How would the Coachella Valley react to a major earthquake?
Most famously Dr. Lucy Jones said our fault, the San Andreas, is 10 months pregnant, but what does that really mean to us here in the Coachella Valley?
Well, first of all, it means preparedness is key, and most of us are not. Do you have enough supplies in your home to take care of your family for 3 days? 5? What if I told you it might be 7 to 10 days before significant help might arrive?
Check out our special section: Earthquake Alert
The earthquake has been well imagined, and the potential horrors well chronicled.
The shape and geological make-up of our valley means we could see an entirely different kind of damage than the rest of Southern California, and it’s not all about magnitude.
“Magnitude is not a very good way to talk or think about Earthquakes, even though that’s what everyone does,” said Dr. Dennis Mileti, Human Behavioral Scientist. Magnitude is very much the result of the length of fault rupture, what really matters is the severity of the shaking, the intensity of the shaking and the duration of the shaking.
Of course, valley cities have been preparing for years for just such a catastrophe.
Rancho Mirage has a well-established emergency preparedness committee, which works with communities throughout the city to ensure that there are people prepared to help.
“Every tuesday night at 7pm we have a radio drill where a number of people on the emergency preparedness commission have radios and make contact with officials from the different HOAs,” said Rancho Mirage City Councilmember Iris Smotrich.
The devastation that is expected will exceed our wildest imaginations, for many reasons, so having your own family prepared is vital. Help may not be on the way for many days.
“That means you’ll have the amount of water and food to drink and eat that you’ve put aside on your own. No one will be giving you anything. Our emergency responders will be so overwhelmed, it will be as if we don’t have them.” said Dr. Mileti.
That’s why organization at the community level is so important.
“This is is something where everyone needs to be prepared, needs to be aware. and not think that you can just run to a shelter. people don’t realize that all these (potential) shelters need to be inspected before they are opened,” said Councilmember Smotrich.
Knowing how the Valley’s infrastructure will react in a major quake is important. equally important, if not more so, is knowing how the valley’s residents will react, there have been a number of studies done on just that question, and the answers may surprise you.
“We know how people will react, it’s been studied extensively, not only in California but in the rest of the country and around the world, that we can say, with a very high degree of confidence, what human reaction and behavior will be like,” said Dr. Mileti.
“First of all, people are not going to panic. They’re not going to loot and they’re not going to steal from other victims, disasters like the one we’re going to have absolutely bring out the best in humanity. 95 percent of the victims in great urban earthquakes are rescued by other victims.”
So when the disaster strikes (and it will strike) the impending crisis will bring out the best, not the worst, in people. That means that despite the lack of supplies, resources, and emergency services, the valley will be able to overcome 7 to 10 days of isolation, as we all pull together to help one another.
The warnings are dire. The threat is real, and likely coming sooner than any of us cares to imagine.
