A devastating earthquake in the Larnaca area will be the scenario of a Civil Defence exercise on Wednesday.
According to an official announcement, the Enceladus 2015 exercise will be carried out between 9am and 1pm and include the participation of representatives from 42 services.
“The aim of the exercise is to train, prepare and strengthen the readiness of the services and cooperation between them in handling a catastrophic earthquake,” the announcement said.
It noted there had been many earthworks in Cyprus’ history.
Some of which had almost destroyed entire towns. Many of these, the announcement noted, had also occurred on the south coast.
“The increase in population, the constriction of multi-level buildings, the storage and use of large quantities of dangerous materials and the modern way of life in general have made it imperative to take civil defence action to prevent and face a crisis,” the announcement said.
The exercise’s scenario will see the services cooperating to deal with multiple consequences of an earthquake including a large number of casualties, large scale technological damage and damage to Larnaca Airport, as well the collapse of buildings and resulting large numbers of people without shelter.
The exercise will be carried out in four parallel phases, the main part of which will be at the Civil Defence’s Multi-Service Coordination Centre in Larnaca.
More localised control centres will also be created to coordinate first and second response services, handle gas leaks and fires at fuel storage areas.
They will also coordinate keeping the airport functional and the creation of temporary housing.
in-cyprus.com
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