Belize shook at 2:30 in the morning of May 28th. We felt a massive tremor from a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Belize and Honduras. It was the first major quake to affect Belize in 25 years – and it brought to the fore a latent danger that most of us never knew existed. So while we expect hurricanes and now, flash floods – no one quite expected the quake. That is why two experts from the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Center are in Belize. They are training personnel from the national emergency management organization in a workshop on earthquakes and tsunamis. We today found out why it is important.

Keith Swift Reporting,
The May 28th earthquake damaged homes in Monkey River, collapsed Independence Village’s water reservoir, cracked streets in Placencia, and……it caught emergency responders off guard.

Phillip Willoughby, Belize City DEMO Coordinator
“I would say for myself personally prior to the May 28th event and other tremors that we felt from neighbouring Guatemala and so, no I never thought that the time would have come that we would have to contend with earthquakes and tsunamis.”

Noreen Fairweather, NEMO Coordinator
“The last time Belize had any significant tremor was over 25 or so years ago so in terms of having these types of hazards happening in this country it had been rare and we had been sort of of the belief earthquakes won’t happen to us because the coast is swamp or that type of thing. Scientifically that is not true.”

According to earthquake expert Stacy Edwards, Belize is smack in the middle of what’s called the “Swan Fracture Fault” which is between the North American and Caribbean Plates.

Stacy Edwards, Earthquake Expert – UWI
“Even though they do not feel earthquakes here very often that Belize does lie in an area of seismic activity and so we can expect to get earthquakes. So the earthquake that occurred in May of this year was not a surprise. It is part of the normal activity of the earth and you can expect that Belize will get earthquakes in the future.”

Walter Salazar, Earthquake Expert – UWI
“Belize is affected by seismo-genic source which is called the Swan Fracture. The Swan Fracture is between the North American Plate and the Caribbean plate. We call it a left lateral strike plate, very technical maybe. The message is the earthquake of May, while not frequent, you should expect more in the future.”

Keith Swift,
“You serious?”

Walter Salazar,
“Yes I am serious because the length of the rupture, the length of the fault, that everybody knows, it can rupture 300 to 500 kilometres causing this kind of magnitude, this size.”

Keith Swift,
“How do tsunamis factor into this?”

Stacy Edwards,
“Well tsunamis are an effect of earthquakes. Tsunamis are triggered by an earthquake occurring in the ocean. Again you can get tsunamis occurring in Belize. Belize has had tsunamis before and my colleague Walter Salazar spoke a little about that yesterday. In geology once something has happened before it means it can happen again.”

The question now is when.

Stacy Edwards,
“You can’t predict an earthquake in terms of saying on this particular day and time it will occur but you can prepare for an earthquake by educating yourselves on what to expect, you can find out what kind of effects earthquakes can have and also how to protect yourselves.”

And that is the goal of the two day workshop at NEMO headquarters in Belmopan - to prepare Belize’s emergency responders for what they say is an inevitability: the big one.

Noreen Fairweather,
“It is a reality. It has been confirmed now as a reality. We felt the tremors, though we didn’t have the quake physically here, it was close enough for us to appreciate it is a reality.”

Stacy Edwards,
“They should know what to do during an earthquake and should take that very very seriously and should practice that knowledge through drills at home, at work, and at school. Make sure you don’t have vases or television sets on high shelves, make sure you don’t have pictures above your bed, make sure water heaters and that kind of thing is bolted to the walls so that those things don’t shift and move around and then of course you can have your first aid supplies.

Those are the kinds of preparation but the most important preparation really is equipping yourselves with the knowledge of what to do during an earthquake. Earthquakes and tsunamis are very very quick events. There will be no time, it is not like a hurricane when you have time to board up your house and get supplies and so forth. There is no time, you have to know how to respond automatically.”

Noreen Fairweather,
“The next time an earthquake or a tsunami or a tremor hits Belize, our people will be ready because that’s what we want to do.”

The workshop ended today.