Are you prepared for the next Big One?

The Fritsch Family of San Francisco is about to see how a mockup of their home will stand up to a giant quake—the long-feared “Big One.”

At U.C. Berkeley’s field station, we put the Fritsches’ household to a big test. 

Using the expertise of the Earthquake Engineering Research Center, “Dateline” sponsored the construction of a two-story mock-up of the Fritsches’ home.

It was built on an earthquake simulator called a “shaking table.”  After construction, an NBC scenic design crew approximated the look of the Fritsches’ home.

Professor Khalid Mosalam, of the civil engineering department at U.C. Berkeley, designed the demonstration for us. 

Hoda Kotb, correspondent: how scientifically accurate would you say this test is?

Prof. Khalid Mosalam, civil engineering at U.C. Berkeley: This is very accurate. We went through a lengthy process to make this representative to many houses in San Francisco, a lengthy process to get representative ground motion, so it’s as scientific as it can be.

The quake used in the demonstration was designed to last 52 seconds with two distinct jolts.  It would be “The Big one,” approximately a magnitude 8.0, with the epicenter near San Francisco. That’s about as big a quake as the Bay Area could expect.                

For the Fritsches, and for us, there was a little bit of apprehension before the demonstration began.   The simulated earthquake would be strong. There was a chance the mock-up of the house would collapse...

Just like in many real earthquakes, there is a brief pause and then the shaking begins again.

To say the least, the place was wreck. And it could have been a deathtrap. 

Kotb: What do you think looking at this?

Kelly Fritsch, homeowner: Somebody could die in that room. Easy.

Richard Fritsch, homeowner: If you weren’t under the desk you’d be in bad shape.

A surprise was the dining room table.  Incredibly...the little table cloth and plant stayed almost perfectly in place. Sometimes, earthquake effects are hard to predict.

Kotb: Alexis, this is your house. What do you think looking at that?

Alexis, daughter: It’s just scary because I could be at home after school by myself and have this happen.  

Once the engineers determined it was safe to go up, we brought the Fritsches into the wrecked mock-up of their home. 

Richard Fritsch: This is just a total disaster. This is totally not anything I thought would happen.

Kelly Fritsch: It’s just devastating, really, really devastating. 

But now they’ll have the chance to see what happens when their furniture is secured. For this test, earthquake safety contractor Mike Essrig fastened down most of the big household items.

Mike Essrig, earthquake safety contractor: I would absolutely say they need to fasten their china hutches, their armoires, their television sets. Make sure that’s done. The water heater of course, that can start a fire if it bursts.

Virtually everything was secured in the home, except the mock-up of the big TV set, which we left unfastened to see what might happen. 

And then, this simulated quake hit.

As we saw, the Fritsches were still amazed at the quake’s strength. 

A lot of loose knick-knacks and other unsecured items flew around the rooms.  Yet the main furniture stayed put. 

Except for that weighted mock-up of the big TV set.

It wasn’t secured and it took off. But overall, it appears if their furniture was secured, the Fritsches would not have been injured if the “Big One” hit.

But remember, that’s if their furniture was secured, bolted down, or fastened.

Kotb: What did we learn from what we saw in this house today?

Mosalam: It made a big difference whether the furniture is strapped to the walls or not.

This is the Fritsches’ study with fastening, on the left, and without fastening on the right.

Contractor Mike Essrig hopes people who live in places at risk of quakes get the message.

Essrig: They’ll be proactive as opposed to reactive.  In the Northridge earthquake, a lot of people came out after and they fastened their homes and they got all prepared, they bought the earthquake kits.  But that was too late. They needed to do it beforehand.

Kotb: And the cost of proofing a house like this is what?

Essrig: $300 -400 dollars.

Kotb: That’s it?

Essrig: To have somebody to come out and do it.  You can do it yourself for fifty to a hundred.

And as for the Fritsch family, they got a chance to see what they can change—before the earthquake or tragedy strikes:

Kotb: Does this make you feel better, worse?

Alexis Fritsch: It makes me feel nervous because of all this heavy furniture just falling to the ground. It’s scary to think of what can happen.

Scary?  No doubt about it.

But you can avoid an earthquake from rocking your world — if “The Big One” comes knocking on your front door. 

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