Preparing for Earthquakes in Medellín: Evacuation Exercise and Assessment of Capacities

2023-08-22 12:07:54

After the recent earthquakes registered in the country and as part of the preparation work led by the Administration with the Dagrd, a District earthquake evacuation exercise will be held this Wednesday, August 23.

The activity will take place at 11:00 am this Wednesday and the participation of different entities, both public and private, educational institutions, residential units and the community in general is expected.

“From the Dagrd and the Official Medellin Fire Department we are attentive to indicate, guide, educate and provide technical advice on everything related to this type of exercise. Remember that in the face of these events, it is not the strongest who survives, but the most prepared,” said Laura Duarte, director of Dagrd.

The objective is to evaluate the capacities in the different sectors in the face of this type of event, review evacuation routes, signage, risk management plans, meeting points, among others. For this, in addition, the District will have all its installed capacity with the Dagrd, its technical and social teams of the sub-directors of knowledge and management.

Additionally, crews from the Medellín Official Fire Department will be activated at strategic points in the city such as the District Administrative Center.

This type of exercise will serve as preparation for an earthquake drill to be held in the District in October.

Medellín is located in an intermediate threat zone for earthquakes, which translates into moderate probabilities of the occurrence of a telluric movement. If it happens, the impacts would be related to the quality of the constructions.

Is Medellín prepared for a big earthquake?

After the recent events that have occurred in the country, that is the big question that citizens are asking themselves. The first thing is to try to determine how likely it is that Medellín will face a major earthquake.

According to Professor Albeiro Rendón, attached to the Department of Geosciences and Environment, for several years they have been investigating “what faults near Medellín can produce an earthquake, and we have identified some that are being worked on to do specific work, for example in In western Antioquia, specifically in the area between Santafé de Antioquia, Olaya, Liborina and Sabanalarga, we have found fault systems associated with the Cauca River canyon that are potential earthquake generators. Even studies from the 70’s initially contracted for the hydroelectric plants that were planned in the area, raised that possibility”.

According to the researcher, according to the preliminary information available, it might be said “that there are faults very close to Medellín, which might generate an earthquake. We are behind the telluric movements that are key, to know what is the most probable magnitude? How often can it be repeated? And when did the last one occur? Those three pieces of information are very transcendental”.

What Rendón explains is that there is “another fault that we are trying to investigate located in the municipality of San Jerónimo, it comes through the township of San Antonio de Prado and passes through the western tunnel, according to geological studies it has indications of having moved in the last 10 a thousand years. This data indicates that there is a probability of faults near Medellín that can generate a large-scale earthquake.

It is necessary to understand that it is difficult to obtain seismic data from 10,000 years ago, it is only possible from the interpretation of aerial photographs and satellite images in which the features or indications of faults in the landscape are identified, as well as the behavior of the rivers and other elements that allow, with the support of information systems, to arrive at the dating.

The big problem in this possible scenario, says Rendón, is that the city’s construction regulations do not offer guarantees. “With all certainty in the city there are many buildings that for some reason, even having the seismic-resistant design adjusted to the norm, were not built following that code and there was no institutional monitoring of the works, we will realize how well or how badly They are there when an earthquake occurs.

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