Perspectives on Earthquakes in Rural Areas : Workshop Report : Boise, Idaho, October 26, 27, 28, 1994.

In the U.S., a number of earthquakes have occurred in the last 10 years that affected rural areas. People living in these regions do not have the same expectations of emergency services as city dwellers, since many live more than 45 minutes from a major medical center. Given sparse settlement, damage is harder to spot and may simply be different than urban damage, thus disaster personnel may not notice or respond as they should. Likewise, many rural people believe their damage is not as bad as that which occurs in urban areas, since most media coverage of a disaster occurs within metropolitan areas. For example, the people of Watsonville, California, thought they had less damage than those in Oakland and San Francisco in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, even though they were located nearer the epicenter and suffered extensive damage. Finally, rural areas are at double risk because they need to prepare both for an earthquake that may affect them directly and one that may affect the urban area that provides them with critical services. Participants in this 1993 workshop identified many activities for reducing the impacts of earthquakes in both rural and urban areas, but concluded that programs must take into account the strong value of individual responsibility that is prevalent in rural areas in order to be successful