It is now July 18, 8:46am. 8 hours and 46 minutes without an intensity 8.1 tremor felt. For the alarmists, not to worry, though. We still have several hours of the day left to panic.
The Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has done its best to assure people that the prediction by that Brazilian (?) guy is a hoax and that we have nothing to worry about. However, since the Philippines is located on the "ring of fire" it doesn't hurt to be prepared for the eventuality of an earthquake anyway.
Here are the facts:
- every single day, we experience slight tremors. We are just so used to them we don't even notice them anymore. It seems to me that it takes an intensity 5 earthquake for us to even notice and even then, we still turn to the person beside us and go, "Was that an earthquake?"
- Over the passed few weeks leading up to today, we have been experiencing noticeable earthquakes fairly regularly ranging from intensity 3 to 5.1, as reported by PHIVOLCS to the newspapers.
- People close to the ground would be oblivious to the minor quakes, while those in high rise buildings would notice every little shiver.
- Not all high rise shivers are earthquakes. Modern buildings here in Manila are built with rollers in the foundation and flexible skeletons to prevent the buildings from collapsing or breaking in half in the event of an earthquake and further injuring people. This means that if we have a very bad storm (torrential rains and super strong winds) then definitely, the building will sway. It's not an earthquake.
My dad sent us (family and friends) this excerpt from an article of
Doug Copp called
"The Triangle of Life" which basically speaks of earthquake safety regulations and precautions. And since I am not an internet newbie, I did go around (online, of course) to check out who this Doug Copp really is, if he is a real person, and if such an organization as ARTI really exists.
There were quite a few sites that spoke against him and the article, of which these are on the first page in the search results:
My personal thoughts on the matter ... it never hurts to be prepared. So read what you can about earthquake preparedness and just do what you can to survive (hopefully) unscathed when disaster strikes.
The Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has done its best to assure people that the prediction by that Brazilian (?) guy is a hoax and that we have nothing to worry about. 
