A Peruvian radio newscaster went viral on social media for maintaining complete calm as an earthquake struck Peru on Thursday afternoon.
Peru was struck by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake at around 01:00p.m. (local time), with its epicenter about 31 kilometers northwest of the small town of Aniso, Ayacucho, per to the U.S. Geological Survey.
According to information reportedly disclosed by the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP), which initially reported the seismic event at a magnitude 7.2, the earthquake left no known deaths, at least three injured, and caused damages to dozens of structures, including households, schools, and healthcare centers. Per the BBC, while the tremor could be felt inside buildings and households, it is not expected to lead to grave damages due to its depth of origin.
USGS
Katyusca Torres Aybar, a journalist and news broadcaster at Peru’s Exitosa 95.5 FM, was broadcasting inside the radio station building’s sixth floor in Lima when the earthquake struck. Video footage published by the radio station shows Torres Aybar in a complete state of calm and serenity as the earthquake struck — calling upon Peruvians to keep calm during the seismic event. She continued the broadcast by reminding her listeners to keep an emergency backpack ready.
“We talk about this every day here at Exitosa. Please, let’s stay calm. We ask the public to put into action what they’ve already prepared,” Torres Aybar said. “Of course, and here we have the emergency backpack. Everything is already returning to normal, please.”
The video also shows Torres Aybar holding up one such emergency backpack, unpacking a portable radio from it as guests of the radio station left the studio.
“We understand that the guests are, of course, leaving to ensure their safety,” she noted.
The journalist stressed that past experiences with earthquakes “must demonstrate that we have to be calm and that the most important is to give security to all the population that is connected through radio.”
Lastly, Torres Aybar showed the radio she had previously unpacked and stated, “the radio station that will keep you informed 24 hours a day, live here on Radio Exitosa.”
Thursday’s earthquake was not the first time that an earthquake struck Peru while Katyusca Torres Aybar was in the middle of a broadcast. Hours after the earthquake, Radio Exitosa published a video montage showing the Peruvian journalist maintaining calm during past earthquakes in 2021 and 2025.
Torres Aybar provided further details and context on the emergency backpack she presented during the earthquake in a Thursday night interview with the Latin American news channel DNews.
The journalist explained that Peru’s Geophysical Institute regularly updates a projection based on historical seismic activity that states it has been 52 years since Peru suffered a magnitude 8.2 earthquake. As such, she detailed, all Peruvians are on alert that a similar earthquake could occur this year or the next one — emphasizing that it is simply a “projection.”
As such, Torres Aybar said, Peru has a campaign calling for its citizens to have an emergency backpack with adequate survival supplies ready ask Peru is both vulnerable to earthquakes and suffers “informal construction” issues. The Peruvian journalist explained that eight out of ten homes in Peru are built informally.
“That means that if there were a magnitude 8.0 earthquake here in Lima, everything would collapse, everything would be destroyed, and the public is aware of this,” she said. “That’s why we always talk about the emergency backpack on the show — it’s part of the campaign we’re running in partnership with INDECI [Peru’s National Institute of Civil Defense].”
“The backpack needs to have food, blankets, and medicine. It has to have all of that. And that’s what I show first, a battery-powered radio, right?” Torres Aybar told DNews, and pointed to Spain’s nationwide 2025 blackout as an example of its importance.
“But a battery-powered radio, the radio never turns off, and it’s the main source of information,” Torres Aybar stressed.
Radio Programas del Peru detailed on Friday that the INDECI emergency backpack plan suggests the packs must contain water and non-perishable food; a first aid kit; a portable battery-operated radio; flashlight; spare batteries; a whistle; personal hygiene items; and personal identification documents and cash in a sealed, waterproof bag.
The U.S. Geological Survey, the Geophysical Institute of Peru, and other international institutions have repeatedly warned that there is presently no scientific method that can accurately predict earthquakes.
“We do not know how, and we do not expect to know how any time in the foreseeable future. USGS scientists can only calculate the probability that a significant earthquake will occur (shown on our hazard mapping) in a specific area within a certain number of years,” the USGS states on its website.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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