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CSULB prepares for future earthquakes

When senior biology major Joel Rago was asked if he would feel safe at Cal State Long Beach during a large earthquake, his reply was simple: “I feel rather safe, the walls seems pretty strong and big.” Rago admits not knowing about what kind of a shape the campus is in. Similarly, junior classics major Micah Lewis also admitted that he wouldn’t feel in danger in the event of an earthquake because, “I know nothing about infrastructure and what qualifies as good structure. I think judge-based on how things look, so if everything was made of wood and infested by termites, then I’d feel unsafe. It would take something like that.”

However, despite the perceived student confidence in CSULB’s infrastructure, it is been common knowledge for some time that a large, catastrophic earthquake will inevitably hit Southern California. Much has been done to prepare for the unknown date, but when it finally does come, will CSULB be ready for “the big one?”

Long Beach, like the rest of California, is no stranger to calamitous earthquakes and their consequences. Numbers reported by the United States Geological Survey tally up 115 deaths in a historic 1933 earthquake centered in Long Beach. Damage done by the earthquake cost an estimated $40 million (the equivalent of $542 million today) in repairs. Infrastructure throughout Orange and Southern Los Angeles counties was destroyed, roads were rendered useless and poorly made masonry buildings collapsed due to the magnitude 6.4 tremor and lax regulations.

As a consequence, today’s laws and regulations have been enacted to ensure the safety of a building’s occupants during an earthquake. Every building must meet these standards and codes to receive a permit in order to be legally inhabitable, but has CSULB been doing its part?

According to Scott Charmack, associate vice president of Physical Planning and Facilities Management, we’ve done that and more.

“The CSU system has a seismic review board, it’s made up of well known structural engineers, geologists and seismologists,” he said. “For any of our buildings that undergo any modification at all, not only do we have to go through a licensed structural engineer licensed by the state of California, but those plans must be reviewed by the seismic review board.” Charmack points out that the CSU seismic review board makes regulations for”building all the more stringent.

“The standards that they have set exceed current [building and safety] codes,” said Charmack.

Recently, changes have been made and areas for improvement due to the seismic review board. Most of the necessary changes, Charmack said, have been made, with student and faculty safety the first priority. There are, however, repairs deemed necessary that have gone undone.

“All of our top priority projects have been taken care of. We have two projects that are waiting funding but they are lower priority,” said Charmack. The two projects in question, he said, involved the University Bookstore warehouse and the engineering building.

However, safety during an earthquake also depends largely on what students as individuals do. Elizabeth Ambos, an associate professor at the department of geological sciences, believes “that anyone who lives in earthquake country should take notice of their surroundings and what could occur.”

For example, the Southern California Earthquake Center contests that, contrary to popular belief, a doorway, during an earthquake, is usually equally unsafe, if not more so, than standing in the middle of the room. The safest place would be under a table.

Well-designed buildings and personal preparedness make an effective combination for earthquake safety. Charmack said that “CSU has taken a very, very proactive approach. I got to tell you, I don’t know of anyone who’s gone farther than CSU [in earthquake safety].”

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