Alaska Earthquake and A New Travel Worry

On Monday, a 7.9 earthquake prompted evacuations and a tsunami warning in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. The area made it through with no fatalities and no major damage, but the news reports about this latest Alaska earthquake got me thinking. My life is essentially a series of long, slow visits to unfamiliar places. Usually, I don't have a very good grasp of the local language, local customs or....wait for it...what the heck I'm to do in case of an emergency!!!!!

Deb and I recently spent an entire month living on a remote, sandy spit of Costa Rican beach. The area is certainly not immune to seismic activity, and could easily be wiped from this earth (people and all) by an earthquake or a tsunami. There were no emergency sirens installed, no viable escape route except for a single miles-long dirt road so rife with rocks and potholes that driving upward of 20mph would certainly result in the death of you and destruction of the vehicle you were driving. The police department consisted of two very small men who rode together on one small, sputtering motorcycle as they patrolled their sleepy territory. The police 'station' was located several miles away down the aforementioned dirt road and I doubt very much they would have been much help in an actual emergency. We had no cell phone service, and had contact information for only two of the locals living along the same beach. Our house was  in a thick patch of jungle off the main road, and, from that vantage point, we would be oblivious to the sight of Playa Zancudo locals evacuation attempts. Oh, we also had no car and there was no bus service or taxis to be found. Thankfully, there were no emergencies, and the earthquakes we did experience were quite small, but what a mess it could have been.

We now find ourselves in the equally volcanic land of Ecuador. We're not currently anywhere near the coast- we are actually at an elevation of 8500 feet, so tsunamis will be no issue for us, but earthquakes are still the norm here. I realize I have no idea what to do if the city of Cuenca suddenly starts rocking and rolling from an earthquake, even if it turns out to be smaller than the Alaska earthquake. Or if there are other emergency concerns here like flooding, mudslides, and nasty storms. Where do we go for safety? We live in a house built a couple of hundred years ago, so I don't know if the old 'stand in a doorway during an earthquake' trick applies. Where are the evacuation routes? Are there emergency shelter locations?? How do I say 'emergency shelter' in Spanish??? Do public buses still run in an emergency?? I don't even know the Ecuadorian equivalent to calling '9-1-1'. Is there even an equivalent? I saw an ambulance here once, so there must be something, right? Right?
Thankfully, our current living arrangement has us sharing a colonial family complex with 4 locals, and at least one of them seems to be home at all times, so we'll follow their lead if something crazy starts happening.

Ultimately, preparing for an emergency in an unfamiliar land is something I really need to add to my To Do List. Evacuation routes, emergency phone numbers, directions to where we are staying (in the local language, of course) are all things I need to note while hoping like hell I never need to use them. Maybe it's a good idea for all of us to do.

Click the US Geological Survey's video below to learn about a bigger, scarier Alaska earthquake from 1964.