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08 January 2006
Attention, earthquake-prone people! Sorry I'm double posting myself, but this freaks my shit right out... and I want to make sure you California and Japan people, especially, have seen it, most particularly if you have ever read or heard of the fraudulent, crappy, death-dealing Douglas Copp "Triangle of Safety" advice.
cmonkey, how far from the epicenter were you? Its about five miles north of my house here and I would guess that things were less than joyous here during the quake.
But I don't know as I moved out here a few years after the big'un.
I was living in Oakland, actually, and our house shifted three inches off the foundation. My aunt & uncle's house, in Los Gatos, was partially destroyed.
but that's not important... what's important is that people not adhere to this asshole's dangerous advice... here is what I was writing a moment ago, which I'm kind of kind cutting short:
blah, blah... but I do again live in a earthquake-prone place, and I did read that creep's advice and sorta organized my plan about what to do based on that. And I am an idiot...
I am an idiot, but he is dangerous, and more dangerous than other murderers, because with them, once law enforcement catches them, they can't kill any longer - but with Douglas Copp, uneccessary death can go on and on, as long as people have read his advice and followed it, but haven't read any of the updates about how he is a lying, deathdealing ASSHOLE.
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.
matildabean, I've hiked up to within a mile or so of the epicenter (the "official" marker is close but not the actual epicenter so as to try and keep people from tramping through the woods too much). The quake pretty much destroyed a good portion of Santa Cruz, in fact, there are still some building spaces that have yet to be rebuilt now, some 18 years later.
taz, what about his advice is specifically so bad and dangerous. It seems to me that being under something is more dangerous in case the building does collapse. I've always been told to seek a doorway (structural support) or to just get outside.
A great deal of what he specifically advises is very, very bad, bad physical/engineering/seismological logic, and will result in heaps of crushing and bleeding. Just Read this link for all the pertinent info (PDF).
Also... since no one is reading or responding to this any more...
It seems to me that being under something is more dangerous in case the building does collapse
As the article explains, this may be true with a "pancake collpase", which is hardly ever the case with an earthquake. In a true earthquake situation, being next to something big and heavy is more likely/just as likely to crush you as protect you, since earthquake damage almost never happens pancake-style.
Anyway, I'm thinking a lot about this, since I'm in an earthquake area and my little place has a very, very heavy tile roof. I love this roof; it makes it much cooler in summer than any other rooftop apartment... but I have to figure out a good strategy for quickly getting safe in case of an earthquake
bah! I can't believe that we have so many Californian/other-earthquake-places members, and almost none of them will see this post, or the one I made earlier. Humbug! I'm getting disgusted with this site.
Yep, I read it too, taz -- it's just that I'd never heard of this fool's bad advice in the first place, so I've always just assumed I'd follow the basic Red Cross tactics if I'm ever in a big 'quake. (Well, assuming that I'm not frozen with shock for too long!)
sorry, matildaben... I have the flu, and I'm grouchy, I guess - and too het up about this, evidently.
But, fuck me, this guy has been giving advice, on some sort of expert basis, that could kill you, just to make himself seem important or hero-like, and that makes me really, really mad.
dodgy, you're probably right. I think maybe I will do a death-defying TRIPLEPOST!
matildaben, scody, mudpuppie, frisbee, all leftcoast peoples - I love you guys... and since you're internet types, I thought it likely that you might have read the Copp death advice (I did), and needed to warn you about it. Sorry about the Grouchy.
taz, I know what you mean about this sort of thing driving you up a wall -- a couple of years ago at work, the (former) head of security sent around this this completely useless (and in fact DANGEROUS) email about how to prevent rape, also from one of these self-styled "experts". It was chock-full of idiotic advice and phony statistics (e.g., that the majority of women who are raped have long hair, because rapists can grab it; therefore cut your hair and cut your chances of being raped!) that were just total bunk and had absolutely nothing to do with any real precautions against sexual assualt.
Of course, when I emailed the head of security and politely told him that it seemed he might be inadvertantly spreading disinformation, he got extremely huffy and said that he had checked out the letter himself, and confirmed everything in it. When I then sent him the Snopes link, he got really agitated and said the link didn't work. Yeah, uh-huh. Idiot. (Appropriately, he left our workplace a few years ago to go work for our wonderful Governator Ahnuld. Heh.)
So's Islamic panic. (Not that this is dangerous, just sort of parallel urban-legend memery.)
I've defended his advice as a potentially reasonable alternative before, but I hadn't read this rebuttal. I do think it's a bit too hysterical to do any good, and I think that's affecting you, taz (don't take it personal-like). The most important point in the whole thing is preparation saves more lives, and that includes things like building design and post-disaster planning.
Well... I'll forgive you finding me hysterical, since you don't really know me and can't judge much on evidence, I suppose. I do generally respect your opinion and sense of logic, though, so I'd really like to know what you find hysterical about the rebuttal.
oh, taz
please take an antihistamin
but if you have
and you feel sore in your throat and head
like raw achy
please take an antibiotic
ALL OF THEM
WITHOUT BOOZE
Sorry, luv - my fault! I doubleposted. We were talking about an earthquake here in Greece in the first post.
oye. So... I'm going to bed now. If something shakes in the middle of the night... well I'll probably grab the keys that are right beside the door, and try to get outside on the building rooftop, since my wondeful tile roof is great for all seasons, but for earthshaking stuff, not so much.
I hadn't read Copp's misinformation but thanks for pointing it out, taz (and andrew cooke). I hope everyone who has or is living in "earthquake country" realizes his "expertise" is bogus.
Born 'n' raised in SoCal and now living in the Pacific Northwest and I've been through several decent sized quakes.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
