Is it safer to live upstairs or downstairs in the event of an earthquake?

Answer 1

Sounds to me it would be a 50/50 chance, either way. If you live down stairs, you might not get the sway as above, but, if the second floor comes crashing down, you've had it...If your on the second floor, you crash down, to the first floor and could be impaled by an object or suffer some other injury.
Hopefully, you get lucky, on either floor and are able to walk away..
Personally, I'd rather be as close to the ground as possible during an earthquake. Structures hopefully dont sway as bad as an upper floor. Atleast thats how it felt to me in the various earthquakes I've been in.

Answer 2

In the event of an earthquake it is better to get ouside and away from any building. It does not matter whether you live upstairs or downstairs, you may not even be home when the earthquake hits.

Answer 3

The question is not upstairs or downstairs but of the nature and quality of the construction of structure.

The most heavily inspected and well designed structures are high rise skyscrapers. Believe it or not, for that reason coupled with their flexible nature and that they are designed as such; that regardless of the floor, high rises typicaly retain their structural integrity better than most stick built single or dual level structures in earthquakes.

Answer 4

New york is keeping all its gold reserves 3 floors under the earth surface to safe guard from earthquakes. You can also do that. But the best place is open ground for earthquake and high ground for Tsunami..

Answer 5

Downstairs, if you go upstairs, the entire building could fall and you with it.... if you go downstairs, you have layers of ceilings above you to give you a chance of what ever falls being stopped....

Answer 6

Depends on the structure of the biulding...not the floor.