ABSTRACT
An earthquake only becomes a disaster when affects a human community that is exposed and vulnerable to it. Seismic vulnerability of a community may be regarded as “the degree of loss to a given element of risk or set of such elements” (Granger et al. 1999). Further, some authors argued that “an earthquake is an event that can be prepared for in advance” (Turner 1976). Governments, local communities, and social organizations all should undertake measures for major earthquakes. Individuals also reduce the impacts of earthquake disasters by learning, inter alia, what to do before, during and after earthquakes and by taking a variety of personal safety measures (Lehman & Taylor 1987, NRC 1994, Tierney et al. 2001, Turner et al. 1996).
