by Vince Beiser, Communication & Marketing Volunteer
Scott Underwood from the Red Cross Los Angeles Region was part of a So. Calif. delegation that recently visited Chile to learn first-hand about that country's response to the February earthquake. (Photograph by Nancy Carrillo)
The massive earthquake and tsunami that hammered Chile in February killed more than 500 people, left 800,000 homeless and caused $30 billion in damages — and provided a grimly detailed forecast of what a similar quake might do to Southern California.
“It’s about as comparable as you can get to what would happen if a big quake hit Los Angeles and San Diego,” said Dr. Lucile Jones, chief scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. And that, she points out, could happen any time.
Which is why Jones joined a fact-finding delegation from Southern California, including representatives from the American Red Cross Los Angeles Region, on a week-long trip to Chile in late July to learn first-hand about the country’s response to the quake. The local group met with more than 20 officials from Chilean emergency response organizations, including the President’s office.
Massive as the devastation was there, it was far less than that suffered by Haiti just six weeks earlier. That’s partly because of where the quakes were centered in the two countries, but it’s also because of Chile’s long experience with quakes.
The country sits in an extremely active earthquake zone and is often slammed with tremendous temblors, including the most powerful one ever recorded — a magnitude 9.5 in 1960. As a result, building codes are stringent, and many locals knew to evacuate coastal areas immediately in anticipation of a tsunami.
Chilean officials admitted, however, that the government’s response was badly hampered by a lack of preparation and coordination. No supplies were cached for immediate use; when the government began delivering boxes of food and shelter items, it was somewhat haphazard.
Chile’s experience, says Michael Kleiner, Emergency and Disaster Response director of the Red Cross Los Angeles Region, underscores the critical importance of emergency preparation – from the institutional to the individual level.
“What we saw in Chile affirms that we’re on the right track and underscores the importance of individual preparedness,” said Kleiner. “People need to be able to take care of themselves and their families for at least three days.”
The local Red Cross is preparing to shelter and feed hundreds of thousands of displaced people if a catastrophic disaster occurs here. There are currently 85 containers of mass care supplies pre-positioned around the county, said Kleiner, but the Red Cross hopes to add many more by pursuing additional preparedness grant funding.
The trip’s participants will soon produce a report detailing what lessons Chile’s experience holds for California. There are plenty, says Jones: “There was nothing we saw there that wouldn’t happen here in a big quake.”
For more information about preparing yourself, your family, your business or school for an earthquake, please visit PrepareLA.org.
