Log In

View Full Version : Earthquake Safety Tips



decterlove
02-21-2008, 10:14 PM
Here's an article I just found while cleaning up my Yahoo Mail folders. It's kinda grim but hey, it's about earthquakes. I had to clean it up a bit too...musta had it in Notebook form at one time or something.

I'm no expert, not even an amateur, but I figured I'd cut and paste it up here for all you folks as a reminder. So that orgasm you feel tonight...if there's no one in bed with you, and no electric devices neither....well, could be Mom's having one instead of you. Cheers!




"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."

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. It is the most common shape, you will see.

"My name is Roberto Rosales. 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 life" that existed next to my brother's motorcycle. My friends who got under the bed and under desks were crushed to death. My dead friends are the example of "duck and cover".

TIPS DOUG COPP PROVIDES:

1) Everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE is crushed to death, 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 avoid
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 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. 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 inan 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.

nbolmer
02-22-2008, 10:24 AM
Usually, it's prudent to google a section of text from a forward you receive- this article has been debunked as an urban legend. I usually check snopes.com and urbanlegends.about.com - these are almost universally hoaxes, scams, or just bad information (as here).

https://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_triangle_of_life.htm

Cheers,

Noah :wink:

decterlove
02-22-2008, 11:44 AM
Oh well, I copied it about 6 years ago and have just been storing it in my misc email folder. Guess I'll stop sleeping next to the 8 foot stack of National Enquirers I have in the corner of my bedroom. I didn't even suspec that one...got caught a few years ago by that Microsoft $287 payback for whatever it was....brother sent me that one! Long live Snopes! Sorry! :wink:


Usually, it's prudent to google a section of text from a forward you receive- this article has been debunked as an urban legend. I usually check snopes.com and urbanlegends.about.com - these are almost universally hoaxes, scams, or just bad information (as here).

https://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_triangle_of_life.htm

Cheers,

Noah :wink:

santarosie
02-23-2008, 01:49 PM
Here are some good recently-recommended sites for earthquake preparedness:

www.72hours.org

https://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/departments/adminservices/emergencyprep/Pages/default.aspx


This is my favorite site for finding out about recent quakes (within the hour!)

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/index.php