SEAL Survival Guide (35 page)
Read SEAL Survival Guide Online
Authors: Cade Courtley
Elevator Entrapment
On average, rescue from a stalled elevator takes three hours, so it’s best to wait. Even though most elevators have hatches concealed by paneling, which provide a way to get to the top of the car, this is an option to consider only under the direst of circumstances. Depending on whether the elevator is powered by hydraulics or counterweights,
there are many hazards in the shaft that can kill you instantly; only those with prior knowledge of the elevator’s design should attempt this escape. It is better to stand by for trained personnel.
Those who experience entrapment often suffer extreme panic, and in instances this can bring about a heart attack. In this situation, when you can do nothing physically to aid in your survival, you can keep yourself and those around you calm by using your mind.
If the elevator should ever stop between floors, do not panic. There is plenty of air in the elevator. Even if the air temperature feels warm, there is plenty of air circulating in the elevator and the shaft.
1. Push the Door Open button. If the car is, in fact, at the landing, the door will open. Be certain you sense no movement in the car before departing rapidly.
2. If the door does not open, you are still safe. Never climb out of a stalled elevator, especially if the door opens between floors.
3.
Never
try to exit a stalled elevator car. This is the second-greatest cause of fatalities, which result from limb severing, crushing, and decapitation when the elevator unexpectedly begins to move again while a passenger is only halfway out of the car.
4. Use the Alarm or Help button, the telephone, or the intercom to call for assistance. Do not be concerned if you cannot be heard on the phone or if it seems not to work. Some phones are designed to only receive calls. Use the Alarm or Help button in this case.
Always
wait for trained emergency personnel.
5. If service response time exceeds thirty minutes, 911 or the fire department should be called to report the entrapment first; if you can reach a friend on the outside, assign them the task of helping to locate or call the relevant facility operations manager of the building.
6. Your best course of action is to relax, get comfortable, and wait for professional assistance. Emergency lighting will come on in the event of a power failure, so most likely you won’t be in complete darkness. You may be inconvenienced, but you are safe.
At SERE (during POW training), I spent a week in a three-by-three-foot concrete box. To combat the feelings of entrapment and isolation, I started building things in my mind. I found that the more detailed and specific I was in my imagined design, the better. I broke it down to every nut and bolt of what I wanted to assemble. I even pondered paint options. When the week was over, I envisioned having a fully restored 1966 Shelby GT-350 classic car sitting in my garage at home. This is another example of utilizing the mental movie, an essential tool in many aspects of survival. The brain is our strongest muscle. To endure confinement or entrapment, use it, and let it take you on a mental vacation.
Free Fall
Fifty-seven percent of elevator fatalities are due to
fall deaths.
Some are caused when the door opens but no car is there. Other incidents are due to the collapse of the floor of the elevator car. Many older elevators have plywood floors that rot or have support brackets weakened by excessive overload. When the floor gives way, just the slightest load can send it tumbling below. That was the case in 2001, when an eighty-five-year-old Richmond, Ohio, woman entered an elevator alone. At the sixth floor,
the flooring apparently had carried one load too many; the woman fell down the shaft when the floor of the elevator suddenly gave way.
• When you are waiting for an elevator and the door opens, be alert and pause. This may sound so incredibly obvious, but practice the most minimal form of situational awareness—look to make sure there is an elevator car to step into.
• In the event of a fire or other situation that could lead to a disruption in electrical services, take the stairs.
• When available, hold on to the interior handrail while riding in an elevator.
• Report unusual metal sounds, grinding cables, car jerkiness—even adverse floor conditions, like if it feels spongy or uneven—to building management.
• Again,
use the stairs until you have proof that the situation has been rectified.
LONGEST FREE FALL
In the summer of 1945, a B-25 Army bomber got lost in the fog while attempting to land at LaGuardia Airport. It crashed into the seventy-ninth floor of the Empire State Building, killing fourteen people. When the plane hit, the engine ripped from the fuselage and torpedoed through the building. The engine cut loose all six cables of elevator car number 6, then on the seventy-eighth floor. The only occupant was elevator operator Betty O., who then experienced the longest free fall of an elevator car before or since, plunging a thousand feet toward the subbasement, which ended in a thunderous crash. The woman miraculously survived by holding on to the handrail and thus becoming weightless during the fall.
FALLING THROUGH ICE
With water covering more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, it’s inevitable that many people will find themselves submerged whether they want to be or not. A particularly dangerous scenario frequently occurs in the early winter or during the spring thaw, when ice-covered lakes, rivers, and ponds aren’t as safe as they may appear. Ice is deceiving, and it’s difficult to know by looking at it if it’s thick enough to hold the weight of a person. Environmental factors can cause sudden changes to ice, and it’s never certain whether or not you are literally walking on thin ice.
Every two minutes a person drowns. Worldwide, more than a million people drown every year, the greatest percentage being children. Drowning by falling through ice is not classified in a separate category, but there are unique techniques for surviving a fall through ice, even if you are otherwise a fairly good swimmer.
Going In
Remember how I suggested ways to expand your comfort zone in
Part One
, “SEAL Mindset and Survival Psychology,” and recommended ending a warm shower with a thirty-second blast of cold water? Well, no matter if you are bundled up for the winter chill, falling through ice is that same sensation multiplied by a factor of ten. The work you did expanding your comfort zone will definitely pay off in this scenario. However, instantaneous submersion in near-freezing water will physiologically cause your body to experience a phenomenon known as cold shock response. When the blood temperature changes so dramatically, in some cases, it can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden death. The sheer surprise of being submerged will cause the onset of shock, and you could find yourself breathing rapidly—or hyperventilating—which causes a loss of coordination of the limbs.