The Big ShakeOut

Today is the The Great Southern California ShakeOut Drill to prepare for "the big one." We are participating in this at work. At work, I am on one of the emergency response teams. You never know when something will happen, whether it be a natural disaster or a shooting or any other emergency. We need to be prepared for an emergency.

Living in Southern California, I am acutely aware that we are due for "the big one," a really big earthquake. In fact according to Lucy Jones (the seismologist at Caltech) we are 40 years overdue! We experienced an earthquake over the summer, but the "the big one" is predicted to be a 7.8 magnitude, which is 5000 times larger than the 5.4 magnitude that we experienced in July. It is not about if but when it will actually happen. It is expected that utilities to be down for about 6 months, freeways to be closed, a loss of communication (we experienced a loss cell phone reception from the last earthquake), 2,000 deaths, 50,000 injuries, $200 billion in damage and other losses, and severe, long-lasting disruption. This really makes you think about the reality of this.

At work, we are prepared and have been training to prepare for any disaster. I am prepared with what I need to do at work and I kind of hope to be at work when if something were to happen because of how prepared we are. Actually it is better for kids to be at school if an disaster were to take place, since schools are more prepared than many households. So, I really need to think about getting my home prepared and think about how I can communicate with my family, especially if communications are down (like it was with the Chino Hills earthquake this summer). This website has a lot of great resources for earthquake preparedness and this one has info on making your own preparedness kit. I really need to get a kit together. Southern Californians really need to be prepared. we are due for that big one at any time. BE PREPARED!