Great SoCal Shake Out
Thursday November 11, 2008 at 10am will mark the moment of the largest earthquake drill in the history of southern California and the world. What is called the Great Southern California Shake Out is a drill that mocks a 7.8 earthquake that would span from the southern end of the San Andreas Fault and fan out over 200 miles. If you can even comprehend it, this earthquake would be 5000 times larger than a 5.4 quake that shook Los Angeles on July 29th.
So here’s the deal. Southern California residents are asked to pretend that at precisely 10am on Thursday November 13th there is a massive earthquake. Residents are asked to drop and take cover while holding on for dear life for approximately two minutes.
Scientists say that a quake like this is long overdue. An earthquake of this magnitude would most likely cause about 1800 deaths (half of those would be the result of fires that are caused by the quake). An estimated 213 billion dollars in losses would most likely be felt as well as over 300,000 building suffering damage and therefore losing 10% of their property value.
To find out more and to register to be part of the largest earthquake drill in history go to the Great Shake Out website.
Clarissa Nassar | Nov 7, 2008 | Reply
That just freaks me out! I lived in So Cal all my life until this last Feb when we loved to NY but ALL my family and friends are still there and it just scares me to think of this huge earthquake…
TeresaR | Nov 8, 2008 | Reply
Very scary to contemplate. I lived in Vancouver (my parents and sister still do) where it has a similar situation: long overdue earthquake (wonder if they’re on the same fault line since it’s nearly due north). Many bldgs have been overhauled to prepare for the “big one”, but many other bldgs are still not safe.