of their perception of reality. the most widespread perception concerning derealization described by participants was the feeling of being in a dream during the earthquake events. this recurring comment concerning the dream like quality of the experience might have also been partially due to most participant being woken from sleep by the earthquake. participants also described feeling part of a movie, a fiction, a parallel reality, another dimension, or a videogame. it felt as if i was in a dream, a thing that you don’t think it’s real, [. . .] i mean you were aware that it was all real but i had such a zeroing of emotions that i kept thinking “now i am going to wake up” i knew that it was real but at the emotional level it was as if it wasn’t real, a really strange thing. [female, 23 years] people reported struggling internally to determine whether what they were experiencing was real or the fruit of their fantasy. reality was described as possessing a malleable and ambiguous quality as what they experienced deviated from their concept of normality so dramatically. the veil between reality and fantasy as well as between wakefulness and sleep had acquired a porous quality allowing one to blend into the other as participants described “losing touch with reality.” one participant described the urge to open the coffin of one of his deceased friends to actually make sure he had died and that he was not imagining everything. participants proposed that derealization could have been a form of “self defense” that their “brain” had actively conjured as an unconscious attempt to “reject” what was happening to them. together with a disintegration in the sense of reality, a smaller number of participants also reported disintegration in their usual sense of self and personhood (i.e., depersonalization). participants reported not feeling like themselves or feeling outside of themselves. one participant described this sensation as being so acute that he started thinking he had disappeared or become invisible, a “ghost,” and touched himself to check he still existed. a further reaction associated with depersonalization was the feeling of being a spectator to what was happening or being “outside reality” rather than being directly involved in the experience. it was as if i was outside of the world for a bit, it was me and only me, and the world was outside, as if there was no one else [. . .], i didn’t feel like myself. [male, 19 years] participants who reported disruptions in sense of self and feeling “absent” often also described how at the emotional level they felt numb, apathetic, and empty. participants reported a perception of emotional void; of having their affective resources completely depleted; of “feeling nothing,” feeling “emotionally blocked,” or unmoved. participants described feeling their emotions being hollowed out like an “emptied carcass, only bones.” a participant described how, while his two children and partner were being extracted dead from the debris: in these moments there are no emotions, it’s as if everything has stopped, inside of me, i felt it was useless to scream, it’s useless, i was a person of stone, blocked, inside you are blocked [. . .] i didn’t shed one tear, the feelings came after, in that moment there was nothing, [. . .] it’s unexplainable. [female, 47 years] helplessness was a prevalent (60% of the total sample) peritraumatic response. the earthquake was often conceptualized as an entity that exceeded any human attempt to react to it. indeed, while individuals reported losing their own sense of agency, they simultaneously projected a sense of all powerful agency onto the earthquake itself. many participants animated the earthquake constructing it as an active and intentional entity endowed with human like traits such as cruelty, evil, ferocity, violence, and rage while also always remaining distinctly nonhuman in its omnipotent strength. participants variously described the earthquake as a monster, a giant, a beast, and the devil and reported feeling chased by it or begging it to stop. it felt as if we were inside the hands of a giant that did like this [makes shaking motion with hands], it moved us like a dice. [. . .]. [female, 33 years] this perceived loss of human agency was at times associated with a feeling of defeat, discouragement, and resignation as some participants reported losing all hope, feeling destroyed as a person, or “psychologically annihilated.” some participants reported losing interest in whether they were going to live or die and surrendering to the event. this feeling of defeat was also associated with a perception of exhaustion as emotional, physical, and cognitive resources had been depleted, leaving participants feeling drained. i felt weak in these moments, i had a feeling of powerlessness, like when you want to do something and you don’t manage to, as if you wanted to move a mountain, it’s impossible. [male, 50 years] helplessness and the perceived loss of human agency also contributed to shifts in the perception of self and personhood during the earthquakes. some participants reported feeling like a “pawn” or a “vegetable” at the mercy of nature. this sense of objectification was at times exacerbated to the point of participants perceiving themselves as being nothing or no one. other participants described how the power of the earthquake made them feel like a “shit” or an “amoeba,” adding worthlessness to their sense of helplessness. individuals felt hollowed out of their humanness as their life was perceived as becoming dependent on chance, miracles, luck, and nature rather than individual willpower. this perception was generally associated with feelings of being useless, insignificant, small, and defenseless as well as vulnerable, fragile, and lonely. in that moment you realize you are a nullity, you realize that your life is worth nothing, it doesn’t matter how many people you saved or whether you built hospitals in all the world, it counts nothing, in that moment you are no one, you are only something to get rid of, a pawn. [female, 27 years] participants also experienced a diverse range of psychosomatic reactions. the most commonly reported (37% of the total sample) psychosomatic reaction was physical immobility. participants reported generally experiencing immobility during the moments corresponding to the earthquake shock, although some participants had also experienced the reaction when exposed to very distressing scenes. physical immobility was often associated with feelings of loss of control over one’s own body. participants generally described the sensation of having their entire body or specific body parts, usually legs and feet, blocked, heavy, stiff, rigid, paralyzed, or immobilized. they described feeling as if their body was “not responding” to intentional commands. two participants described themselves as a “mummy” and as a “doll” respectively, inanimate objects unable to move autonomously. during the moments when the shock was at its strongest, practically i felt that my legs were blocked, and therefore if i tried to take one step ahead i felt as if my legs were incredibly heavy, as if a leg weighted 200kg, i really couldn’t move, completely blocked. [male, 25 years] some participants reported automatically feeling paralyzed, despite wanting to move. among these participants, physical immobility was generally associated with feeling overwhelmed both emotionally and cognitively. i remained still in my bed, clinging to my bed sheets, i remember hearing the sound of the walls crumbling and i understood that the house was breaking but i could not manage to comprehend the severity of the situation [. . .] in that moment i couldn’t do anything, i couldn’t manage to move, i didn’t manage to get up. [female, 18 years] conversely, some participants reported a more deliberate instinct of trying to stay “still” due to feeling helpless. this appeared to be similar to a “playing dead” response. indeed, as detailed in the mental defeat section, the earthquake was at times perceived as a possible predator, such as a monster or a beast. some participants reported engaging in physical immobility as a survival strategy that could have been used against a living creature. during the earthquake shock while me and my wife were hugging each other under the bed i kept telling her “be quiet be quiet be quiet” as if the earthquake went directly towards who screamed and instead the silence made you go unnoticed, as if, if he [the earthquake] didn’t hear us he would go somewhere else. [male, 46 years] people usually reported that they managed to exit this stage of immobility either during or immediately after the earthquake shock often due to other people around them encouraging them to “switch” to a reactive mode or because the acute phase of helplessness or emotional/cognitive overload had ended. therefore, physical immobility was reported as being a transitory state usually lasting a few seconds or, less frequently, a few minutes. some participants also reported that this moment of immobility was functional for them to orientate their attention to rationalize and understand what was happening. participants also reported psychosomatic reactions related to fear responses such as fainting, shaking, or losing one’s sense of appetite and thirst. in addition, in a minority of participants, a variety of psychosomatic reactions linked to immobility were reported such as not feeling pain (i.e., anesthesia), not being able to scream or shout (i.e., vocal suppression), and feeling cold. while i was inside the debris as my house was collapsing, i didn’t feel any physical pain, this is adrenaline right? it felt as if i was falling in cotton wool, but then when they brought me to the hospital i was covered in blood. [female, 60 years] a number of more positive emotions were also reported by participants. as with most other reactions, positive emotions were localized to specific moments of the traumatic events rather than generalized to the entire event. hope was the most common positive emotion reported by participants (29% of the total sample). the earthquake events were conceptualized as spaces of intrinsic uncertainty and ambiguity, and while some participants filled this lack of information with catastrophic prospects and anxiety, others filled them with hope. participants often reported hoping that people close to them had survived the earthquake, while some reported hoping that they were in a dream. hope was generally described as being weak with participants speaking of “glimmers” or “strings” of hope that could be easily extinguished by the harshness of reality. hope was often reported during moments when participants had not gained full awareness of the situation, although some participants reported “clinging” to hope despite clear contrary evidence. a number of participants also reported transient feelings of joy and happiness in certain moments during the earthquake events. seeing people being extracted alive from the debris or being reunified with family members were key moments when participants reported feeling joyful, happy, or relieved. these emotions were often reported as being circumscribed in time and “mixed” with a diverse range of other feelings and thoughts which often changed rapidly. in the midst of terror, fear, and anxiety, some participants were still able to identify moments of lightness. a participant who had lost her husband next to her described how she had felt comforted by the kindness of the medical personnel who had extracted her from the debris. one moment we cried, one moment we laughed, and one moment we comforted each other, it’s a mix of feelings, it’s difficult to explain, it’s a jumble of sentiments, of thoughts. [male, 25 years] i remember when we saw all of our family members, or people that up to the day before you had never talked with and you would hug each other, there was this feeling of brotherhood, people that maybe before you didn’t even like, but seeing them there it was such a joy. [female, 23 years] this is the first study to explore naturalistically the lived experience of peritraumatic reactions in a large sample of individuals exposed to the same traumatic event. our findings provide empirical support for the identification of peritraumatic dissociation, distress, immobility, and mental defeat in the quantitative literature. while some work has explored peritraumatic reactions qualitatively during distressing events, it has generally done so tangentially or in small samples (for tonic immobility, see ayers, 2007; tebockhorst et al., 2015, for peritraumatic dissociation, see mattos et al., 2015). in addition, this is the first study to explore immobility and mental defeat during an earthquake. this shows that these two peritraumatic constructs, mostly conceptualized in relation to interpersonal violence, might be relevant to other traumas as well. the accounts provide insight into an understudied peritraumatic reaction, that of cognitive overload, that is, a state of disruption in information processing mechanisms characterized by a perceived sense of confusion; a lack of integration of sensory perceptual stimuli into higher cognition; and disorganized, overwhelming, and racing thoughts. certain subcomponents of cognitive overload, such as confusion and disorientation, have been identified and explored in research (dunmore et al., 2001; kannis dymand et al., 2015; tebockhorst et al., 2015) and are covered by certain items of the peritraumatic dissociative experiences questionnaire (marmar et al., 1994) and the data driven processing scale (halligan et al., 2002). however, no systematic research had previously investigated the phenomenological characteristics of this construct in trauma exposed populations. our results also highlighted the presence of a range of more adaptive and positive peritraumatic reactions such as hyperfocus on action and positive emotions such as hope, joy, and relief. these reactions have received virtually no attention in the peritraumatic literature, and its focus on more negative and dysfunctional reactions has meant that more normative aspects of trauma responses have been neglected (bonanno, 2004). survivors did not experience distress, dissociation, and helplessness passively but were able to respond and endeavor to manage these reactions through various coping mechanisms, such as emotional regulation and cognitive focus on goal oriented actions. this could provide some explanation for the widespread psychological resilience shown by survivors following disasters (bonanno et al., 2010) as these more neutral and adaptive reactions, and their consequent appraisal post trauma, could play a protective role against post trauma psychopathology. in addition, as wilson et al. (2012) suggest, the identification of more neutral and adaptive reactions might represent a useful area of focus during trauma therapy to encourage the patient to build a more comprehensive and nuanced account of their trauma narrative. another core finding from the data cutting across most reactions was the inherently social dimension of the peritraumatic experience in the current sample, in that most participants reported noticing the reactions of others, fearing for others, and supporting others. while the findings are limited by possible social desirability biases, they are in line with findings from social psychology highlighting the cooperative, social, and nonselfish nature of most reactions during mass emergencies (drury, 2018). however, a latent assumption underlying most of the peritraumatic literature is that individuals’ reactions are internal constructs uncorrelated and independent from the reactions of others who are present during the event. across the 63 items of the six most widely used standard, quantitative peritraumatic measures,5 only 3 items acknowledge the possible presence of others during the traumatic event (e.g., item 7 of the peritraumatic distress inventory (brunet et al., 2001) “i felt worried about the safety of others”). as many traumatic events are social in nature, future peritraumatic research should give more weight to the interactions between different individuals and pay more attention to the feeling of connectedness and relatedness to others that can be experienced during certain traumatic events. another theme cutting across most peritraumatic reactions concerns participants struggling to describe in their own words certain reactions they experienced, a phenomenon reported by more than half of the participants, with a quarter of the sample describing certain reactions as “strange.” in addition, one fifth of participants reported experiencing “mixed,” often contradictory, reactions at the same time, such as feeling hopeful but simultaneously sad. as a result of this, participants relied heavily on metaphors when describing their experience as ordinary language seemed to fail them in capturing its strangeness and complexity (van der kolk & fisler, 1995). this “indescribability” of certain traumatic constructs replicates findings from černis et al. (2020) and provides empirical support for the linguistic work by caruth (1996) concerning the unspeakability of trauma as a crisis in representation. these findings suggest that therapists might investigate the experience of peritraumatic reactions using means other than words, such as imagery, drawings, or body movement. in addition, future work might explore whether different degrees of “indescribability” of reactions are associated with different degrees of disruptions of higher order cognitive processing, and subsequently with different levels of ptsd. another novel contribution to the literature was the finding that participants reported fluctuating between a considerable variety of different peritraumatic reactions during the event (m = 21, range = 6 43). this highlights how the notion of a traumatic event might be best understood as an umbrella term containing within it many subevents with different peritraumatic characteristics (marks et al., 2018). participants reported “switching” out of initial negative peritraumatic reactions into more reactive modes, as well as fluctuating between different reactions and different degrees of the same reaction. the current quantitative methodology that requires participants to indicate the extent to which they experienced a certain reaction for the entire duration of the traumatic event might therefore be flawed. future work should be more attentive to these fluctuations within and between reactions, especially because experimental work has shown that this fluctuation within peritraumatic reactions might be clinically meaningful, for example, in determining which moments of the traumatic event are encoded as intrusive memories (chou et al., 2014). furthermore, as participants often reported “switching” between different peritraumatic reactions during the course of the trauma, future research might attempt to identify the “switches” allowing people to move from negative peritraumatic reactions to more neutral and adaptive ones. the current study has a number of limitations. these include the retrospective nature of the peritraumatic accounts, as the accuracy and consistency of traumatic memories is a subject of controversy (brewin, 2018). while all peritraumatic recollections will be retrospective, future studies might attempt to collect data closer in time to the traumatic event. another limitation concerns the possibility of social desirability biases skewing the reporting to socially acceptable reactions such as helping others and away from shame provoking reactions such as selfish behavior. as drury (2018) suggests, future work might attempt to diminish this bias by asking participants to describe the peritraumatic reactions observed in others rather than in oneself. in addition, the open and exploratory method used in the current study, while allowing for narratives to arise organically and spontaneously, might have also led to the omission of certain reactions as participants only reported those that were salient and noteworthy for them. future studies will be necessary to test whether the current reactions are generalizable to other survivors of other types of traumatic events in other cultural contexts. furthermore, certain participants might differ in their ability to describe their own feelings and sensations, leading to variance in the amount and detail of reactions provided. future work might attempt to control for this effect by measuring emotional granularity and interoceptive awareness among responders. in addition, although a number of precautions were taken such as ensuring not to inject any technical content into the interviews and having a second coder naïve to the field recode a subsection of the data, the awareness the authors had of previous work on peritraumatic reactions could have inadvertently biased the interpretation of the data toward preexisting conceptualizations of the reactions. finally, the accounts reported represent the participants’ own subjective appraisal and recollection of their experience and might not necessarily coincide with data elicited through other types of measurement such as biological markers. besides having implications for mental health research and practice, our findings could also be useful for earthquake preparedness interventions because they provide detailed insight into how people may act, think, and feel during an earthquake (joffe et al., 2019). they further highlight the role that members of the public can play in emergency response. as almost two thirds of participants reported trying to be useful, this should be factored into future disaster response plans (ashkenazi & hunt, 2019). peritraumatic reactions, together with pretrauma and post trauma factors, play a key role in the development of post traumatic psychopathology and in influencing survivors’ wellbeing. the current article demonstrates the complexity, variety, and multifaceted nature of peritraumatic reactions during disaster. an improved understanding of their phenomenological characteristics is an important research and clinical priority. supplemental material, sj pdf 1 qhr 10.1177_1049732320968791 for feelings, thoughts, and behaviors during disaster by alessandro massazza, chris r. brewin and helene joffe in qualitative health research the authors would like to thank the municipality and health center of amatrice and the psychiatric services of rieti for their practical support in conducting the study, in particular antonella fabiano, simone lodovisi, anna desantis, gianna petrocco, fabrizio borrello, domenica tomassoni, gabriella nobili, and oriana d’emidio. most importantly, our most heartfelt gratitude goes to the participants. finally, we would like to thank the economic and social research council for their financial support. alessandro massazza is a research fellow at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine, uk. his research interests concern mental health and psychosocial support in complex settings. chris r. brewin is an emeritus professor of clinical psychology at ucl (university college london), uk. his research interests include post traumatic stress disorder, memory, and mental health responses following disasters. helene joffe is a professor of psychology at ucl (university college london), uk. her research interests include public engagement with risk, disaster preparedness, and wellbeing. post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) is a psychiatric disorder that can develop following exposure to a traumatic event and is characterized by reexperiencing the event in the here and now through distressing memories and nightmares, avoiding reminders of the trauma, and by an ongoing sense of threat (world health organization, 2019). this number was identified through a search on google scholar the numbers provided in brackets do not necessarily indicate the actual prevalence of the reaction but simply how prevalent the reaction was in the spontaneous reports of participants. when descriptions of the participants’ reactions are reported within quotation marks, it indicates that the exact wording of the participant was used. peritraumatic dissociative experiences questionnaire, peritraumatic distress questionnaire, tonic immobility scale, mental defeat questionnaire, somatoform dissociation questionnaire peritraumatic, data driven processing scale declaration of conflicting interests: the authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding: the authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: the current work was funded through funding to the first author from the economic and social research council (uk). orcid id: alessandro massazza https://orcid.org/0000 0001 7238 0493 supplemental material: supplemental material for this article is available online at journals.sagepub.com/home/qhr/10.1177/1049732320968791. this section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article. supplemental material, sj pdf 1 qhr 10.1177_1049732320968791 for feelings, thoughts, and behaviors during disaster by alessandro massazza, chris r. brewin and helene joffe in qualitative health research articles from qualitative health research are provided here courtesy of sage publications connect with nlm national library of medicine 8600 rockville pike bethesda, md 20894

emergency support send an email email us_info@polygongroup.com. usually reply within 1 2 business days. 24/7 hotline urgent equipment and operational supportproperty damagedocuments and contents damage 24/7 emergency:united states: 1 800 422 6379canada: 1 888 702 4782 send a message contact our us office polygon us headquarters15 sharpner’s pond road, building f north andover, ma 01845phone: 1 800 422 6379 see all our us locations here: polygon us office locations for global support, please contact one of our offices listed here: our global offices   polygon group thanks for your email, we will get back to you shortly! i consent to polygon collecting my personal information in order to contact me. polygon handles all personal data according to the general data protection regulation (gdpr) global austria belgium canada denmark finland france germany ireland italy luxembourg netherlands norway singapore spain sweden switzerland united kingdom united states notice you are now leaving polygon restoration's website and will be directed to another country in the group.do you want to proceed? during a disaster, one of your top enemies is panic. you can prevent feeling panicked when the unthinkable happens by creating an emergency plan for your home and business. by making an emergency plan, you can be ready to get to safety in a matter of minutes with the essential items you need. emergency support send an email 24/7 hotline urgent equipment and operational supportproperty damagedocuments and contents damage 24/7 emergency:united states: 1 800 422 6379canada: 1 888 702 4782 send a message polygon us headquarters15 sharpner’s pond road, building f north andover, ma 01845phone: 1 800 422 6379 see all our us locations here: polygon us office locations for global support, please contact one of our offices listed here: our global offices   polygon group i consent to polygon collecting my personal information in order to contact me. polygon handles all personal data according to the general data protection regulation (gdpr) contact us to learn more about the industries we serve and the variety of applications we offer from heating, cooling, dehumidification, and more!15 sharpner’s pond road, building f north andover, ma 01845phone: 1 800 422 6379 www.polygongroup.us

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an official website of the united states government here’s how you know official websites use .gov a .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the united states. secure .gov websites use https a lock ( locka locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. div.hazard regions { } .two col h3 { font family: source sans pro web,helvetica neue,helvetica,roboto,arial,sans serif; margin: 30px 0 0 0; } div.hazard regions ul { list style: none; padding left: 0; } div.hazard regions img { width: 70px; height: auto; } .checkmark list ul { list style:none; padding left: 0; } .checkmark list { border spacing: 10px; background: #f8faf7; padding: 15px; } .checkmark list img { max width: 100%; height: auto; } .checkmark list li { display: table row; } .checkmark list li:before { content: ''; display: table cell; height: 20px; width: 20px; background image: url(https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/checkmark.svg); // fallback png background image: url(https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/checkmark.svg); background size: contain; background repeat: no repeat; margin right:15px; margin top:  5px; } .hashtag { padding: 5px 10px; background: #565c65; color: white; display: inline block; margin left: 5px; } .section icons { background: #f8faf7; padding: 30px; } .region image { } .region text { margin left: 0; margin: auto 0 auto 15px; } .hazard row { display: flex; flex direction: row; flex wrap: wrap; width: 100%; margin: 40px 0; } .links { margin bottom: 40px; } .links ul { list style: none; padding: 0; } .links li { display: inline; background: #e8ecde; padding: 15px; margin right: 10px; margin bottom: 10px; float: left; } .links li a { color: #5a6d35; text decoration: none; } .clear { clear: both; } .hazard section { margin bottom: 30px; } h2 { margin bottom: 40px !important; } @media (max width: 422px) { .grid col 2 img { margin top: 10px; } } .mini { align self: center; } .mini img { width: 34px !important; height: auto; } img.feature { width: 100%; height: auto; } .tag covid { padding: 5px 10px; background: #689344; color: white; display: inline block; font weight: bold; font size: 12px; line height: 12px; margin left: 5px; } img.checkmark list image { max width: 100% !important; } prepare before stay safe during stay safe after additional resources if you are a disaster survivor, please visit fema.gov for up to date information on current disaster declarations. if you have questions about your disaster assistance application, you can call (800) 621 3362, visit disasterassistance.gov or use the fema mobile app. an earthquake is a sudden, rapid shaking of the ground caused by the shifting of rocks deep underneath the earth’s surface. earthquakes can cause fires, tsunamis, landslides or avalanches. while they can happen anywhere without warning, areas at higher risk for earthquakes include alaska, california, hawaii, oregon, puerto rico, washington and the entire mississippi river valley. the best time to prepare for any disaster is before it happens. if an earthquake happens, protect yourself right away: wherever you are, drop down to your hands and knees and hold onto something sturdy. if you’re using a wheelchair or walker with a seat, make sure your wheels are locked and remain seated until the shaking stops. cover your head and neck with your arms. if a sturdy table or desk is nearby, crawl underneath it for shelter. if no shelter is nearby, crawl next to an interior wall (away from windows). crawl only if you can reach better cover without going through an area with more debris. stay on your knees or bent over to protect vital organs. if you are under a table or desk, hold on with one hand and be ready to move with it if it moves. if seated and unable to drop to the floor, bend forward, cover your head with your arms and hold on to your neck with both hands. there can be serious hazards after an earthquake, such as damage to the building, leaking gas and water lines, or downed power lines. once you are safe, pay attention to local news reports for emergency information and instructions via battery operated radio, tv, social media or from cell phone text alerts. last updated: 09/19/2024 return to top

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disasters can strike at any time, even while at work. it is of the utmost importance to be prepared in case a disaster were to strike our area. over the next year, employees of the department of internal medicine will follow steps to create a grab and go emergency kit and a personal emergency plan that they can utilize at work and at home. each step will be posted on a bi monthly basis, ensuring that all employees have two months to complete each step in the emergency preparedness plan. on wednesday, march 18, 2020, a 5.7 earthquake shook salt lake city and surrounding regions. earthquakes like this can occur suddenly and without warning, so a few tips and tricks have been assembled to help prepare employees for the next "big shake." earthquakes can often be so violent that it is impossible to walk or crawl, but your best defense is to immediately protect yourself as best as possible where you are. most earthquake related injuries within the united states do not occur from collapsing structures, but from flying debris. be sure to avoid areas where things might fall off walls, and do not go outside during the quake if you are indoors (the area near exterior walls of a building is the most dangerous place to be), and protect your head and your neck. in some situations, you might not be able to use drop, cover & hold. review these situations and alternative methods to stay safe during an earthquake. for more detailed and specific instructions on how to handle earthquakes in various circumstances, please visit the great utah shakeout website or earthquakecountry.org/step5 in the event of a significant earthquake, you may need to evacuate your home and building for some time. we encourage employees to review this website to put together 96 hour kits for both home and office. 30 north mario capecchi dr, 3rd floor salt lake city, utah 84112

global interagency security forum published: october 7, 2019 share this: by: meredith moore by meredith moore, founder and ceo greylake training solutions what is going on in our brain when we are confronted with a threat to our survival? and more importantly, why is it happening? understanding these answers can boost our odds for survival when we are faced with a threatening situation or an emergency and help leaders prepare, anticipate and prevent these challenges for their workforce. all living things have a fear response that originates in a very ancient part of our brain called the limbic system. a specific component of the limbic system is the amygdala, which many know as the part of the brain that houses our fear response; and the freeze, flight or fight reaction. recently, neuroscientists have discovered the amygdala is also a critical part of how we process memory, emotion, and attention. this explains some of the sensations we experience in an emergency when our amygdala is activated, specifically those affecting our perceptions of time, how we remember details and how we either become hyper focused or lose all focus.