California Earthquake Exercise Evaluation

(2009-01-07 11:02:00.0)

Chong, Jia-Rui. Major Southern California Quake Drill Reveals Significant Gaps in Preparations. Los Angeles Times, December 27, 2008. Accessed at: http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-quake27-2008dec27,0,6267056.story The largest earthquake drill in U.S. history, held last month in Southern California, found some serious gaps in local earthquake planning, prompting utility companies, emergency managers and others to rethink their planning for a major temblor. The Great Southern California Shakeout was the first time so many agencies and earthquake officials teamed up to examine what would happen if a huge quake struck the region, in this case a 7.8 magnitude temblor. Many Shakeout participants said they have gone through earthquake drills before, but never with a scenario so detailed. Based on the results of the Nov. 13 experiment, in which each agency estimated damage and emergency services requirements based on detailed quake scenarios developed by supercomputers, officials said they will need more emergency workers, better sources of water and come up with new ways of restoring electricity..