County Residents, Businesses Take Part in Statewide Quake Drill

RIVERSIDE - Workers at Riverside County government offices, businesses, schools and other organizations will stop everything for a minute today to ''drop, cover and hold on'' as part of a statewide earthquake preparedness drill.

The Great California ShakeOut of 2014 is scheduled for 10:16 a.m.

According to organizers, the exercise provides an opportunity for workers in the public and private sectors, school kids, families and others to practice simple measures intended to improve safety in the event of a major quake.

According to the ShakeOut website, 10.3 million Californians are slated to participate in the drill. In 2013, there were around 9.6 million participants.

In Riverside County, 629,576 people have registered so far. Municipalities on the list include Banning, Cathedral City, Coachella, Eastvale, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Riverside.

UC Riverside and the Riverside Community College District campuses, the Mt. San Jacinto Community College District, the Coachella Valley Unified School District, Desert Sands Unified School District, Lake Elsinore Unified School District, Murrieta Valley Unified School District, Palm Springs Unified School District and several dozen other districts, private and charter schools will also have students take part.

According to ShakeOut.org, the objective is to instill awareness about what precautions to take during a 7.8-magnitude or larger quake along the southernmost area of the San Andreas fault.

Officials say such a tectonic shift could produce waves of movement for hundreds of miles over four minutes. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, some 2,000 people would die, tens of thousands would be injured and more than $200 billion in damage would result from the catastrophe, which would have 50 times the intensity of the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge earthquake.

Hundreds of aftershocks would follow, a few of them nearly as big as the original event, according to the USGS.

Californians should be prepared to be self-sufficient for 72 hours following an earthquake or other major disaster. That includes having a first- aid kit, medications, food and enough water for each member of a household to drink one gallon per day for at least 72 hours, according to local and state officials.

Homeowners and renters should also know how to turn off the gas in their house or apartment in case of leaks.

''We all must get better prepared for major earthquakes and practice how to protect ourselves when they happen,'' said county Office of Emergency Services Director Peter Lent. ''The purpose of the Great California ShakeOut is to help people and organizations do both.''