In the aftermath of 1994 Northridge earthquake, new building codes were developed with the express purpose of making future construction of buildings, especially "essential facilities", i.e. hospitals, water treatment plants, power plants, emergency response centers, earthquake resistant. Not earthquake proof, resistant. The ability to be shaken and remain intact and functional during an earthquake, and after. Structrual engineers use what they refer to as loadpaths and "moment connections". The Northridge quake did major structural damage near the epicenter; however, hospitals 50 miles away, which remained structurally intact, were rendered unusable due to the damage done to the building services piping. (sanitary, domestic water, steam lines, natural gas lines, and duct work.)
69 hospitals were unable to handle casualties because the piping failed and raw sewage was covering the floors and no clean water was available. Not very sterile.
New construction since 2002 has followed these new building codes, but older buildings have yet to be brought up to standards. They are working to upgrade certain facilities, but it's a slow process.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed guidelines for the restraint of piping and mechanical devices, i.e. air handlers, generators, boilers, water heaters, which you can adapt for restraining certain items inside your home to make them earthquake resistant. I will provide links to those publications in a future post. It's a simple procedure which can be done by anyone familiar with power tools, cable (aka wire rope), and afterset anchors.
Right now, I'd like to share some safety tips that could save your life. You can always re-build if you're alive.
As always, the best place to be during an earthquake is OUTSIDE, clear of any buildings or overhead structures. Not all of us will have that luxury.
Now, in case you ever find yourself in a building, during an earthquake, we have some new procedures, based on past rescue operations and the observations of the rescue workers involved.
Standard practise has always been to crawl under something during an earthquake. Desk, bed, something solid.
You may as well be crawling into a coffin. Being UNDER something when the roof falls on it, will simply put you on the bottom of the pile. If you're in a multi-story building with concrete floors, and the floor above falls, it will crush anything it falls on, but the floor slab itself will usually remain intact.
However, it will not FLATTEN the object it falls on. Instead, it will compress the object to a certain thickness and then stop.
When it stops, there will an area to either side of the object it landed on that will be clear space. This space is where you need to be when the world stops shaking. This area is refered to as the "Triangle of Life."
The following is from a rescue worker who specializes in afterquake rescues. He has some advice that could save your 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.
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) While crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, I discovered 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.
