California warns 2.2 million people via phone alerts before earthquake strikes

On Tuesday, 2.2 million Californians in the Bay Area received phone alerts that an earthquake was coming before it struck, the first use of a new statewide warning system that goes directly to people’s smartphones.

There were no reports of damage or injuries from the 5.1-magnitude earthquake, which struck a suburb of San Jose, California, but the system still alerted residents up to 19 seconds before they felt earthquakes, according to a press release. The vast majority of the alerts – 2.1 million – went directly to Android phones, as the state government negotiated directly with Google to integrate the alert technology into the operating system.

Another 95,000 users, including iPhone users using iOS, received the alert through California’s official earthquake warning app, MyShake, which receives alerts from California’s Office of Emergency Services (OES). The country is in talks with Apple, but neither side has announced when or whether this functionality will be included in its phone operating system.

“The state and federal government continues to work closely with technology partners, and we continue to hope that the technology will be included in all operating systems in the near future, including iOS,” OES spokesperson Brian Ferguson told CNET.

The alerts are based on readings from ShakeAlert, which is operated by the USGS and OES to analyze seismic activity and predict areas that could be affected. If the system’s algorithm predicts an earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or greater, that is, when the earthquakes begin to become dangerous, according to Ferguson, the OES sends alerts — ideally while giving people enough time to prepare.

“When it comes to earthquakes, seconds can save lives,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a press release. Newsom announced the creation of the Earthquake Early Warning System in 2019, and in 2020 revealed the country’s partnership with Google to send its alerts directly to Android phones.

The state’s MyShake app has been downloaded by about 2.1 million users, and the OES only alerts users who are in areas that will be affected by the current earthquake — in Tuesday’s case, that’s 95,000 or just under 5% of the user base. The app also interacts with the statewide monitoring system by notifying when the phone senses an earthquake, adding more data that can improve its predictive algorithms, and thus the ability to notify Californians of an upcoming earthquake.

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