I am awaken one night by violent shaking. Immediatlly I awake disoriented. I fall out of the bed. I hear my wife scream and I holler for her to tuck into a ball and hold on to something stable. I grab the corner of the wall...I can feel it move and crack. I can feel the sound of walls crashing around me. I feel a quick and strong burst of air as I am knocked unconcious. I wake up and everything is dark, quiet and I am trapped. I just have a watch with a light. and i am unable to move my right arm. I am trapped what seems like the beams of the ceiling. there is no room to move and i hear gas.

DID I DO ANYTHING WRONG AND WHAT DO I DO NEXT?

Earthquake? You shoulda stayed in Kentucky... <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

haha....did you know that kentucky is on a new madriad fault line, so we are expecting a big one. Not sure when but it will happen someday.

Might I suggest you weld some steel beams over the bed so if this does happen you will already be in a reinforced area and less likely to be pinned by beams.
You could even have them made up like a 4 poster bed and place decorative wood around the beams so your wife doesn't object to be sleeping in a building site or cage.
Then you could have some survival item stashed around the bed also protected just in case. start with water then some escape items.

Thats a big one on the Richter scale by your description. There is a reinforced 'survival bed' that was discussed in an old thread. Our earthquake S&R expert Burak in Turkey pointed out they can be in themselves dangerous. First of all you may want to do an inspection of your home against current California building codes. Is the foundation bolted to the floor? Do you have an older brick or stone freestanding fireplace and chimney? Have you used strapping to secure your water heater and larger furniture? What about Museum Wax used to secure bric a brac to shelves? Is there a accessable kit under your bed; flashlight, gas shut off wrench, whistle,water, shoes,first aid, medications? you need to practise dropping and rolling under a sturdy bed. Running outside will get you killed by falling debri (that brick chimney) and doorframes ARE NOT a safe place. Doors slam closed with great force.

The latest recommendation I've heard for seismic events is to get at the base of a wall if possible. Has something to do with triangular geometry being the safest bet inside a structure. I think grabbing the corner of the room exposes you to too many structrual junctions, where it is most likely going to come apart, although having perpendicular supports might help prevent collapse. One other thing you did wrong was perhaps not preparing for such an event previous.

As for what to do next, if your wife is ambulatory, I hope you told her where the gas cutoff valve is, and she can get to it before the big boom. Or is that from the propane tanks that have been ruptured? If you can't get the gas turned off soon, or find some way to free your arm, you may have to gnaw it off if you want to survive. Good luck.

Ouch. Had no idea the New Madrid went through Kentucky. Well, at least an earthquake on that fault won't cause a tsunami. I always try to see the brighter side of things. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Well, your scenario is certainly pretty worst-case. As benjammin pointed out, the "triangle of life" which Doug Copp of the American Rescue Team International is a big proponent of, might have kept you from being pinned. Normally, you're advised that riding out a quake in bed, covering your head with pillows/blankets, is the safest (assuming no bookcases, mirrors, or other nearby objects that could fall on your bed). However, if your house/apartment is coming down, then seeking a "triangle of life" would be your best bet at survival. Even when a building collapses "flat", there will be voids left next to large, bulky objects. So trying to lie on the floor along the edge of your bed might have protected you from the direct weight of the ceiling beam and from having your arm pinned. The voids may be very small, but at least you're alive.

I know people pooh-pooh'd the idea of buying an earthquake detector in a thread I started a couple weeks back, but I still think it could help. I've been in numerous earthquakes, and almost invariably, at first you're thinking, "Wait...is this an earthquake?" If I'm deep asleep, how much more time am I going to waste trying to determine what's going on? At least if I have mentally prepared myself to know that the sound of the earthquake detector means "take cover", then I think wymond might have had a better chance of seeking out a safe space even though he woke up disoriented. Mental drilling in this case is key--hear the alarm, assume it's an earthquake, take cover in my pre-selected location.

Although this tip wouldn't help you free yourself, the Green Bar project might have provided your neighbors the tools to extricate you. Professor Bruce Henry Lambert campaigns for the installation of "Green Bars" throughout neighborhoods. These are simply long iron "wrecking bars" painted a bright green to stand out. He notes that during the Kobe quake, out of the 10,000 people trapped in collapsed structures and eventually freed, only a small fraction were freed by professional rescue personnel. The rest either freed themselves or were extricated by their neighbors. However many people remained trapped when the many fires swept through their neighborhoods after the quake. Neighbors were there, but just couldn't get them out of the rubble. I worked in Japan at that time and it made me sick to my stomach watching it on TV knowing that there must be people still in some of those burning houses. The quake struck before 6am in the morning and many people were still sleeping. The quake victims in Kobe in collapsed structures mostly lived in wood-framed homes, I believe, not concrete buildings, so prying/leveraging power was more critical than being able to bust and cut through reinforced concrete, so something like a long pry bar was most beneficial in that situation. I saw something suitable at Lowes a couple months ago. I don't remember the cost, but it was minimal. If you kept one in the bedroom, maybe one in the garage or shed, and you might be able to tell rescuers where the bars were located. If you live in a concrete structure, then sledgehammers and...well, tough to get through rebar with any hand tools, I imagine.

Since you're trapped under heavy ceiling beams, there's always the danger of "crush syndrome". When a large mass of muscle is crushed, toxins are released into your bloodstream when the weight is lifted. You could be rescued and jumping around for joy one minute, then the toxins start circulating and wham! You're in renal failure, shock, and could eventually end up dead. Dialysis may be your only hope, but how likely is that after a mega quake? For your crushed, pinned arm (I'm assuming tthe arm is crushed since you're pinned in general), amputation before the arm is freed is recommended. If the limb has already been freed, then it should be cooled and you should be treated for shock, even if you feel fine immediately after being freed.

Assuming you use natural gas, having a wrench attached to the gas shutoff valve would give your wife/neighbor the tool necessary to shut it off without having to hunt around the rubble for a wrench.

I'm getting rather hypothetical here but it just popped into my head when thinking of Kobe. You could also invest in a portable gas-powered pump that would shoot some fire retardent solution. I've seen them advertised to homeowners in wildfire-prone areas to cover their homes with a protective film before bugging out. However, even with the non-stop TV coverage of the recent wildfires here in Southern California, I've never seen a single homeowner using such a system. (Does it even wash off after use???) Anyway, if your wife was able, and she saw fire nearby, she could coat the rubble on top of you with the flame retardent to protect you. More people than we'd like to admit perished in Kobe this way, so I wouldn't call it a purely theoretical threat. Miniscule, yes, but hey, we're talking worst case here, right?

OK, this is long enough, but that's my 2 bits worth. Feel better now? <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

BTW, I assume that the light on your watch is useless if you're wearing it on your left wrist and your right arm is pinned. Try wearing a watch on both wrists next time. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />