.. a gently sloping cul de sac … on a beautiful, nearly spring Sunday … surrounded by lots of wheeled toys (scooters, skateboards, bikes, and wagons) … and five families worth of neighborhood children … and a newly installed basketball hoop, to boot!
The American Red Cross takes issue with the “triangle of life”:
Recently, the American Red Cross became aware of a challenge to the earthquake safety advice “Drop, Cover, and Hold On.” This is according to information from Mr. Doug Copp, the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of American Rescue Team International (a private company not affiliated with the U.S. Government or other agency.) He says that going underneath objects during an earthquake [as in children being told to get under their desks at school] is very dangerous, and fatal should the building collapse in a strong earthquake. He also states that “everyone who gets under a doorway when a building collapses is killed.” He further states that “if you are in bed when an earthquake happens, to roll out of bed next to it,” and he also says that “If an earthquake happens while you are watching television 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.” These recommendations are inaccurate for application in the United States and inconsistent with information developed through earthquake research. Mr. Copp based his statements on observations of damage to buildings after an earthquake in Turkey. It is like “apples and oranges” to compare building construction standards, techniques, engineering principles, and construction materials between Turkey and the United States.
We at the American Red Cross have studied the research on the topic of earthquake safety for many years. We have benefited from extensive research done by the California Office of Emergency Services, California Seismic Safety Commission, professional and academic research organizations, and emergency management agencies, who have also studied the recommendation to “drop, cover, and hold on!” during the shaking of an earthquake. Personally, I have also benefited from those who preceded me in doing earthquake education in California since the Field Act was passed in 1933.
What the claims made by Mr. Copp of ARTI, Inc., does not seem to distinguish is that the recommendation to “drop, cover, and hold on!” is a U.S.-based recommendation based on U.S. Building Codes and construction standards. Much research in the United States has confirmed that “Drop, Cover, and Hold On!” has saved lives in the United States. Engineering researchers have demonstrated that very few buildings collapse or “pancake” in the U.S. as they might do in other countries. Using a web site to show one picture of one U.S. building that had a partial collapse after a major quake in an area with thousands of buildings that did not collapse during the same quake is inappropriate and misleading.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which collects data on injuries and deaths from all reportable causes in the U.S., as well as data from three University-based studies performed after the Loma Prieta (September, 1989) and Northridge (January, 1994) earthquakes in California, the following data are indicated: Loma Prieta: 63 deaths, approximately 3,700 people were injured. Most injuries happened as a result of the collapse of the Cypress Street section of I-880 in Oakland. Northridge: 57 deaths, 1,500 serious injuries. Most injuries were from falls caused by people trying to get out of their homes, or serious cuts and broken bones when people ran, barefooted, over broken glass (the earthquake happened in the early morning on a federal holiday when many people were still in bed.) There were millions of people in each of these earthquake-affected areas, and of those millions, many of them reported to have “dropped, covered, and held on” during the shaking of the earthquake.
We contend that “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” indeed SAVED lives, not killed people. Because the research continues to demonstrate that, in the U.S., “Drop, Cover, and Hold On!” works, the American Red Cross remains behind that recommendation. It is the simplest, reliable, and easiest method to teach people, including children.
The American Red Cross has not recommended use of a doorway for earthquake protection for more than a decade. The problem is that many doorways are not built into the structural integrity of a building, and may not offer protection. Also, simply put, doorways are not suitable for more than one person at a time.
The Red Cross, remaining consistent with the information published in “Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages,” (visit http://www.disastereducation.org/guide.html ) states that if you are in bed when an earthquake happens, remain there. Rolling out of bed may lead to being injured by debris on the floor next to the bed. If you have done a good job of earthquake mitigation (that is, removing pictures or mirrors that could fall on a bed; anchoring tall bedroom furniture to wall studs, and the like), then you are safer to stay in bed rather than roll out of it during the shaking of an earthquake.
Also, the Red Cross strongly advises not try to move (that is, escape) during the shaking of an earthquake. The more and the longer distance that someone tries to move, the more likely they are to become injured by falling or flying debris, or by tripping, falling, or getting cut by damaged floors, walls, and items in the path of escape. Identifying potential “void areas” and planning on using them for earthquake protection is more difficult to teach, and hard to remember for people who are not educated in earthquake engineering principles. The Red Cross is not saying that identifying potential voids is wrong or inappropriate. What we are saying is that “Drop, Cover, and Hold On!” is NOT wrong — in the United States. The American Red Cross, being a U.S.-based organization, does not extend its recommendations to apply in other countries. What works here may not work elsewhere, so there is no dispute that the “void identification method” or the “Triangle of Life” may indeed be the best thing to teach in other countries where the risk of building collapse, even in moderate earthquakes, is great.
This week’s Economist covers the amazing problem of the missing “100 million baby girls” — that is, the female fetuses and babies eliminated in recent years by abortion, murder, or fatal neglect due to societal preference for boys. This takes place mostly in Asian societies (especially China and Northern India, and including expatriate Asians living in the United States and other western societies), but also in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
We are well aquainted with the attitudes underlying “gendercide”: from sympathies expressed to Brian in Macedonia when he said he was expecting a girl, to the fact that, in Egypt, only one lamb is killed upon the birth of a girl baby, as opposed to the two that are killed during celebrations for a boy. In my work, I am often observing the stark differences in literacy between men and women in African and Middle Eastern societies: one group is often deemed worth educating, while the other is not.
I read the Economist’s articles with interest, but am struck how, in mentioning China, Northern India, Taiwan, and Singapore, it left out one of the world’s greatest offenders with respect to this issue: Vietnam. In the study I participated in last year on Vietnam, we wrote:
Unequal value starts even before birth. Family planning policies that strongly suggest a two-child limit have resulted in a proliferation of selective abortions, which the government is now trying to stop. In 2003, the birth percentage of boys to girls (where 100% is parity) was 105.7% in rural areas and 102.7% in urban areas. A recent finding by the Population and Family Planning Service in Ho Chi Minh City is even more startling: in the first six months of 2009, the birth ratio in some provinces averaged 115 boys per 100 girls. While efforts are underway to curtail the use of ultrasound for gender identification and the use of selective abortions, the practice widely persists. Along with China and India, Vietnam is among those countries in the world with the most prevalent indications of gender-based abortions. Among its population aged 0-14, there are nearly one million more males than females. Rampant selective abortion is certainly one indication that there is unequal value placed on females compared to males. The strong preference for boys appears to exist at all levels of society, not just the poorer or less educated ones. (Citations ommitted).
A lot of people do not know that, while China enforced its “one child” policy over the past generations, Vietnam similarly had a “two child” policy. As the Economist points out, it is typically that second girl baby who is vulnerable, especially if her older sibling is a girl.
I think the below information, written, I understand, by an experienced search-and-rescue professional (and forwarded by a development colleague), is interesting, mainly because it tells me some things I didn’t know. Frankly, I sometimes wondered about how vulnerable we were to earthquake when we lived in Cairo. The earthquake there in October 1992 registered 5.8 and killed over 500 people. The flimsyness of most newer buildings, lack of maintenance on the older ones, and profound fecklessness of local government institutions all suggest that most structures in Cairo, including the one where we lived, could not withstand a force much worse than that (although I believe our school would have).
I have also been pondering the fact that our North Carolina homeowner’s insurance policy does not cover earthquake. I wonder if those State Farm people know something I don’t.
Anyway, here is your earthquake advice:
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilingsfalling 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 and 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 is 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.
The latest bombings in Kabul took place at a complex that is familiar to me — it contains a surprisingly Western shopping center, a hotel and a conference facility. When I traveled to Afghanistan in 2007, my team used the conference room for our final presentation, and concluded our visit by taking a picture on the roof, surrounded by the glorious backdrop of mountains and bright sky. My colleague Ken has returned to Afghanistan and was near the hotel two days ago, when it was attacked. (The hotel where we stayed, the Serena, had been attacked back in January 2008). This is from Ken:
I’m in Kabul at the moment. At 6:32 am (yesterday) I felt the blast. Our compund is about a mile away. I jumped up, put on my clothes and tried to go to our roof to see where it was. I knew it was over by the park on Shari Naw. But my security didn’t let me on the roof because there were small arms firing. With nothing else to do I went back to sleep on a Friday, in my clothes, at the ready. Two hours later I tried to cross the street to go to breakfast but was denied. Lock down - eat in your room. Of course my meeting at USAID (on a Friday) was postponed until Sat. Four hours later I found a friend and we went to the roof to look out. However, security still motioned us to go down, but they did allow us to cross the street to our offices and dining area. Of course I got a finger wagging that I shouldn’t peer out from the roof when there were IEDs and SAF going on all around. He didn’t realize I always wanted to see the muzzle blast before I would shoot back, and that takes a piercing eye, well-focused and in the right direction. Alas, this time I had no weapon so perhaps he was right. When I was here in ‘04 I always went right to the blast areas to see what I could do and what I could see. Stupid I guess. Coincidence, one of my drivers was a guard on my house back then.
The blast was around the corner from the Safi Landmark where we all took that famous picture on the roof. It targeted the Noor Guest house, on a small street across or behind the hotel, I can’t place it exactly from Al Jezeera news photos. But it was right there. They said across from the Park and on a side street. The Park Residence is right there also. Kind of the main cross roads of Shari Naw St. I had planned to go to the Delhi Dabar restaurant the night before with a USAID friend, but my security didn’t allow us to go there. 8 hours later it was blown up. The Safi Hotel had lots of damage. You’ve seen the rest on the news. They targeted the Indians for some reason - third time these blasts have targeted Indians.
No, I haven’t been in Marjah but I’m designing the seed voucher package to go in as soon as we secure the place, very soon. We’re thinking about cotton, along with fruit saplings and high value vegetable seeds - not wheat. Down in Nawa, a little to the South of Lashkah Gar the Military is going to give out cotton seeds (based on our recommendations - with the low price of poppy, cotton produces more per hectare than poppy), and so I have to get the Bost Ginnery going in Lashkah Gar and the Kandahar Spinning and Weaving plant (25,000 employees).
The next move for the military is Kandahar City, where I live - I’ll be returning tomorrow. (I cover Value Chains - post-harvest handling and Overall Program Design for both Helmand and Kandahar) We are just expanding our Kandahar program to cover the 6 Districts surrounding Kandahar City to the South, doing Cash for Work, Fruit Tree distributions, vegetables seeds, and grants. I’m trying to get a raisin factory rehabbed, a Cold Store functioning again, rebuilding and relocating the wholesale market, installing vegetable dryers all around, building plastic greenhouses for intensive vegetables, introducing a tannery, and getting the cotton, wool and cashmere factory started again. I have to figure out how to sell the fruit and vegetables that are generated by our Supply Push project. We have lots of money and no time left. I’ve got to do it in the next six months. Hey, we’re going to win this time. McChrystal’s new strategy of “clear, hold and build” - which ends with our Sustainable AG Strategy is going to do the trick, I’m convinced. We’ll see. I figure the pull out will begin in 16 months. We have to win now. Jobs are the answer, sustainable high value agriculture (horticulture) the engine.
We toasted Charlie that night at our cookout on the roof of our compound in Kandahar. Have you all read the history of Helmand, going back to Morrison-Knudsen in 1954 when they started building the Helmand Valley Authority, like the TVA? Fascinating reading. That’s where Marjah is.
Here’s to our team! Thank God we weren’t on the roof of the Safi Hotel yesterday morning.
Cheers, Ken
And here are the comments of another friend who spent 18 months in Afghanistan:
It’s awful. That’s all there is to say. Like many many many ex-pats and Afghans I was at the city center or driving by daily for a year and half; lived a block away, again like many people. Right when I heard about the attack I thought immediately of Jawid, a kid who couldn’t have been more than 5 and sold gum in front of one of the entrances to the Landmark. He was impossibly cute and always had his baseball hat cocked to the side. Every now and then I’d buy some gum from him. Then he learned my name, after which it was very hard not to just give him money.
Surely since the attack happened so early he couldn’t have been there, but that is no comfort for all the people killed or injured. In Pakistan I was near enough to two suicide detonations and now, after an attack in Pune, it seems that perhaps ex-pats in India are being targeted. Like the title of Dexter Filkins’ book, maybe this is the “forever war.”
Anna’s class has created a blog.
Among our visitors last weekend was an elderly couple that had just spent a good deal of time driving through Florida and Georgia. As they traveled, they collected a number of items, the following which they shared with us:
3 grapefruit
1 Vidalia onion
1 bag of pecans
We received these gifts happily and put them to good use. The youngest member of our household consumed the grapefruit, which represent the next-to-last stop along the spectrum of citrus tartness, her favorite citrus quality. The huge onion has taken a variety of forms, best of all a light sauté which the Big Chill served with other sandwich items. We have toasted and crushed a portion of the pecans — the bag is not yet exhausted – and used them to make a normal bowl of oatmeal taste and feel especially luscious.
The point being: Grapefruit, Vidalia onions, and pecans make excellent gifts.
For snacktime this week, Big Chill and Evie are making fortune cookies, per some sort of Martha Stewart recipe. Getting Evie to prepare 20 fortunes took some cajoling, but here are the results:
You will have a good day! ☺
You will be a millionaire! ☺
You will go to Disney World. ☺
You will learn the guitar. ☺
You will be in the Olympics. ☺
You will be an amazing roller skater. ☺
You will climb the Eifel Tower. ☺
You will drive a convertible. ☺
You will be a famous author. ☺
You will have your own web show! ☺
You will be a movie star. ☺
You will make an invention that will live to see the future. ☺
You will be an explorer. ☺
You will ride an elephant. ☺
You will go parasailing. ☺
You will help save Mother Earth. ☺
You will see the Statue of Liberty. ☺
Your picture will get published in a magazine. ☺
You will go to Colorado. ☺
You will be the President of something. ☺
As you can imagine, every fortune has a story, and tells something about their creator.
I am writing and writing and writing about Tanzania, and the more I write, the less, it seems, I have to say. I will be writing nearly until the point at which I head to South Africa — around March 12 — where I am enlisted to do something more fun than writing, which is talking. I will get to talk about my some of my favorite topics, including labor, courts, and gender. But there will be no talking until I finish writing, and that, the way things are progressing, may be … never.
Anna has been asked to seek pledges for the American Heart Association through a jump-rope-athon, or something of that ilk. Morning conversation on this matter unfolded as follows:
Me: Ask Granny and Grandad for a pledge. They’re rich.
Evie: They’re not rich.
Anna: Yes, they are.
Evie: Well, if they’re rich, then how come we don’t all have mini-fridges?
I reported this conversation to the BFF, whose response was that, when she was Evie’s age, she thought that the evidence of whether people are rich is whether or not their house has a swimming pool.