The next major California Earthquake might only be days away right now. The past few days have been small shaker after small shaker after small shaker including several right in the heart of Los Angeles and many right in the immediate vicinity of San Francisco and Oakland. As a general rule just all of the little shocks alone might be enough to indicate there is something major coming.
While there has just recently been a judgment against several Seismology people at L’Aquila, Italy, it now forces us to ask the question of what should we be doing here in the United States given basically the same circumstances? Of course the present series of small shakers is not exactly the same circumstances, what would we do if someone in California just so happened to come up with a high radon reading similar to the conditions that preceded the 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake? Absent similar laws as Italy probably not much. That is not to say folks in California might spend their time better by drinking expensive wine, which was one of the statements charged to the Seismologists in L’Aquila. Rather, it may be time to start thinking more along the lines of some serious earthquake preparation.
With today being November 17, 2012 this potential next major California earthquake should be striking in about the next week or so. It should be in the range of 7 to 7.9 Richters and should strike between Los Angeles and San Francisco and by the looks of the fairly big series of foreshocks it looks like all of this earthquake energy is really headed there and right on time, too! Best case scenario we just get a series of medium sized earthquakes such as was what I refer to as the Mettler Swarm back on September 22, 2005 listed here: http://www.scsn.org/2005mettler.html as a series of 12 earthquakes in the range of 1.9 to 4.7 Richters that struck over about 35 minutes near Wheeler Ridge, California. That intense series of earthquakes probably released about the same amount of major earthquake energy as this now upcoming earthquake, but over the better part of an hour of ground movement rather than one huge jolt which all by itself might have been one good 7 Richters shaker just south of Bakersfield.
I have been asked a few times just recently by people who wanted to know what they should do? Is there an earthquake heading for them and what does that mean for them and their families? In answer to those questions it occurred to me that it might be time to organize folks who will be needed at the epicenter for rescue operations. Everybody should have flashlights handy and keep them nearby and with fresh batteries, too! Public officials might, if not this time then in the future, have some kind of a plan at the ready for the moment this or any major earthquake strikes and be able to immediately call or radio the other members of the response team with all of the important information. I personally turn immediately to my own personal transistor radio and have listened intently to KNX in Los Angeles for the latest updates on exactly where the earthquake has struck, this will hopefully be of some help to first responders who head right out to where the help is needed the most. Finally they like to say to have a few days worth of food and water on hand because that is how long it might be before such services are restored.
Whether or not this earthquake strikes California this time or not, we will need to be far better organized than we are right now! We will need a lot of answers right now for a lot of these questions that I am only able to give rough outlines for answers, and eventually with the state of earthquake prediction being what it is right now we will need to take some of these alerts far more seriously and be prepared for real at some point! I want you all to understand full well that this is not the time to be relaxing and drinking expensive wine. . . it is the time to start being prepared for the next major California Earthquake! Thank-You for reading!!! The EQ Alert Guy
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