EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS

It has been one year since we wrote our first blog about earthquake preparedness and given what has been going on around the world in the past 12 months we thought it would make a lot of sense to revisit the subject.

Living in a seismically active zone should make you more aware of earthquake preparedness and if you own and operate a business, earthquake preparedness is a necessity if you want to remain operational after the next earthquake. And there will be one.

It’s not a matter of if, but when the next earthquake shakes your part of the world and if you’re not prepared it could be an extremely costly oversight. As we saw in New Zealand and Japan recently, you just never know when it’ll be your turn to get rocked, which is why you should take earthquake preparedness very seriously.

As we have said repeatedly during the last year, regardless of the size of your business you just can’t afford to adopt the attitude that it won’t happen to you because the odds are high that it probably will.

In terms of your operations, the first step towards earthquake preparedness is to identify potential hazards around your workplace and fix them. That means securing equipment and office furniture that could easily tip over in an earthquake.

If the taller, heavier items were to fall two things could happen. The first is that one of your employees might be in the way at the time, and if so, could be seriously injured, and second you could lose valuable data and other information stored in the damaged equipment. A third variable of course is that you would then have expenses associated with dealing with the first two things.

A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that if it’s heavy enough to hurt you if it falls on you it should be secured.

Of course, in the case of an office, lab, data center, server room and so on it’s also a matter of protecting your investments by preventing expensive equipment from falling and smashing as the cost of replacing it all could become astronomical.

In terms of any of the abovementioned places, seismic mitigation helps to create a safer work environment, complies with building codes and will ensure your business continuity. To that end, earthquake preparedness fastening programs can be custom designed for your business.

Emergency Kits

The main purpose of these articles is to focus on earthquake preparedness and outline why it should be a priority for any business in an earthquake zone, and in line with that, something else that should be part of your preparedness efforts are emergency kits.

Emergency kits are designed to get you through the first 72 hours after an earthquake by providing disaster supplies that will help you and your employees survive.

There are many variations of emergency kits, including two-person and four-person kits, 10 and 20 person kits and bigger site safety kits, all of which are ideal for the business environment.

Earthquakes often cause the loss of essential services like power and water and struggling without them, as well as food, for sustained periods can transform highly stressful times into life-threatening emergencies.

An earthquake can hit at any time, so as a business owner you ought to think about having emergency kits on hand for your workforce so that you will be prepared when the time comes.

Earthquake Preparedness in the Workplace

Earthquakes are unpredictable, meaning earthquake preparedness is the most practical course of action to take. If your equipment is unsecured it could be damaged or trashed beyond repair in a quake and the best way to prevent that is to take action now to avoid major financial and logistical headaches later.

A free risk evaluation will determine how best to meet your needs. QuakeHOLD! Industrial is the leader in earthquake preparedness and we have developed a wide range of safety fasteners to get the job done no matter how big or small. If you run a business in an earthquake zone, you really need to do something about earthquake preparedness and we strongly encourage you to look into it today.

EQUIPMENT FASTENING

Living in an earthquake zone should heighten your awareness that earthquakes can happen at any time, which means that equipment fastening is a key element in ensuring that your business can continue to function after an earthquake hits.

It stands to reason then that if you own a business which is located in an active seismic zone, equipment fastening should be at the very top of your list of priorities.

And irrespective of the scope of your operations, if you shelve the threat of earthquakes and the associated need for equipment fastening you could very well be faced with a bill many times higher than the cost of the actual fastening program.

Unsecured equipment can easily topple over in an earthquake, which is precisely why it needs to be fastened down.

Earthquakes occur when fractures in Earth’s outer shell slide by each other and build up stress. When large blocks of rock along these faults are strained to breaking point, they snap into new positions and release massive amounts of energy that cause the earth to shake.

Because we can’t predict where or when an earthquake will strike, or what its magnitude will be, the only thing left open to us is to make sure that we’re as prepared as we can be.

Earthquake proofing your workplace is similar to what you would do at home to protect your household possessions. It’s a matter of identifying potential hazards and securing them and a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that if it’s heavy enough to hurt you if it falls on you it should be secured.

Of course, in the case of an office, lab, data center and so on it’s also a matter of protecting your investments by preventing expensive equipment from falling and smashing as the cost of replacing it could become astronomical.

Seismic Mitigation

Equipment fastening, also referred to as seismic mitigation, helps to create a safer work environment, complies with building and safety codes and it will ensure your business continuity. To that end, equipment fastening programs can be custom designed for every aspect of your operation.

Any kind of valuable equipment such as HPLCs, mass spectrometers, centrifuges and a host of other electronic items are at risk of damage if left unsecured. There are also mainframe computers, LAN cabinets and various fittings that need to be fastened down.

You can imagine what could happen if there was an earthquake and everything smashed to the floor. Years worth of valuable research could be lost, as well as the equipment itself. That scenario is totally avoidable, however, and there are innovative and cost effective methods of equipment fastening for all these things based on client preference.



Earthquake Preparedness in the Workplace

Earthquakes are unpredictable, so being prepared is the most practical course of action to take. If your equipment is unsecured it could be damaged or trashed beyond repair in a quake. The best way to prevent that is to take action now to avoid major financial and logistical headaches later.
And regardless of the size of your operation, a free risk evaluation will determine how best to meet your needs. QuakeHOLD! Industrial is the leader in earthquake preparedness and equipment fastening. If you run a business in an earthquake zone you need to be prepared and we strongly encourage you to look into our equipment fastening options and do it today.