New information about Earthquake Survival

I thought this was very interesting and goes against any thing that I have heard -
but it certainly makes more sense to me - I always thought it was rather a dumb
idea to get underneath something heavy so that the roof could fall on you and squash you....

Here are some great tips about earthquake survival...

EXTRACTED FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE 'TRIANGLE OF LIFE'

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 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.

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 typ e 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 and lie own 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).
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 any outside walls, as the further inside you
are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the
probability that your escape can be lessen considerably.

(9) Slabs of highway concrete crushes 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. All the crushed
cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had
column fall directly across them.

(10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper off ices
and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large
voids are found all around these stacks of paper.

Spread the word to everyone you care about and save someone's life!