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At the shakeout, reporters in the simulator got a taste of how a magnitude 7 earth quake feels.
Earlier, as the shakeout began, the Southern California Earthquake Center was linked by Skype to a classroom in Guam.
Children dropped, took cover and held on.
At the Union Station in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also followed that guideline.
“We need to do drop, cover and hold. We need to prepare. Everybody should have water and food for a period of time at least 7 days.”
The Los Angeles Metro Rail system did a mock earthquake evacuation.
The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck North East Japan last year put that country on alert. Says Keiko Tamura of Niigata University. She was visiting California for the shake out.
“And many local governments try to use that, the idea of shake out and many citizens participate in a shake out right now.”
She says a tsunami drill is planned for January in Japan.
Back at the Union Station, ham radio operators show how they provide emergency communications and companies display disaster supplies.
Trains approaching the station slow as they would after getting a warning.
A prototype early warning system for Los Angeles may be ready next year. Says Lucy Jones of the U.S Geological Survey:
“We can use our seismic networks to recognize that an earthquake’s begun and send that information ahead of the waves because the waves travel at the speed of sound and we can send the information at the speed of light and potentially have seconds to tens of seconds of warning that the shake is going to come.”
A similar system in Japan stops high speed trains when major earthquakes are detected.
Earthquakes can not be avoided. But officials in Los Angeles say shake out drills will help residents be ready.
