August 1, 2008
The Great California Shake Out
Fenton Bailey writes:
Following this week's quakelet someone on the Today show said it was 99% certain that the big one will happen in California within the next 30 years. That could be tomorrow. Fortunately, our friends at the Great Southern California Shake Out have created a megaquake and scheduled it for 10AM on November 13 of this year. And they've written a juicy Big-One scenario. Here are some highlights from the torrid 24-page account:
It is sunny with a light breeze.. Throughout the region, cars flow to the pulse of traffic lights. Rush hour traffic has cleared, and the workday is well underway in offices,
warehouses, factories, and stores. Schools are full of students, as well as furniture and equipment that will topple in a earthquake.
The San Andreas Fault suddenly awakens and the rupture shoots northwest along the fault at 2 miles per second. In an instant, the ground on the two sides of the fault is offset nearly 44 feet. The rupture front continues its advance to San Gorgonio Pass and dismantles the ten miles of Interstate 10 freeway that straddles the San Andreas Fault.
Strong shaking will continue in Los Angeles for 55 seconds, to the shock of residents who remember the strong shaking during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which lasted only 7 seconds. The building damage causes tens of thousands of injuries and hundreds of deaths, and strands many thousands of people without homes or jobs.
Shattered TVs and other home electronics create treacherous carpets of glass and cords. Across the region, phone systems, including cellular and 911, are unusable, overwhelmed by the vast number of attempted calls. Lacking gloves, crowbars, and training, some people claw through debris with bare hands.
As people start to assess their situations, millions of them discover they are
cut off from their families, with no way to learn the fate of their loved ones or homes.
And so on.
On November 13, join students, businesses, organizations, firefighters, police officers and emergency responders in the country's largest-ever earthquake preparedness exercise – the Shake Out Drill. Imagine 21 million Southern Californians crawling under their desks at the exact same moment to drop, cover, and hold on. Watch the Shake Out in real time on Facebook.
Related entries:
- It's Birthday, Bitch: Howie Dorough, 35 Kristen Wiig, 35 Giada...
- A Game of Cat and Mouse: Only it's a rat. This is the...
- Japanese Big Fun: A many splendored thing from Japan. Start...
- It's Birthday, Bitch: Hayden Panettiere, 19 Kimberly Stewart, 29 Alicia...
- Itemizing: • The driver who ran the red...
