At 10:20 a.m. on October 20, 2016, millions of people “Dropped, Covered, and Held On” in The Great Central U.S. ShakeOut, the region’s largest earthquake drill ever! Participating locally was the Douglas County Amateur Radio Club (D.C.A.R.) which held a net on their repeater at 145.150 (-) PL 162.2.
As we were reminded last month, major earthquakes can happen anywhere you live, work, or travel. On September 3, 2016, Oklahoma had its strongest earthquake on record measuring a magnitude 5.8. Many of us throughout the Springfield, Missouri County Warning Area felt this quake – some of us in our western counties quite strongly
The annual ShakeOut drills serve as a chance to practice how to protect ourselves and for everyone to become prepared. The goal is to prevent a major earthquake from becoming a catastrophe.
A “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” drill is important because it teaches us to respond quickly since we may only have seconds to protect ourselves in an earthquake before strong shaking knocks us down, or something falls on us.
Millions of people worldwide have participated in Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills since 2008. The Great Central U.S. ShakeOut is now held on the third Thursday of October each year. If you missed this year’s ShakeOut, there’s always next year. In the meantime, here are some tips on how you and your family can be prepared:
Get Prepared for Earthquakes
• Do a “hazard hunt” for items that might fall during earth
quakes and secure them.
• Create a personal or family disaster plan.
• Organize or refresh your emergency supply kits.
• Identify and correct any issues in your home’s structure.
• Other actions are at www.earthquakecountry.org.