What number should you dial?

Working on Living Abroad’s Content team means that I watch and read news with our globally mobile users in mind. Recently, I saw a story that introduced me to a brand new situation where the International Relocation Center is valuable.

A family was vacationing in Lisbon, Portugal when the elevator they were riding in stopped abruptly. They pushed the emergency button in the elevator, but this led to a person who thought he was being prank called.

The family decided to use their cell phone to contact first responders, and called the number for emergency services in their home country, the United States: 911.

As a result, the call went to Lisbon, Maine, USA.

Thankfully the American dispatcher was able to contact authorities in Portugal’s Lisbon to get the family freed from the elevator. (You can watch the story here.)

In Living Abroad’s International Relocation Center (IRC), each country’s emergency services telephone number — for example, 112 in Portugal — is included in its report. This means help is always just two taps away from the front page:

Health and safety > In case of emergency

Can’t always get a signal? The “In case of emergency” article can also be added to a custom print report, which can be saved as a PDF on your smartphone.

Whatever your needs are in a new destination — even when the elevator stops — the IRC has got you covered.

Written by Erin Fitzgerald, GMS, International Content Manager