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Officials are planning the first major rollout of California’s earthquake early warning system next year, providing access to some schools, fire stations and more private companies.
The ambitious plan highlights the progress scientists have made in building out the system, which can give as much as a minute of warning before a major earthquake is felt in metropolitan areas.
According to emergencymgmt.com, the warnings would allow fire stations to get garage doors open before a quake can jam them shut, instruct students to duck and cover, and, eventually, automatically shut off sensitive equipment at private companies and tell surgeons to halt surgery. When the data is more reliable, even amusement parks could have time to shut rides down.
The prototype developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and universities including Caltech and UC Berkeley has scored a series of successes, generating alerts in Pasadena before shaking arrived from the 4.4 Encino, 5.1 La Habra and 4.2 Westwood earthquakes earlier this year. San Francisco got eight seconds of warning before strong shaking arrived from the 6.0 Napa earthquake in August.
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Additional funds are still needed to install sensors across the state and improve the computer programming. The system struggled during the recent swarm of earthquakes in the Mammoth Lakes area.
The 2015 rollout would be ready as long as Congress approves funding. Committees in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have already approved $5 million for the fiscal year that began in October, but a full vote on the budget was put off until after this month’s election. The system needs $16.1 million a year to be completed and maintained.
“This is proven technology that will save lives and reduce the economic impact of an earthquake. It simply needs to be properly funded,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and both of California’s senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, said in a letter asking President Obama for his support. They were joined by 30 other congressional members and all four senators from Oregon and Washington, which would be added to the early warning network.
The West Coast of the United States has lagged far behind other countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey, which had warning systems built after large earthquakes killed thousands of people.
The prospect of expanding the system – which is dependent on federal funding coming through – has brought excitement for both emergency officials and some businesses. Even a few seconds’ notice to duck under a sturdy desk could be a matter of surviving a building’s collapse, fire officials said.
