The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) is today carrying out a public awareness exercise on seismic risk, entitled “The Earth Trembles”, which “aims to enable the population to know how to act in the event of an earthquake”.
The 12th edition of “A Terra Treme” will take place at 11:05 am “in collaboration with several public and private entities”, with registration open to the public on the website (www.aterratreme.pt).
Reinforcing its commitment to safety and preparedness for seismic risk, ANEPC explains that the exercise includes the gestures “lower, protect and wait”.
“The exercise involves carrying out three simple gestures that can make a difference to those who practice them in the event of an earthquake,” he highlights.
According to ANEPC, the “action takes place over a period of one minute, in which participants, individually or collectively (families, schools, companies, public, private or associative institutions), are invited to perform the three self-protection gestures: lower, protect and wait”.
The purpose of the exercise, says Civil Protection, is “to know what to do before, during and after an earthquake”, learning “the preventive measures and self-protection behaviors to adopt”.
Although the initiative has a national expression, ANEPC, in conjunction with the Directorate-General for Education (DGE) and the Directorate-General for School Establishments (DGEstE), promotes a main event of the exercise at the Dr. Garcia Domingues Basic School, in Silves.
At the end of the action there will be a exercise with movement of real resources on the ground, sectoral testing of the Special Emergency Plan Civil Protection for Seismic Risk and Tsunamis in the Algarve, in the area of search, assistance and rescue intervention in different scenarios in the municipalities of Portimão and Silves, in the Western Algarve.
“Over the course of successive editions, the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority has sought to broaden reflection and debate around the issue of seismic risk and knowledge about what to do before, during and after, […] particularly within the scope of the inclusion of people with disabilities”, he recalls.
Throughout the country, the Regional Emergency and Civil Protection Commands (CREPC) and the Sub-regional Emergency and Civil Protection Commands of ANEPC will promote, in partnership with local educational communities, firefighter associations, municipal civil protection services and other civil protection agents, awareness-raising actions on the subject of seismic risk and self-protection measures to face it, as well as carrying out the 'A Terra Treme' exercise.
As part of the National Strategy for Preventive Civil Protection, the ANEPC initiative, which this year coincides with World Tsunami Risk Awareness Day, aims to highlight “the importance of an informed and resilient society in the face of natural disasters”.
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