Prepare to be shaken, not stirred as a mobile earthquake simulator will visit Haines on Sept. 26, courtesy of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. It will be stationed near the Haines public safety building from about noon to 6 p.m.
The simulator, also called the “quake cottage,” is a mobile trailer that holds four people at a time and replicates the tremors of a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
“It’s quite a jarring event,” said the division’s public information officer Jeremy Zidek. “Once we have people shaken up we try to couple that with a safety message.”
The division teaches people to drop, cover and hold on: drop to the ground, find some cover to protect from falling objects and hold on to that cover until the shaking subsides.
Because the second most powerful earthquake ever recorded was in Alaska and the region is one of the most seismically active in the world, Zidek said it’s important that Alaskans know what to do and do it quickly in an earthquake.
Zidek said people get excited about going into the simulator, but they all come away saying, “Wow, that’s an intense experience.”
The division has been teaching Alaskans about earthquake safety with the current quake cottage since 2012, and with another simulator for 12 years before that. But this is the first time the simulator has made a trip to Southeast Alaska.
Haines is one of many stops on a monthlong tour to Skagway, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan and Prince of Wales, as well as Whitehorse, Haines Junction, Burwash Landing and Beaver Creek in Yukon.
Zidek said the quake cottage shook more than 2,000 people in Juneau and 700 to 800 people in Sitka. “We’ve had a really great turnout in all of the communities,” Zidek said. “We’re just really happy we were able to do this.”
Although disasters cannot be prevented, Zidek said the division can do its best to educate people about how to be prepared. He suggests Alaskans have an emergency kit with supplies and food to last for seven or more days.
“All of our communities are much more isolated than in the lower 48,” Zidek said. “There’s expectations that Alaskans need to be much more self-sufficient.”
Flashlights, batteries, radios, medications and a first aid kit are necessary for a preparedness kit, he said. Zidek also suggests that families have an emergency plan to reunite with relatives after a disaster.