Budget cuts could end state earthquake warning system
“At the moment, the proposed budget from the department of interior has no provision for the Shakealert system in the future,” stated Dr. Thomas Heaton, Professor of Engineering Seismology at Caltech.
While currently supported financially both through the private sector and federally, Heaton noted, “the government is very important for organizing things that are of the public good so the government has an important role in this the same way they do in hurricane warnings and tornado warnings”.
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President Trump’s proposed changes for the 2018 fiscal year includes large cuts towards scientific research. Never have been fully funded before, the 16 million dollar budget would progress the implementation of the entire west coast system.
Doug Given, USGS Coordinator for Earthquake Early Warning, explained, “one of the reasons the U.S. doesn’t have an earthquake early warning system today is we haven’t had a large killer earthquake”.
Countries such as Mexico, Japan, Turkey, Taiwan, Korea and China all developed their alert systems shortly after a destructive earthquake.
“The Japanese have a very advanced earthquake alerting system and the funding for that really came up after the 1995 Kobe earthquake and certainly after the Tohoku earthquake in 2011. Their funding has been even stronger as is their support. There’s a system in Mexico that was put into place after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake,” Heaton continued.
“So we’re making really good progress and we hope that the funding continues so we don’t have to slow down or stop the project”
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