Shaken, but not perturbed

Now that the shaking is done, the real work analyzing what worked and what needs improvement is underway after the Great Southern California ShakeOut earthquake drill held last Thursday.

“It was fantastic,” said Dr. Lucy Jones, chief scientist for the Multi Hazards Demonstration Project for Southern California U. S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The goal of the ShakeOut was to increase awareness and, according to Jones, that is exactly what was accomplished.

By the time the drill began at 10 a.m. on Nov. 13, more than 5 million Southland residents had signed on to participate. By Thursday afternoon many sent pictures to the ShakeOut website to share their experiences.

For the drill, scientists had set forth a scenario of what would happn if there was a 7.8 earthquake along the San Andreas Fault. They calculated not only what Californians would be dealing with during the shake, but in its aftermath. Death tolls, they estimated, would remain relatively low, but financial loss and recovery would be a big issue.

Jones said one thing learned was that schools found great value in having the drill at all their facilities simultaneously.

“There was a real team approach with the district,” said Hank Paz, coordinator of student support services for the Glendale Unified School District. He added that all schools within the district participated, from Cloud preschool to College View, and even the Food Services office. He said that the feedback has been positive and many principals hope the drill is held annually.

For the drill, the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station opened their Emergency Operations Center. The station is the center of operations for La Crescenta, Pasadena, South Pasadena, La Cañada, Burbank, Altadena and Burbank. All areas reported into it which in turn reported to the downtown Los Angeles headquarters emergency center.

Preparedness continued on the weekend as members from the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) held its own earthquake drill.

“Each member had been given a scenario,” said Sgt. Ken Binkley, the sheriff station’s community relations sergeant and CERT coordinator.

The scenarios had each member first deal with the emergency that occurred at their home, ranging from gas leaks to broken water mains. Then they were to meet at a pre-assigned area where they would be given another scenario.