“You really don’t know when there’s going to be another significantly damaging earthquake, but we know it’s going to happen.”
First-grader Juan Sierra, 6, does “Drop, Cover and Hold” during an earthquake drill on ShakeOut Day on Thursday, October 17, 2019 at Stanley Mosk Elementary School in Winnetka. When some 10.4 million Californians “drop, cover and hold on” Thursday morning, the ground may not be shaking. But the drill will help ensure that participants are prepared for the next big earthquake the state faces.
“We saw bridges collapse, big hits to infrastructure, injuries and, unfortunately, loss of life,” said Derek Lambeth, the program manager in earthquake early warning for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. “With the big earthquake that is always possible, people should take solace that we have technology out here that can help and give us a heads up, and we’ve been building better as a state in general since those times.
“There are a lot of different reactions. People may be prone to panic,” said Ben Deci, senior media officer at the California Earthquake Authority. “ShakeOut is a chance for everybody to sort of practice in advance, to drill and to drill the right way.”“We would expect most buildings to withstand a large earthquake, but it’s unpredictable,” said Lambeth. “As things have gotten better with how we build and retro seismically fit, the doorways are now actually the weakest parts.
The state is also working on pilot projects in early alerts that do more than just notify, Lambeth said, such as opening bay doors for fire stations or alerting doctors in sensitive surgeries before the ground begins to shake.
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