After tremor, Costa Mar confronts its emergency preparedness gap

The tremor lasted eight seconds. At 14:23 local time on 21 June, a magnitude 4.1 earthquake centered in the offshore trench west of the peninsula rattled buildings from Puerto Azul to the southern fishing villages. No one was killed. Damage was minimal—a few cracked walls, some toppled shelves in a market in Bahía Perdida. But in those eight seconds, a fragility became visible.

In the northern beach towns, the tremor triggered evacuation alarms at the three largest lodges. Guests and staff moved to designated assembly areas within minutes. In the south, at smaller properties and in the fishing villages, there were no alarms. Some residents felt the tremor and moved to doorways or open ground out of habit. Others did not move at all.

Governor Solomon Adeyemi convened an emergency session of the Regional Assembly's Public Safety Committee on 24 June to review the region's earthquake and tsunami protocols. The session, held in closed session, revealed what local officials have long known but have not publicly prioritized: coastal warning systems are incomplete, evacuation routes in remote areas are poorly marked, and training exercises have been sporadic.