Earthquake experts debate safety protocol

Few, if any, Memphians have had the chance to use the techniques learned in earthquake safety drills from elementary days, though most have been taught or are aware that the city is along the New Madrid Fault.

Despite a plethora of earthquake safety lessons, opposing schools of thought are offering new advice on what people should do if an earthquake should hit the MidSouth area.

Earthquakes last month in the Caribbean country of Haiti, magnitude 7.0, and Saturday in the South American country of Chile, magnitude 8.8, have given rise to frequent and often incorrect e-mail forwards aimed at disaster preparedness.

In one such e-mail, a member of the non-profit disaster company American Rescue Team International, Doug Copp, challenges one of the most common protection procedures - duck, cover and hold - in lieu of a procedure he devised himself, the "Triangle of Life." The method suggests victims find a survivable void or space next to a large, bulky object.

The more commonly known emergency course of action of duck, cover and hold is promoted by the American Red Cross and earthquake centers in California. The Center of Earthquake Research and Information at The University of Memphis has links on its site leading to sources that discuss the procedure. 

Duck, cover and hold suggests that victims do not leave the building but instead find a sturdy structure to hide under as an earthquake occurs.

Copp, who claims to have been in 875 collapsed buildings in countries around the world, said the duck, cover and hold procedure has a 100 percent death rate.

He came up with the Triangle of Life idea in 1985, five seconds after his first experience witnessing the effects of an earthquake at a collapsed school in Mexico City after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit, killing thousands of people.

Walking from room to room, Copp saw the remains of children who had sought shelter under their desks. The desks' legs snapped under the pressure of the quake, causing the ceiling to crash down and crush them.

"Every once in a while, I would see little hand or foot sticking out," he said. "Other than that, there was just blood."

Copp found three survivors - two young girls untouched because they had hidden in the aisles between the desks and another partially in the aisle whose legs were later amputated because they were crushed under the desk.

Gary Patterson, director of education and outreach for the Center for Earthquake Research and Information, said the center doesn't support the Triangle of Life concept but stands by the American Red Cross' advice on duck, cover and hold.

"People who only go into collapsed buildings don't see the benefits of duck, cover, hold," Patterson said. "Buildings don't usually collapse, especially modern buildings compared to third-world countries."

Patterson said the difference lies in how sound the structure is prior to a catastrophic event.

"Every earthquake I've been to, the majority of buildings are still standing," he said. "There is no good place to be in a bad building."

Despite his hesitation to discount "duck, cover and hold," Patterson admitted that the Triangle of Life method could work in certain situations, but without quantitative data, Copp could offer no more proof than his own personal experiences.

"I think certainly when you're in a third-world country with little standards or codes that traditional strategies don't apply as much as they would in place with standards and building codes," Patterson said.

And with the vastly above-average population density of Haiti, roughly 78,000 people per square mile, Patterson said lack of experience with quakes and nowhere to run ultimately made the largest difference.

"That's five times the population density of Chicago," he said. "On average, that kind of density with no skyscrapers means few rooms and poor building standards. Most people in Haiti had never been in a bad earthquake, so they probably did either nothing or tried to run out of building. The most important thing is to do something."

CERI research scientist Steve Horton said the earthquake in Chile was 50 times stronger than the one in Haiti and that people's natural response to an earthquake is to run and scream. He agreed duck, cover and hold is a good idea.

"It's better than running around not knowing what to do," he said.

Freshman biology major Ryan Watkins, a native of Memphis, said he was taught in school to get under desks during earthquake drills.

Watkins said it makes more sense to him try to get outside if an earthquake occurs because then he could at least see what was going on.

"If I could know even 20 seconds before it happens, then I'm running outside," he said.

Theoretically, Watkins said he could see how the Triangle of Life procedure would be better than duck and cover.

"If you get under a table and then something falls on it, then you're crushed,' he said. "If you're in the open, then you're more mobile and can move to an area already partially collapsed, and you have more of a chance of getting out of the situation."

Thomas Bailey, freshman criminal justice major, said he wouldn't know what to do if an earthquake struck.

"I was taught you're supposed to go out in a hallway and put your hands over your head," he said. "The Triangle of Life sounds better, but I would feel more secure with something above me."