Good Earthquake Tips

My sister just sent this to me over email. It was the first email that I've recevied in a very long time that I actually thought was important enough to pass along.


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 (UNX051 -UNIENET)
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.

I trained the Fire Department of Trujillo (population 750,000) in how to
survive, take care of their families, and to rescue others in
earthquakes. The chief of rescue in the Trujillo Fire Department is a
professor at Trujillo University. He accompanied me everywhere. He gave
personal testimony: "My name is Roberto Rosales. I am Chief of Rescue in
Trujillo. When I was 11 years old, I was trapped inside of a collapsed
building. My entrapment occurred during the earthquake of 1972 that
killed 70,000 people. I survived in the "triangle of life" that existed
next to my brother's motorcycle. My friends who got under the bed and
under desks were crushed to death [he gives more details, names,
addresses, etc.]...I am the living example of the "triangle of life". My
dead friends are the example of "duck and cover".

TIPS DOUG COPP PROVIDES:
1) Everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE is
crushed to death -- Every time, without exception. People who get under
objects, like desks or cars, are always crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies all naturally often 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.
How? If you stand under a doorway and the door jamb 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. 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. 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, 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.