Journal of Natural Disaster Science

PEOPLE'S RESPONSES TO THE 1989 LOMA PRIETA EARTHQUAKE*

Shunji MIKAMI
Department of Sociology, Toyo University
and
Yoshiaki HASHIMOTO
Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Tokyo

(Received 5 October 1990 and in revised form 14 January 1991)

Abstract

In order to investigate people's responses to the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake empirically, a telephone survey was conducted to the 300 randomly sampled residents in the four heavily damaged Counties in the Northern California (Alameda, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and San Francisco) about five weeks after the earthquake. We designed the survey so as to be able to compare its data with what we had obtained for the 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake in the United States and the 1987 Chiba Prefecture Toho-oki Earthquake in Japan.

From this survey it was found, first, that the psychological and behavioral responses to the Loma Prieta Earthquake were moderate and adequate on the whole. Second, most people used radio and evaluated it highly as the information source just after the earthquake. Third, personal assistances were actively given during and after the earthquake, particularly by the residents in the Santa Cruz County. Fourth, several significant cross-societal differences were found between the United States and Japan in psychological and behavioral responses to the earthquakes, which may reflect cultural and educational background.

Key words

the Loma Prieta Earthquake, the Whittier Narrows Earthquake, the Chiba Prefecture Toho-oki EarthqLlake, social research, Sampling survey, people's responses, rumors