Earthquakes are unpredictable and many of the victims are killed because they live in old buildings which were not designed to withstand them. Instead of rebuilding, which would be hugely expensive for any affected country let alone the poorer ones, install strong airbags in each room in the house with earthquake motion sensor. When the tremor of sufficient magnitude occurs, the airbags will deploy and hold some of the debris off the occupants, creating a small survival space for them. (These will have to be a lot tougher than car airbags to survive impact from concrete and masonry)