To measure its capabilities for providing services, Los Angeles County will develop an emergency preparedness plan for a large earthquake.
The plan also aims to help the county’s 10 million residents become truly prepared for a mega-quake. This includes creating a one-stop, “Know Your Risk” website acquainting residents and businesses with information, preparedness tools and reminders to participate in the “Great ShakeOut Day” on Oct. 15.
A motion by Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, approved by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, Aug. 4, directs the county’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) along with the Chief Executive Office Countywide Communications, to develop the plan and present it before the supervisors at their Sept. 29 board meeting.
It asks the county to take a look at itself, to see if there are “any existing gaps that must be addressed.” It basically asks the question: Can the county provide services to residents, repair infrastructure like ruptured roads, etc., right after a mega quake strikes?
It also requires the county OEM, Fire and Public Works departments to seek input from key experts, including world-renowned Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones and seismology experts from UCLA in Westwood.
Barger’s motion was prompted by a recent study from scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa that says tectonic stress on portions of the San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems near the Cajon Pass has reached its highest level in at least 1,000 years.
In a press release about her motion, Barger said researchers emphasize these findings do not indicate a major earthquake is imminent. But she added that accumulated seismic energy often gets released via a large earthquake.
“Science is sending us a clear warning, and we have a responsibility to listen,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger in a statement released after the vote on Tuesday.
“The best time to prepare for a major earthquake is before one happens. By bringing together the best scientific expertise available, we’re taking practical steps now to strengthen our preparedness and better protect our communities, she added.
In her approved motion, Barger wants the county to be ready for the damage a 7.8-magnitude quake would cause, one that computer modeling suggests would produce violent shaking across the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial.
“The County has an obligation to ensure its residents, infrastructure and emergency systems are prepared for a disaster of this scale before it occurs,” the motion reads. That starts with a plan for how the County will provide emergency services, repair infrastructure and ensure safety of its residents.
The last major earthquake to damage L.A. County and the city of Los Angeles was the 6.7-magnitude Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake. That quake, the costliest in U.S. history, killed 72 people, including those from heart attacks, with about 9,000 people injured. The quake buckled freeways and left billions of dollars in damage to homes, apartment buildings, businesses, hospitals, parks, roadways and utilities. One estimate placed the damage at $25 billion.
That quake was from a blind thrust fault lying underneath the northern San Fernando Valley — it did not occur on the San Andreas Fault, Jones said.
She said there are about 200 earthquake faults throughout Southern California, and slightly fewer than 100 of those are in Los Angeles County.
“In L.A. County, everyone lives within five miles of an active fault,” Jones said.
Jones said the recent twin earthquakes in Venezuela happened on a similar kind of fault as the San Andreas in California. She said that should serve as a wake-up call for Angelenos. But it’s been 32 years since Northridge, and too many county residents have forgotten about that event or were too young to remember.
She likes the idea of a new county plan, with added emphasis on the shakeout, and what Barger described as “year-round public engagement strategies” that would make being ready for an earthquake an ongoing public priority.
“Anytime we can get people just to think about it is good. Because big earthquakes are so infrequent, it makes it hard to keep that in memory,” Jones said.