Emergency - Earthquakes

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Take this earthquake quiz and then read the following. http://www.nwcn.com/sharedcontent/features/flash/quake/during.html ********************************************************************************************************************** In our research, we found that some say to get under a heavy piece of furniture and others say to get on the floor next to a heavy piece of furniture... Use your own judgement. ********************************************************************************************************************** What to do to PREPARE FOR an EARTHQUAKE. 1. Safeguard your home. Check for potential hazards.   a. Bolt or strap down top-heavy objects, such as bookshelves, water heaters and gas appliances, to prevent them from tipping over.   b. Check electrical connections and gas pipes for faulty joints and connections.   c. Place heavy objects on lower shelves   d. Securely fasten shelves to walls.   e. Store bottled goods, glass, vases, china, and other breakables in low or closed cabinets or drawers.   f. Be sure your home is anchored firmly to its foundation and structurally safe.   g. Keep properly rated and tagged fire extinguishers on hand and along with your family learn how to use them properly.   h. Store copies of important documents, such as insurance policies, deeds, and property records, in a safe place away from your home.   i. Store essential and unreplaceable items in waterproof unbreakable containers.   j. Remove hazardous objects (ie. mirrors, bookshelves, heavy pots, hanging plants, etc.) from sleeping areas, or just move your bed. 2. Implement preventive safety measures for you and your family members.   a. Know where and how to shut off the gas or propan, electricity, and water at main switches and valves. Teach all responsible family members how to do this.   b. Work out a plan detailing how you will get back together if you are separated during an earthquake. 1. Discuss with your family what each person will do in case of an earthquake. 2. Remember this plan should be flexible regarding tim and location of each individual during any time of the day, week, or year. 3. Hold occasional drills so that your family knows what to do during and after an earthquake.   c. Find out what to do and where to go in the case of an evacuation of your community. Learn the shortest and saftest routes from your home, work, chruch, etc. to possible evacuations areas or centers. Take into account that you may not be able to travel in vehicles and may need to travel on foot or bicycle.   d. Have a complete home storage including water.   e. Have a 72-hour kit in an easily accessible place.   f. Keep a flashlight and/or lightstick, "jump-in" clothes, a nd an extra pair of shoes (and perscription glasses, if you use them) by your bed.   g. Put together a complete first aid kit and have every responsible person in your family know how to use its contents.   h. Learn basic first aid and CPR.   i. Have an out-of -state contact telephone number that everyone can call to check-in with. it is usually easier during a disaster to call out-of-state then call within the disaster area. Remember just check-in do not tie up the phones with lengthy converstations. What to do DURING an EARTHQUAKE: IN A HOUSE - Stay away from windows, hanging objects, fireplaces, and tall unsecured furniture. Get under a supported archway, against an inside wall. IN A HIGH-RISE BUILDING - Stay away from windows and glass partitions. Get under a heavey piece of furniture, against an inside corridor or hall, or near a pillar or support column. IN A SHOPPING MALL - Move away from windows and display shelves. Move against an inside wall, corner, or doorway or get under a table, counter, or bench. IN THE OPEN - Move away from buildings, if possible. To avoid flying glass, run to an open area or duck into a safe doorway. Stay away from waterways or swimming pools. IN A CAR - Pull over and stop away from buildings, bridges, overpasses, underpasses, or overhead electrical wires. Keep your safety belt on. 1. Remain calm! Think through the consequences of all your actions. 2. STOP, DROP, COVER, AND HOLD, where you are. 3. If you are indoors...   a. Stay indoors.   b. Take cover under a heavy desk, table, bench, alongside a sturdy wall or in a narrow hallway.   c. Stay away from and out of windows and all other forms of glass, elevators, stairwells, and doorways with doors, (dors anca swing closed, causing injuries). 4. If you are outdoors.   a. Stay outdoors   b. Move away from buildings, roofs with clay tiles, antennas, or satellite dishes, large trees, powerlines, and any other utillity wieres or buildings on stilts 5. If you are in a crowded place.   a. Stay away from overhead walkways and do not rush for a doorway.   b. Take cover and move away from display shelves holding objects that can fall. 6. If you are in a high-rise building.   a. Get under a sturdy desk or table away from windows and outside walls.   b. Stay in the building on the same floor. An evacuation may not be necessary.   c. Be away that the electricity may go out and that the sprinkler systems and fire alarms may go on. 7. If you are in a moving vehicle.   a. Stop as quickly and safely as possible, and stay in your vehicle.   b. Do not stop near power-lines, bridges, tall fences, or gas stations.   c. Watch for road and bridge damage before proceeding. 8. Hold on to small children and pets. They scare easily and may try to run into dangerous areas or situations. 9. Do not use any open flame during or immediately after an earthquake in case there is a gas leak. What to do AFTER an EARTHQUAKE 1. Prepare for aftershocks. 2. Check for injuries and administer first aid. Do not try to move seriously injured persons unless they are in immediate danger of further injury. 3. Turn on a radio or television to get the latest official information form local authorities and the locations of emergency shleters an Red Cross stations. 4. If you need food, shelter, medical aid, or clothes, go to the nearest Red Cross station. 5. Check your utilities for damages   a. If you smell gas, turn it off at the main valve. Open all windows and doors untill the smell is gone. Immediately extinguish all flames or fires and leave the building.   b. If you see or suspect that the electricity is shorting out or damaged, turn it off at the main swithc or circuit breaker. Do not touch downed power-lines or broken appliances.   c. If water pipes are broken, turn the water off at the main valve.   d. Before using the toilets, check sewage lines to ensure they are intact. 6. If you need water and do not have any emergency water in you home storage see the "Emergency Water Procurement" section. 7. Begin cleanup of dangerous breaks and spills with caution. 8. Do not use the telephone unless it is an emergency. It is very easy to jam the telephone lines when everyone is using them at the same time. Check to make sure all of the tlephones are hung up. 9. If you are in a tall building, do not use the elvators, even if they seem to be working. Use the stairwells. 10. Do not use fireplaces untill the flue or chimney is checked that it is undamaged. 11. Leave buildings that have moderate or heavy damage untill they are made safe. 12. Do not go sightseeing! Facts About EARTHQUAKES 1. Earthquakes are classified as great, major, moderate, or small, based on the intensity that are registered on the "RICHTER SCALE". 2. Earthquake classifications based on the Richter scale are shown in magnitudes below. Classification Richter Scale small 5.0 - 5.9 moderate 6.0 - 6.9 major 7.0 - 7.9 great 8.0 - 8.9 3. After earthquakes more injuries and deaths are caused by panic, falling objects, landslides, fires, or floods than by the actual earthquake. 4. Earthquakes usually have aftershocks, or small tremors, which are often as dangerous as the initial earthquake. 5. Earthquakes never last more than a few seconds. 6. Earthquakes can cause tidal waves in coastal areas. ****************************************************************************************************************************************** Earthquake survival 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. 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. 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. 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 th 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 someone's life... The Entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared! 'We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly' 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.