BBC新闻－人们感觉不到的地震为什么还要撤离？

yeequu

BBC News - Why evacuate for an earthquate no-one can feel?   BBC新闻 - 人们感觉不到的地震为什么还要撤离？
"Everyone knows, you can't predict an earthquake."
      每个人都知道，地震无法预测。

Anne Thornley-Bennett, who lives in the Italian town of Barga, categorically believes this. So why, on 31 January, did she decide to evacuate when the local council sent out warnings of a major quake?
住在意大利巴尔加市的Anne Thornley-Bennett如此断然道。那么，在1月31日，当地政府发出一场大地震警告时，她为何会决定疏散呢？

"We received dozens of phone calls and text messages, one of which just said, 'Evacuate'. We just went along with the mania," she sighs.
她叹声道：我们收到了几十个电话和短信，其中一条只写道“疏散”，我们只是跟随大流。

"If it had only been my husband and me, I don't think we'd have taken the advice. We'd have just stayed on the bottom floor in our sleeping bags as we'd done the previous nights. But when you've got little ones... well, if anything did happen, you'd never forgive yourself."
如果只是我和丈夫两人，我想我们不会理会那些建议。我们会待在底板，睡在睡袋里，正如之前几个晚上都是这样做。但当你已经有了孩子⋯⋯如果发生了什么事，你永远不会原谅自己的。

Barga is situated in the picturesque but seismically shaky Garfagnana region of Tuscany. For a week they had been experiencing constant tremors and aftershocks.
巴尔加位于托斯卡纳的加尔法尼亚纳地区，这里风景如画，但处于地震带。一个星期内，人们已经不断感受到震动和余震。

"It was pretty scary because you could hear the earth groan. One day the kids were even evacuated from school without their coats." She laughs, implying that only a real emergency would see Italian children being sent outside coatless in winter.
  她笑着说：这是非常可怕的，因为你能听见地球在呻吟。某天，孩子们甚至从学校疏散回家，连外套都没穿。这意味着只有一种真正紧急的情况下，人们会看到意大利的孩子们在冬天不穿外套被赶出室外。

Garfagnana experienced a huge 6.5 magnitude quake in 1920, yet the local authorities and population have never panicked like this before.
1920年，加尔法尼亚纳曾经历了一场巨大的6.5级地震，但当地政府和居民从没像今天这样惊惶失措过。

One mayor's decision to evacuate a town centre on 31 January spread fear to the surrounding municipalities, where thousands of residents ended up being advised to sleep in their cars or in schools transformed into emergency shelters. Hospitals and care homes were emptied. In the end, nothing happened. The following day, everyone went home.
一位市长于1月31日下令疏散镇中心居民到附近周边城市，数千居民被告知要在自己的车里或者学校过夜，这些地方都变成了应急避难场所，医院和护理院也被清空了。最后，什么也没有发生。次日，每个人都各自回家了。

Italy never used to worry quite so much about little tremors.
意大利人民从没如此担心过这样的小震动。

The change appears to be the direct result of last year's conviction of seven members of Italy's High Risk Commission - six of whom were scientists - for manslaughter. They were found guilty of failing to properly communicate the risk of a major earthquake in L'Aquila.
这种改变似乎是由于去年意大利高风险委员会的七名成员（其中有6人是科学家）被定误杀罪导致的，他们因未能妥善传达拉奎拉大地震的风险而被判有罪。

The case has produced its own kind of aftershock.
但此案给意大利人民造成了余震。

"Alarmism? It's the poisoned fruit of the L'Aquila sentence," says Franco Gabrielli, the head of the Civil Protection Department, the day after the Garfagnana evacuations.
民事保护部门主管Franco Gabrielli 在加尔法尼亚纳疏散事件后说道：危言耸听？拉奎拉的判决简直是为祸人间。

His spokesperson Francesca Maffini says it's inevitable that scientists are now erring on the side of caution.
他的代言人Francesca Maffini说，科学家们如今采取谨慎的观望态度，这是不可避免的。

"It's not the verdict itself, it's the very fact they were put on trial," she says. "If the risk is between zero and 40%, today they'll tell us it's 40, even if they think it's closer to zero. They're protecting themselves, which is perfectly understandable."
她说道：这不是是否该判决的问题，事实上他们的确受审了。如果风险程度在0到40％之间，即使他们认为可能性接近零，但今天他们还会告诉我们是40％。他们保护自己，这是完全可以理解的。

Prof Stefano Gresta, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV), acknowledges the convictions had a big impact.
国家地理和火山学研究所所长Stefano Gresta教授承认这些定罪存在很大的冲突。

"We are more aware that our role as scientists must be exclusively limited to our results and interpretations," he says.
他说：作为科学家，我们更清楚自己的角色必须只关注在结果与解释上。

But he also thinks something went wrong on 31 January in Barga with the way the scientific tremor prognosis was communicated between the various levels of decision-makers. The escalation of events that night stemmed from a single tweet sent by a council, advising residents to "sleep away from home".
  但他还认为，巴尔加市于1月31日科学震颤预后各级决策者之间的沟通方式出错，当晚造成这起事件的升温，是源于一委员会发出的一条微博，建议居民“离家外宿”。

In the past, information was interpreted and filtered by the likes of the High Risk Commission, the Civil Protection Department and local and regional councils. Today you can get it directly from source through smartphone apps with names like Terremoti Italia (Italy Earthquakes) and Hai sentito il terremoto? (Translation: did you feel the earthquake?)
在过去，来源信息会由高风险委员会、民防部门和地方区域议会进行解释和过滤。而今天，你可以直接从智能手机下载应用程序，例如：Terremoti Italia（意大利地震）和Hai sentito il terremoto?（你感觉到地震吗？）

Keane, an Irish expat artist and journalist (with only one name) who has lived in Barga for 28 years, thinks this is making people obsessive.
Keane是一位爱尔兰外籍艺术家和新闻工作者，28年来一直住在巴尔加（只有一个名字），他认为这种做法让人痴迷。

"Some apps tell you every time there's a tremor, including the small ones that humans can't even feel. Mine says there were 15 today in Italy, two in this area. You get constant beeps in your pocket and in the end it becomes a psychosis," he says.
  他说道： 某些应用程序会每次告诉你有震动，包括很细微的震动，人类甚至感觉不到。我说今天在意大利有15次震动，在此地区就有2次。你的口袋里不断发出哔哔声，到最后，这些提示音使人精神失常了。

It's a phenomenon that worries Gresta. He does not consider alarmism and sleeping in cars to be the solution, and would prefer to see changes in construction.
这个现象让Gresta很担心，他认为这不是危言耸听，睡在汽车里也不是解决的办法，他更宁愿看到建筑物的改变。

"There needs to be greater awareness of the vulnerability of the houses we live in and the buildings we work in and, where appropriate, they should be made safer," he says.
  他说道：应该加强对房屋建筑漏洞的意识，正确地说，他们要建造得更安全。

But this will cost councils and homeowners money.
不过这样做委员会和业主们要花很多钱。

And Thornley-Bennett says people in Barga who chose to evacuate did not really mind.
Thornley-Bennett表示，住在巴尔加市的居民并不太介意选择疏散。

"We met lots of people we knew and the kids played with their friends. At about 2am, council staff turned up with hundreds of white plastic chairs so we could all sit around and chat. In the morning, we took the children off for breakfast in their pyjamas and then we went home."
  我们遇到很多我们曾认识的人，他们的孩子们和朋友们在玩耍。大约凌晨2点，委员会工作人员突然发现数以百计的白色塑料椅子，这样我们大家可以坐在一起聊天。早上，我们带穿着睡衣的孩子们去吃早餐，然后我们就回家了。

Although frightened by the tremors themselves, on that particular night her children had the time of their lives.
虽然地震把他们吓坏了，但在那个特别的夜晚，她的孩子们可以享受属于他们的时刻。


来源：语联网社区

线条人生

可以尝试发一些西语新闻

agursvill

地震对房子的抗震性要求很高

可阿丹的

when the local council sent out warnings of a major quake?