South Asian Pulse

Safety method during Earthquake !

The information in this article will save
lives in anearthquake. I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings,
worked with rescue teams
from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am
a memberof 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 IstanbulCase 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 "triangleof life" survival
method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the
rubble and entered the building to film and document there sults. The
film, in which I practiced my survival techniques underdirectly
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 itwas seen
in the USA, Canada and Latin Americaon 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 acollapsed building. They are
everywhere.

TEN TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1)Most everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE arecrushed to death. People
who get under objects, like desks or cars, arecrushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. Youshould
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,
nextto 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 anearthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the
earthquake. Ifthe wooden building does collapse, large survival voids
are created. Also,the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing
weight. Brick buildingswill 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
rolloff 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 thedoor or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position
next to 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 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 - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't
collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are alikely 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 theSan 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 hadcolumns fall
directly
across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed news paper
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... Doug Copp
American Rescue Team