How long can earthquake victims survive trapped in rubble?

A review of earthquake entrapments found the longest reliably reported survival was 14 days after impact. Some victims die quickly from catastrophic trauma, but others survive for days under collapsed structures. Rescuers treat the clock as a medical variable, not a deadline.

The first 24 hours: the “golden hours”

WHO training materials call the first 24 hours after a disaster the “Golden hours,” and trapped or injured victims have an 80 percent chance of survival if rescued in that window. That does not mean everyone lives after 24 hours or dies before it; it means the odds are best when teams can reach people before dehydration, hypothermia, bleeding and crush complications deepen.

The 2010 Haiti earthquake showed how much can still happen in that window and just beyond it. The UN’s emergency coordination office counted 43 international urban search-and-rescue teams, with 1,739 rescue workers and 161 dogs, working around the clock, and survivors were still being found alive six days later. It attributed that to collapsed buildings with sufficient void spaces, the empty pockets that can preserve air and create a temporary survival space.

Myth: survival ends after 48 hours. Reality: the clock often keeps running

The often repeated idea that trapped victims cannot live past two days is wrong. The earthquake-entrapment review found numerous survivors beyond 48 hours, and the average maximum reported survival among the earthquakes it examined was 6.8 days, with a median of 5.75 days.

FEMA’s medical guidance says trapped victims may survive entrapment for days, but crush syndrome can cause death shortly after rescue if it is not treated, and can also kill days to weeks later if the patient was not properly treated on scene. That is one reason rescuers do not just pull people out and move on; they also have to stabilize them from the start, often while they are still in the rubble.

By 72 hours, survival is uncommon but still real

WHO documented the case of Hamzanur Burak Kızıl, a 35-year-old in Adıyaman, Türkiye, who lived for 72 hours trapped beneath debris after the February 6, 2023 earthquakes. He was rescued in critical condition and later lost both legs and his left arm, a stark example of how survival can come with life-altering injuries.

In Kahramanmaraş, rescuers pulled two siblings alive from earthquake rubble four days after the quake after a mother insisted they were still there, a peer-reviewed report found. Another rescue pattern in Türkiye involved children and adults found after more than 128 hours.

What matters most: air, water, temperature and injuries

Air is the first hidden limit. If a void space survives the collapse, people may breathe long enough to remain alive for days, but if debris seals off that space, the clock can run out quickly. In Haiti, survivors were still being found alive six days later in collapsed buildings with sufficient void spaces.

Water is usually the second limit. In the Chile mine rescue of 2010, 33 miners survived 69 days underground after the August 5 collapse at the San José gold and copper mine in the Atacama Desert. In NASA’s account of the rescue, 17 days after the collapse they were still struggling with very little food or potable water.

Temperature can tighten or loosen the clock. During the 2023 Türkiye earthquake rescues, victims and rescuers were working in cold, wet weather, and survivors had to outlast the cold and their injuries without food or water while waiting for extraction. Low temperatures increase stress on the body, while heat can accelerate dehydration.

Why rescue systems race the clock

FEMA’s National Urban Search and Rescue Response System was established in 1989 and now includes 28 task forces that can be deployed to structural-collapse disasters. Those teams exist because survival after collapse is not a passive process: people need to be found, extricated and medically managed before crush syndrome, shock and other complications become irreversible.