The President of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, accompanied by the Vice President, José Gabriel Carrizo, joined the Panamanians who participated in the evacuation work during the development of the III Regional Simulation of Disaster Response and Humanitarian Assistance and the First Multi-threat. Using the corresponding evacuation protocols, both evacuated the Presidential Palace, in the midst of the red alert and the state of emergency approved by the earthquake of 7.5 on the Richter scale.
Units of the Institutional Protection Service worked to guide the Chief Executive, the Vice President and the servants of the Ministry of the Presidency, demonstrating their commitment to safety in the face of a hypothetical disaster scenario.
Meanwhile, in response to the international call made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 600 brigade members and soldiers from the delegations of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala arrived in the country to collaborate with Panama in the drill exercise, including rescue dogs. .
It was up to the Minister of Government, Roger Tejada, to receive the teams at the Panama Pacifico airport, accompanied by the director of the National Civil Protection System, Carlos Rumbo and the secretary of the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Disasters in Central America and Dominican Republic (Cepredenac), Claudia Herrera. The brigade members join the national rescuers who carry out work in the collapsed structures.
Meanwhile, as a result of the earthquake, there were two hydrocarbon spills in the Balboa area. The first caused a fire in one of the tanks at the POTSA Balboa Terminal. During the extinguishing work there was an overflow in the containment waterwheel, which was controlled by personnel from the Meritorious Fire Department of the Republic of Panama and POTSA, under the supervision of the Panama Maritime Authority.
Likewise, an alert call was received at Pier 7 of Balboa, of a spill coming from a line that was broken, after the earthquake. Due to the magnitude of the spill, the four companies dedicated to cleaning up and containing hydrocarbon spills had to be summoned.
The exercises of the III Regional Simulation of Response to Disasters and Humanitarian Assistance that takes place in our country are being evaluated by the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Disasters in Central America and the Dominican Republic, with the purpose of determining the capacities of the Systems National Civil Protection and Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management, Civil-Military relations with Humanitarian and Rescue Units.
