This is not related to F1Time, but heres one article which i
found relevant with respect to the recent happenings. This
article is written by Doug Copp from ARTI. Hope this comes useful.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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, 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 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 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 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 someone¹s life...
