What NOT to do in a disaster

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170711-what-not-to-do-in-a-disaster

Thanks! That's a good read.....

Also somewhat frightening I might add.

Half of us are doomed before the disaster even struck. Our psychological make up isn't going to react properly. How to prepare for that I'm not sure. Having worn the blue I'm used to rushing in where angels fear. Again and again in the simplest of scenarios, so many people do nothing.
And if it's violence many people suddenly find themselves 100 yards away and don't even remember moving. Good sense if you ask me. Unfortunately someone has to do something.

Classic recent example:

https://youtu.be/dtH0DkEJxzY

qjs

Training, training and having trained people trying to guide the untrained people.

And then there are so many other factors in human behavior when saving people.

It can be trained with stress inoculation and skills, but most people will not bother to learn it or participate in it. So there will always be a small group who can do it leading the larger number who are looking for a leader to follow.

Montanero has a good point. A lot of people will follow, if someone takes a lead.

Example ... there was a terrorist attack at a mall in Kenya a few years back. Most people who were trapped inside cowered, and did not move. But there was one guy there, an ex-SAS commando, who looked for openings and then smuggled people out of the building. apparently he got quite a few people out.

so if people appear"frozen in place",dont lose hope. they wont necessarily stay that way if someone takes the lead.

Pete

I probably posted years ago about 9/11/2001 when my wife worked at a downtown law firm. Everyone was looking out the windows at the people leaving but were not yet allowed to leave. We found out later that her along with the rest of the staff was held until all the lawyers were quietly evacuated. We both decided then that if we ever have a true emergency we leave and ask for our jobs back once its over.

If someone tells me not to leave a building during a safety emergency, they'll be telling my back as I go.

Or looking up at me as I walk over them!

Can anyone explaine why the employees were not allowed to leave the building? To me it seems like a criminal act not allowing people to save them self and let them run away from a disaster area.

I agree with Montanero and Chaosmagnet. Do what YOU think is prudent. I have absolutely no faith such instructions have any basis in knowledge or fact in the moment... whether it be for fire or active shooter, you may be hearing the standard instruction (crafted by the legal department). And Herman's language suggests the problem: "were not ALLOWED..." I'm a grown up. No one "allows" me. I make up my own mind.

Yea, all the staff was asking why they weren't being evacuated when they could see all the people down in the street and hear about tall buildings being evacuated on the news.

Afterward they found out that the lawyers quietly were told to leave then the staff was finally released. So yes we decided to ask for forgiveness rather than permission next time.

I also couldn't call her and she couldn't call me either, all the phone lines were busy. We were able to get e-mail back and forth slowly. We kept each other up on the news as much as we could, I'd send a message asking if they were going to evacuate since other cities were evacuating tall buildings and she would respond that everyone was asking up the chain if they were. No one really said "no you can't leave" it was more of a "are we going to evacuate", "well I don't know, I'll ask" and repeat up through the management chain.

So when she was finally able to leave I had her start walking on the south side of the main street heading east toward our house and I'd circle around and pick her up. Parking was terrible so we'd drive down to her office and drop he off then I'd drive to work everyday.

On that day there might as well not been any traffic laws, no one was obeying them, running red lights, turning wherever, etc. There were a couple parking lots where one would give the attendant keys and $ and they park for you, well it seems those lots were only staffed at the beginning and end of business hours but not in between, either that or their attendants had already left. People would break into the booth to get their keys. I saw one guy get in one car and reverse it up over the curb and onto the sidewalk then get out leaving the engine running and door open and then get in his car and leave. Those lots would stack so deep that he had to move someone else car first to get his out and he just left the other person's car like that.

We made other changes that day such as upgrading cell phones to ones that could text for times when the lines were too busy.

Whatever happened to "women and children first"? Perhaps, maybe, "Children = lawyers" ?

I would not care to work for an outfit like that.....

Unless the problem is a dirty bomb outside, the best move is to GET OUT>

Hm! Well, no size fits all. In an earthquake in a modern building in a jurisdiction with good codes, especially downtown, I'm overcoming my instinct and staying in. When all that glass and debris comes off those skyscrapers, outside = slice-and-dice.

Many years ago, my wife and I were in a department store when the power went out. Uniformed security guards immediately locked all the outside doors (which were all glass).

When we got to the door and saw what was happening, I walked up the to guard and said, "Open the door we want to leave." He said, "Not till the power comes back on." So I replied, "Let me see, you are holding us against our will, that sounds like kidnapping to me." He didn't reply but I could see he was getting nervous. So I said, "Let me put it this way, either you open the door or I am going throw this chair through it so we all can leave." He immediately opened the door.

The OP is enormously useful, and the diversion into "you can't keep me in!" shouldn't sideline us from the core premise: There isn't just "fight-or-flight" in our mostly-hard-wired response inventory: it's "fight-or-flight-or-freeze."

It's worth thinking about how to a) not freeze except on purpose, and b) how to assist people who freeze into a more survivable situation.

This is something that emergency responders must face, with people in high-stress situations "locking up." This is not new; they are surely trained how to handle this. How do you recognize "freeze-up" and how do you respond?

"How do you recognize "freeze-up" and how do you respond?"

In the typical mountain rescue situation with which I am familiar, this is not usually a big issue. But if someone is not functioning, a suggestion of useful activity usually works (many hands make light work on a hauling system...) You must consider that the person may be drunk or on drugs or incapacitated in some other manner.

Sometimes a shock is necessary to even get their attention if they are frozen out of terror. When it is bad it lasts a while and the person can just shut down because they feel overwhelmed and unable to deal with the stressor at all.

Getting them to help with something less stressful is a good way to gradually bring them out of it. When they are communicative you can help show them how they can act in incremental ways to deal with the stressor. Help them overcome the feeling of helplessness.

It can be as simple as when someone sees something happening, they freeze up and do not attempt any action to prevent the incident. This is usually temporary and they will move to help almost immediately after.

The classic example is a soldier's first experience in actual combat; when they are directly under fire for the first time. You never know how they will react. Training can prevent the freeze and provide an instinctive reaction that will carry them through (such as charging an ambush), until they see that they can deal with it, and then they are fine. Some never get over that first experience and will lock up, hunker down and can't function.

Stress inoculation in training helps to prevent this. This is why military training is, and should be, stressful. If you can't handle someone in your face yelling at you how will you handle someone shooting at you? Things like rappelling, mountain climbing, parachuting, and other things a normal person would have trouble doing, all can help to build up the resistance to stress. The learning to respond to orders and practicing physical actions in response to certain stimuli, such as immediate action drills, helps a great deal.