When it comes to educating people about earthquake preparedness, California has some of the most skillful and experienced individuals and organizations committed toward this common goal. And, their work is being noticed. On Nov. 1, during the 10th Anniversary of the ShakeOut earthquake drill in Long Beach, many organizations and individuals, including CEA, received special recognition from the Earthquake Country Alliance for our focus on increasing earthquake education in California. CEA was honored to receive the award, which highlighted our decade of commitment and successful statewide promotion and support of the ShakeOut drill, focusing on the collective effort to educate Californians how to stay safe when the ground shakes.
CEA has been an active participant and supporter of the Great California ShakeOut drill over the past decade. To date, CEA has actively participated in delivering information about the drill through numerous media tactics. Some of those tactics include working with celebrities, like Mario Lopez to record PSAs about earthquake safety; and conducting television and radio interviews to promote ShakeOut in English and Spanish. Part of CEA’s mission is to teach residents how to prepare to survive and recover from the next damaging quake. This effort has been solidified over the years with each community-oriented meeting or event that CEA has actively participated in, the strong relationships developed with other industry experts, as well as the innovative multi-media outreach CEA has performed statewide.
This year, our collaborative efforts contributed to the participation of 10.4 million Californians during the ShakeOut drill that took place on October 18. CEA team members traveled to the two major drill locations held in Berkeley and Los Angeles to engage with hundreds of community members and the local media to help spread the word about California’s earthquake risk. Our message was centered around the importance of earthquake insurance as well as seismic retrofitting to reduce the potential for financial loss and be able to recover from a damaging earthquake. Another key part of this preparedness effort was showing the community how to properly execute the drill properly, following the three key steps during an earthquake: Drop, Cover, and Hold On.
Working closely with likeminded organizations to reach more Californians who need to understand their risk and how to be prepare for a quake, the ShakeOut drill creates the opportunity to maintain strong relationships and collaboration with other subject matter experts, stakeholders and leaders with the common goal of creating more resilient communities able to quickly recover after a damaging earthquake.