Hundreds of thousands of people in Washington State dropped, covered and held on Thursday morning.
At 10:15 a.m., students, organizations and businesses across the state practiced what to do during and right after an earthquake.
The Great Washington ShakeOut is an annual event. http://shakeout.org/washington/
Fifth graders at John Hay Elementary School in Seattle showed how they "drop, cover and hold on." John Hay's principal told KIRO 7 why drills throughout the year are so important.
"In an emergency, the brain tends to shut down. If the earth was moving and things were scary and loud, I want the kids to know they go under the desk, they cover their heads, and they get to a safe place," said principal Tami Beach.
John Hay's staff whisked 501 students out of the building in just 3 minutes.
In recent years, Seattle schools have made the buildings better-equipped for earthquakes, from seismic upgrades to building remodels.
People on the north Olympic Peninsula will heard tsunami sirens blaring as part of the drill.
Sirens in Jefferson County and coastal Washington towns sounded for 3 minutes as well.
Earlier this year, people rushed to buy earthquake survival kits after a New Yorker article warned of a massive quake.
The article presented the nightmare of an impending 9.0 magnitude earthquake and warned that everything west of I-5 would be destroyed and as many as 13,000 people could die.
The national exposure raised awareness and added urgency to building an early warning system.
Eventually, the system could give people anywhere between 1 to 5 minutes of warning.
Currently, 20 local businesses and government agencies get alerts as part of the test project.
KIRO
