New earthquake research revealed on the Great ShakeOut Day – CBS Los Angeles

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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – If the big hit hits people, they could be left without cell phone service – for weeks. This is what the latest earthquake research has shown and it may be nearly impossible to understand the damage in Southern California.

Thursday was “Great Farce Day” when emergency coordinators encouraged the public to prepare for the inevitable “big event” in California.

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Today, new research has been revealed that gives the public a sobering view of what life might look like after the “big life” on the San Andreas Fault.

New forecasts from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reveal that in the event of a major attack in the Bay Area — such as the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake — 93 percent of all cell phones would fail — possibly for weeks.

(Photo by Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images)

“Most cell towers in California have four hours of standby power,” said seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones. “If we lose electricity for longer than that, we will lose our ability to even text.”

The loss can paralyze 911 systems – making it impossible to communicate with the family.

“The system will overload. Sometimes you can’t get a call when you are in rush hour, you won’t get a call,” said Dr. Jones. “But text messages take up much less bandwidth. Lots and lots of text messages can go through where a phone call can’t.”

A virtual town hall at the California Institute of Technology erected Thursday with the latest models of what it would look like to be a 7.8-magnitude “big model” in Southern California with the epicenter in the Coachella Valley along the San Andreas River.

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The animation displayed terrifying progression, heavy energy, and intense shaking, sweeping across the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles Basin. The shaking continued nonstop for up to two minutes.

“A 7.8 on San Andreas, this is the Shake Out scenario that started the drills, and we’ve modeled 1,800 dead – half of them killed in the fires,” said Dr. Jones.

(Photo by Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images)

The latest models show a quarter of a million people displaced, 300,000 buildings severely damaged, 50,000 injured, and 1,800 dead.

The model shows that half of the deaths will be in fires. Firefighters may not be able to enter hard-hit neighborhoods, water pipes are breaking in northern Orange County, and the Los Angeles Basin, home to tens of thousands of densely packed wood-framed buildings, will burn hundreds of square blocks.

A 7 or 7.5 [magnitude earthquake] In Puente Hills, or Hollywood or Santa Monica – or Newport Englewood Vault. These have the potential to kill several thousand, said Dr. Jones.

Dr. Jones emphasizes that our state has been preparing for the big event for some time.

“California focused on the safety of life. That’s the important thing for us about earthquakes — you can’t kill someone. It could be a total financial loss, that’s your choice — but you can’t kill someone in the process,” said Dr. Jones. A very good job at not falling apart. Our biggest risk is from old buildings that are not up to current standards.”

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The latest models show that after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, there can be aftershocks for decades, greater than 6.0-magnitude.

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