In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

At the Natural Hazards & Applications Workshop on Friday, a panel of those involved with the Great California ShakeOut offered an update of their plans for the second annual drill, which will take place at 10:15 a.m. on October 15, 2009. During that day, millions of Californians will practice “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” as well as other aspects of their emergency plans.

Last year, nearly 5.5 million Southern Californians participated. It is being expanded to northern California and has a goal of 10 million participants in 2009 making it the largest earthquake drill ever. On the ShakeOut Twitter site, they announced a friendly competition between the two regions with SoCal ahead of NoCal by 1.8 million registrants. If you would like to participate, click here.

At the Workshop, a four-and-a-half minute video about the ShakeOut, titled “Preparedness Now,” was shown. (It can be viewed below). Key personal preparedness sound bite:

“How quickly life gets back to depends on your and others around you. Your level of personal preparedness will determine your quality of life after the quake.”

The site also has a Beat The Quake game which tests your residential earthquake preparedness.