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Very Important Things to do during an earthquake. It could save your life!
Hello friends and family!
If you're like me, you've been told to "duck and cover" or get under the door frame of a building during an earthquake. WRONG!
Take a few minutes to read some tips from an international safety expert that reveals new information about the "triangle effects" of earthquakes and how to be safe. This information can save our lives.
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE "TRIANGLE OF LIFE", Edited by Larry Linn for MAA Safety Committee brief on 4/13/04.
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake. I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries,and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters. In 1996 we made a film which proved my survival methodology to be correct.
The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul, University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did "duck and cover," and ten mannequins I used in my "triangle of life" survival method.
After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover. There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the "triangle of life." This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under their desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time know that the children were told to hide under something. Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, 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, 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. They are everywhere.
TEN TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1. Most everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS
COLLAPSE are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or
cars,
are crushed.
2. Cats, dogs and babies often 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. 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 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. Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is
killed. How? 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 "moment 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 - 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 fleeing people. They should always be checked 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 of 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. 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.

Spread the word and save someone's life...

Your post is irresponsible and could potentially end up costing someone their life.

Please refer to: http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/triangle.asp

The first thing you must realize is that building codes in the United States, and especially in California, are significantly different from those in the Middle East or Mexico. Most buildings in the United States are wood frame or steel frame construction. In the Middle East, unreinforced masonry is the standard, especially in the poorer rural ares. Wood frame and unreinforced masonry react differently during prolonged shaking.

A typical wood frame home or apartment will "flex" during an earthquake. In severe shaking the structure will suffer exterior and cosmetic damage (broken plaster, cracks, fallen chimneys, etc), but the structure will by-in-large, withstand the shaking. I have seen a wood frame home that was located on the fault trace of a large quake, where vertical offset tilted the home. Although it was a total loss for insurance purposes, the frame structure remained intact.

Desks, tables, and the like are also structurally strong. They can hold many times their own weight. The most likely source of injury in an earthquakes is from broken glass and objects falling on the victims. By ducking and covering, especially under a desk (as a student would in class), or under a nearby table, will help protect a person from further injury. The chance of a collapse of a typical wood frame structure is so small, that your suggestions are of little consequence from a safety standpoint.

Door jambs are small, strong structures. They rarely have any direct relationship with a ceiling. Your statement that people in door jambs get killed when a building collapses is a non-sensical statement. If a building does collapse, one's location in the building is of little relationship to death. (This was proved by a study done by the State of California after the Northridge earthquake. Door jambs and bearing walls often buttressed the effects of a collapse of non-bearing walls.) The reason I do not suggest that people take "cover" in a door jamb is because of the swinging door and the injuries it might causes to fingers and faces. But if you are in one when a quake strikes, stay there and brace yourself as best as possible.

The suggestion to get away from a building during an earthquake is a killer! Cosmetic brickwork, roof tiles, chimneys, and other exterior structures pose a greater threat to someone running from a building, than do the interior fixtures.

The observations about the Nimitz freeway collapse and the lack of survivors in crushed automobiles is factually incorrect. First, there are few, if any other structures like the old double-decked Nimitz freeway. If someone took your suggestion of exiting their vehicle on a freeway during an earthquake, the likely result would be that they would be struck by another vehicle. That was about the stupidest thing I have ever read regarding earthquake safety.

Copp's suggestions are controversial and are not supported by any of the major emergency action agencies.