School tests earthquake early warning system as part of Great Washington Shakeout

STANWOOD, Wash. — People across Washington state participated in the Great Washington Shakeout Thursday morning.

Eighteen years after the Nisqually earthquake and three months after a smaller quake in Monroe, state leaders once again reminded people to “drop, cover and hold on.”

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For the first time, a school took part in a pilot program for the ShakeAlert system, a new program that would send people an alert on their smartphones to give them some advanced warning that an earthquake is about to hit. The system is not yet available to everyone.

But instead of using phones for the drill, Stanwood Elementary School’s PA system was wired into the ShakeAlert system. The school received the alert at 10:17 a.m. Thursday, the time when the drill happened across the state.

Stanwood Elementary is the first school to have ShakeAlert built in.  Bill Steele with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network said the school sits near two active faults, which have sensors to detect ground motion.

Students practiced how to quickly get to safety after getting the warning.

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"(The warning) could be just a few seconds up to maybe 30 to 40 seconds, or maybe as much as a minute or two for a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake," said Steele.

The Cascadia subduction zone could produce the "big one," and the system could potentially give students minutes to prepare.

Stanwood-Camano Schools will have ShakeAlert district-wide.

KIRO 7 recently profiled University of Washington scientists who received a grant to get the system ready to use.

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“Over half the injuries and losses during earthquakes occur when things fall on people or people fall. By getting in a safe place ready to ride through the earthquake, you can prevent all those injuries,” said Steele.

Officials with the Seismic Network said the ShakeAlert app for Washington is not far off. 
By this time next year, there could be an early warning app available for everyone. It could take longer to get the system tied in to schools around the state.

For more information about how ShakeAlert works, visit this link.  https://www.shakealert.org/faq/

Cox Media Group