Never been in a hurricaine. Was in SF for the world series quake. Very surreal.
Someone e-mailed article to me. I can't find this at the website. If you wish to take the article down, so be it.
How to survive in an Earthquake
This makes very interesting reading. It goes against everything you’ve probably been told
about how to survive an earthquake. In this time of earthquakes, tsunamis, mud slides etc...
read this... it may save your life Then pass it along to anyone you would like to be alive after an
earthquake.
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, and 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.
Courtesy of
www.seismicshock.com
19114 61st Ave N.E., Suite 2
Arlington, WA 98223
USA
(360) 403-7727 FAX (360) 403-1609
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 fewer 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. 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.
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP’S ARTICLE ON THE “TRIANGLE OF LIFE” Edited by Larry Linn for MAA Safety Committee brief on 4/13/04.
Courtesy of 19114 61st Ave N.E., Suite 2
Arlington, WA 98223
USA
(360) 403-7727 FAX (360) 403-1609
