The V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency opened observance of Earthquake Awareness Week in the territory Monday with detailed presentations on the potential for a devastating earthquake in the Virgin Islands and on ways residents can best prepare for it.
Representatives of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network and a consultant engineer were among the presenters at the program held at the Renaissance Grand Beach Resort on St. Thomas.
St. Thomas/Water Island administrator Louis Hill, representing Gov. Charles Turnbull, urged Virgin Islanders to take seriously the experts' warnings about the potential for an earthquake in the region. Further, "we must learn from what other jurisdictions have done to protect their infrastructure from the ravaging effects," he said.
The territory should be "able to respond to the effects of an earthquake just as we do to the hurricanes," Hill added.
Christa Von-Hilldebrant Andrade, director of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, presented a slide show depicting the after-effects of earthquakes. She noted that an earthquake, or seismic tremor, is not a disaster but a natural phenomenon.
"It only becomes a disaster when a community and its leaders fail to plan, take action and raise awareness of its effects," she said.
Consulting engineer Tony Gibbs also made a slide presentation, his depicting key differences between structural and non-structural engineering faults in building construction.
Planners from virtually all areas of government attended Monday's program, the first of a series of activities throughout the week aimed at increasing seismic awareness in the territory. There will be an open house each day through Friday from noon to 1 p.m. at the Vitema offices on all three islands where the public can get further information about earthquake preparedness.
For further open house information, call the Vitema office on St. Thomas
(774-2244), on St. Croix (773-2244) or on St. John (776-6444).
