Oregon's Earthquake Early Warning System celebrates 3 years

The system began operating 10 years to the day after the devastating earthquake that struck Japan, killing thousands.

Portland, Oregon —

If a big earthquake occurred today, would you have a plan?

If you set up your phone to receive ShakeAlert warnings, you may have a few extra moments to put this plan into action before the ground starts moving.

The ShakeAlert system launched in Oregon on March 11, 2021, a decade after the devastating earthquake in Japan.

“ShakeAlert arrives in Oregon 10 years after the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which served as a wake-up call for those of us on the West Coast facing the imminent threat of a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake,” said Oregon Division of Emergency Management Director Erin McMahon. “ShakeAlert is a life-saving tool that can provide critical seconds of warning before we feel the effects of an earthquake, alerting people to protect themselves.”

To be clear, ShakeAlert is not an earthquake prediction system. Instead, it uses a network of more than 200 seismic stations, strategically located throughout Oregon, to detect earthquakes when they happen and send warnings to residents, agencies and government institutions before tremors begin.

The system, operated by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and the USGS, has already proven effective, said Leland O'Driscoll, associate director of the Oregon Hazards Laboratory at the University of Oregon.

“The largest earthquake was in the Ferndale area of ​​Northern California,” he said, referring to a large earthquake that occurred in December of 2022 near the Oregon/California border. “It was such a large earthquake, about a magnitude 7, that people in Brookings and Gold Beach and in the Medford area got more than 60 seconds of warning.”

This type of warning could give residents time to “land, take cover and hold on,” O'Driscoll said.

But this type of warning has other, more far-reaching benefits as well. It could give hospitals time to switch to generators so patient care isn't interrupted by power outages. It can give train operators time to stop and potentially avoid derailments. An early warning window can also give utilities time to shut down their systems.

“In the city of Lake Oswego, they have controls for wastewater and water plants that will immediately allow for safeguards that maintain infrastructure and allow for faster recovery,” O'Driscoll said.

Of course, you will only get these alerts if your phone is set up to receive them. Notifications are enabled by default on many phones, but it's worth checking to be sure.

For most operating systems, including iPhone and Android, you can go to Settings, then Notifications, then scroll down to Emergency Alerts. There should be an option to enable alerts.

If you want to take a slightly more glamorous route, there are standalone apps, like MyShake, that can be downloaded for free.

O'Driscoll stressed that early warnings are only one aspect of earthquake preparedness. The last time a large earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone, capable of producing tremors as strong as the Tohoku quake, struck, was just over 300 years ago.

The region has produced strong earthquakes at least seven times over the past 3,500 years, so it's a question of if the next ones will hit, not when.

Experts recommend having a seismic kit that contains enough food and water, as well as any medications, to last two weeks.

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