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First national earthquake
evacuation drill today
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The National
Emergency Commission will hold today, at
10 a.m., the first national earthquake
evacuation drill.
The drill is a
practical exercise where an emergency or
earthquake disaster will be represented
as close to what it would be like in
reality. It will test the ability of
authorities and the general public to
react to evacuate to a safe place.
"Costa Rica is a
country registering earthquakes very
often, due to the proximity of tectonic
plates, so it cannot be dismissed that
there could be a strong earthquake that
affects the capital at any time," said
the Commission in its statement.
For example, the city
of San José is one of the most critical
places to evaluate in the simulation,
since it is the most important urban
center of the country, with the majority
of the population, commercial buildings,
and public institutions residing there.
In the drill, the
Commission will process the prevention
plans, the quality of construction, the
response of the work centers or
facilities and the population to seismic
events, as well as public information
will be reviewed.
The goal of the drill
is "to strengthen the response capacity
of a disaster emergency as planning
anticipated actions in a scenario," said
the Commission in its statement.
Except for Social
Security institutions, all public
institutions will be subject to this
simulation. At 10 a.m., government
employees and private companies, as well
as students, will be participating in
the practice and leaving buildings to go
to the areas previously defined in the
evacuation plan.
The Commission also
calls on the entire country, to join the
drill and create their evacuation plans
in their homes or workplaces.
A SimulacroCR
application was created for people to
report their evacuation plans, as well
as enabling the site SimulacroCR here*,
in Spanish, to resolve issues.
Related to the most
recent earthquakes of significant
magnitude, as A.M. Costa Rica previously
reported, on August 6th at 3:14 p.m., a
5.1 magnitude earthquake hit the
northern zone of the country.
The epicenter
location was 4 km south of Venecia in San Carlos*,
with a depth of 109 km.
"The main earthquake
and the sequence of aftershocks were
caused by the subduction of the Coco
plate under the Caribbean plate," said
the National Vulcanology Observatory in
its statement.
According to the U.S.
Geological Survey, the Caribbean-Coco
plate is a mostly oceanic tectonic plate
underlying Central America and the
Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of
South America.
On June 25th at 11:23
p.m., a magnitude 6.5 Panama earthquake
hits the southern area in Costa Rica.
The earthquake
epicenter was registered 5km SE of
Gariche in Puerto Armuelles*
in Panama, at a depth of 26.2 km,
according to the National Seismological
Network.
More than 290
aftershocks were detected during the
first 24 hours. The origin of this
earthquake was also the Coco–Caribbean
plate.
According to Marino
Protti, of the National
Vulcanology Observatory, the
Coco–Caribbean plate is one of the most
active areas of the country.
Historically, earthquakes of magnitudes
7.0 have been generated, such as the
Cobano earthquake of March 25th, 1990.
Are national
emergency drills common in your country?
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to know your thoughts on this story.
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