Longview Hills @ Newport Oregon

Editors comment: This was an email received from Dick Garvey. The Urban Legends website says it is legitimate.


Subject: Fw: How to Survive an Earthquake - A Worthwhile Read

For all of you Washingtonians, Oregonians, and Californians.....


HOW TO SURVIVE 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"

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 that 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.

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 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 round 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 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 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


Spread the word and save someone's life.