LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Two months after Lake County experienced one of the major earthquakes in its history, thousands of residents will join millions of other Californians in taking part in a statewide earthquake preparedness drill on Thursday.

The Great California ShakeOut – which takes place on Oct. 20, which is International ShakeOut Day – will include a drill at 10:20 a.m. during which participants will practice how to “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” during an earthquake.

The annual drill began in California in 2008.

The event's Web site estimates that 10.6 million people are taking part this year, up slightly over last year.

Of those, 58,037 participants are on the North Coast, which includes 8,250 people in Lake County.

Local participants also will include 700 county employees and 500 state employees.

Sheriff Brian Martin said county staff will be participating in the morning drill, which will take place during the Lake County Disaster Council, which will meet beginning at 10 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.

The Great California Shakeout estimates that 6,270 participants in Lake County will participate in all of the local school districts, as well as one private school, Konocti Christian Academy in Lakeport.

Rob Young, the emergency preparedness director for the Lake County Office of Education, told Lake County News that the agency will run an active one-minute drill on Thursday at 10:20 a.m.

He said an announcement will go out through the public address system that states the following: “This is an earthquake drill. During a real earthquake you would complete the 'Drop, Cover and Hold On' action during the quake and for up to a minute after the quake has ended.”

Once the simulated quake drill is over, participants will be directed to meet at the designated safe area outside of the building, literature will be handed out to participants and they will discuss if work and classroom spaces are prepared for heavy shaking, if people know escape routes, can they account for staff and students, have they planned for their family and asked if they are prepared to serve as a disaster service worker, Young said.

Young said they are projecting the drill to end around 10:30 a.m., pending the amount of questions.

More than 200 people in the local health care industry will participate in Thursday's drill. Spokeswoman Cambria Wheeler confirmed that St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, its clinics around the county and St. Helena Konocti Wellness Center at Lower Lake High School will participate. Meadowood Nursing Center in Clearlake also is registered, according to the event Web site.

Preparing for earthquakes is important all over California, and here in Lake County as well, where earthquakes are a common occurrence.

That's especially true in the Cobb area, where seismicity has increased in the last few decades due to wastewater injection at The Geysers, the world's largest geothermal steamfield located on the Lake/Sonoma County border.

And then there was the 5.1-magnitude earthquake that occurred on Aug. 9, 11 miles north northeast of Upper Lake, as Lake County News has reported.

The US Geological Survey reported receiving nearly 1,100 shake reports from from all over Northern California and as far south as Bakersfield.

An extensive search of the US Geological Survey online database records going back to 1900, as well as California Geological Survey records that stretched back to 1800, yielded no other quakes as large reported within Lake County's boundaries.

Tony Pierucci, curator of the Lake County Museum system, said so far he's not come across accounts in the museum holdings of very large earthquakes centered in Lake County over the past century.

One earthquake that local historical records attest caused serious damage – but wasn't centered in Lake County – was the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated San Francisco that occurred early on the morning of April 18, 1906.

The 1906 quake caused walnut trees to shake in Upper Lake; in Lakeport, it caused the collapse of the Masonic Hall and damaged the Lakeview and Giselman hotels; damaged the original bell tower as well as the roof on the Lower Lake Schoolhouse; and did other damage to residences around the county.

“We're still uncovering all that there actually is at the museums so info might be out there but we have not come across it,” Pierucci said.

The Great California Shakeout comes just weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown signed new legislation to help California be more prepared in the case of large earthquakes.

On Sept. 29 Brown signed SB 438 by State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) to establish the California Earthquake Early Warning Program and Advisory Board within the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to advance the implementation of the program and spur further investment in the early warning system.

Similar earthquake early warning systems are in place in Mexico, China and Japan. Other countries also are developing such systems.

Under the legislation, an Earthquake Early Warning Program business plan will be developed and submitted to the Legislature by Feb. 1, 2018.

“We’ve seen the devastation earthquakes have caused in California,” said Gov. Brown. “This keeps us on track to build a statewide warning system that can potentially save lives.”

“The early earthquake warning system will help save lives,” said Sen. Hill.

Gov. Brown in 2013 signed SB 135 that mandated the creation of a statewide earthquake warning system led by Cal OES and in conjunction with partner organizations from the California Integrated Seismic Network, the private sector and all levels of government.

Earlier this year, the governor also directed $10 million to Cal OES in the 2016-17 state budget to further expand the state’s earthquake early warning system prototype, called ShakeAlert, the Governor's Office reported.
 
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