Residents of the Dominican Republic will take part in a large-scale national earthquake evacuation exercise across the country on the morning of September 8, 2026, top government officials have confirmed. Scheduled to kick off at 10:00 a.m. local time, the drill will draw participation from a wide range of groups, including public sector agencies, private sector organizations, educational institutions, civil society groups and ordinary citizens from every region of the country.
The official launch of the drill was announced jointly by three senior emergency and governance leaders: Andrés Bautista, Minister of the Presidency, Edwin Olivares, director of the Dominican Emergency Operations Center (COE), and Carlos Paulino, director of the country’s Civil Defense agency. The whole exercise was ordered by President Luis Abinader, with a core mission to reinforce the Dominican Republic’s national capacity for preparation, rapid response and post-disaster recovery when a large-scale seismic event hits.
To make the simulation as realistic as possible, authorities will activate multiple warning systems across the country during the drill. Sirens, whistles, and public loudspeakers will be triggered simultaneously to signal the start of the evacuation. Officials will also run a full test of the national public alert system, which will push an instant emergency notification to every registered mobile phone nationwide when the exercise begins.
Olivares emphasized that unlike many other natural disasters, earthquakes strike without any advance warning, meaning pre-event preparation and widespread public knowledge of basic self-protection steps are irreplaceable tools for cutting disaster risk and preventing avoidable deaths. This drill will give both emergency management teams and the general public a chance to walk through standardized evacuation procedures, while allowing officials to assess current response capabilities and spot gaps in the country’s existing disaster readiness framework that need adjustment.
Beyond individual evacuation routines, the drill will also put inter-agency coordination and rapid activation protocols for key emergency response institutions to the test. The goal is to ensure the Dominican Republic can mount an organized, effective response not just during the initial evacuation phase of a major earthquake, but also to address the cascading secondary consequences that often follow large seismic events.