Earthquake Safety Tips

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On 15 July, 2009 at 9.22pm a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit just off the coast of New Zealand, where we live. According to the NZ Herald "It released the equivalent energy of 500 million tonnes of TNT, 25,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945." Here is the snapshot of the seismic map as of Wed Jul 15 12:09:30 GMT 2009. The larger the circle, the larger the earthquake. Also, the red (shows as deep purple here) is for today, orange yesterday, yellow past two weeks, and purple past 5 years. The map clearly outlines why they call the area around the Pacific Ocean the Pacific Ring of Fire. You can see the big circle on the Southern tip of New Zealand representing the Earthquake.

My Experience

I was motivated to write this after being in a 7.8 magnitude quake on July 15, 2009 - South Island, New Zealand

I was relaxing nearly asleep, when suddenly the house began to shake. Just a bit at first, then a bit more before I realized - EARTHQUAKE! I knew I needed to protect my kids in an earthquake so I ran down the hall and woke my children, shouting, "Get Up, Earthquake!" We ran out to the hallway and stood under the door frame as the house shook even more violently. Then, 40 seconds later, it stopped, as quickly as it began.

Here you will find information earthquake preparedness:  what you and your family can do now (before a quake), during a quake and after the earthquake. 

As for the big 7.8 magnitude quake in July: we survived, our house survived, somehow we even still had power (unlike many). We had knowledge and knew what to do, but this isn't our primary residence, so we were not as prepared as we should have been.