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Unusual Earthquake Warning Prompts Action & Anxiety In Southern California
Topic Started: Oct 5 2016, 02:11 AM (5 Views)
Webster
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MSN News: Unusual earthquake warning prompts action, anxiety in Southern California
Quote:
 
Southern Californians learn to live with the risk of earthquakes.
But over the last week, anxieties were particularly heightened, and the natural denial that is part of living in earthquake country was harder to pull off.

A swarm of seismic activity at the Salton Sea that began a week ago prompted scientists to say there was an elevated risk for a big San Andreas fault earthquake. By Tuesday, that risk had lessened, and the California governor's Office of Emergency Service said that the earthquake advisory period was over.

But the impact of that warning was still being felt. For some, it meant checking quake safety lists. Others looked at preparing for the Big One, such as bolting bookshelves to walls, installing safety latches on kitchen cabinets and strapping down televisions.

San Bernardino, which is on the San Andreas Fault, took the unprecedented step of closing down City Hall through Tuesday over concerns about how the structure would fare in the big quake.

"We haven't had an alert like this," Mark Scott, San Bernardino's city manager, said. "We're not trying to suggest that the alert is an impending catastrophe. We're just trying to use an abundance of caution. We care about the safety of the public and our employees."

The city had already been planning to vacate the seven-story building within the next few months.

The City Hall building was constructed before the Sylmar earthquake in 1971, according to Scott. After that earthquake, he said, seismic codes changed significantly.

"Other earthquakes have changed California seismic codes even further, to the point where the current City Hall building in San Bernardino is an example of everything you would not build today," Scott said.

A 2007 report noted the potential instability of the building in the event of a major earthquake, Scott said.

The estimated cost of retrofitting the building is more than $20 million, Scott said.

"For a bankrupt city, that's a tough challenge," Scott said. "We're looking at alternative approaches, rather than doing $20 million worth of work."
-Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/unusual-earthquake-warning-prompts-action-anxiety-in-southern-california/ar-BBwZBwl
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