Earthquake Rocks Baja California
This is the first part in a three part series: part 2 The Right Way To Get Ready For Earthquakes part 3 Think You’re Ready For A Disaster? Think Again!
7.2 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes California/Mexico Border
On Sunday April 4th, millions of families from California and Mexico who were sitting down to Easter dinner, were jolted by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. According to Lucy Jones of the US Geological Survey, the powerful quake, centered near the city of Calexico, was felt by nearly 20 million people, from Baja to Los Angeles and as far away as the Bay Area, Las Vegas and Phoenix. The quake, was most damaging to the city of Calexico, which by mid-afternoon on Monday, was reporting that nearly 80% of its buildings had been red-tagged, a designation that means a building is uninhabitable. The quake devastated their downtown area and jangled the nerves of people throughout the Southwest, especially after recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.
Watch Mike Von Fremd’s coverage of the quake, along with the rest of the ABC News team on location in Calexico, for more details of the Easter earthquake. As USGS reminds us, aftershocks continue to occur and probably will for the next week or two.
As longtime residents of Southern California, we know how difficult it can be to spend the days and weeks after a quake, living in earthquake mode. The phenomenon isn’t really something you can explain to someone who hasn’t experience it personally. New Californians are always asking how they’ll know if what they feel is a quake, or just an especially loud garbage truck. There’s only one answer to that question. You’ll know! And sure enough when it happens, they’ll say, “you were absolutely right!” An earthquake combines two things that most humans hate– the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Feeling like the floor is going to crack open and swallow you, while listening to your house, cracking and groaning, while glass, bricks and your best china crashing to the ground around you, is a horrible sensation.
So what’s the best way to prepare for an earthquake?
Earthquakes are probably the most difficult type of disaster to prepare for, for two reasons. First, there is absolutely no warning when one is going to strike. Second, you never know how or where it’s going to strike. Two earthquakes of the same magnitude aren’t necessarily going to have the same destructive capability. A shallow 5.0 quake, can potentially create more damages and injury than a 7.0 quake centered deep within the earth. Shallow earthquakes mean more shaking and more cracks and fissures in the earth, which in turn damages more buildings, streets and injures more people. You also have to factor in how close the earthquake is to your home and where your home is located. We once experienced a 1.5 quake that was centered very close to our home and knocked books off the shelves – while a 6.4 earthquake 30 or 40 miles away got us out of bed, but left our possessions exactly where the were the night before.
In earthquake country “location, location, location couldn’t be more true. Remember the parable of the man who built his house on the sand versus the man who built his on the rock? Those guys must have lived in earthquake country! It’s called liquefaction. Especially in California, in areas where there are high concentrations of sand in the soil – aka high priced beach communities – the violent shaking of an earthquake causes water underground to rise up through the sandy soil, turning pseudo solid earth beneath homes to turn into liquid, swallowing anything above it – houses, stores, freeway on ramps. Making sure that your home is build on rock solid ground is a great first step to long term earthquake safety.
The final reason that earthquakes are so hard to prepare for, is that they tend to happen very early in the morning. Imagine being shaken out of a sound sleep, only to realize that your bed, your walls and your floor are all moving in opposite directions, while you try and remember the first item on your disaster checklist! Not going to happen!
So how do we prepare? The way we and our customers prepare is by taking a two-step approach.
The first step, is to make sure that you have your earthquake survival gear and know how to secure your home and personal safety when an earthquake strikes.
The second, is to make sure that you’re able to grab everything you need – necessities, keepsakes, vital information – and leave for a safer location, in less than ten minutes. It’s a lot easier than it sounds. All you need is to do is to take the necessary steps now, to ensure you have access to all the items and information that will help you get back to living your normal life, as quickly and easily as possible.
To Be Continued…
