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The Shake Out

The largest earthquake drill in American history is happening today at 10 a.m. across Southern California.

More than 5.2 million people will participate in the “Great Southern California Shake Out,” to prepare themselves for the next “big one.” The Shake Out is based on a hypothetical 7.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter along the southern part of the San Andreas Fault.

Several Cal State universities signed up for the region-wide drill at shakeout.org, such as Cal State Fullerton and Northridge. CSULB, however, has not done so.

Instead, CSULB will participate in a program that works in conjunction with Shake Out, the Golden Guardian Statewide Exercise series, which begins today as well. The series is an annual event consisting of discussions, seminars and exercises designed to test California’s emergency capabilities to prevent, respond and recover from a catastrophic disaster, natural or otherwise, according to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security’s website.

“Every community and every agency that is in a first responder role, they’re all trying to achieve different things,” said Stan Skipworth, University Police captain.

CSULB carried out an emergency drill last month and, according to Skipworth, will be engaging in a series of internal assessments instead of participating in the Shake Out part of today’s drill. He said that CSULB’s internal assessment is the university’s way of ensuring the campus is ready for any kind of disaster.

“We can do an awful lot … but one of the things we have to be sensitive to is the amount of activity on this campus,” Skipworth said.

The plans CSULB has, Skipworth said, need to be assessed and checked for appropriateness. Assessments include how first-responders react and assess injuries and damages through the several emergency plans CSULB has, such as the National Incident Management System. Further explanation can be found on the CSULB emergency information website.

“We’re just trying to take a more liable approach,” he said.

The City of Long Beach and Los Angeles County offices have been in direct contact with CSULB because, “this is a significant exercise,” Skipworth said, especially for smaller communities, such as CSULB.

More than 300 scientists and engineers created the Shake Out drill scenario, offering informational audio and video broadcasts and online activities for people who are participating in the exercise. Schools, individuals and businesses partaking in the drill will allow for audio, explaining the necessary safety measures, to be broadcast over PA systems.

“For most people it would just involve getting under your desk,” said Nate Onderdonk, a CSULB geology professor who specializes in the study of earthquakes. “You’re supposed to just kind of look around and say ‘OK, what’s going to fall on me?’ Windows tend to be the bigger problems in these big earthquakes because the vibrations can send glass at incredible speeds.”

The Shake Out drill asks that, at 10 a.m., participants, “Drop to the ground. Take cover by getting under a sturdy desk or table, and hold on to it until the shaking stops,” according to the Shake Out website. It will last for about 2 minutes because this is the amount of time the hypothetical shaking would occur.

The website encourages participants to imagine how their environment would shake during a real earthquake and assess how to make their environment safer.

Onderdonk explained that coming up with a scenario like this is based a lot on sediments in which certain areas are built upon. Areas built on solid ground will feel the least amount of shaking.

“Areas that are under laid by old river deposits, so around the San Gabriel River and L.A. river, the areas around there, there’s going to be a lot of recent river sediment and that is going to cause much more motion and vibration,” Onderdonk said. “And in the lower areas like Naples that are basically built on sand, those place are going to feel the shaking the worst.”

Onderdonk said scientists can predict the acceleration and the amount of shaking, but to predict what will actually happen to buildings or bridges is hard to do. Transportation, water and electricity will probably be the most affected, according to Onderdonk.

“We can’t predict [everything] perfectly, but we can look at the ground to get a better idea,” he said.

 Southern California has many fault line systems, and one, the Inglewood-Newport fault, lies directly underneath CSULB.

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