Big Earthquake Possible Today In LA Area, 5 million people to do Practice run-through

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Big Earthquake Possible Today In LA Area
Rehearsing for California's Big Earthquake

At exactly 10 a.m. tomorrow, about 5 million people in Southern California will drop to the ground, take cover under a sturdy piece of furniture and hold on at the same time. Radio stations and school p.a. systems will play a sound track of rumbling and crashing, along with a man's voice declaring, "If this were the magnitude 7.8 earthquake we're practicing for today, you would be experiencing sudden and intense back-and-forth motions of up to 6 ft. per second. The floor or the ground would jerk sideways out from under you. Look around and imagine."
If this sounds weird, it's because it is. The Great ShakeOut, as it's being dubbed, is the biggest public emergency drill in U.S. history - and as such, it is a radical idea. Normally, large-scale disaster drills, which happen weekly across the country, are designed for professional rescuers, emergency managers and politicians. Not for you, and not for me. In fact, the people who matter most in a real-world emergency - the neighbors, office workers and students who do the majority of the lifesaving during big disasters - are almost never invited.
California's drill, too, originally was scheduled as an exercise for only emergency officials. That exercise, called Golden Guardian, will involve about 5,000 officials, from the local police to the U.S. military, all pretending they are responding to a major quake along the San Andreas Fault.
But in this case, California decided to invite the people too. Schools, offices and random Joes have been registering for the drill over a span of months. (In the two days after the 5.4-magnitude Chino Hills quake in July in California, 57,000 people registered.) Every city employee in Pasadena supposedly is participating, which should make for an interesting scene at City Hall come 10 a.m. You can already play a game to see if you know how to survive an earthquake. (I scored only 9 out of 14 on the first try, but now I am totally rocking an 11.) You can download audio to accompany the drill. You can watch a YouTube video about what would happen to California in such a quake. And, starting at 10:02 a.m. on Thursday, you can play a sprawling, multiplayer collaboration game called After Shock to see what happens on the other side.
Behind all this flash and exuberance is a stark reality. The southern section of the San Andreas Fault hasn't moved in about 300 years. We know it moves about every 150 years. So California is overdue for a major quake. In April, a new report concluded there is a 99.7% chance that a magnitude 6.7 or stronger quake will shake California within the next 30 years.
But most Southern Californians cannot readily imagine a quake of that scale. They haven't experienced one before, so they don't know how the g-forces will feel. The intent of the ShakeOut drill is to hijack the imagination. "Time and again, we've heard that there is a weak link between the scientific understanding of quakes and the ability of the public to pay attention and change their behavior," says Mariana Amatullo at the Art Center College of Design, one of the organizers of the event. "The goal was to find new opportunities for the public to be a little more resilient and empowered."
In earthquakes, most people do exactly the wrong thing. "Unfortunately, adults fail miserably when it comes to quake-safe actions," says InÉs Pearce, a spokeswoman for the Earthquake Country Alliance, the umbrella group for all the organizers. They run outside or inside. Or they run to a doorway, which is no longer considered wise. Most injuries occur when people try to move during the shaking. It is much safer to drop, cover and hold on close to wherever you happen to be standing. Children actually are much better at this - because they have regular drills in school.
So populist drills like this can save a lot of lives. As things stand now, if Thursday's "quake" actually happened, about 1,800 people would die and 53,000 would be hurt. Damages would reach an estimated $213 billion. Most people would be without electricity, clean water, ATMs, YouTube videos and multiplayer collaboration games for weeks or months.



I had been through both SF and LA quakes, and this just comes off as a massive planning for a horrifying 'Earthquake Martial Law' - California is bankrupt, and throwing this kind of preparation at such timing of presidential transition?


http://www. shakeout. org/
At 10 am on November 13, join millions of people throughout Southern California in the ShakeOut Drill, the largest earthquake preparedness activity in US history! Please register today


November 08, 2008 – ShakeOut 2008 World’s Biggest Earthquake Drill




November 04, 2008 - Interview with Jim Featherstone City of Los Angeles General Manager Emergency Management Department


http://www. artcenter. edu/getready/home. php

Golden Guardian 2008 Exercise Series - Under the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger and direction of his Office of Homeland Security, the nation’s largest state sponsored emergency exercise will take place November 13-18 Golden Guardian 2008 tests California’s capability to respond and recover during a major catastrophic earthquake, The Golden Guardian 2008 full scale exercise scenario focuses on a simulated, catastrophic 7.
8 magnitude earthquake along the southern portion of the San Andreas Fault
http://www. ohs. ca. gov/hseep/golden_guardian/























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NORAD, USNORTHCOM participate in Exercise Vigilant Shield 09
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Northern Command News
November 5, 2008

http://www. northcom. mil/News/2008/110508. html

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command will participate in Exercise Vigilant Shield 09 Nov.
12 - 18

The focus of VS09 is on homeland defense and civil support.
The exercise will include scenarios to achieve exercise objectives within the maritime, aerospace, ballistic missile defense, cyber, consequence management, strategic communications, and counter terrorism domains

VS09 will run concurrent with other Department of Defense-sponsored and international exercises to more realistically test the synchronized response of federal, state, local and international mission partners in preparation for homeland defense, homeland security and civil support missions in the United States and abroad

Concurrent exercises include U.S.
Strategic Command GLOBAL LIGHTNING 09 and BULWARK DEFENDER 09; Canada Command DETERMINED DRAGON; California National Guard VIGILANT GUARD; and the State of California GOLDEN GUARDIAN

VS09 is a Command Post Exercise.
During a CPX, many of the forces involved in the exercise are notional and most of the real forces and equipment are not deployed from their home bases

NORAD is the bi-national command charged with aerospace warning and control, missile warning as well as maritime for the United States and Canada

Formed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, USNORTHCOM is responsible for Homeland Defense and civil support missions


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US force in Iraq to cut brigade sooner than expected: officials
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AFP News
November 6, 2008

http://rawstory. com/news/afp/US_force_in_Iraq_to_cut_brigade_soo_1...

The US military has decided to reduce its total combat force in Iraq by a brigade to 14 brigades sooner than anticipated because of improved security conditions, the Pentagon said Thursday

The 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, which is based in northwest Baghdad, will begin withdrawing this month two months ahead of schedule, Pentagon officials said

The division's 3rd Brigade also is coming out this month and will not be replaced, which will shrink the size of the US force to 14 combat brigades, they said

The military command in Iraq said the moves were possible because of reduced violence

There are still 152,000 US troops in Iraq, only about 10,000 fewer than at the peak of a 30,000 troop surge earlier this year that halted the country's slide into civil war

Pentagon officials attribute the high troop numbers to overlapping force rotations, but said they were expected to settle at a lower level by early next year

The moves come as US and Iraqi officials are trying to conclude an agreement that will set forth a timetable for a withdrawal of all combat troops by the end of 2011

The so-called status of forces agreement will also provide a legal basis for the US military presence beyond the end of this year, when a UN mandate runs out

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the US side had accepted some changes to a draft agreement proposed by the Iraqis, but would not say what they were