Increasing Earthquake Awareness and Preparedness in Cinemas

With regard to earthquakes and their sudden occurrence, special programs should be designed and implemented for various amusement centers and people in order to encounter a probable disaster as well as to show appropriate and on-time reaction against it. In this paper, the main objectives are to increase people awareness and preparedness to encounter disasters and promote disaster management system in the entertainment centers such as cinemas.

From the total cinemas in the capital city of Iran, ten cases have been investigated based on available samples in the north part of Tehran. The data has been collected through interviews and field checklists and has been analyzed and quantified. Questions related to the objectives of the study were also asked randomly from few of those present in the cinema.

The study shows the importance of places such as cinemas which have constant people commuting in and out regularly. With regard to the gathering information, the low level of people awareness about earthquakes in cinemas as well as the facilities and systems that has to be upgraded in these places, were observed and noted through the findings.

In total, the results show that besides increasing the level of awareness and preparedness of people, the systems for encountering disasters also need to be provided or if available, need to be promoted in order to function properly at the time of disasters. Therefore, in addition to improving the level of people preparedness and knowledge, it is also necessary to build disaster management systems for encountering emergency situations or to upgrade the existing systems. Some of these suggestions can be used by both groups of people and the personnel in places such as cinemas.