En An earthquake and tsunami drill was carried out in Iquique scheduled for Thursday (27.9.2018) along the entire coastal edge of the regional capital of Tarapacá (northern Chile).
It was an activity organized by the National Emergency Office of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security (ONEMI) with the participation of Customs and the public services of Tarapacá plus the population.
It took four minutes to evacuate the building of the Regional Customs Directorate. Meanwhile, the arrival at the security zone registered an average of 17 minutes and is inserted between the best times recorded.
Alert methodology
The exercise began at 11.26:XNUMX a.m. with the activation of the audible alarms of the emergency services, after which the order was given to evacuate to safe zones by text messages and hornsRegional authorities estimated that 75 people participated in the event.
In this regard, the Regional Director of the Iquique Customs Office, Dennys Beltrand Santos, highlighted the commitment and participation of the officials, as well as the understanding of the users who at that time were carrying out different procedures in the regional offices and joined the evacuation. "In addition to the head office, our officials from the Free Zone, port, airport and El Loa outpost also participated in the day", said the Customs director.
Meanwhile, the security officer and coordinator of the activity at Customs, Eduardo Olmedo, said that monitors were enabled per floor, "whose mission was to guide the evacuation to a safe area. In total 70 officials, 2 trainees, 3 cleaning assistants, a security guard and two dogs participated.".
Prevention and evaluation
The mayor of Tarapacá, Miguel Angel Quezada, highlighted the participation of the regional community. "The important thing about these exercises is to put Test our preparation, the technology we have and identify the aspects to improve. But above all, we are concerned about the families on the coast, which is why their willingness to take part in these types of exercises and their knowledge in the event of an emergency is remarkable," said the regional chief authority, who evacuated from the Cavancha roundabout to a safe area.
Meanwhile, the National Director of ONEMI, Ricardo Toro, stressed that "this exercise is important for the population to stay informed about this type of evacuation, in order to be able to face a threat such as an earthquake with subsequent tsunami. On the other hand, we continue to emphasize the importance of Importance of having an emergency kit, since the elements that compose it will help to face the first hours after an emergency occurs."
Once the evacuation was completed, Mayor Quezada received a phone call from the Vice President of the Republic, Andrés Chadwick, whom he informed about the characteristics with which the drill was being developed in Tarapacá and the broad participation of students and volunteers in this important preventive exercise.
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