Central Coast residents urged to take part in Earthquake Preparedness Month

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - People who live on the Central Coast are being urged by both the state and local Offices of Emergency Services (OES) to take part in Earthquake Preparedness Month.

The month-long effort is a campaign that brings awareness of the importance of planning and being ready for an earthquake before one strikes.

California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) is hoping people throughout the state will take time in April to prepare for a significant earthquake, noting it's only a matter of time when a significant quake will strike.

"We cannot stress enough that it's important that people remain vigilant and practice the preparedness to stay ready for in the event of an earthquake, because we just don't know when they might occur," said Derek Lambeth, California Earthquake Early Warning Program Manager. "As folks may know or may not, we are subject to about 10,000 earthquakes a day here in California. However, we may only feel a few of those, however, and it's very important for people to take the necessary steps to prepare themselves."

To help people prepare, California OES is encouraging people to sign up for local alerts which include the California Earthquake Early Warning System.

The free app provides an alert that can deliver information about an earthquake happening, giving users potentially critical life-saving seconds to take protective action. 

"Through several of our partners in the California Integrated Seismic Network, there are seismic stations throughout the state that are all tuned in to the ShakeAlert signal, which is powered by our partners at USGS, and as soon as they recognize a rupture, of course, we're not at the point where we can predict earthquakes, so once we recognize a fault rupture, it quickly sends out a signal to all of those that have the My Shake app and other applications to receive local alerts."

For more information about California's early warning system and the MyShake app, click here.