Join other OSU faculty, staff and students in the Great Oregon Shake Out!

At 10:17 a.m. on Oct. 17, join the rest of Oregon and the nation and Drop, Cover, and Hold-On for 60 seconds to simulate the response to an earthquake.  A text and email from the OSU Alert system will start the drill, and after a minute, the drill is completed.

Participation is voluntary but encouraged.  In previous years, several campus classes and organizations have:

• Made participation a small group class project, to include a 5-minute research presentation.
• Made a class project to have students, wherever they are, encourage those around them to Drop, Cover, Hold-On (proof provided by videotaping the activity).
• Prepared informational materials for staff/faculty/students.

As part of the monthly OSU Emergency Preparedness Learning sessions, October’s fact sheet will review the response to earthquakes and other preparedness points – Great talking tips to present on Oct. 17, right before the Drop, Cover, and Hold-On event!

There will be a PowerPoint sent on Monday, Oct. 14, that can be used in offices and classrooms to introduce the earthquake drill.  It even has a 60-second timer to help run the drill.

If you participate, please complete our Qualtrics Survey https://beav.es/p85 or send a count of participants to OSU Emergency Preparedness (emergency@oregonstate.edu) so we can update the OSU participation tally on the Shake Out website.

Additional information and the PowerPoint about the Shake Out can be found at:

• https://emergency.oregonstate.edu/emergency-preparedness/great-shakeout
• https://www.shakeout.org/oregon/

Background:

Oregon is subjected to earthquakes daily, but the largest event forecasted has yet to occur within our lifetime.  The Cascadia Subduction zone (CSZ) earthquake is forecasted to be a 9.0 or higher and to last for 5-7 minutes, followed by a 30-50 foot tsunami at the coast.

Response to earthquakes is simple but important for everyone to perform correctly and automatically.  When the shaking is felt, drop low to the ground, seek overhead cover to protect yourself from falling debris and hold on to the cover so it does not move away from you.  When the shaking has stopped, cautiously exit the building, watching for falling objects.

For more CSZ and earthquake information, please refer to these websites:

• http://geology.about.com/od/quake_preparedness/a/aa_cascadiaEQ.htm
• http://www.crew.org/earthquake-information/history-of-earthquakes-in-cascadia
• https://extension.oregonstate.edu/cascadia-earthquake-preparedness