Drop, Cover, Hold on vs. The Triangle of Life

Last week, text messages were circulated with warnings of an intensity-9 earthquake

predicted to hit Quezon City and other parts of Metro Manila (the

earthquake was purportedly to cause parts of Manila City to sink into

the sea).  Of course, the warnings caused waves of panic among

concerned citizens.  While these warnings were not new (they had

already been circulating online for a couple of months), last week was

the most distressful, since the quake was predicted to occur at about

5:00 p.m. of April 15, 2005.

I’m thankful that the earthquake did not occur.  Whether it’s

through divine intervention or natural geologic tendencies (which I

would consider as one and the same), it’s good that we are still intact.

However, this brings me to some earlier earthquake warnings and advice

that have been circulated through email late last year.  It’s

about the “triangle of life”

that is being advocated by Doug Copp, who claims to be an expert in the

field of earthquake rescue.  However, further online research

brought me to various sites that put forward the American Red Cross‘ rebuttal.  The Red Cross claims that its own “tried and tested” Drop, Cover and Hold on! method is more

applicable to building conditions in the USA, and the benefits of

triangle of life may not necessarily hold in these circumstances (stories here and here).

I am tempted to proffer the triangle of life as more sound advice in

the Philippine context, given the substandard quality material usually

utilized by many of our builders (such as that of our own

apartment).  But I guess this calls for discretion on the part of

those who experience quakes.

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