An Article That Everyone Should Read!

[MA-Caver]

How to Get Out Alive
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1053663,00.html
Monday, Apr. 25, 2005 By AMANDA RIPLEY
When the plane hit Elia Zedeno's building on 9/11, the effect was not subtle. From the 73rd floor of Tower 1, she heard a booming explosion and felt the building actually lurch to the south, as if it might topple. It had never done that before, even in 1993 when a bomb exploded in the basement, trapping her in an elevator. This time, Zedeño grabbed her desk and held on, lifting her feet off the floor. Then she shouted, "What's happening?" You might expect that her next instinct was to flee. But she had the opposite reaction. "What I really wanted was for someone to scream back, 'Everything is O.K.! Don't worry. It's in your head.'"

She didn't know it at the time, but all around her, others were filled with the same reflexive incredulity. And the reaction was not unique to 9/11. Whether they're in shipwrecks, hurricanes, plane crashes or burning buildings, people in peril experience remarkably similar stages. And the first one--even in the face of clear and urgent danger--is almost always a period of intense disbelief.

Luckily, at least one of Zedeño's colleagues responded differently. "The answer I got was another co-worker screaming, 'Get out of the building!'" she remembers now. Almost four years later, she still thinks about that command. "My question is, What would I have done if the person had said nothing?"

<snip>That neurological process might explain, in part, the urge to stay put in crises. "Most people go their entire lives without a disaster," says Michael Lindell, a professor at the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. "So, the most reasonable reaction when something bad happens is to say, This can't possibly be happening to me." Lindell sees the same tendency, which disaster researchers call normalcy bias, when entire populations are asked to evacuate.

On this forum we've discussed to nearly ad-nauseum survival techniques and ideas for individual encounters with danger, but en-massed? We've discussed how it's better to be a sheepdog than a sheep. In a herd there's usually a (lead) ram/ewe who will make a call for the rest of the flock to start moving towards a particular destination; water, food, away from danger, to the pen, etc. Seems these people in the towers were doing just that. Waiting for someone to say "evac the building" or at least in the effect of "lets get the hell outta here!!" Same with airline crashes or shipwrecks the study says.
But a lot of people don't, they sit there as if waiting to die. Shock, where the brain shuts down trying to sort through new stunning information slowly as if to assess the reality of the situation, even when it's staring them in the face.
Again, this is where brain training comes in handy. Taking time to seriously look at the possibilities and what to do. Familiarizing yourself with the building/plane/boat/house where-ever you're at and knowing the fastest path to safety. Familiarizing yourself with whatever (safety) equipment is available and where it's stored.
As mentioned in another thread... "it's not paranoia it's preparedness."

Last line of this is rather interesting and at the same time... not surprising at all.

When people are told to leave in anticipation of a hurricane or flood, most of them check with four or more sources--family, newscasters and officials, among others--before deciding what to do, according to a 2001 study by sociologist Thomas Drabek. That process of checking in, known to experts as milling, is common in disasters. On 9/11 at least 70% of survivors spoke with other people before trying to leave, the NIST study shows. (In that regard, if you work or live with a lot of women, your chances of survival may increase, since women are quicker to evacuate than men are.)

Do you have any thoughts, experiences, comments, ideas? Have you been in a mass survival situation?

 

[CoryKS]

Catastrophes pull us out of our daily ritual. In the case of evacuation, it can be a costly and time-consuming ordeal. One tries to mentally calculate the odds that it is really necessary to go through the process. "Really? Are you sure? Maybe I better double-check." People want to be certain that the steps they are going to take are going to be worth it.

9/11 kinda seemed like an easier decision to make. You tell me a plane hit the building and my mind says, "Extended smoke break!" And i don't even smoke. On the other hand, I've never had to evacuate a 70-story building so I don't know how that would affect the mental calculus.

 

[MA-Caver]

Catastrophes pull us out of our daily ritual. In the case of evacuation, it can be a costly and time-consuming ordeal. One tries to mentally calculate the odds that it is really necessary to go through the process. "Really? Are you sure? Maybe I better double-check." People want to be certain that the steps they are going to take are going to be worth it.

9/11 kinda seemed like an easier decision to make. You tell me a plane hit the building and my mind says, "Extended smoke break!" And i don't even smoke. On the other hand, I've never had to evacuate a 70-story building so I don't know how that would affect the mental calculus.

Well think about it for a minute. You're in your office doing your usual boring day to day routine, thinking about getting back home in traffic after work or what you're going to have for lunch and then the building shudders violently above you. Moments later someone says a plane hit the building.
The idea (at the time) was inconceivable that it could've been done on purpose. It was my first thought when I first heard about the first tower that it was a horrible accident.
You look around and everyone else is basically the same... standing at their desks or at their co-worker's desk and wondering what's going on? We gotta leave and take the stairs? The idea of walking down 70 flights can be daunting. And your mind somewhere acknowledges that there are 67 floors of occupied office space below you filled with people wanting to do the same thing, so those stairs; tight cramped are going to be crowded by the time you get down to say the 30th floor (or higher).
So yeah, you're gonna want to hang out to see if it's really really necessary to get moving.

 

[Rich Parsons]

On this forum we've discussed to nearly ad-nauseum survival techniques and ideas for individual encounters with danger, but en-massed? We've discussed how it's better to be a sheepdog than a sheep. In a herd there's usually a (lead) ram/ewe who will make a call for the rest of the flock to start moving towards a particular destination; water, food, away from danger, to the pen, etc. Seems these people in the towers were doing just that. Waiting for someone to say "evac the building" or at least in the effect of "lets get the hell outta here!!" Same with airline crashes or shipwrecks the study says.
But a lot of people don't, they sit there as if waiting to die. Shock, where the brain shuts down trying to sort through new stunning information slowly as if to assess the reality of the situation, even when it's staring them in the face.
Again, this is where brain training comes in handy. Taking time to seriously look at the possibilities and what to do. Familiarizing yourself with the building/plane/boat/house where-ever you're at and knowing the fastest path to safety. Familiarizing yourself with whatever (safety) equipment is available and where it's stored.
As mentioned in another thread... "it's not paranoia it's preparedness."

Last line of this is rather interesting and at the same time... not surprising at all.

Do you have any thoughts, experiences, comments, ideas? Have you been in a mass survival situation?

I have been in water fronts as storms rolled in that spawned tornados. I was trying to get my ex to move fast enough to get out of the storm front. She would not run until the rain was going sideways and she could not see. There were others who could do nothing but just ball up in the parking lot. I told my ex to stay and I ran forward using vehicles as partial shields to get to our vehicle. I then brought the car to her. Once she was in I went after a couple of other women who were just balled up on the ground. I got them in the car and safe. They could not believe a storm could hit that fast and hard.

I have been in other situations where I told others what to do to limit the danger from others, even if it meant I was or might be the target or alone for the danger.

Some refer to this as the flight or fight reaction. Their mind flees before the body can do anything. In many cases some pass out and in others they just ball up and cry or in disbelief.

Some have it naturally. Some can be taught to react in these cases.

 

[Cryozombie]

I think the opposite end of this is also bad... if people start to panic and act stupidly and irrationally to try and "get out"... like the nightclub "stampede" in Chicago where so many people were killed because so many people surged for the door in blind panic that they all wedged up in the opening and no one could move...

I think acting, but acting in a calm rational manner, is the key to survival.
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