Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - As part of the actions that the State and Municipal Civil Protection Systems implement to foster a culture of prevention in Puerto Vallarta, various public and private agencies have been invited to participate in a large-scale evacuation simulation, with a hypothesis of a tsunami caused by an earthquake in the region, on Friday, May 6, 2016.

The deputy director of Civil Protection and Fire Department, Adrian Bobadilla García, reported that this exercise will be held at 10:00 am, when the evacuations of hotels and business establishments along the coastline of Puerto Vallarta will begin. The evacuations will be conducted in a vertical manner, evacuating those on lower floors to the upper parts of the buildings.

He explained that those working in other businesses, as well as state and local government agencies that are in the "danger" area but can not be evacuated to tall buildings, will be directed to venues that are at least 500 meters from the beach, which have been pre-selected by civil protection officers.

The municipal official said that, with the aim of promoting the importance of emergency evacuation procedures, in addition to these instances, shopping malls, businesses, housing developments and the population in general are being called upon to conduct an evacuation at 10:00 am on May 6.

"We want to encourage a culture of prevention. We do not know if or when there may be an earthquake in the region that causes a tsunami warning, and we need to know what to do," said the deputy. "We invite families to participate in the evacuation simulation by going outside to a point they deem safe, and to remain there for at least 10 minutes before re-entering their homes."

Bobadilla Garcia mentioned that various state and municipal agencies integrate the Emergency Operations Center (COE), where the emergency evacuation operations will be coordinated and monitored. This is also where the information provided by the players involved in the drill will be received and evaluated.

Finally, he noted that various business and neighborhood associations, as well as all three branches of government have held meetings to coordinate the May 6th macro-simulation, and reiterated the call for everyone to participate in the drill.