Earthquake early warningCalifornia earthquake early warning system set to go online in 2016
Disaster management officials in California are reporting that a new earthquake early-warning system will be online in the state within the next two years. A bill mandating the system was passed in January under Senate Bill 135, requiring the state’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) to develop a statewide system that can alert Californians before dangerous shaking with a ten second window. The funding for the project is $80 million for the first five years.
Disaster management officials in California are reporting that a new earthquake early-warning system will be online in the state within the next two years.
As the San Bernardino County Sun reports, a bill mandating the system was passed in January under Senate Bill 135, requiring the Office of Emergency Services (OES) to develop a statewide system that can alert Californians before dangerous shaking with a ten second window. The funding for the project is $80 million for the first five years.
According to Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), the bill, among other things, would require all gas and electric utilities, as well as railroad and crane operators, more effectively to shut off their operations, thus lessening the impact of a quake on the population at large.
“If a state had such a system, it would help Californians prepare ahead of time for a disaster and potentially reduce the potential for injury,” said Brett McPherson, the director of environmental health and safety for the Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Currently, a prototype of the system is being tested by the San Bernardino County Fire Department and other agencies in the area. The system, developed in part by the California Institute of Technology, is running “reasonably well,” according to professor of engineering seismology, Tom Heaton.
Heaton had worked with the concept of the technology since 1985, long before Sen. Padilla’s legislation. In its currently iteration, the program can issue a 10-second warning for an earthquake forty miles away, and a 20-second notification for one sixty miles away.
Additionally, it can determine the direction of the quake and more quickly notify those that are in the predicted path.
“The system would be huge,” said Kurt Kainsinger, the director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness for the UCLA Health System, “[In a hospital scenario] 10 seconds is a lifeline. This would include the things a nurse could do to protect a patient, as well as powering down sophisticated MRI, CT and lab equipment, preventing their destruction during impact.”
There is, however, significantly more work to be done to ensure that the system can be instituted on a statewide scale. A robust programming and operations staff will be need to operate the system twenty four hours, year-round and many more sensor placements will be needed so that the readings are as accurate as possible.
The Los Angeles Fire Department — a much larger operation — is also expected to be joining in on the testing of the system within the next few months.
