Whole Lot a Shaking Going On: Earthquake Expert Says Quake Activity Building Up
Pastor Dale Morgan
Whole Lot a Shaking Going On: Earthquake Expert Says Quake Activity
Building Up*
Updated: Oct 01, 2009 3:28 PM PDT
More than 1,100 people have died because of a massive 7.6 magnitude
earthquake that shook Indonesia 24 hours ago. On Tuesday, a giant
earthquake near the American Samoan Islands caused death and destruction
and the western United States has seen two sizable earthquakes since
10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
On Thursday earthquakes have shaken parts of California and Nevada. The
biggest quake was just 140 miles west of Las Vegas in Keeler, California
it certainly has experts on earthquakes in Las Vegas taking notice.
There are several major faults running through Southern Nevada including
one less than a mile from the Las Vegas Strip.
Those have earthquake expert Burt Slemmons watching closely. "It could
be building up here and in California," he said. Slemmons has been
chasing fault lines for 55 years. He is a retired professor from UNR.
Slemmons helped route and design the Alaskan pipeline so it could
survive a magnitude seven earthquake. He says Las Vegas could have one
anytime and he predicts it will be a 6.0 or larger.
"I have earthquake tape and putty under potentially toppling articles. I
have anchored my bookcases which is one of the major kinds of damage."
He says Las Vegas has six to eight faults that could cause an earthquake
large enough to injure people and damage buildings. That's the reason
Clark County has an earthquake plan. The fire department would be the
lead agency.
"The first thing we are going to do after an earthquake is we are going
to pull all of our fire trucks, ladders, and rescues out of the stations
onto the ramp or front drive to get them out of the building in case
there are aftershocks," said Scott Allison, Clark County Fire Department.
Their playbook then dictates the fire department will test radios and do
a site survey of the damage to see if any rescues need to be made. They
will mobilize other county departments as needed.
It's all spelled out because people like Slemmons say Las Vegas must be
as prepared. Leaders in Southern Nevada are so serious about earthquakes
that they tested the plan. Last year, 75 people from the county and fire
department went to Maryland for a tabletop exercise testing the flow of
information and coordination between agencies.