Quarteira will host a full-scale emergency exercise this Wednesday, 5 November, simulating an earthquake followed by a tsunami. The drill will see the activation of the seven sound towers installed across the parish, and local residents are encouraged to take part.
The initiative, “The Earth Shakes – National Public Awareness Exercise,” marks the World Tsunami Awareness Day and will begin at 11:05 am.
Once the siren system is activated with a tsunami alert message, residents are invited to proceed to the nearest Assembly Point; there are 13 located throughout the parish, following the clearly marked evacuation routes.
At each Assembly Point, a Municipal Civil Protection officer will be present to register participants. According to the local council, the main goal of the exercise is to engage as many people as possible while testing the response procedures of Civil Protection agencies and the municipal alert and warning system.
Everyone, individually or in groups, wherever they may be, is encouraged to participate.
The exercise will also test the three key safety actions recommended during an earthquake: “Drop, Cover, and Hold On.”
This initiative forms part of Portugal’s National Strategy for Preventive Civil Protection 2030, established by Council of Ministers Resolution No. 160/2017, and calls on municipalities to develop tsunami evacuation plans for coastal areas and install appropriate signage.
The World Tsunami Awareness Day was established in 2015 by the United Nations, following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 21st century, which affected 14 countries and claimed the lives of around 230,000 people.
