Culture

Calif. Quake: It's Just a Drill

posted: 15 October 2009 09:44 am ET

At 10:15 a.m. local time today (1:15 ET), Oct. 15, 2009, more than 6 million Californians will practice Drop, Cover, and Hold On in a statewide Earthquake drill. Many people and organizations will also practice other aspects of their emergency plans as part of a now-annual event to prepare for the Big One.

Last year, nearly 5.5 million Southern Californians participated in the 2008 ShakeOut drill. The Great California ShakeOut will now be held statewide on the third Thursday of October each year.

Why?

"You may only have seconds to protect yourself in an earthquake, before strong shaking knocks you down--or drops something on you," the ShakeOut organizers point out.

How to Survive the Coming California Earthquake

For the past several thousand years, there has been a major earthquake south of the San Gabriel Mountains in California every 150 or so. The last one was 300 years ago, just before farming, gold, tourism and technology exploded the human population.
Credit: Theo Alexopoulos, ACCD, USGS, SCEC

Read full story at The ShakeOut

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