How long can trapped people survive in the rubble of an earthquake?
Up to a week or more, experts say, but it depends on their injuries, how they are trapped and weather conditions.
Search teams from around the world have joined local emergency personnel in Turkey and Syria to look for victims from this week’s devastating earthquake that has killed thousands.
Photo: Reuters
Most rescues occur in the first 24 hours after a disaster. After that, survival chances drop as each day passes, experts say. Many victims are badly injured or buried by falling stones or other debris.
Access to water and air to breathe are crucial factors, along with weather. Wintry conditions in Syria and Turkey have hampered rescue efforts and temperatures have dipped well below freezing.
“Typically, it is rare to find survivors after the fifth to seventh days, and most search and rescue teams will consider stopping by then,’’ said Jarone Lee, an emergency and disaster medicine expert at Massachusetts General Hospital. “But, there are many stories of people surviving well past the seven-day mark. Unfortunately, these are usually rare and extraordinary cases.’’
People with traumatic injuries, including crush injuries and limb amputations, face the most critical survival window, said George Chiampas, an emergency medicine specialist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg medical school.
“If you don’t pull them out in one hour, in that golden hour, there’s really a very low chance of survival,’’ he said.
Those with other illnesses, whose health depends on medications, also face grim chances, Chiampas said.
Age, physical and mental condition are all critical.
“You see a lot of different scenarios where we’ve had some some really miraculous saves and people have survived under horrible conditions,” said Christopher Colwell, an emergency medicine specialists at the University of California, San Francisco. “They tend to be younger people and and have been fortunate enough to find either a pocket in the rubble or some way to access needed elements like air and water.’’
After the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, a teenager and his 80-year-old grandmother were found alive after nine days trapped in their flattened home. The year before, a 16-year-old Haitian girl was rescued from earthquake rubble in Port-Au-Prince after 15 days.
Mental state can also affect survival. People trapped next to bodies, who have no contact with other survivors or rescuers, may give up hope, Chiampas noted.
“If you have someone who is alive, you’re leaning on each other to keep fighting,’’ he said.
A jumbo operation is moving 20 elephants across the breadth of India to the mammoth private zoo set up by the son of Asia’s richest man, adjoining a sprawling oil refinery. The elephants have been “freed from the exploitative logging industry,” according to the Vantara Animal Rescue Centre, run by Anant Ambani, son of the billionaire head of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sheer scale of the self-declared “world’s biggest wild animal rescue center” has raised eyebrows — including more than 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, according to
They were four years old, 15 or only seven months when they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald and Ravensbruck. Some were born there. Somehow they survived, began their lives again and had children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren themselves. Now in the evening of their lives, some 40 survivors of the Nazi camps tell their story as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the death camps. In 15 countries, from Israel to Poland, Russia to Argentina, Canada to South Africa, they spoke of victory over absolute evil. Some spoke publicly for the first
When 17-year-old Lin Shih (林石) crossed the Taiwan Strait in 1746 with a group of settlers, he could hardly have known the magnitude of wealth and influence his family would later amass on the island, or that one day tourists would be walking through the home of his descendants in central Taiwan. He might also have been surprised to see the family home located in Wufeng District (霧峰) of Taichung, as Lin initially settled further north in what is now Dali District (大里). However, after the Qing executed him for his alleged participation in the Lin Shuang-Wen Rebellion (林爽文事件), his grandsons were
Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, from Sunday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 2, there will be no Features pages. The paper returns to its usual format on Monday, Feb. 3, when Features will also be resumed. Kung Hsi Fa Tsai!
RSS