What will actually help you survive an earthquake.(from Another group)

[Guest guest]

What will help you survive and EarthquakeEARTHQUAKES - What to do.

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP’S ARTICLE ON THE

“TRIANGLE OF LIFEâ€,

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 theâ€triangle of life.â€

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 lifeâ€. 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 TrujilloUniversity. He accompanied

me everywhere. He gave personal testimony:

“My name is o les. 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 lifeâ€

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 lifeâ€. My dead friends are the example

of “duck and coverâ€.

TIPS DOUG COPP PROVIDES:

1) Everyone who simply “ducks and covers†WHEN

BUILDINGS COLLAPSE is crushed to death â€" 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 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. 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.

Namaste,