DRILL IS OPEN TO ALL MARYLANDERS TO PRACTICE EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS REISTERSTOWN, Md. (October 14, 2015) \u2014 Do most Marylanders know what to do if our area was hit by a significant earthquake? The Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) is encouraging residents to participate in the Great SouthEast ShakeOut tomorrow in order to learn proper earthquake preparedness and safety techniques. Held annually on the third Thursday of October, the ShakeOut is set for Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 10:15 a.m.<\/p>\n
During the self-\u00adled drill, participants practice how to \u201cDrop, Cover, and Hold On\u201d. Endorsed by emergency officials and first responders, the safe response to an earthquake is to:<\/p>\n
Many people in the east coast of the United States may not be accustomed to earthquakes and may not know the appropriate safety protocols. In 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Virginia was felt in areas of Maryland and some residents were not aware of what actions to take. A 2.2 magnitude earthquake also occurred in Anne Arundel County, Md. earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough Maryland doesn\u2019t experience frequent, high\u00ad-magnitude earthquakes, we have felt a couple in the last few years,\u201d said Russ Strickland, Executive Director of MEMA. \u201cIt is important to know what to do when you feel the earth shake in order to reduce the chances of injury.\u201dThe ShakeOut drill is free and open-\u00adto-\u00adthe-\u00adpublic, and participants include individuals, schools, businesses, government agencies, and many other groups. To take part in the ShakeOut, individuals and organizations are asked to sign up to participate in the drill\u00a0by visiting www.shakeout.org<\/a>. More than 230,000 people are registered to participate in Maryland.<\/p>\n For more information about emergency preparedness, please visit our website at mema.maryland.gov, Twitter\u00a0feed @MDMEMA<\/a>, Facebook\u00a0page<\/a>\u00a0 and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n NOTE TO MEDIA: For information about Maryland participants in the drill, please visit www.shakeout.org\/southeast and click on the Maryland icon on the map. Please contact participating organizations directly if you want to do a story about their participation. The Maryland Center for School Safety, Maryland State Fire Marshal, Maryland State Department of Education, and MEMA are coordinating efforts for the Great SouthEast ShakeOut<\/p>\n ***An audio version of this press release is here: https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/mdmema\/press-release-great-shakeout<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DRILL IS OPEN TO ALL MARYLANDERS TO PRACTICE EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS REISTERSTOWN, Md. (October 14, 2015) \u2014 Do most Marylanders know what to do if our area was hit by a significant earthquake? The Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) is encouraging residents to participate in the Great SouthEast ShakeOut tomorrow in order to learn proper earthquake Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events-2","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t