Where to Go During an Earthquake

Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing in a doorway? Well, forget it! This is a real eye opener. It could save your life someday.

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON 'THE TRIANGLE OF LIFE'

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI ), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years, and have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene -- unnecessary.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them - NOT under them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the 'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Most everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when building collapse are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a bed, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8) Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.
Spread the word and save someone's life...

The entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!

'We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly'
In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did 'duck and cover,' and ten mannequins I used in my 'triangle of life' survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions , relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.

There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the 'triangle of life.' This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA , Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.

http://www.amerrescue.org/
American Rescue Team International is said to be the World's most experienced rescue team and disaster management-mitigation organization.

Protests grow against new septic tank law

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Sept. 23, 2010 – A bill passed by the Florida Legislature, SB 550, requires septic tank homeowners to have an inspection every five years. The Florida Department of Health (DOH) is now drafting rules for compliance. The law becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2011, with the inspection component phased in over the following five years.
The Legislature created stricter septic tank rules to protect the environment. Better septic systems are designed to filter out more nitrogen, which feed weeds and algae.

But the rule comes at a significant cost to the state’s 2.6 million homeowners that rely on a septic tank, and Florida lawmakers representing rural counties that rely heavily on septic tanks – Rep. Marti Coley (R-Marianna) and Sen. Evelyn Lynn (R-Ormond Beach) – have promised to introduce legislation next year to repeal the septic tank inspection measure.

“I just simply think that to mandate every five years for every homeowner with a septic tank to have it inspected is unnecessary and big government,” Coley says.
The DOH has heard from a number of counties and homeowners worried about the $100 to $300 cost of a septic inspection, and Gerald Briggs, DOH’s bureau chief for onsite sewage programs, says he’s “very concerned this will cost property owners,” and “we are making sure the cost is as low as we can make.”

State officials believe some septic tanks pollute more than others, and the mandatory inspections will help identify those homes. If an inspection does uncover a major problem, new drain fields could cost homeowners as much as $5,000 or $6,000 to fix, according to Sam Averett, president of Averett Septic Tank in Lakeland.
“Every system needs to be maintained,” Averett said. “You are affecting some water body somewhere – everywhere in the state … If the homeowners were maintaining their systems to begin with this would not be an issue – but they are not.”

Source: Bruce Ritchie, 09/21/2010 © 2010 Florida Realtors®

Florida again #1... but for the wrong reasons.

MIAMI – Sept. 22, 2010 – Mortgage fraud is responsible for untold trillions of dollars in bad loans currently defaulting across the country, and Florida has played a starring role in the tragedy, a federal commission said during a hearing in Miami on Tuesday.
A panel of national and local experts sat before the federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission during a hearing focused on liar’s loans, predatory mortgage practices and shady home appraisals. They concluded that the financial impact of the fraud was more severe than most have estimated, and prosecuting those responsible will be nearly impossible. It was the third of four hearings being carried out nationwide by the commission, which Congress assembled last year to investigate the causes of the global financial meltdown.

‘A central issue’

“Mortgage fraud is not just a side issue – in many ways it’s a central issue of this financial collapse,” former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a commission member, said after the hearing. “I was stunned at the extent and the dollar impact of mortgage fraud and its contribution to the worst financial meltdown in half a century.”

Five hours of expert testimony painted a picture of a system wrought with regulatory inadequacies and financial incentives for unscrupulous behavior at nearly every level. The result, panelists said, was more than $1 trillion lost by banks, homeowners and, ultimately, the U.S. taxpayer between 2005 and 2007 alone. As many as 70 percent of mortgages now in foreclosure were the result of at least one element of fraud, said Ann Fulmer, vice president at Interthinx, a risk-mitigation firm that does extensive mortgage fraud research.

The hearing also laid out the laundry list of challenges local law enforcement officials face as they try to track down and prosecute the predatory lenders and mortgage fraudsters active in Florida during the housing boom.

Compared to the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, which saw more than 1,000 mid- and high-level executives jailed for white-collar crime, mortgage fraud convictions have been paltry, panelists said. Solving mortgage fraud cases is difficult because the process is time-intensive and proving “intent” can be nearly impossible, said Ellen Wilcox, a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Another challenge: Florida’s statute of limitations means fraudulent loans issued more than three years ago are no longer subject to prosecution.

“Most mortgage fraud will not be reported until the mortgage goes bad, but the ‘crime’ occurred when the money was lent,” Wilcox said. “If there was mortgage fraud in the granting of a mortgage loan in 2004, it can not longer be criminally charged.”

The average mortgage fraud case takes one to two years to investigate, she added.

Law-enforcement officials are also generally under-equipped to face down Florida’s nation-leading fraud problem – the Mortgage Asset Research Institute has ranked the state No. 1 in the country for mortgage fraud since 2006, with nearly three times the normal amount of reported cases.

Still, some progress has been made, and the general consensus is that many of the individual bad apples involved in mid-decade mortgage fraud have been pushed out by market forces, tougher regulation and law enforcement.

Task force launched

In 2007, Miami-Dade police and Mayor Carlos Alvarez launched the Mortgage Fraud Task Force and lobbied for tougher regulatory laws, said Miami-Dade police Capt. Ed Gallagher. Since then, Miami-Dade police have made 239 arrests for mortgage fraud. The U.S. attorney’s office Mortgage Fraud Strike Force has gotten 401 convictions since 2007, said Wilfredo Ferrer, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation has put together a task force to curb the latest wave of real estate fraud – mortgage modification schemes, said commissioner J. Thomas Cardwell.

Graham and other FCIC commissioners plan to use Tuesday’s findings as part of a comprehensive financial crisis report, due to the president by Dec. 15. Graham said he hoped that report would help policymakers better understand the regulatory and market forces that led to the costly mortgage fraud crisis.

“The role of government as a regulator had gotten – as it did in so many other areas of finance – fairly soft and flabby during the early part of this century,” he said. “Hopefully, one of the positive outcomes of this terrible experience is that the agencies will be better supported, staffed and given the capability to be a lion and not a toothless tiger.”

Copyright © 2010 The Miami Herald, Toluse Olorunnipa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Tips to help owners spot foreclosure scams

WASHINGTON – Sept. 15, 2010 – Last year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission identified 71 companies running suspicious foreclosure rescue ads. This year, the Better Business Bureau named foreclosure rescue rip-offs among its top 10 scams.

Here are just two common scams identified in the September “Foreclosure Resource Guide” now available at the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Realtor Content Resource:

• A representative of a so-called foreclosure rescue company promises to negotiate a deal with your lender, instructing you not to contact your lender, lawyer or credit counselor during the supposed negotiations. After you pay an up-front fee or a few months of mortgage payments, the scam artist disappears.

• A scam artist promises to fend off foreclosure in exchange for an up-front fee. Instead of getting you legitimate relief, the fraudster pockets the fee and secretly files a bankruptcy case in your name.

Also covered in the “Foreclosure Resource Guide” are free tips on what to do immediately if you’re facing foreclosure, five foreclosure pros you need on your team, what foreclosure counselors can and can’t do, and website resources for foreclosure help.

NAR’s Realtor Content Resource is an exclusive member benefit that entitles Realtors to download free homeownership content from HouseLogic to your consumer website, blog, or e-newsletter. HouseLogic is NAR’s consumer website geared to helping homeowners make smart decisions to enhance, maintain and protect the value of their home.

For more information, go to the Realtor® Content Resource at: http://www.houselogic.com/members/?nicmp=RCRIM&nichn=editorial&niseg=RMONews1_20100905

© 2010 Florida Realtors®

Did you know?

Florida, California, Arizona and Texas account for 53% of all purchases by international buyers and have remained the top destination for three years in a row, with Florida topping the list?

Florida. economy improves, but fragile

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Sept. 15, 2010 – Florida’s budget picture is improving but remains shaky, with unemployment expected to climb through the autumn and foreclosures still outpacing home sales, a legislative budget panel was told Tuesday.

Analysts reduced next year’s anticipated budget shortfall to $2.5 billion – down from a $5.5 billion gap for 2011-12 that was projected last year. But the red ink will continue to course through Florida’s spending plans for the next three years as federal stimulus dollars dry up, Medicaid costs climb, and the economy remains fragile, analysts said.

“We know the recovery is going to be uneven – with a lot of ups and downs,” the Legislature’s chief economist, Amy Baker, told the Legislative Budget Commission (LBC).

The LBC formally adopted the three-year budget outlook presented by Baker and compiled by analysts and economists from several budget and policy committees. The outlook effectively serves as a guidepost for lawmakers, based on what analysts say are “events that are known or likely to occur.”

Baker conceded, however, that some potential budget factors remain difficult to gauge. The financial impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was not included in Tuesday’s forecast, but Baker counseled that preliminary estimates show that its impact on Florida’s economy is “not going to be some of the huge, frightening numbers that came out after the disaster.”

Other potential high-impact events include the possibility of a spate of commercial real estate defaults triggering bank failures. Thirty-seven Florida banks have collapsed in the past 18 months, Baker said.

Hurricanes and the prospect of a double-dip recession also are on state economists’ watch list.

The downsized budget gap for next year is credited to the role of federal stimulus dollars, years of budget cuts, and the arrival of Indian gambling money. But it also prompted sharp-edged questioning from Rep. Ron Saunders of Key West, designated as the incoming House Democratic leader, aimed at Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott.

Scott opposes the federal stimulus dollars, which poured $2.5 billion into the state’s current, $70.2 billion budget. State spending also was eased by $855 million in enhanced Medicaid spending approved this summer by Congress and distributed Tuesday by the LBC across five major health programs.

Scott also has called for eliminating the state’s corporate income tax, which is on track to bring $1.8 billion into next year’s budget.

“I think it shows Rick Scott’s lack of understanding about how the state budget works,” Saunders said.

Scott’s campaign spokeswoman, Jennifer Baker, has said the Republican candidate is a political outsider with a “proven track record of creating jobs, balancing budgets.”

Democrat Alex Sink has outlined a more sweeping “government reform and accountability plan” that she says would yield $700 million in first-year spending cuts. The reductions, however, may prove inflated since many of the changes she proposes are confined to such steps as reducing state office space, eliminating unneeded layers of management, and bolstering the state’s hand in contracting.

Whoever is elected governor in November is almost assured of facing a still-bleak economic outlook, according to details presented Tuesday by Baker.

Florida’s 11.5 percent unemployment rate – two percentage points above the national average – is expected to tick upward in coming months, analysts said, based on formerly discouraged workers returning to the job markets amid some signs of improvement.

Two regions of the state, Cape Coral/Fort Myers, and greater Orlando, remain in the nation’s top 10 for the number of foreclosure filings – with Florida second in the nation, overall. Median home prices in the state are 22 percent below the national average, a level that has helped spur sales and may eventually contribute to the economic recovery, Baker told lawmakers.

Still, amid the rising home sales there are ominous signs, she warned. Fifty-percent of Florida home sales are currently being conducted by banks on foreclosed properties or on quick, lower-priced “short sales,” Baker said.

Source: News Service of Florida, John Kennedy

Carmen Bongiovanni, e-pro
Watson Realty Corp
386-246-9239
http://CarmenAndGeorge.com

Buy Owner service is in liquidation

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Aug. 20, 2010 – The Buy Owner broker-free real estate firm, known for its familiar “Thanks, Buy Owner” advertisements, has filed for liquidation as the housing market continues to struggle.

The Deerfield Beach-based company will continue to operate with a reduced staff as a buyer is sought for its assets, which could include the purchase of the firm in its entirety, minus its debt.

“The phones, as far as people interested in the service, remain very active, and we are signing up new clients everyday,” said Philip J. von Kahle, managing director for Michael Moecker & Associates, which is the assignee for Buy Owner. “There is still a very valuable core business here.”

Buy Owner president and CEO Scott A. Eckert lives in Boca Raton.

The company filed last month for an assignment for the benefit of creditors in Broward County, which is similar to a Chapter 7 federal bankruptcy but in state court. As assignee, the Fort Lauderdale-based Michael Moecker & Associates, is responsible for maximizing the assets of the company so creditors can get paid.

Von Kahle said the combination of a down real estate market and a large Bank of America loan that recently required payment led to the liquidation filing. According to court documents, Buy Owner owes about $3.9 million to Bank of America, and $1.2 million in back pay to its executives, including Eckert. It has 33 shareholders.

Buy Owner, founded in 1984, charges fees to sellers based on how much exposure they want on its website, and what features, such as custom fliers or talking yard signs, they choose. It is free to buyers.

The company has franchises in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Orlando, Philadelphia and Tampa.

“I don’t think the company could scale down quick enough because it got so big,” said von Kahle. “It appears to me the loan from Bank of America was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

A 2009 Florida Realtors report found about 10 percent of homes sold last year did so without the help of a Realtor.

Leyza Blanco, an attorney with Miami-based GrayRobinson, P.A. who is representing Michael Moecker & Associates, said she has filed a motion to allow for liquidation of the business as a whole, rather than its parts. Because Buy Owner is a service-based company, that could maximize profits, Blanco said.

“There’s not a lot of tangible assets that you can just take apart and sell,” she said.

Creditors have until Nov. 23 to file claims against the company.

Copyright © 2010 The Palm Beach Post, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services