It is called Shake Drill to stir the awareness of the public in case a strong earthquake strikes. Held today, June 22, in Metro Manila, it is in preparation for a potential earthquake that my occur in the West Valley fault which is in the eastern part of Metro Manila. There is no way to predict an earthquake yet but seismologists of the volcanology institute say that the big one can occur as early as today or as later as 400 years from now. Isn't that crazy to predict something that can happen within 400 years? Even our grandchildren wouldn't last that long, huh. Some media people say that the proponents of the shake drill just wanted to get attention or maybe they can earn something from that activity since it has a budget provided by the Metro Manila Development Authority. But on a positive note, the drill demonstrated how to act when the earthquake occurs. Especially the children in school, presence of mind is being taught in times of disaster. At least it is somewhat beneficial to the public.
I don't know if the schools have earthquake drills here, I haven't paid attention to that but I would think so. We have tiny earthquakes every day. I've felt a few 4-5 magnitudes ones. I'm sure there will be a big one again on day but who knows when.
I think that preparedness drills are an important thing. Even when the information is as vague as "sometime in the next 400 years" there is still the part that says it could happen as soon as tomorrow, and it is important that people should realize that there is an excellent chance that it will strike in their life time and be prepared. There is also a good chance of an earthquake on the west coast of the United States, not just along the San Andreas fault (which has been moving more lately); but also further northward along the coast of Oregon and Washington States. They just had big drills for that possibility in Washington and even in Idaho. My son is part of Search and Rescue and also belongs to the local ham radio club; so he was taking part in the drill that they had in Idaho in his area. It is called "Cascadia Rising", and even though the earthquake should not affect people clear acros the state and into Idaho, most of Western Washington will be completely cut off from help when the quake happens; so they are training people from outside the quake zone to be first responders. The main north-south freeway, I-5, is located along the fault line; so when the quake happens, it will destroy the freeway, as well as I-90, the interstate runing east-west into Seattle. The cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and all of the smaller cities up and down the coast will basically be cut off from the other cities, and people will have to know how to not only survive the huge earthquake, but also to have enough food and water stored to sustain them until help can be flown in. Airports will probably be ruined, too; so rescue and supplies will probably have to come by helicopter. It will take a while before some of the smaller populated towns actually get help . Help will be sent from the Spokane area, and other areas that will be out of the quake zone, but can fly in to help out with rescue and aid to survivors. It sounds like the leaders in your country are doing similar things to prepare people for the huge earthquakes that they know are coming, @Corie Henson , and I think that this is very wise for them to be doing this just like the United states is also doing right now.
What do you do though even though you have stockpiled water and goods in your home but aren't anywhere near your house when something happens. For us seniors, I'm sure most of us will be home but most families I know are out working during the day and doing errands on the weekends, chances are your stockpile might be covered in rubble depending where the quake hits. I'm talking about the big one, not something under 6 mag. The smaller quakes I felt happened equally during the day and during the night. At night at least you are home but it's dark. I'll have to research what to do in an earthquake because I really don't even remember if you are supposed to go outside or what. I was always more prepared for tornados when I lived in the Midwest, I had more at stake to worry about then Just saw a post yesterday on Facebook about some movement on the San Andreas fault but didn't look at it closely because Facebook is full of misinformation basically on everything. Now I can't even find it.
That would be the scariest for me, to be separated from loved ones, not knowing where they were, or how they were. I usually try to keep some hurricane supplies here at the house, but since I may end up leaving, I don't bother with too much. When I've evacuated in the past, I've ended up needing to purchase supplies wherever I've gone anyway. I've dealt with hurricanes, potential tornadoes (no real ones, thankfully, knocking on wood), blizzards and floods, but no earthquakes.
I've dealt with tornados and floods and only minor earthquakes. I don't think there is any better choice, each has it's difficulties.
I don't have a clue which fault lines are connected to which areas, but I did hear that there is a tremendous amount of activity (or was a couple of weeks ago) around whatever fault is near Yellowstone, the volcano, etc. The report I read said the media totally chose to ignore the fact because it was at the same time as the Pulse massacre. I'll post a link if I can find confirmation.
Yes, definitely, and it all depends on how familiar you are with the possibilities and how prepared you are. I think it helps to grow up in an area, since that seems to lessen the panic, but sometimes that's not a good thing. Some people who were upset about how the Hurricane Rita evacuation went (it was the worst screw up I've ever experienced) stayed during Hurricane Ike, and ultimately died because they failed to heed the warnings. Sometimes it's hard to know how to proceed, and whether the event will be as bad as predicted, especially when the media plays it up and gets everyone in a tizzy.
This is what I was talking about reading yesterday. https://www.rt.com/usa/347607-san-andreas-motion-detected/
No matter how much a person does to be prepared, there are always things that can happen, like being caught elsewhere when the earthquake strikes. It is always good to have some extra water and storable food in your vehicle in case of a traveling accident; but even if you have some protein bars and water in your car, that would not last long, and you probably could not drive back to your house in any case. I know that some of the preparedness articles that i read said that you should have your emergency stash located in a place where you could get to it even if the house collapsed; but that might not even be a possible thing to do for some of us , especially we seniors. I think that as long as you do the things that you can do to be prepared for some kind of disaster that cut off all supplies for a while, then there is no sense to worrying about the things you can't do anything about. The last time that the west coast had one of these huge earthquakes, it created such huge tsunamis that villages in Japan were flooded, just to give you an idea of how strong the quakes and subsequent tsunami was afterwards. Even FEMA says that , with everything they are doing to prepare, there is no way that they can be completely prepared for a quake of this size.
Very true, Yvonne. I do always have some water in my car but that's mainly on my trip to my daughter's with Pickles. If I break down on Pacheco Pass, there is nothing to even walk to, so I do have water and a small water bowl for Pickles. I'm sure a tow company wouldn't take too long to reach me but it gets hot here.
Incidentally, that West Valley Fault which lies in the western part of Metro Manila is up north from our town. I don't want to be an alarmist for we have been residing here since 2001 and we own this home so it's not that easy to move. Oldtimers here say that there are "invisible" tremors which shake the ground once in a while. You can see it by the leaning fences and cracked floors. In fact, our fence was leaning dangerously so we had it torn down and had built a new one sometime in 2008. There are also cracks in our driveway which was rebuilt in 2006. The concrete part of our backyard needs an overhaul with the big cracks. It is ordinary to see a leaning fence or gate and it is also common to hear complaints of cracked flooring. Even some roads here have cracks. Fortunately, our house is still intact and I hope it would not develop big cracks that would need repair.
Fortunately, I don't live in an earthquake area. We have tornado's instead. I think earthquakes would be terrifying.
I think anything can be terrifying if you're right in the middle of it. Or you're in shock and don't react, thankfully I've only experienced minor earthquakes and only tornado warnings where we had to go to a crawlspace because we didn't have a basement.
It its always best to have a plan and /or know what t do in case of an emergency. Drills are good (in case it happens next month).