Sunday, 5 September 2010

What to do in an Earthquake...

Very interesting reading!

WORTH THE READ
Directly opposite of what we've been taught over the years
I can remember in school being told to "duck and cover" or stand in a doorway during an earthquake. This guy's findings are absolutely amazing.  I hope we all remember his survival method if we are ever in an earthquake

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE: "TRIANGLE OF LIFE"

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.
 
I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries...
I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.
                   
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time know that the children were told to hide under something. 
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling 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, 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 are 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.

 Spread the word and save someone's life... The Entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!

"We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly".

In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did "duck and cover," and ten mannequins I used in my "triangle of life" survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.  There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the "triangle of life."  This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

A couple of Winter Day Trips in SoCal

Here are a few slideshows from a couple of trips I have done in the last few weekends. They are things that are within 1hrs drive of where I live and have been meaning to get there for ages.

First up is looking around at Joshua Tree National Park. I headed out there with Derek and Kendra. It was a great day before some big storms. It was heaps of fun, lots of cool trails, boulder hopping and some climbing. The rocking climbing here looks incredible. This is one of the best desert environments I have ever seen and it was the perfect time of the year to be there. Temps were perfect and there was no smog encroaching from the surrounding urban areas.



After the biggest storms in the LA Area for many years I thought it would be the perfect time to head up Mt San Jacinto 10,800ft high. I took the largest rotating tramway in the world. In just 10mins your are transported from pure desert into a Alpine Zone. Very impressive. I went for a good hike up to one of the smaller peaks (about 10,000ft high). The top of the Tramway is at about 8,500ft. It was a good 5 mile hike. I didn't get snowshoes and was the only one with just boots. It was ok though. Also my 'Old Man' poles helped my knee somewhat but it still has many issues. The views down into the Coachella Valley were very impressive.

Sunday, 10 January 2010

Some Video from my big Mountain Bike Trip last year.

Well it has taken me a while to get round to this. Video editing takes a fair amount of time. Anyhow embedded below are 3 videos I put together from my biking trip with Craig & Paul in Colorado and Utah with the Grand Canyon along the way. Enjoy!

Grand Canyon & Monument Valley from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

Road tripping on the way to Durango, CO. Big dust storms in Arizona. Nuts. 60mph winds

 

Colorado MTB Trails from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

On our road trip in Oct09 we hit Durango, Grand Junction and Fruita in Colorado. Good times and big smiles :-)

 

Utah Mountain Biking - Oct09 from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

A fantastic trip in Colorado and Utah with the bikes. This video features Moab and Gooseberry Mesa.

Tuesday, 5 January 2010

The ‘Big Easy’ for Xmas

Well yet another Xmas was upon me and being only two weeks out I realized that few people were going to be round Redlands. Ideally I would have been home in NZ but after the last big trip I had no time or $$$ for that. On the other hand I did not want to be alone. I perused the map and figured that given it was winter New Orleans (NOL) was the place for me to see.

Looking at options flying out on Xmas day was cheap and the only cheap way I could get home was a Train. Yep, a 2000 mile 45hr epic. Crickey… One thing for sure is that in my almost 2yrs in the States I have made an effort to see this massive country and have still only scrapped the surface. Anyway after being up at 4.30am and transiting through Houston I got to the Hostel I was staying in about 4 miles down Canal St from the French Quarter of NOL at 4pm on Xmas. The usual hostel types were there; hippies and younger people out to party. It was good as I met people too hang with at night but few of them really seemed that into seeing the sights. Many just got roaring drunk and slept till 2pm the next day. I dunno aye, I am well over that. 5 Aussies from Adelaide were the main culprits (They had a great time though). So for my 3 odd days there I spent the days alone wondering the streets of New Orleans and doing some tours and spent the nights with people met at the hostel though I never got super toasted as I would have been useless during the daylight hours.

New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-49 New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-68 New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-77 New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-145

The Nights were spent in both Bourbon St which is touristy and expensive though heaps of fun and lots to see and do. Many many bars and places to dance or listen to Jazz and other live bands and simply people watch. Heaps of places to eat too. Good times. We also hit up the Frenchman St bar area. Here is home to the local stuff, small music bars with cheap drinks, less crowds and a much more chilled atmosphere. Like Vegas you can walk the streets with open drinks and even on Xmas night it was pretty busy downtown. Sat and Sun nights were pretty packed.

On the first day I walked about the Decatur St District. Checked out the Frenchman’s Market. Had some Pralines (Famous candy from down that way) and also looked at Royal St. Wow. This has such a great array of awesome little art shops. The Architecture of NOL is also as I imagined. Very quaint with small streets and well kept front facades for the most part in a mixed French/Spanish style starting from the 1730s. NOL has some of the longest history in the States and a very colorful past.

New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-161 New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-167 New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-213 New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-238

That arvo I did a ‘City and Katrina Tour’. We visited the Garden District. Very nice, lovely and expensive houses. A cemetery which is all above ground in NOL due to the swamps. Lots of Mausoleums were present as a result. This was pretty cool to see indeed. Also the NOL City Park. A massive park where 2000+ oak trees were lost in Katrina. We also checked out numerous neighborhoods that were covered by water in Katrina. Keep in mind that 80% of NOL was flooded. We could see flood lines on houses and buildings. In many areas the devastation was still everywhere and barely cleaned up. All the buildings that had not been bowled over had either a cross or half cross on them. This signified if the house had been checked. If it had a half cross the floor was unstable and should not be walked on. If a full cross was present it meant that the house was ready to collapse at any moment.

The 9th ward which was covered by 13ft of water was the hardest hit. This is a massive area of complete devastation with many houses left as they were after the storm. You can also see many holes smashed in the roofs where people climbing though to they could get rescued. We could still see the levees that broke and areas where their walls had been strengthened and heightened. Poor people. In this area Brad Pitt’s initiative to help people rebuild was evident. We saw 17 of ‘his’ houses. They were awesome though placed in a pretty stark and devastated area. They were very green homes with solarpanels and many modern eco features. Most on big stilts and 1 actually floated. Very cool. It was this area was where a massive 200+ ft barge was picked up and dropped on numerous houses. It was also sobering to hear that Katrina only hit NOL with a Cat.3 rating. Not the Cat.5 rating many think. Even with all the improvements which will be completed in the following decades the City will only be able to withstand a direct hit of a Cat.4 hurricane. Fingers crossed for them and really it makes you wonder what they are doing when the highest land is 18ft above sea level and much of it below it and the fact that its only a matter of time for the ‘big one’.

http://www.makeitrightnola.org/

I saw a film about the storm and a family’s ordeal at the IMAX downtown and much of the destruction is of course human caused. The massive Wetlands between NOL and the Gulf where the hurricanes came ashore have been minimized greatly over the last couple of hundreds of years. GEOG 101. Cut a sediment supply to the coast and all you will do is watch it disappear. This is what happens due to all the damming and channeling of the Mississippi river and its tributaries. The interesting stat here is that for every 3 miles of wetland lost the storm surge will be a foot higher. Keep in mind that many, many miles of wetlands have been lost from the Mississippi Delta south of NOL. As with so many of the issues we do not put effort into fixing the issue we just look for ways to engineer round it such as making the levees higher. This is the same the world over from avalanche risks to earthquakes to volcanoes. It must be noted though that planting efforts are now in place to attempt to rejuvenate the wetlands and increases the buffer it provides to NOL.

New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-311 New Orleans Xmas Trip09, Train home to LA-331

I also did a famous “Ghost Tour”. It was of course of course a joke (unless you REALLY BELIEVE) but hearing the stories of NOL’s colorful past meant it was quite worthwhile. The National World War 2 museum was also a great place to visit. I spent a good while here and its one of the best war museums I have seen. Not too bias and it was not about big guns. It was about the human and strategic side of the war. It gave me much more appreciation of just how big a threat the Japanese were and the destruction caused in the massive battles in the Pacific often overlooked by the ones taking place in Europe.

After a great few days in NOL I boarded the train at noon and spent the following day, night, next day and next night on it reaching Palm Springs and home. Epic. 45hrs all up. We passed though some places normally unseen. The train was called the ‘Sunset Limited’ and its full run to LA is 2000 miles. Through Louisiana, Southern Texas along the Rio Grande for a good part, though El Paso then on to Tuscon, AZ and home. It was a good experience and one better shared with a companion however it meant I got through a great book. Well almost… It’s “The Worst Journey in the World” and looks at Scott’s Expedition to the South Pole between 1911-1913. All I can say is it is humbling and the adventurers of that day we will never be see again (the hardships they went through is well ridiculous). Just read it. It’s voted the best adventure book of all time by Nat Geo for a reason.

Over and out,

Kurt