Earthquake early warningShakeAlert’s performance during August Napa tremor should lead to regional deployment: Supporters
Before the magnitude-6 earthquake struck Napa County late August, the Bay Area Rapid Transit received an alert ordering trains to stop, and some 911 operators had a few seconds of warning to brace for an influx of calls from concerned residents. The success of ShakeAlert, California’s earthquake early-warning system currently in the testing phase, has encouraged state lawmakers to push for funding — and deploying — the regional early warning system.
Demonstration of ShakeAlert warning system // Source: Richard Allen - Berkeley Seismo Lab via youtube.com
Before the magnitude-6 earthquake struck Napa County late August, the Bay Area Rapid Transit received an alert ordering trains to stop, and some 911 operators had a few seconds of warning to brace for an influx of calls from concerned residents. The success of ShakeAlert, California’s earthquake early-warning system currently in the testing phase, has encouraged state lawmakers to push for funding the regional early warning system. At Wednesday’s International Conference on Earthquake Early Warning at the University of California, Berkeley, several elected officials shared funding ideas, including seeking emergency appropriations from the Legislature.
The distance between a recipient of an early warning notification and the epicenter of an earthquake would determine the amount of warning time available. When the Napa earthquake struck, San Francisco received an eight-second warning, while Berkeley received a five-second warning. Downtown Napa did not receive an early warning due to its proximity to the quake’s epicenter. Richard Allen, director of the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, says that technology is advancing to eventually alert even communities near epicenters.
The Los Angeles Times reports that San Francisco mayor Ed Lee was impressed by how much officials could do with eight seconds of warning before an earthquake struck the area. The city has now hired Regroup, an emergency communications platform firm, to identify other city departments and private industries that may want an automatic feed from ShakeAlert. Building owners may want elevators to automatically stop at the next floor before shaking occurs during an earthquake, and surgeons could remove scalpels before tremors start, “all of them have a great stake in early warning,” Lee said.
California is expected to pay $80 million of the $120 million needed to fully build and operate ShakeAlert for five years for the West Coast, with Oregon, and Washington. The state Legislature which endorsed ShakeAlert last year, mandated that it be a public-private partnership, adding that no state general fund money can be used to finance the warning system, but state Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) wants lawmakers to reconsider that approach. “I am not expecting the whole system to be funded from any single source,” Padilla said, adding that utilities, hospitals, and private industries could issue grants to help pay for ShakeAlert.
California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom notes that Japan, Mexico, Romania, and Turkey already have their version of ShakeAlert. “It’s long overdue,” he said. “We are finding money for a high-speed rail system — all from creative sources — but we haven’t been as creative to fund an early warning system?”
