Before An Earthquake Hits The West Coast, This App Will Warn You

(CTN News) – MyShake was used by thousands of California residents to alert them of the magnitude 5.1 earthquake that struck the Bay Area on Tuesday.

USGS and California Office of Emergency Management officials say the Berkeley Seismology Lab app alerted 95,000 devices up to 18 seconds before the earthquake, advising them to “drop, cover, and hold on.”

A recent alert prompted over 2 million people to sign up for the app, according to its data page.

MyShake can be downloaded by anyone, but it is only fully operational in California, Oregon, and Washington. Regardless of whether your phone is on “Do Not Disturb,” you will receive alerts if an earthquake of 3.5 magnitude or greater is detected.

You can download and use it here.

Download the MyShake earthquake alert app from Apple’s App Store or Google Play if you have an Android phone.

• App opens.

• You will be asked if you want it to track your location and send you notifications and critical alerts. For notifications and alerts, select “Allow”.

• If you don’t allow MyShake to track your location, you’ll still receive emergency alerts.

• Decide whether you live in California, Oregon, or Washington.

• Using the app, you can see recent earthquakes, report earthquakes you experience, and learn safety techniques. These options are available by toggling through the options on the bottom menu of the app, which is horizontally positioned.

• A loud notification will be sent to your phone when an earthquake is about to occur. You will receive a message advising you to “drop, cover, and hold on,” giving you a few seconds’ warning to protect yourself.

Make sure your iPhone apps don’t uninstall automatically

When you notice an app you need uninstalled on your iPhone, it’s because there’s an option called “Offload Unused Apps” that automatically uninstalls apps you haven’t used in a while.

You might only need this app when you use it, so you should first turn off this option on your iPhone. You can disable this setting by following these steps.

Open Settings.

Select App Store.

Turn off the Offload Unused Apps option.

That’s it!

SEE ALSO:

SpO2 Sensor On Apple Watch May Be Better Than You Thought