Great ShakeOut prepares USC for earthquake disaster

Playing dead · Actors in makeup were positioned around campus portraying injured persons who were affected by an earthquake. – Maya Dondonyan | Daily Trojan

USC participated in a large-scale Great ShakeOut drill coordinated by Provost Michael Quick and Mark Benthien, associate director of the Southern California Earthquake Center and coordinator of Global ShakeOut, on Thursday morning.

At 10:15 a.m., students were encouraged to drop, cover and hold on, and emergency crews and teams — Disaster Mental Health team, Amateur Radio Emergency Communications team, Department of Public Safety Command Post and HazMat teams — performed a mock search and rescue to prepare for the next major earthquake in Southern California.

This ShakeOut drill was taken seriously by faculty and administrators. Actors portraying injured persons were given makeup showing the extent of the carnage that an earthquake can create. Some actors were living, and others were portrayed as dead. Emergency crews were on site to perform disaster triage on the mock victims to determine those who were in dire need of immediate medical attention and transport them safely to Cromwell Field.

Once the drill was completed, the Community Emergency Response team used the process of cribbing, in which an object on top of the victim is pried off and then held up using support structures.

Set-up for the drill commenced at 4 a.m. in front of the West Lobby of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism building for a wide array of displays relating to earthquake safety by nonprofits, companies and governmental organizations including California Earthquake authority, Earthquake Country Alliance, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City, Ready America, Red Cross, Simpson Strong-Tie and Temblor, Inc.

All representatives of these entities agreed that preparedness is key to avoiding disaster when the next earthquake hits.

“We need to be prepared for the next major earthquake,” said Guillermo Sanchez, manager of preparedness and resiliency at Red Cross for Los Angeles County. “There are two steps to being prepared — getting a kit and making a plan and staying informed.”

Simpson Strong-Tie was invited by the ShakeOut committee to explain how they outfit existing residential and office buildings so that they are earthquake safe.

“We mainly retrofit soft story buildings that have no rigidity and can collapse,” said Carlos Zarate, territory manager for Simpson Strong-Tie. “Our moment frames give those buildings rigidity so they don’t collapse.”

Earthquake preparedness has begun to be explored in a new way with technology pioneered by Temblor, Inc., which has created a free app that ranks hazard and projects costs and injury according to location.

“Temblor is a mobile-friendly web app that basically personalizes earthquake information and brings the information down to your home level,” said Volkan Sevilgen, CTO and cofounder of Temblor, Inc. “It’s based on credible scientific data and methodologies. Everything is very well explained, so we are hoping that people will see the information as a credible independent source of seismic hazard.”

The Great ShakeOut is organized around the world. According to their website, 26.5 million participated in last year’s ShakeOut. 10.4 million of those who participated live in California. Approximately 1 million were in the City of Los Angeles and 100,000 were involved in the planning and execution.

In addition to booths and information on preparedness, a trailer was set up to create a scenario that would replicate the conditions of an earthquake, including the magnitude of the shaking.

A press conference describing the campus proceedings and highlighting the need for preparedness was held at 8:15 a.m.

Speeches were given by Quick, William Regensburger, director of USC Fire Safety and Emergency Planning; James Featherstone, general manager of the City of Los Angeles’s Emergency Management Department; Mona Bontty, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Southern regional administrator; Chris Nance, director of communications and external affairs at California Earthquake Authority; and Jarrett Barrios, regional CEO of the Los Angeles Region of the Red Cross, following a brief introduction by Benthian.

“ShakeOut is headquartered here at USC and it’s happening all around the world,” Benthian said. “I welcome all of you who are here today to learn about earthquake safety, what’s happening in terms of the ShakeOut and to learn about what is going to be happening today, when USC participates in the ShakeOut.”

Quick started off a line of speakers from a more USC-centric perspective.

“We [at USC] think a lot about our responsibility to take on the big problems of the world, to do the research and scholarship and translate that research and scholarship into action and global impact,” Quick said.

The Southern California Earthquake Center is managed at USC, making the University a hub for earthquake research and hazard prevention.

“They really get out in the world and make a difference,” Quick said. “Preparedness is going to matter tremendously for the earthquakes that may happen here in Southern California.”

Regensburger then talked about the specifics of the drill.

“You’ll see a response team for all 300 buildings, who are coming outside, setting up a command post and really walking though their role in a major disaster,” Regensburger said.

Featherstone echoed the importance of preparedness and the government’s responsibility to the people following a disaster in his speech.

Bontty ended the conference by stressing the necessity of adhering to the drop, cover and hold on guidelines and preparing in advance for the possibility of a major earthquake.

Quick said the ShakeOut and the events preceding it illustrate USC’s commitment to emergency preparedness.

“I’m so proud that this institution takes earthquake threats so seriously,” Quick said.