BBC: How to survive a disaster

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"In a catastrophic event, most people fail to do the one thing that would save their life," said Michael Bond in his article for the BBC, in which he investigated the reason why people in emergencies often fail to do things that under normal circumstances would seem obvious.

John Leach, a military survival instructor who researches behaviour in extreme environments at the University of Portsmouth examined the behavior of people in emergency situations and how to mitigate against panic and to survive. "In most disaster scenarios," he said, "you don’t need special skills to survive. You just need to know what you should do." "My role as a combat survival instructor is to teach people how to survive. My role as a psychologist is to teach people not to die," he added.

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Document links last validated on: 16 July 2021

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