The Utah Legislature must take earthquake risks seriously

Imagine a massive earthquake. Books, plates and vases fly off the shelves. Window glass shatters. The ground tilts beneath your feet.

Imagine, after this horror, hearing that your local elementary school has completely collapsed. The children are trapped inside. Maybe they are your children or grandchildren. Maybe they are a friend's children. Maybe you don't know them at all. But you know the most important thing is to get them out. Even if you are bloody or bruised, you will find a way to reach that school for help.

This is not an unlikely scenario for 119 communities across the state. More than 70,000 K-12 students in Utah attend schools with at least one unreinforced building (URM), which is vulnerable to collapse in the event of an earthquake. Built brick on brick or stone on stone, without steel reinforcement, the walls of URM structures can literally be shaken to pieces.

In 2016, the USGS estimated that in the next 50 years, the Wasatch Front has a 57% chance of an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or higher, and a 43% chance of an earthquake of magnitude 6.75 or higher.

Historically, large earthquakes along the Wasatch Front have been around magnitude 7.0. That's 90 times stronger than the 5.7 Magna earthquake that many Utahns remember so vividly from March 2020.

Even this relatively small earthquake caused significant damage to school buildings. Bricks were blown off the facade of Silver Crest Elementary School. West Lake STEM Junior High School had to be demolished. Fortunately, no one was harmed due to school closures due to the Corona virus.

We were not ready. We were lucky.

The Utah Earthquake Safety Commission explained the risks to Utah schools — in graphic detail — to the Legislature. What did our representatives do? Instead of taking action, they shot the messenger: they voted to dissolve the committee entirely.

Lawmakers also allocated $100 million for new security measures at schools to stop would-be shooters. But what about the $4 million — recommended by the Utah Earthquake Safety Commission — to determine which URM schools should be upgraded and which should be rebuilt?

Of course, school security is important. School shootings have shortened the lives of young people, destroyed families, and terrorized communities.

So do natural disasters that strike weak schools.

Just ask the residents of Moore, Oklahoma, where seven third-graders died in 2013 when a tornado destroyed Plaza Towers Elementary School, a brick building constructed in 1966 that lacked the kind of “safe space” required by state laws. Current construction. Or the families of more than 5,000 schoolchildren who died in substandard school buildings in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China.

However, the state refuses to fund earthquake preparedness in schools. Why? Because this argument is that school districts are under local control and must fund their own infrastructure.

“It's not our problem,” the legislature says. But we want everyone to make school earthquake safety their problem. You have to make it your problem. Since 70,000 students are at risk in schools, we are asking them to attend. That's 20,000 more than Rice-Eccles Football Stadium (or, if you're bleeding blue, that's 7,000 more than Lavelle Edwards Stadium).

Individual parents and community members need to make this their problem. PTAs need to make it their problem. The legislator must make this problem their problem. Gov. Spencer Cox needs to make this his problem.

Failure to act creates serious equality issues. The result of the insistence that local districts assess — and pay for — their earthquake preparedness is that in recent years, many high-income school districts have built new, state-of-the-art facilities to replace their dangerous older buildings. Meanwhile, students in low-income areas are left to attend unsafe schools.

Last year, the Utah PTA passed a resolution calling on Utahns to address seismic safety in schools. You can follow their example by going to earthquake.utah.gov to see if schools in your area are safe.

If they aren't, talk to your local school officials, your school community board, and your local PTA. Let them know how important earthquake safety is at school. And if it's safe, take a long look at the list of at-risk schools across the state. Express your concern for the safety of all Utah schools.

Write or call your state representatives. Ask the Legislature to act immediately to improve the seismic safety of every school. Appeal for funding to evaluate URM buildings in low-income areas and rebuild or modernize these structures.

Lawmakers and citizens alike must stand up for students now, just as we were showing up in the moment of crisis. Let's show up to keep kids safe from dangerous school buildings. Let's save these students today – before they need to be rescued with shovels and ambulances tomorrow.

(Sierra Sun) Sierra Sun is a high school student in Sandy.

Sierra Sun is a high school student in Sandy. I have worked on earthquake safety issues in schools for the past five years as a member of Jane Goodall USA's National Roots & Shoots Youth Council.

The Salt Lake Tribune is committed to creating a space where Utahns can share ideas, perspectives and solutions that move our state forward. We depend on your vision to do this. Learn how to share your opinion here, and email us at [email protected].

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