Ten Steps to Surviving an Earthquake

American Rescue Team International ^ | Doug Copp

[Swordmaker]

In the light of events of the past day, and the strike of a 40 year Earthquake in the East, I though it might be important to review standard earthquake safety.

I live in an area of California that is seldom hit by earthquakes but I learned that in an earthquake one should stand in a door way. Unfortunately, learned WRONG!

UNDER A DOOR FRAME IS ONE OF THE WORST PLACES TO GO IN AN EARTHQUAKE!

Many bodies of earthquake victims have been found cut in half by the scissoring effect of the door way collapsing on them as the building crumpled. Survivors are usually found in voids next to large, solid or non-compressable objects such as furniture or equipment.

The American Rescue Team International published an article by Doug Copp of American Rescue Team International, the number one Earthquake rescue group in the world, that tells you how to increase your chances of surviving a major earthquake. The article is several pages long.

The American Insurance Depot has provided a Web Page that lists Copp's TEN STEPS TO SURVIVE AN EARTHQUAKE which I have extracted for you below.

PLEASE READ THIS... I want Freepers to survive "The Big One."

[Swordmaker]

Ten Steps For
Surviving an Earthquake

by Doug Copp of ARTI (American Rescue Team International)
the world's no.1 rescue team who invented the
"Triangle of Life" methodology for surviving earthquakes.

"Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings fall upon objects or furniture, crushing those objects and leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the "triangle of life. 

"The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact.  The less the object compacts, the larger the void and the  greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the "triangles" you see formed.   They are everywhere.

"It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building."

.

Ten TIPS FROM DOUG COPP:

1) Everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE will be crushed to death - every time, without exception. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are always crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies naturally curl up in the fetal position.  You should, too, in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. The reason is simple: the wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed.  Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room, telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens while you are watching television and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Everybody who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. Why?  If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed.

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different "movement of frequency," (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads. They are horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they  may collapse later when overloaded by screaming, fleeing people. Maintenance  should always check stairs for safety, even when the rest of the building is not  damaged.

8) Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them. If possible it is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior.  The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9) People inside their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco  earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles, says the author. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them.  All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

[TenaciousZ]

Interesting ... I can appreciate some of these observations, but I think the conventional wisdom of duck and cover still applies, as does getting into a doorframe at the onset of a quake. It's the best way to protect oneself from indoor debris -- ceiling tiles, picture frames, books. Unfortunately, in a truly monstrous event where the ground motion is strong enough to initiate the collapse of a building or roadway, survival isn't going to be dictated by much more than random fate.

[Swordmaker]

I can appreciate some of these observations, but I think the conventional wisdom of duck and cover still applies, as does getting into a doorframe at the onset of a quake.

Excuse me... this was written by the people who RESCUE the living people from buildings that have collapesed in an earthquake. It is not just mere "observations" but experience that is telling you that those who "duck and cover" WILL DIE and that those who follow your conventional (BUT WRONG) wisdom of "getting into a doorframe" are going to get badly hurt, if not killed, when a building collapses.

They are telling you what they have found WHEN THEY WENT INTO BUILDINGS THAT HAVE COLLAPSED and it does not support your uninformed opinion that what they are explicitly telling you NOT TO DO is the right thing to do. Your post is the EXACT reason I posted this thread!

They are telling you exactly what to do to improve your chances of not being killed by "random fate" in an earthquake. They are telling you exactly WHERE they found the survivors and where they found the dead. Survivors were huddled beside non-compressable objects where the object took the brunt of the falling material and is now supporting the massive weight above the survivor. The dead were found, "ducked and covered" and CRUSHED, or cut in two in scissored down door frames.

Now, would you rather trust your fate to the advice of expert rescuers who found the dead "duck and cover" victims, the people cut in half by collapsed door frames, and found the living in the "Triangle of Safety" next to large objects? Or are you going to trust your fate to the old wives tales repeated for years by someone sitting in an office who has never entered a collapsed building, rescued a single person, and probably has never even experienced a large earthquake?

[OwenKellogg]

Please check Urban Legends. There is a listing for this.

[OwenKellogg]

Snopes:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/triangle.asp

[Swordmaker]

I would agree that his "everyone" who ducked and covered was killed is hyperbole.

However, his is not the only voice or article that pushes the logical observations of WHERE people in collapsed buildings survived. We have had few experiences in the United States with collapsed buildings in the past 50 years because we have good building standards.

Copp may be "self-serving" but his advice has been accepted by insurance companies and other agencies several of which published his list.

For those interested, and for more information, check out Snopes.com's report on Copp.

[Swordmaker]

Incidentally, the Japanese, who experience far more earthquakes than we, are pushing the "triangle of life" as well. It may be that Copp stole this idea and is trying to promote himself with it.

[Swordmaker]

More information from the Red Cross who apparently feel that Copp's advice may be wrong for "US buildings" while correct for the rest of the world.

Red Cross Article.

My intent in posting this is to save lives, regardless or Copp or others. IF we are entering another period of seismic activity on the Ring of Fire, The entire West Coast of the United States is at risk.

[Swordmaker]

A Quotation from the Red Cross article linked above:

"...The American Red Cross has not recommended use of a doorway for earthquake protection for more than a decade. The problem is that many doorways are not built into the structural integrity of a building, and may not offer protection. Also, simply put, doorways are not suitable for more than one person at a time."

They do recommend "Drop, cover, and hold on to something." They also admit that the "triangle of life" is a valid strategy, just not the only one.

[Lurker]

How about we just all agree not to live where this kind of thing happens.

I'll vote for that.

Anyone else?

L

[Swordmaker]

I have relative who live in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois who liked asking me how I like living in "earthquake country." When they last mentioned this, I told them about the New Madrid fault...

The recent earthquake which struck Kobe, Japan, resulted in the loss of over 5000 lives and millions of dollars in property. However, large parts of the United States are also subject to large magnitude quakes - quakes which could be far more powerful than the Kobe quake! Although we tend to think of California and Alaska as the places where most of our earthquakes occur, the fact is that the central U.S. has been the site of some very powerful earthquakes.

In the past three centuries, major earthquakes outside of California and Alaska generally occurred in sparsely-settled areas, and damage and fatalities were largely minimal. But some took place in areas that have since been heavily built up. Among them are three earthquakes that occurred in 1811 and 1812 near New Madrid, MO. They are among the Great earthquakes of known history, affecting the topography more than any other earthquake on the North American continent. Judging from their effects, they were of a magnitude of 8.0 or higher on the Richter Scale. They were felt over the entire United States outside of the Pacific coast. Large areas sank into the earth, new lakes were formed, the course of the Mississippi River was changed, and forests were destroyed over an area of 150,000 acres. Many houses at New Madrid were thrown down. "Houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed up" one source notes. But fatalities and damage were low, because the area was sparsely settled then.

The probability for an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or greater is significant in the near future, with a 50% chance by the year 2000 and a 90% chance by the year 2040. A quake with a magnitude equal to that of the 1811- 1812 quakes could result in great loss of life and property damage in the billions of dollars. Scientists believe we could be overdue for a large earthquake and through research and public awareness may be able to prevent such losses.

Los Angeles can expect to be mightily damaged by movement on the San Andreas Fault, or the Newport-Inglewood or other neighboring faults, most probably within the next 25 years. But the Eastern and Midwestern states also face ground shaking of colossal proportions, repetitions of such known upheavals as the 1886 Charleston, S.C., quake, the 1755 Boston quake, and the Jamaica Bay quake hundreds of years ago on New York's Long Island. The granddaddy of them all was the 1811-1812 series of three great quakes on the New Madrid Fault (halfway between St. Louis and Memphis beneath the Mississippi), which shook the entire United States. The next time the New Madrid Fault produces such a quake, it is estimated 60 percent of Memphis will be devastated, leaving $50 Billion in damage and thousands of dead in its wake. Memphis, you see - like Armenia - has looked down the barrel of a loaded seismic gun for decades, but has done virtually nothing to move out of the crosshairs.

Most of my relatives live right where the lighter blue touches the toe of Indiana and the adjacent portion of Illinois. They haven't asked about living in "earthquake country" since.

[LadyDoc]

I have been in only one earthquake, which hit when I was stark naked taking a bath in an old wooden frame house...I sat there trying to decide if I had time to run outside stark naked in the cold, or if I should stay put...

I calculated my chances, and figured I'd be better off protected by the bathtub if the roof caved in...but then, I'm from Oklahoma, and we always hide in the bathroom during a tornado...

[anymouse]

I've been within 10 miles of the epicenter of numerous big quakes in So. California (that's one reason I'm in Texas now :), but the scariest time was in the Whittier quake back in 1986 (if memory serves me). I was taking a shower when the glass shower door started vibrating wildly as everything else started shaking. Thankfully the shower door didn't shatter and I rather quickly found clothes and went outside.

BTW, there where no moose sightings and I do not have a sister. ;)

[JSteff]

Great post! Thanks!

[JSteff]

Great post! Thanks!

[texasflower]

Thank you for the post.

[boris]

Step 1: Be Elsewhere.