The drill is called the "Great California ShakeOut." You may have seen the TV ad.
"…prepare today so that you can get back to normal sooner after the next big quake…"
Preparedness includes: securing bookcases and other things
that might fall on you…and creating a disaster kit with food, water
and first aid supplies. Another tip is - put shoes on to avoid
broken glass after a quake.
"When the earthquake happened in Northridge in the way
early hours of the morning, there were people with cut feet because
they ran in the darkness."
Cindy Pridmore - a geologist with the California Geological Survey - says state
officials are trying to ensure Californians are safe from
quakes.
"We have a great history of improving our building codes
but what people forget is their own belongings. That's what
ShakeOut really tries to stress is what you can do in your own home
or your workspace to keep things from falling on you."
Pridmore says California has a 99% chance of a large quake
happening within the next 30 years.
The Sacramento area is relatively protected from devastating
earthquakes since there are no major, active faults under the
region.
But if the "big one" hits the Bay Area - there is a threat of
flooding.
John Rundle is a professor of physics and geology at UC Davis
and contributes to the web site OpenHazards.
Rundle says reverberations from a magnitude six or greater temblor
sustained by the "Hayward" fault could reach levees in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
"Within a matter of tens of seconds it would hit the levees
and the ground in the levees would start to shake. And there are
some levees which are sort of poorly consolidated; they weren't
designed to withstand earthquake shaking therefore they could fail.
And if they failed catastrophically, that would be a big
problem."
The "Great California ShakeOut" takes place Thursday at 10:18
AM.