Nepal and Bhutan team up for seismic contingency

Residents of the Bhutan capital recently woke up to sirens blaring, roadblocks, all three of the city’s bridges across the Thimphu Chu closed, and ambulances and fire engines rushing about. Those who had not paid attention to notices by the authorities could be forgiven for thinking this was a real disaster.
And that was the whole point of it. The mock exercises included simulated house collapses and building fires to test both information flow, coordination, and decision-making for search and rescue after a high-intensity earthquake.

On hand to design and conduct the simulations were engineers and seismic experts from the National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) – Nepal which has wide experience in disaster preparedness and retrofitting projects back home.