Learning and Calamities by Heike Egner Marén Schorch Martin Voss

Author:Heike Egner, Marén Schorch, Martin Voss [Heike Egner, Marén Schorch, Martin Voss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology, Sociology
ISBN: 9781134475889
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2014-08-13T04:00:00+00:00

5.4 The Great Southern California ShakeOut

The Great ShakeOut serves as a useful drill example. The exercise was a widespread U.S. earthquake drill originally conducted in 2008 to encourage dissemination of earthquake preparedness and mitigation techniques to the public. The goal of the drill was to provide southern Californians with an opportunity to learn what to do before, during, and after an earthquake. One of the primary goals of the drill was to encourage communication and therefore enhance trust and reliability within communities (cf. Blakley et al. 2009). The drill was based on the ShakeOut scenario, consisting of a theoretical earthquake of magnitude 7.8 that could occur along the southern portion of the San Andreas Fault (cf. Jones and Benthien, 2011). An earthquake of this nature occurs, on average, every 150 years. Based on an analysis of earthquake probabilities in California, it has been determined that there is a 99.7 per cent chance of a 6.7 magnitude or greater earthquake occurring in the state in the next thirty years. The scenario was created by interdisciplinary members of the United States Geological Survey’s Multi-hazard Demonstration Project in order to understand the effects an event of this size would have on the economies and communities of southern California (cf. Jones et al. 2008). The 2008 drill included 5.5 million participants in eight counties of California, making it the largest earthquake drill in United States history (cf. Petal, 2004).

The 2008 Great Southern California ShakeOut resonated with stakeholders and elicited broad participation and community engagement. The drill was continued in subsequent years and expanded to include other areas of California. More than 6.9 million individuals across every county in California participated in the 2009 Great California ShakeOut event (cf. Southern California Earthquake Center 2013). Expansion of the earthquake drill mandated expansion of the ShakeOut scenario in addition to increasing the coordination efforts of the event.

In 2009, the ShakeOut earthquake drill spread to areas outside California for the first time. The Great West Coast ShakeOut in New Zealand, sponsored by the Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management, was the first example of this expansion (Southern California Earthquake Center 2013). In the third year of implementation, 2010, the California ShakeOut involved over 7.9 million participants. The event included an additional message from the Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA; i.e., “secure your space”) and encouraged Californians to ready their homes for an earthquake (cf. Southern California Earthquake Center 2013). The ShakeOut has subsequently expanded to Alaska; Washington; Oregon; Idaho; Nevada; Arizona; Utah; five southeast U.S. states; eleven central U.S. states; Guam; Puerto Rico; British Columbia; Southern Italy; Charlevoix, France; and Japan, all of which have facilitated successful ShakeOut drills (cf. Southern California Earthquake Center 2013).

An important element of the ShakeOut’s success has been efforts to maintain consistency in SCEC’s ShakeOut-related communications, including websites, social media, distribution materials, and messages. This, in addition to a large media outreach and extensive advertising, has allowed millions of people to hear the ShakeOut message and to participate in the drills. Various games and media tools have been developed to encourage public participation and interactive learning.

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