Down-to-earth reminders when an earthquake strikes

So, where were you when an intensity 5 earthquake hit Manila past noontime last Thursday? Most people had just finished lunch and those at work were probably savoring the last 30 minutes of their lunch break. Some were rudely roused from their afternoon nap.

Recently, we’ve had a lot of devastating news. Like the catastrophic earthquake (intensity 7) that leveled most parts of Haiti’s capital city Port-au-Prince only last Jan. 12 and just over a month later, the even more powerful Chile earthquake (intensity 8.8).

Probably shaken by these recent events, concerned mom Lally Dizon has stepped forward to share the story of Doug Copp and his down-to-earth tips when an earthquake strikes.

Who’s Doug Copp? Doug Copp is a rescue chief and disaster manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world’s most experienced rescue team. Indeed, Copp is a guy who will never cop out of his sworn duty. He has crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries (he’s a member of many rescue teams from many countries), and even founded rescue teams in several countries.  

Let Doug himself tell you his moving story: “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. The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its 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. I am amazed that even today, schools are still using the ‘duck and cover’ instructions — telling the children to squat under their desks with their heads bowed and covered with their hands. This was the technique used in the Mexico City school.”

Doug makes this earthshaking revelation, “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.”

This seasoned, fearless rescue expert who’s put his life on the line for others gives these timely reminders for earthquake safety:

• Almost everyone who simply ducks and covers when buildings collapse is crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

• 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. That position helps you 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.

• 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. Concrete slab buildings are the most dangerous during an earthquake.

• 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.

• 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.

• Almost 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 doorjamb falls sideways, you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 lying in the fetal position next to their vehicles.

Doug further relates, “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.”  

To prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that his survival methodology was correct, Copp’s group made a film in 1996. Partnering with them to film this practical scientific test were the Turkish federal government, Istanbul, University of Istanbul Case Productions, and ARTI.  

Copp describes the experiment in heart-stopping detail: “We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did ‘duck and cover,’ and 10 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.”  

He laments, “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 life-saving film has been seen by millions of TV viewers in Turkey and the rest of Europe. In the US, Canada, and Latin America, it was seen on the TV program Real TV.

Here at home, we recently attended the launch of a school safety training manual. Former Social Welfare Secretary Cora de Leon said, “I wish we already had these materials then. They would have been very helpful … We know that women and children suffer the most when disasters strike.”

Now vice chair of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and governor and secretary to the Philippine National Red Cross board of governors, De Leon enjoins everyone, “Together we can and must build safer communities. It is our obligation to humanity.”

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Rx: A more austere, less wasteful Lent

With Semana Santa upon us, we take a break from work and the rat race — and yes, take a breather from our wasteful and careless consumption.

Let there be a more austere commemoration of Lent that will not further cause environmental stress and degradation, so pleads the EcoWaste Coalition, a waste and pollution watchdog.

EcoWaste Coalition’s Eileen Sison cheers us on, “It is a time to simplify, strip down, and give up what we really do not need.”

Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez Jr. of the Diocese of Caloocan happily gave this green Holy Week advocacy two (green) thumbs up. Says Bishop Iñiguez, “I appreciate the EcoWaste Coalition’s effort to promote awareness about the link between faith and nature and I join them in requesting the faithful to observe an eco-simple Lent as we are all morally bound to respect and protect the integrity of God’s creation.  Let’s do our part and start living simply and sustainably.”

A network of some 100 groups working for zero waste and for environmental health, EcoWaste wasted no time putting together some tips for an eco-simple Holy Week celebration and beyond. Sharing their thoughts are Add Up Volunteers, Bangon Kalikasan Movement, Cavite Green Coalition, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Greenpeace, Institute for the Development of Educational and Ecological Alternatives, Krusada sa Kalikasan, Miriam PEACE, Mother Earth Foundation, Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society, and SALIKA.

ECO Thoughts Worth Pondering

• Give up morning and afternoon snacks and share the money you will save with Alay Kapwa or your favorite charity.

• Fast, abstain, or eat spartan meals and spend the unused food budget on feeding the poor, such as cooking tsampurado  for street children. Or donate it to Hapag-Asa, an initiative supported by the Pondo ng Pinoy Movement to combat hunger and malnutrition among poor children nationwide.

• Unclutter your closet; pick at least five pieces of clothes and give them to sampaguita vendors or donate stuff to the Segunda Mana project of Caritas Manila.

• Make space on your bookshelf by donating some of your books to public libraries and schools.

• Skip two siestas; instead, devote the time to performing distant pranic healing and blessing of Mother Earth.

• Prepare simple but healthy home-cooked meals with no meat, no preservatives, and no wasteful packaging. Make Holy Week the perfect excuse to try a vegetarian diet.

• Avoid junk food and soda the whole week; take fruits and plain water instead.

• Throw less; aim to reduce waste by ensuring that everyone in your household knows and observes basic practices in ecological discards management such as sorting, reusing, recycling, and composting.

• Declare the whole week as “Conservation Week” for the family and agree to undertake practical measures to reduce consumption of water, electricity, and other valuable resources.

• Stay home and enjoy peace and quiet for a change. This will save gas and reduce carbon emissions that cause climate change.

• Challenge yourself on how much you can do without, and discover just how little you really need: For example, abstain from malling, movies, television, Internet gaming, texting, and electronic gadgets that consume lots of your personal time, and rediscover the satisfaction of physical exercise, the wonder of conversations, and the joy of spending fruitful moments with your loved ones.

• Do something different as a response to the call for change. Give up some personal time to serve the church and the society like volunteering your service to a ministry for the underprivileged, cleaning up your neighborhood or removing 2010 election campaign posters from trees.

• Set a time to reflect and meditate with spiritually uplifting music; plant a tree or herbs, vegetables or even pretty flowers; or learn to cook a healthy, great-tasting vegetarian dish for the whole family to enjoy.

• Bring your own binalot food and drinking water when you do your Visita Iglesia on Maundy Thursday. Walk, bike or take the public transportation to the churches you will visit.

• Instead of being lured to over-consumption at the malls, go to the park with a picnic basket packed with homemade pandan (lemongrass) tea or fruit juices and home-cooked snacks or meals rather than buying junk food with all that environment-unfriendly packaging.

• If you can, avoid going out-of-town. If you really must, however, please consider the following:

1. Choose a destination that is not overcrowded so as not to strain the local resources.

2. Visit sites that promote ecotourism and those that really benefit the local community.

3. Use the public transportation or a car pool in going to your chosen destination.

4. Apply the ecological creed: “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.”

And holy smoke! The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) appeals to the faithful to quit smoking to protect the body, “the temple of the Holy Spirit,” from all kinds of harm and infirmity.

Surely, these tips are good not only for the environment but for the soul, too.

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