Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
• Store off-site backup copies of computer files, family photos, and important papers
(marriage license, social security card, bank accounts, stock certificates, immuniza-
tion records, etc).
The “Three-Second Rule”
In a medium-sized quake (5 to 6 magnitude), you could probably dash outside, but in a large
quake of roughly 7.0 or greater, you can figure on approximately three seconds before objects
will come flying (including daggers of broken glass), buildings might start collapsing, or in the
least you will be knocked off your feet and thrown around. It is during this time that the current
expert advice is to “drop, cover, and hold on.” “Drop” gets you off your feet where you are less
likely to be knocked over and injured. “Cover” means getting under the cover of a table, desk,
etc., where you have some semblance of cover and protection from flying objects (glass,
dishes, boards, etc.) and falling debris, or if you can't get to a protective cover of some sorts,
cover your head and neck area with your hands and forearms. “Cover” can also mean hugging
an interior wall that will provide structural support that may help support the ceiling and pro-
tect your position. “Hold on” means literally just that. Grab on to a wall or solidly anchored ob-
ject. In a severe earthquake you risk injury from being thrown about, and if you are able to
hang on to a relatively stable object this will reduce your risk of injury.
The “Triangle of Life” versus “Drop, Cover, and Hold On”
An e-mail article by Doug Copp under the title of the “Triangle of Life” has been widely circu-
lated on the Internet. Some of the recommendations in this article have been repeated by the
media as fact, but have been broadly questioned and refuted by other disaster experts. The gist
of the article is that rather than ducking
under
the cover of an item like a table, the safest place
is to drop and roll to a location
beside
a heavy structural item such as a couch, refrigerator, pi-
ano, bed, etc. The philosophy is that when a building “pancakes” (collapses), as is much more
common in third-world locations than in Europe and North America, a heavy item that has sig-
nificant structural strength will be more likely to hold up against collapsing building structures,
and that the resulting triangular space alongside the bulky strong item will provide a relatively
safe haven where a person might survive; whereas if you crawled underneath a table or desk, it
would tend to collapse and squash you like a pancake.
Studies of injuries and deaths caused by earthquakes over the last several decades, as noted
above, show that you are much more likely to be injured by falling or flying objects (TVs,
lamps, glass, bookcases, etc.) than to die in a collapsed building. “Drop, cover, and hold on” (as
