{"id":65970,"date":"2014-08-06T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T07:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/65970\/earthquake-stay-calm-heres-how\/"},"modified":"2014-08-06T10:25:51","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T08:25:51","slug":"earthquake-stay-calm-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/news-headlines\/2014\/08\/06\/earthquake-stay-calm-heres-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Earthquake? Stay calm. Here&#8217;s how&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Parts of South Africa were literally shaken into a state of panic when an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale struck Orkney, in the North West Province, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Within a few moments social media sites were abuzz with users citing their experience, some of them 600km apart from each other.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>South Africa is not accustomed to earthquakes &#8212; we do experience tremors from time to time, but none of them cause any real damage or make national news.<\/p>\n<p>At 12.20pm on Tuesday, South Africans experienced what is believed to have been the second largest earthquake in 45 years.<\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>The Ceres earthquake in 1969 is reported to be the most destructive earthquake in South African history.<\/p>\n<p>It occurred on September 29, 1969, in the Ceres\/Tulbagh area and registered 6.3 on the Richter scale.<\/p>\n<p>It has been reported that Tuesday&#8217;s earthquake was felt as far as Botswana and Durban and lasted for approximately 90 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>According to ER24, emergency services always face a challenge with such an incident.<\/p>\n<p>When panic sets in, emergency contact centres should be prepared to handle more than normal the volume of emergency calls.<\/p>\n<p>On top of this, emergency services have to combine resources to ensure that they are ready for a possible influx of emergency calls.<\/p>\n<p>Questions that must be asked include: \u201cWhat infrastructure has been damaged?\u201d \u201cWill emergency resources be able to reach affected people?\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What should you do during an earthquake?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Stay calm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Try and stay where you are.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Use large and sturdy objects such as a big desk to crawl under.<\/p>\n<p>If you are in a building, try and stand with your back against a wall near the centre of the building.<\/p>\n<p>You should try and stay away from windows and outside doors.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Should you be outside at the time of an earthquake, look around you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ensure you are clear of power cables or anything overhead that might fall on you.<\/p>\n<p>Do not stand near or against a building, debris might fall on top of you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use the stairs to evacuate premises (only when it is safe to do so).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0<strong>What should you do after an earthquake?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Establish if you have sustained any injuries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Check around you and try to see if anyone else has sustained any injuries.<\/p>\n<p>If you can provide first aid, proceed to do so.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Call emergency services for medical assistance if someone sustained an injury.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If the building you are in sustained structural damage, even if you are unsure, evacuate calmly and quickly (if possible).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Try and listen to your local radio station for emergency or news updates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not enter any damaged buildings or areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>There might be debris lying around.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Be very careful around broken glass and other items that can cause you harm.<\/p>\n<p>Do not take off your shoes.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stay away from beaches until the area has been pronounced safe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If the area you are in has an evacuation or emergency plan, try to follow it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Expect aftershocks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>(Tips courtesy of ER24)<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"stream-item stream-item-below-post-content\">\n<div class='tenancy_slot tenancy_slot_1 jannah_ad' style='display: none;' data-query-id='edc71b273e6d98d3100757f3a52a11f6'><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What to do in the event of an earthquake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":65992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[4207,4209,1824,979,969,2734,4208],"class_list":["post-65970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-earthquake","tag-earthquake-tips","tag-er24","tag-germiston","tag-germiston-city-news","tag-melissa-hart","tag-tremor"],"amp_enabled":true,"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["earthquake","earthquake tips","ER24","germiston","germiston city news","melissa hart","tremor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}