Subscribing to Earthquake updates

March 4th, 2010 Posted in Sabah, bizzare, environment, global

: REUTERS/Victor Ruiz Caballero

Something bizzare that I did recently was to subscribe to the Malaysian Meteorolgogical Department’s SMS service for Earthquake updates. All you need to do is send the following message - on eq to 15888. You will get charged RM0.20 for every update. Lately I’ve been receiving an average of one update per day. The most I’ve received was two. It’s quite scary when the quake update is happening just around this region. This morning I received an update on the Taiwan quake.

What happenned in Haiti and Chile within a short span compounded by the series of smaller quakes all around has caused me to be alert. Although it’s relatively safe here but one can never know. I believe the devastation just like the one shown in the picture above will remind you that even the dead are not at peace. I wonder if it will have an effect on funeral cost in those area. Chile might have been more prepared than Haiti I think. The buildings there are sturdier than Haiti’s, that’s probably the reason why we don’t hear very high number of deaths in Chile. I wonder about our buildings here in Malaysia. We have not had major quakes just tremors. So perhaps I don’t mind paying RM0.20 for every earthquake update I receive, at least I will get a chance of survival.