Washington state earthquake warning system up and running
Posted May 5, 2021 12:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A new system is now online in Washington state to provide a “heads up” for earthquakes. Text messages will be sent out 10 to 15 seconds before the shaking starts.
“That gives you time to drop to the ground and get under something sturdy or get somewhere safe nearby, cover your head and neck, and hold on,” said Maximilian Dixon with the state’s Emergency Management Division.
“This is similar to Amber Alerts, tsunami warnings, tornado warnings. Folks just need to check their phones to make sure those alerts are turned on,” he explained.
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He says people will receive the notifications if there is an earthquake of magnitude 5 or higher, “and [there is] an expectation that the person, where they’re located, will experience light shaking or greater.”
There’s nothing like this here in B.C., for now. But Alison Bird is one of the seismologists working on a similar system in Canada.
“We are currently acquiring the equipment. We will be installing it over the next few years. It will be operational in 2024,” she said.
Bird notes several other countries also have early warning systems and they have shown to be “extremely effective.”
“Japan started this quite some time ago. Initially, their system was geared to stop trains and halt surgery in hospitals [in the event of an earthquake]. It’s expanded to schools, and expanded to everything. Mexico has one in place, Taiwan, parts of China… It’s not an uncommon thing now,” she said.
