Indiana Jones survived being shot multiple times, almost got his heart ripped out, encountered weird magic from various artifacts, survives a nuclear blast but then suffocates from being trapped inside a fridge. The End. Bum da buh bum bum da da da!
I only lived through a handful of earthquakes in the 10 years I lived in L.A. but maybe I should have gone through those drills in my midwestern school, because my reaction every single time wasn't, "oh shit, an earthquake, better get somewhere safe," it was, "oh cool! It's an earthquake! I wonder if it will be bad?" And then I just sat there like an idiot until it ended. Thankfully, it was never bad.
The only serious one i experienced happened in the morning; i was 13; i woke up and saw the fucking chandelier swinging; i started panickng, got my sister in my arms (5y), and started screaming for my dad an mum to get out (dad had already woken up because he felt something, but their bedroom only had floor lights) ; we were on the second floor, by the time we went down the roof had collapsed but the ceiling had held up fine ( only the half-rotten wooden frame broke, everything else held).
I still have nightmares of waking up and seeing that chandelier swinging hard side to side.
One that's bad in your location it lasts longer, so you have time to get past that and decide to get under so those swinging lights and buckling walls don't land on you.
Otherwise, as a kid you might as well enjoy the thrill. Even if later on you discover lots of people died innearby towns. (1971 Sylmar quake earthquake, I lived 50 miles away.)
It is. People always dunk on the duck & cover stuff by pointing out the obvious, that anyone in the epicenter is not going to be safe, but they fail to look at the damage and potential for injury as a spectrum.
People miles out from an atomic bomb could be injured by flying debris, especially glass, and that could be prevented by taking basic cover.
In a first responder situation, minimizing the number of preventable injuries greatly helps keep things somewhat organized.
The presentation of duck & cover is overly upbeat and optimistic, but it's intended to be simple and direct rather than an in-depth discussion of risk mitigation.