SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) — Kassandra Castro woke up to a series of earthquakes shaking her El Centro home in the middle of the night.
“It was kind of scary because I was just in my room and all of a sudden I felt a small shake and then it got bigger and then I heard stuff falling,” said Castro.
Castro says her iPhone sent out a loud earthquake alarm as the quakes continued to rattle their home.
If you have an iPhone, you can activate earthquake alarms by turning on ‘emergency alerts’ in your settings under ‘notifications.’
For San Diegans, there is also an app called ‘SD Emergency’ that may give you a head’s up before a quake hits.
“If you have this and you are near an epicenter of an earthquake 4.5 or higher, chances are you’ll get a few seconds of warning before that shaking starts,” explained Jeff Toney, Director, Office of Emergency Services, County of San Diego.
ABC 10News spoke with Toney about the app last year.
“We did invest in that tool, it’s handy. I’ve seen it work in real time,” he said.
Users can see where quakes are happening in real time. And the app isn’t just for earthquakes. It also provides other important emergency and disaster-related information specific to your area.
“Everything in the palm of your hand: response information, preparedness information, it’s right there. So definitely download that to be prepared,” said Toney.
