After an earthquake, how long can trapped victims survive?

For those trapped in rub­ble af­ter an earth­quake, sur­vival de­pends on many fac­tors, in­clud­ing weath­er and ac­cess to wa­ter and air.

If their in­juries aren’t too se­vere, vic­tims can sur­vive for a week or more, as­sum­ing the weath­er isn’t too hot or cold, ex­perts say.

In Venezuela, res­cue teams have been rac­ing against the clock to pull sur­vivors from the rub­ble af­ter two pow­er­ful earth­quakes shook the north­ern state of La Guaira last Wednes­day. More than 770 build­ings were to­tal­ly or par­tial­ly col­lapsed from the earth­quakes, and af­ter­shocks con­tin­ued to shake the re­gion.

Most res­cues hap­pen in the 24 hours af­ter a dis­as­ter. The chances of sur­vival drop with each day af­ter that, ex­perts say. Most vic­tims are bad­ly in­jured or buried by falling stones or oth­er de­bris.

What fac­tors af­fect earth­quake sur­vival?

Trapped vic­tims are more like­ly to sur­vive if they are in a de­bris-free pock­et that pre­vents ma­jor in­jury while they await res­cue, like un­der a stur­dy desk, said geo­physi­cist Vic­tor Tsai from Brown Uni­ver­si­ty. Ex­perts call this a sur­viv­able void space.

If fire, smoke or haz­ardous chem­i­cals were re­leased as a re­sult of the build­ing col­lapse, they may de­crease a per­son’s sur­vival odds, said emer­gency re­sponse ex­pert Dr. Joseph Bar­bera, an as­so­ciate pro­fes­sor at George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty.

Be­yond that, hav­ing air to breathe and wa­ter to drink are cru­cial as the days go on.

“You could sur­vive a while with­out food,” Bar­bera said. “You could sur­vive less with­out wa­ter.”

Tem­per­a­tures where some­one is trapped may af­fect sur­vival, and tem­per­a­tures out­side the rub­ble can af­fect res­cue mis­sions.

More than 2,600 res­cue work­ers from around the world ar­rived in Venezuela with trained search dogs and ma­chin­ery, the gov­ern­ment said. And res­cue ef­forts in La Guaira, the hard­est-hit area, ap­peared sig­nif­i­cant­ly more or­ga­nized on Sun­day, af­ter res­i­dents ex­pressed frus­tra­tion and anger about the lev­el of re­sponse in the days be­fore.

It can be im­por­tant for sur­vivors to re­ceive vi­tal med­ical care be­fore they are re­moved from the rub­ble, Bar­bera said. If not, the buildup of tox­ins from crushed mus­cles could make them go in­to shock af­ter they are res­cued.

Af­ter the 2011 earth­quake and tsuna­mi in Japan, a teenag­er and his 80-year-old grand­moth­er were found alive af­ter nine days trapped in their flat­tened home. And the year be­fore, a 16-year-old Hait­ian girl was res­cued from earth­quake rub­ble in Port-au-Prince af­ter 15 days.

What to do dur­ing an earth­quake

The best prac­tices for sur­vival dur­ing an earth­quake de­pend on where you are in the world. Build­ing codes in re­gions with ac­tive fault lines are of­ten de­signed to with­stand earth­quakes, but that doesn’t hold true every­where.

In many coun­tries, in­clud­ing the Unit­ed States, the best prac­tices are to drop, seek cov­er and hang on un­less you are close to a build­ing ex­it. Seek shel­ter un­der a heavy ta­ble or near stur­dy fur­ni­ture that may yield a sur­viv­able pock­et if the roof col­laps­es. Cov­er your face with cloth or a mask to pro­tect from dust and de­bris.

If you are trapped in the rub­ble af­ter and earth­quake, save your en­er­gy and don’t overex­ert. Ra­tion food and wa­ter, lis­ten for res­cue calls and search for some­thing near you to make noise. If you have a phone with you, con­serve its bat­tery and try for help in short spurts each day. —NEW YORK (AP)

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Sto­ry by ADITHI RA­MAKR­ISH­NAN | As­so­ci­at­ed Press

The As­so­ci­at­ed Press Health and Sci­ence De­part­ment re­ceives sup­port from the Howard Hugh­es Med­ical In­sti­tute’s Sci­ence and Ed­u­ca­tion­al Me­dia Group and the Robert Wood John­son Foun­da­tion. The AP is sole­ly re­spon­si­ble for all con­tent.