2001 January 26 Gujarat
2001 September 26 Chennai
2002 December 26 China
2003 January 26 New Zealand
2003 May 26 Japan / Taiwan
2003 September 26 Japan(Hokaido)
2003 October 26 China (Sunsu)
2003 December 26 Iran
2004 December 26 South East Asia
TEN TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
The author is Doug Copp. He is 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.
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.
11 comments:
info, info, info !!
My cousin gifted me a book which went by "Worst Case Scenarios". Which list an entire galaxy of worst case scenarios and how to tackle them.
Quick Sand anyone ?
Well my dad was in Tokyo last year and incidently had 7richter scale earthquake but was business as usual..
zero casualties, speaks wonders for the level of disaster management they have.
if i'm not mistaken, TOI also carried that bit of trivia on de dates thing.
be good.
Akshay - whoa, that must have been some experience your Dad had...as for Japan's Diasater Management, those guys know how to perfect their art so they come out the winners!
Rahul - I'm always good!
Now now, you conspiracy theorist :-)
And one last thing:
believe in yourself. attempt to achieve the impossible.
- PM
Hey in response to Akshay,
I will be the first one to say that India (and the other victim countries) suck when it comes to disaster management, but please, let's be objective about this and stick to facts, instead of towing the over-critical media line: There are at least 400 minor earthquakes in Japan EVERY YEAR. The Pacific is also surrounded by The Ring of Fire, and is also prone to earthquakes, and the related Tsunamis that also occur every few years. So, it would be plain idiotic for a place such as Japan to not be prepared for earthquakes and tsunamis. The same goes for California, which is right on TOP of a major faultline. The Indian Ocean is a relatively seismically-stable place. This is the first major earthquake (above 5.0 on the richter scale) to occur in the past 150 years. Further, the earthquake occured under sea. The countries in the region surrounding the Indian Ocean are also seismically stable. The only serious plate boundary in the area is in the Himalayas...You can fault these countries for not being prepared for floods, cyclones and hurricanes (very common, and predicable occurences). But Earthquakes? They almost never occur here. Tsunamis? This is the first one in RECORDED history. Sure there may have been others before this one. But as far as anybody can remember, this is the first time they see a huge wall of water bearing down on them, on what are usually very calm coastal regions. Finally, India was a part of the 'core team' that was set up with America, Japan and Australia to help provide relief to victims of the tsunami disaster. Why was this? It was simply because India had the (relatively) best systems in place to deal with crises...
they should give earthquake safety training in schools, colleges and at the workplace...may sound funny, but its something us Southern California natives had to go through in the 80's when quakes were pretty frequent.
Tarun -
You've taken my comment in the wrong sense, I was in no way belittling the Indian Disaster Managment or Relief systems and am not pointing a finger at the government or any of the relief agencies.
I was only drawing a parrallel beteween a book I've read, The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook and geetanjali's post.
I'm also not of the school of thought that this catastrophe could have been "predicted" and the relief efforts and the response of Indian people have entirely satisfactory and admirable at most.
Hey Akshay, sorry, my post wasn't meant to be directed at you personally, it's more of general rant, and as usual I got carried away. (I've discovered ranting is what I do best. Somebody keep me away from keyboards and Republicans!)
Well, tarun I like your rants they're quiet enjoyable.
I think I should keep away from keyboards and Republicans.I know one of the them is possible.
This is Liz Ditz from http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2005/01/doug_copp_iv.html
Sadly, you repeated Copp's dangerously bad advice, which has been repudiated by most North American experts. Copp's self-advertisement and reality seem to be quite different.
In California, we do indeed have earthquake safety information taught in schools. It isn't Copp's advice.
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