It was less than two weeks ago that UCI proudly received national media attention for the world’s largest pillow fight in history. Now, our campus has yet another opportunity this week to set a world record for the largest number of anteaters to ever shake-it-out together in this year’s annual statewide (and worldwide) earthquake exercise. On Thursday, October 16th at 10:16 a.m. our students, staff and faculty are encouraged to join the 10.1 million other Californians in practicing Drop, Cover, and Hold On for one minute as we simulate responding to a 7.8 magnitude earthquake along the San Andreas Fault.
Most of us know that southern California is “earthquake country” and each October, during the Great ShakeOut, we collectively participate in this opportunity to practice personal safety measures and to spend 60 seconds reflecting on the reality of this risk. This one minute could potentially save your life during a real event. If you think about how many cumulative hours we spend each year practicing other safety precautions such as buckling our seatbelts, waiting at crosswalk signals, locking our doors, clearing fire hazards, paying insurance premiums, etc. it reinforces that this small investment of time is well worth its potential return.
A campus wide zotALERT notification will be sent at 10:16 a.m. reminding everyone to participate. Whether you are in a lab, classroom, or office, Drop, Cover, and Hold On, wherever you are when you receive the alert. If there is no table or desk near you, drop to the ground and then, if possible, move to an inside corner of the room away from any windows. Be in a crawling position to protect yourself and cover your head and neck with your hands and arms. DO NOT move to another location or run outside. Earthquakes occur without any warning and may be so violent that you cannot run or crawl. Visit www.dropcoverholdon.org to learn what to do in other settings. You can also visit http://www.shakeout.org/california/index.html for more information about this exercise.
We may not make it in to the Guinness Book for this one but we will be a much safer, prepared and resilient community for it.
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