The drill scenario involved a 186-mile rupture of the San Andreas Fault Zone (SAFZ) from the Salton Sea in eastern Riverside County to Lake Hughes in northern Los Angeles County which generated a Magnitude 7.8 earthquake which ultimately kills 2,000 people, injures 50,000 others, and causes in excess of $200 billion.
For my part I am always as ready for a major earthquake as I reasonably can be and I recently went through my supplies to update them.
The most interesting part of this drill this morning to me was listening to a couple of online scanner feeds over which I was able to listen to the fictitious damage and casualty reports on the fire department radio channels.
The folks on the radio did an incredible job of creating the feeling and reality of the immediate aftermath of a major earthquake.
Time and again there were references to well-known landmarks that were adversely affected from transportation infrastructure to schools to dwelling units to commercial structures to even fire stations and the like as well as major fires, fuel leaks, and HazMat situations.
They even had a scenario of a major bluff-top collapse at Portuguese Bend on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
I certainly hope this drill helped even a little bit in bestirring a complacent populace to even a little bit of action in becoming better prepared for this event when it actually does happen because it really will happen one day just as it really did happen the last time sometime in the 17th Century.
Today's scenario involves part of the SAFZ which ruptured in that quake as well as part of the SAFZ which ruptured in the Fort Tejon Quake of 1857 which ran from Central California into Southern California.
With that I ask you: Are you prepared?
Kimmer
It saddens me that no one in the midwest gives a good rat's arse about promoting this same type of drill here. Memphis sits on kilometers of Miocene sand and liquefaction is a certainty for the entire eastern quarter of Arkansas, the two county, western edge of West Tennessee, SE Missouri-north to the Benton Hills,the southern tip of Illinois, and western Kentucky. We've already had a series of quakes within historic time that today would utterly devastate the lives and property within these areas. And the good folks at CERI tell us that a large enough quake would flatten just about every structure between Memphis and St. Louis.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if I am cursed with the fate of Cassandra, as no one is listening. The Great SoCal Shakeout has taught me much about survival in such an event--ideas that I would not have had on my own had I not joined in. And if I have learned so much, then how much more does the general populace in my area lack in preparation for a large quake?
However, I want to congratulate you, Kimmer, for being the excellent leader who follows his convictions. You are one of those folks who made the Great Shakeout such a success. So, kudos for all of your time, your efforts, and your sense of responsibility. Although I admit to being a hopeless romantic where you and Krissa are concerned, I am also an admirer of anyone who displays that sense of Christian responsibility for one's fellow humans and also, the gumption to adhere to the truth, as much as humanly possible.
There... I said it. Now go kick some pseudo-science booty. Someone has to keep them on the straight and narrow and I cannot imagine a more eloquent writer than yourself crusading for what is real. :)
Wishing you two, always, the best that life can offer...
Lin