[manilanews] Why 'Drop, Cover and Hold On' is still the best advice

[Rita Carlson]

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_14364175?IADID=Search-www.times-standar
d.com-www.times-standard.com

 


Why 'Drop, Cover and Hold On' is still the best advice


Lori Dengler/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 02/09/2010 06:58:58 AM PST





First a trickle, then a flood and as inevitable as aftershocks after a
strong earthquake. I can't predict where it will first pop up. This time
it was an e-mail from a colleague in my college. I could tell by the
fourth word what was coming next, "I just got this e-mail from a friend
who told me that we aren't supposed to drop, cover and hold on any
more." Yup -- the "triangle of life" has reared its head once more. 

Over a decade ago, a man named Doug Copp argued that the safest thing to
do during a strong earthquake is to get next to a large solid object,
like a cabinet or freezer, because small spaces may form here if the
building collapses. On a first reading, it sounds sensible, especially
with the images of Haiti fresh in our minds. Building failure, however,
is complex and there is no solid evidence that the pockets are any more
likely to form next to large objects than at other places in the
building. 

California is not Haiti. We know a lot about what happens to buildings
and what causes deaths and injuries in California earthquakes. Unlike
Haiti, it is extremely unusual for buildings to collapse in our state,
and getting rarer all the time. We've had earthquake-resistant design
elements in our building codes for over 75 years. The Jan. 9 earthquake
shook the ground in Ferndale and Eureka about as strongly as the Haiti
quake did, and the April 1992 earthquake near Petrolia was more than
twice as strong. The North Coast earthquakes damaged buildings, but no
one was killed and there were very few major injuries in either temblor.


In California, the main earthquake hazards are breaking windows, falling
lights and ceiling tiles, and objects flying off shelves. The triangle
of life won't protect you from these hazards -- but dropping down and
crouching under a desk or table and holding on to a table leg will keep
something over your head and shield you from falling debris. There is no
controversy among reputable emergency preparedness, safety, seismology,
or earthquake engineering agencies about Drop Cover Hold On (see a list
at www.earthquakecountry.info/dropcoverholdon/). 

These groups -- including the American Red Cross, FEMA, the California
Emergency Management Agency, and the Earthquake Engineering Research
Institute -- have looked carefully at Copp's ideas to see if there was
any merit to them. This occurs whenever a new idea is proposed. When I
was growing up, we were taught to stand in a doorway. Doorways made a
lot of sense when many people lived and worked in brick buildings,
because the doorframes are wood and more resilient to shaking. But there
are few unreinforced buildings left in California, and the door frames
in the wood and reinforced concrete buildings we live, work, and shop in
are no stronger than the rest of the building. The doorway also poses
hazards. You may be injured by the door slamming back and forth, or
crushed by other people stampeding to run outside. So the message has
been changed -- doorways are out and Drop Cover Hold On is in -- based
on research about what happens to buildings and their contents during an
earthquake. The American Red Cross is in the business of saving lives
and reducing injuries. If another approach were demonstrated to be
safer, I'm sure they would adopt it. 

The "triangle of life" is, however, safer than what many people on the
North Coast did during the Jan. 9 earthquake -- run outdoors. In many
security videos, including the one from this paper, people rushed out of
buildings, oblivious to windows breaking and items crashing. This is the
worst thing you can do in a California earthquake. The farther you move
while the ground is shaking, the more likely you will intersect
something flying through the air that could cause you serious harm. You
could also stumble or trip on debris, causing further injury. The last
California earthquake deaths were during the 2003 magnitude 6.6 San
Simeon earthquake when two people were crushed by debris as they rushed
outside. The people who stayed in the building survived. 

Nicole Bowles, age 15 and a sophomore at Fortuna High, describes the
right thing to do in recounting what happened in the Food Court at the
Bayshore Mall (Letters to the Editor Jan. 13). "My friend and I
immediately remembered what we had been taught since kindergarten, and
dove under the table we sat at. As we were sitting under the table, the
floor shook, panels and glass began to fall from the ceiling, and people
were running about. Afraid for the chaotic people to get hurt, we
shouted for them to get down. We continued to yell for them to get under
their tables, and didn't stop until some had listened to us. ... People
were screaming and running out of the building and dodging falling
ceiling panels. I find it odd that the only two people who knew what to
do were the two high school sophomores." 

Bravo, Nicole. You did exactly the right thing. Not only were you
uninjured, what you did helped others. You also give us the key to
taking the right action: practice -- practice -- practice. Earthquakes
elicit the instinctual flight response in people. Repeated drills give
us the muscle memory to instill the right thing to do when the earth
shakes. Schools in California are required to practice drop, cover, hold
on drills. For the rest of us, participating in the annual Great
California ShakeOut is a good way to start. The next ShakeOut will be
held on Oct. 21, 2010, at 10:21 a.m. Register now to participate as an
individual or an organization, and find links to preparedness tips and
instructions at http://www.shakeout.org/. 

The next time the earth shakes, I intend to do what Nicole did on Jan.
9. If there is a table or desk nearby, I'll get under it and hang on. If
there's no table, I'll crouch down where I am, make myself as small as
possible and stay there. And I'll continue to vociferously work for the
better understanding of earthquake ground motion, building design, and
code enforcement so that what happened in Haiti can never happen here. 

Lori Dengler is a professor and chair of the Geology Department at
Humboldt State University, recognized as HSU's Scholar of the Year in
2008, and recipient of the 2008 Alquist medal for earthquake safety
efforts in California.

 

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