This is really interesting.....much of it just the opposite of what we were taught and maybe still teaching our children and each other. So give it a quick read.....it doesn't take that long and it may save your life or the life of a loved one.......

Very interesting info for those in California , or those who might encounter an earthquake. 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...

There would  likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the  "triangle of life."

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under their 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. They are everywhere.

TEN 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 o ff 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.