Trevor Laffan: Shaken from my slumber, my phone flashed ‘EARTHQUAKE’!

On our way home from Cyprus a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I stopped off in Rhodes in Greece for a few days.

We hadn’t been there before and as there is a direct flight to Cork from that part of the world, we decided to give it a bash.

We booked a small hotel in Faliraki, right in the heart of the town and it was very pleasant. Similar in many ways to Cyprus so were very much at home. Nice weather, friendly people, heat on the bones, and a beach nearby, what’s not to like?

Well, how about an earthquake?

On Monday evening, June 2, we went out for a meal and a few drinks on a balmy night. We got back to the hotel early and hit the hay about 10.30pm. Not a care in the world.

That all changed at about 2.20am when we woke from a deep sleep to a thunderous noise. The building was vibrating. The windows and doors were rattling, and the bed was shaking.

My immediate thought was that part of the building had collapsed, or something had crashed onto the roof. I was totally disoriented

My phone was on the bedside locker, and it was sounding an alarm. The screen had turned red and when I picked it up, I saw the word ‘Earthquake flashing across it, and that was when I realised what was happening.

The whole episode ended as quickly as it began, but it was my first experience of an earthquake, and it wasn’t pleasant.

My wife, Gaye, struggled to get back to sleep afterwards because she was nervous about after-shocks.

The following morning, the media outlets were reporting more or less the same thing: “At around 02.30am, Rhodes was hit by a mega 6.2-scale earthquake, while Turkey was also rocked by the quake that caused 70 people to jump from buildings, leaving a 14-year-old dead.

“The powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck 16 miles from Rhodes, Greece. The tremor was felt across parts of Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Greece, and several other countries in the region. Most of the injuries were caused by people panicking and jumping from buildings as hotels in Rhodes and Turkey swayed and shook really violently.”

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) estimated the magnitude at 6.0R, with an epicentre 19 kilometres north of Rhodes.

Immediately after the earthquake, both the Fire Department of Rhodes and the civil protection teams of the Municipality of Rhodes and the South Aegean Region were placed on high alert.

So, it was a serious event, but the thing that spooked me the most was the alarm on the phone. It seemed to add another layer of urgency to the situation.

This alarm was very specific. It displayed a drawing of a matchstick man on all fours going under a table, which was of little help to me in our little hotel room because we didn’t have a table.

Then it said to go outside and wear your shoes, even if you are just going to another room.

I had absolutely no idea what the protocol was, but I could hear voices on the other balconies, so there was no immediate stampede out onto the street.

But then I wondered about the wisdom of going out there anyway. Being surrounded by other damaged buildings might not be the safest place to be.

The phone was also advising me to leave and had warned of possible aftershocks and, in some cases, the possibility of a tsunami, so it was all very confusing.

The following morning, everyone was talking about the event. I discovered the night porter hadn’t wasted any time in clearing off when he felt the quake. He had experienced several of these previously and wasn’t hanging around. That made me doubt the wisdom of my decision to stay put.

In the cold light of day, when the panic was over, I thought about the alarm on my phone. I didn’t know it was there. I had never downloaded an earthquake warning app or never signed up to anything to do with earthquakes because they were never on my radar.

So, I searched my phone and found it.

Maybe some of you already know this, but if you go into your settings on an android phone and scroll down, you will see a heading ‘Safety and Emergency.’ Not sure if it works with the iPhone.

It says, ‘Medical info - wireless emergency alerts’ and when you click on that you will find ‘Earthquake alerts’.

There you will see a symbol resembling a light bulb and it says, ‘See a demo’. The demo sounds the alarm as you would hear it during an actual earthquake, and it also gives advice on what to do in such an emergency. When you do hear it, you won’t get a lot of time to think about your next move so it’s no harm to be a little prepared.

The advice from most experts seems to be the same; Drop, cover, and hold on.

• DROP down onto your hands and knees immediately. This position protects you from falling but still allows you to move if necessary.
• COVER your head and neck (and your entire body if possible) underneath a sturdy table or desk. If there is no shelter nearby, get down near an interior wall or next to low-lying furniture that won’t fall on you, and cover your head and neck with your arms and hands. Try to stay clear of windows or glass that could shatter or objects that could fall on you.
• HOLD ON to your shelter (or to your head and neck) until the shaking stops. Be prepared to move with your shelter if the shaking shifts it around.

Alternatively, just stick to places that don’t experience earthquakes.