Why we do not prepare for earthquakes | Steven Eberlein | TEDxPortland

Steven Eberlein works for the American Red Cross Cascades Region -- encouraging people to prepare for disasters, especially earthquakes.
His experience of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami left him grappling with this question: can a society adapt to a risk that it has never experienced before? He thinks so. His mission is to spark a preparedness movement in the Pacific Northwest that will save lives in the event of a Cascadia Subduction Zone 9M earthquake.
Steven Eberlein was chosen from 254 applicants from the first ever TEDxPortland Ideas Booth. He had one week to prepare his talk before 3000+ people.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

Пікірлер: 57

  • @Samantha-jb6ln
    @Samantha-jb6ln4 жыл бұрын

    "Knowledge is not wisdom until it changes you" - damn right!

  • @kjirstinyoungberg7794
    @kjirstinyoungberg7794 Жыл бұрын

    Thank you, Mr. Eberlein. Born and raised in California, I have personally ridden out eight earthquakes above 6.0 on the Richter Scale. We were 90 miles away from the San Fernando quake, but it was still a bumpy ride. I can still hear my brother's screams as the toilet sloshed around when he tried to pee, and he couldn't stand up. I was on the couch, which tipped so much forward and back, it felt like I was laying in a rowboat. Our brains struggle with reality when these things hit. I was married and in San Jose, living just seven miles (as the crow flies) from the epicenter of Loma Prieta. Our oldest son, David, would have figured into the deaths in that one, had my husband, Eric, not heeded a warning to secure our six-foot-tall bookshelves and his massive Peavy Amps sitting on top of them with "L" brackets and 4" wood screws into the wooden 2 X 4's in our walls. David was right under it, and was being pelted with VHS tapes as we tried to record the World Series. I was only ten feet away, but couldn't reach him, because we were both bouncing like ping pong balls. I was on the phone with Eric, working in Santa Clara at HP. I screamed, "Earthquake!" and Eric yelled it to his co-workers as the phone went dead. All within earshot scrambled under their desks just before it hit, and the massive plate glass windows there shattered. Seconds of warning can save lives. Once outside, I remember glancing down the street and watching water pour down every driveway except ours, because Eric had also secured our water heater to the wall. We could smell gas, and helped our neighbors turn theirs off. Ours had survived, because we were prepared. We now live in Utah, where another large one is overdue. We spend lots of hours talking with church and community groups, trying to convince people to take preparation seriously. Those four inch wood screws holding the amplifiers and bookshelves up? Loma Prieta had pulled all but ¼ of an inch out. That was all that held them. Had that quake lasted 20 seconds instead of 15, they could have crushed us.

  • @mikelig8365
    @mikelig83653 жыл бұрын

    Excellent presentation. I work in the public safety field and will be one of the large wave of third responders who will help in the recovery effort. I am deeply grateful for your work Mr. Eberlein and am committed to help spread your message. Thank you.

  • @waltermedstar7583
    @waltermedstar75835 жыл бұрын

    Terrific message which places into perspective the saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Well said Steven Eberlein!

  • @graceweston4880
    @graceweston48804 жыл бұрын

    I just heard him give an hour-long presentation on disaster preparedness in my town. It was SUPERB!

  • @lyndafaye5878

    @lyndafaye5878

    4 жыл бұрын

    STAY IN A POSITION OF PREPAREDNESS, AT ALL TIMES---NO FEAR-"PREPARATION"!!! "My Dear Lord, Master of the Universe," whom, ah. created Mother Nature and Father Time ---(an advertisement for my new song on SoundCloud, ha ha , everybody else is advertising!" i was touched by this comment re the earthquake an Tsnomi in Japan---and commented on it: moooovieee 1 year ago i was there all i could done it's save a two years old girl,she lost her entire family and now i'm her father...god sand her to my arms.....still crying myself,very sorrow for all those kids i saw washed away from primary school....after 3 months she called me dad.....and we cried together a lot 668 My comment : How sad! I expect an earthquake every day; maybe not caused by a tsunami-but all we can do in California and Oregon is "expect", and take those tall pieces of furniture and lay them on their sides! I worry about telephone poles too. How sad for you , so sorry; my friends in Tokyo just went through another SCARE in September. So Sad. Any prevention ADVISE " Mooovieee ?" Patience, Endurance AND, Wisdom?

  • @jdwojda
    @jdwojda4 жыл бұрын

    Saw this guy's hour-long presentation in person recently-very well done and informative, even considering I've been thru CERT training.

  • @CurseTheDarkness
    @CurseTheDarkness4 жыл бұрын

    Why do I find disaster videos so soothing?

  • @wesbr193

    @wesbr193

    3 жыл бұрын

    idk

  • @AngelaRdz

    @AngelaRdz

    3 жыл бұрын

    Because they give you a sense of knowing the unknown, I suppose, at least that's what happens for me.

  • @guilhermesouza3461
    @guilhermesouza34615 жыл бұрын

    This guy is really good very underrated presentation

  • @wesbr193

    @wesbr193

    3 жыл бұрын

    true

  • @danr1920
    @danr19204 жыл бұрын

    You can't count on the government, only yourself. A prep kit doesn't need to be very special, just a much larger supply of foods you normally eat. Lets say you have 20 cans of tuna, and you eat a can once a month, eat the oldest can from your prep kit, and buy one new can to replace it. No food goes to waste and you still are prepared.

  • @tyronepoole3591
    @tyronepoole35915 жыл бұрын

    I waited so long for this to come out! I’m seriously about to go out and get my kit put together lol.

  • @LightWaIker

    @LightWaIker

    4 жыл бұрын

    You get that kit put together?

  • @obfuscated3090
    @obfuscated30905 жыл бұрын

    Don't neglect the humble CB radio, which needs no outside support. CBs will be in use, usually by professionals like truckers, during and after a disaster.

  • @troynoland2457

    @troynoland2457

    4 жыл бұрын

    Good idea

  • @K38rescue
    @K38rescue5 жыл бұрын

    Outstanding, thank you so much!

  • @rodmanpararellax701
    @rodmanpararellax7014 жыл бұрын

    Very informative! I'll have to complete my emergency kit now! Thank you!

  • @zagnit
    @zagnit5 жыл бұрын

    That was incredible, informative and entertaining all at the same time!

  • @troynoland2457

    @troynoland2457

    4 жыл бұрын

    I agree

  • @andreatyler7066
    @andreatyler70664 жыл бұрын

    Great video! Well put!

  • @siranoosh4609
    @siranoosh46095 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for your important message!! I like your idea of the "common sense gap". Being from the Mediterranean, and calling California my second home, it's been engraved in our brains, that we live on shaky ground. My sons had EQ drills at school and were taught about California's geological history. We're as prepared as we can for the inevitable!! People in Oregon are clueless when it comes to the geological dangers and lack awareness/preparedness for the mega earthquake which will be followed by a giant tsunami. It happened before. It will happen again. It's a matter of when. I hope your message will bring a cultural movement and understanding of the reality.

  • @steveneberlein9877

    @steveneberlein9877

    5 жыл бұрын

    Thank you, Siran. In all fairness to the Pacific Northwest, the magnitude and impact of our earthquake is still very new information for us as a culture. The Greeks began writing about their earthquakes as far back as Herodotus, the Japanese began tracking earthquakes and tsunamis in 599CE, and the Chinese began designing seismographs hundreds of years ago. That is to say, most quake-prone places have events written in their history and national consciousness. In the Pacific Northwest, we don't have enough stories. We've got...incredibly compelling scientific evidence of our earthquake risk. That's an important difference. People don't learn their behaviors from scientific evidence and scary newspaper articles - people learn behaviors from one another. As few of us in the Pacific Northwest have experienced even a moderate earthquake, we don't have many personal stories to tell or practices to share as other places do. It's hard to talk about scary things that we haven't experienced and don't understand well. That's where this Talk comes in. My Talk is meant to be the ice breaker for conversations in homes, businesses, schools and houses or worship throughout the "greater" Pacific Northwest (NorCal, Oregon, Washington and BC, Canada). While the 11 million of us who call this region home don't have a lot of disaster experience, we do have a culture that is forward-thinking, open and flexible. I believe in our ability to change and believe that we're close to a cultural tipping point on this issue.

  • @briannab5296

    @briannab5296

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@steveneberlein9877 ... written a YEAR ago and now a reality, only now the tsunami is CoVid instead of the ocean.

  • @judahlamontagne2749
    @judahlamontagne27494 жыл бұрын

    I am well impressed and this talk has made a difference in my mindset. The information was not new, but the human element was.

  • @GraehamF
    @GraehamF5 жыл бұрын

    Wow, that was really good. Great message, great presentation.

  • @lyndafaye5878

    @lyndafaye5878

    4 жыл бұрын

    STAY IN A POSITION OF PREPAREDNESS, AT ALL TIMES---NO FEAR-"PREPARATION"!!! "My Dear Lord, Master of the Universe," whom, ah. created Mother Nature and Father Time ---(an advertisement for my new song on SoundCloud, ha ha , everybody else is advertising!" i was touched by this comment re the earthquake an Tsnomi in Japan---and commented on it: moooovieee 1 year ago i was there all i could done it's save a two years old girl,she lost her entire family and now i'm her father...god sand her to my arms.....still crying myself,very sorrow for all those kids i saw washed away from primary school....after 3 months she called me dad.....and we cried together a lot 668 My comment : How sad! I expect an earthquake every day; maybe not caused by a tsunami-but all we can do in California and Oregon is "expect", and take those tall pieces of furniture and lay them on their sides! I worry about telephone poles too. How sad for you , so sorry; my friends in Tokyo just went through another SCARE in September. So Sad. Any prevention ADVISE " Mooovieee ?" Patience, Endurance AND, Wisdom?

  • @christycooke791
    @christycooke7915 жыл бұрын

    Awesome presentation, as usual!! Thank you! Ok, PNW, let’s do this! Fill those water jugs. Check your gear!

  • @mouseplanning5596
    @mouseplanning55964 жыл бұрын

    7:37 that how I feel

  • @Strangeland701
    @Strangeland7014 жыл бұрын

    Normalize preparedness indeed!

  • @ShakespeareCafe
    @ShakespeareCafe5 жыл бұрын

    Stockpile Water, or stockpile Cash. If you have cash you can buy water, but you will be price gouged and have to wait in line, if it's available at all. You can live a couple of weeks without food but only a few days without water. Bet a lot of people in Southern California are becoming preppers after the 7.1 jolted them into reality.

  • @lyndafaye5878

    @lyndafaye5878

    4 жыл бұрын

    GOOD POINT SHAKESPEARE! Filled all my old wine bottles with water and a bit of vinegar---sealed and ready to go, for the last seven years! (Only fourteen bottles-I'm not a wino!)STAY IN A POSITION OF PREPAREDNESS, AT ALL TIMES---NO FEAR-"PREPARATION"!!! "My Dear Lord, Master of the Universe," whom, ah. created Mother Nature and Father Time ---(an advertisement for my new song on SoundCloud, ha ha , everybody else is advertising!" i was touched by this comment re the earthquake an Tsnomi in Japan---and commented on it: moooovieee 1 year ago i was there all i could done it's save a two years old girl,she lost her entire family and now i'm her father...god sand her to my arms.....still crying myself,very sorrow for all those kids i saw washed away from primary school....after 3 months she called me dad.....and we cried together a lot 668 My comment : How sad! I expect an earthquake every day; maybe not caused by a tsunami-but all we can do in California and Oregon is "expect", and take those tall pieces of furniture and lay them on their sides! I worry about telephone poles too. How sad for you , so sorry; my friends in Tokyo just went through another SCARE in September. So Sad. Any prevention ADVISE " Mooovieee ?" Patience, Endurance AND, Wisdom?

  • @troynoland2457

    @troynoland2457

    4 жыл бұрын

    Don't forget a quake insurance policy....

  • @evanallensipes1
    @evanallensipes15 жыл бұрын

    ahahaah the collective laughter at 3:54

  • @LossyLossnitzer
    @LossyLossnitzer4 жыл бұрын

    Does the subduction affect the yellowstone volcanic system how far in does it go in land and intersect the magma system.

  • @briannab5296

    @briannab5296

    4 жыл бұрын

    Good question.

  • @briane173

    @briane173

    3 жыл бұрын

    I consider it unlikely that the two systems will ever interact. The main reason is that the North American Plate is moving generally west toward the Pacific/Juan de Fuca Plates over a stationary hotspot responsible for forming Yellowstone and all the calderas to the west of Yellowstone that formed in Idaho and Oregon, while the JDF Plate is subducting under the NA Plate and curving downward almost vertically beyond the Cascade Range and melting back into the mantle. Once the JDF Plate is completely subducted the NA Plate will run against the Pacific Plate and form a nearly-vertical strike-slip plate boundary much like the San Andreas Fault. And all that time the Yellowstone hotspot will move further east relative to the NA Plate and become a non-factor on the west coast.

  • @carotina1986
    @carotina1986 Жыл бұрын

    prevention is the key. Japan knows very well

  • @prep2cutey
    @prep2cutey4 жыл бұрын

    who else is here because of the 4.2 earthquake that happened at 4:30am in California

  • @janaburritt6939
    @janaburritt6939 Жыл бұрын

    Cause people don't want to think about it

  • @georgeschlaline6057
    @georgeschlaline60574 жыл бұрын

    Has there been a Hurricane Bernie?

  • @lonihollenbeck4654
    @lonihollenbeck46543 жыл бұрын

    U.S. west coast; denuke the coast, the stored spent nuclear fuel at Humboldt Bay in NorCal comes to mind. A disaster within a disaster just waiting to happen, and like Fukushima, Japan, there will be no going home.

  • @georgeschlaline6057
    @georgeschlaline60572 жыл бұрын

    Has there been a hurricane Steven Eberein ? It;s the EARTHQUAKE It's the EARTHQUAKE It's the EARTHQUAKE

  • @xyzct
    @xyzct4 жыл бұрын

    Vocal frrrryyyyyyy

  • @lyndafaye5878
    @lyndafaye58784 жыл бұрын

    STAY IN A POSITION OF PREPAREDNESS, AT ALL TIMES---NO FEAR-"PREPARATION"!!! "My Dear Lord, Master of the Universe," whom, ah. created Mother Nature and Father Time ---(an advertisement for my new song on SoundCloud, ha ha , everybody else is advertising!" i was touched by this comment re the earthquake an Tsnomi in Japan---and commented on it: moooovieee 1 year ago i was there all i could done it's save a two years old girl,she lost her entire family and now i'm her father...god sand her to my arms.....still crying myself,very sorrow for all those kids i saw washed away from primary school....after 3 months she called me dad.....and we cried together a lot 668 My comment : How sad! I expect an earthquake every day; maybe not caused by a tsunami-but all we can do in California and Oregon is "expect", and take those tall pieces of furniture and lay them on their sides! I worry about telephone poles too. How sad for you , so sorry; my friends in Tokyo just went through another SCARE in September. So Sad. Any prevention ADVISE " Mooovieee ?" Patience, Endurance AND, Wisdom?

  • @aliciavega5860
    @aliciavega58604 жыл бұрын

    🤣

  • @GordonLF
    @GordonLF3 жыл бұрын

    Actually that's a wrong question. We do prepare for earthquakes in zones where important earthquakes can happen according to the probabilities of it happening (and resources available).

  • @theghost3061
    @theghost30615 жыл бұрын

    Obviously lol, if people “learned” from this... they’re just plain naive.

  • @patr70
    @patr705 жыл бұрын

    He is downgrading and dilutting his whole speach by making it "funny". Even he isn't taking this issue seriously.

  • @briannab5296

    @briannab5296

    4 жыл бұрын

    Using humor doesn't mean he isn't taking the subject seriously ... when people laugh it warms & relaxes them so they are more willing to pay attention to whats being said.

  • @suehowie152

    @suehowie152

    3 жыл бұрын

    If he didn't use humor people would accuse him of fear mongering..

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