Those who live in Chile, Mexico or Japan know that an earthquake is likely to happen. The truth is that there are earthquakes everyday around the world and once per year there is a great earthquake somewhere, according to IRIS geological research. With this frequency it is always useful to be informed about what to do to survive an earthquake.
It is important to know how to protect ourselves from an earthquake. Also, how to find our friends to see if they are safe during an earthquake. The preparation is worth if we also get ready for a natural distaster like a volcano eruption or a flood.
There are plenty of apps that are great tools to survive an earthquake and to locate friends and relatives. We have tested many of them and we have shortlisted the best ones to navigate in the case of an emergency.
Get informed to survive an earthquake
One of the most reliable sources to know if an earthquake is happening near us, in the case we have not felt anything yet, is the app EC Report. It is a comprehensible news feed with information of all the earthquakes happening in the world. It takes information from different reporting agencies. It is supported by the non-profit organization SOS Earthquake.
Experts can predict times of more common earth movements, however they usually shake suddenly. One of the advantages of being notified with the navigation EC Report is that it informs users about where exactly the earthquake is happening. It also tells us what magnitude it is and how to be ready for the replicas that follow the earthquake, which can be devastating.
EC Report works as a great tool to survive an earthquake. It comes with navigation features that geolocate us to have information about the area in which we are. It also displays useful news such as escape routes from the city, state of the roads, water or electricity supply.
Users can notify when a seismic event is happening using the button ‘I felt it ‘. It is free and available for iOS and Android and has a desktop version.
Locate your family in an earthquake
One of the biggest concerns we have when we are immersed in a natural disaster like an earthquake is to locate our family. For this reason the best solution is to have a real time geolocation application such as Wave Application.
Wave has a powerful navigation system that locates family and friends. It enables users to share their location in real time with their loved ones on a private map. People can track their friends and stay connected at any time and know where the others are.
It is great to rescue someone and to let other know our location to survive an earthquake. In addition to sending the position it is possible to set a meeting point on the map that is visible to all and navigate to the desired destination. We can also select any of the users and navigate to them, knowing how long it would take us to get there.
On Wave we can select a session for a limited period on time such as 15 minutes or choose the unlimited waves that runs until we stop them, this last one is the perfect tool to use to survive an earthquake.
Prepare yourself to survive an earthquake
Those of us who live in an area with a long tradition of seismic movements such as Central America or Southeast Asia are more aware than anyone that it is necessary to know how to survive an earthquake. That is why SAS Survival Guide app is one of the must-have navigation apps that we should have installed if we live or travel to areas with earthquakes.
This navigation and guide presents in a simple and practical way tips to get ready for a natural disaster. It takes the experience of the elite training techniques of Britain’s toughest fighting force. It is a great way to be calm if something happens as we are ready to deal with it.
Once the event occur, the application displays a list of tips to survive an earthquake that reply our most frequent questions such as where to take shelter? Is it better to be under a lintel of a door or under a table? Do we stay at home or do we go out on the street? All of them are answered by earthquake geologists and emergency experts.
For the more adventurous ones, besides instructing us it has a quiz to see how much knowledge we have learned. It is free and available for Android and iOS.
Rely on your neighbour during and earthquake
If something has happened near us, our neighbor would also have felt it and is the closest person we have to help us. Next Door is a social network app designed to be used in small communities and neighborhoods.
This app was born as a way to help neighbors in their daily routine, however, it soon proved to be a powerful security tool. As the Daily Mail newspaper points out, a family in Houston, Texas, used Next Door app to ask their neighbors for help over the Hurricane Harvey. One of the neighbours came to rescue them in a canoe.
The application is now available in the US and it is expanding its service throughout the world. It is free and available for iOS and Android.
Pablo Clemente Pérez 