It is hard to believe that twenty years have passed since the January 17, 1994 morning when I and my family were awakened early in the morning, thrown out of bed and held on to the bed for dear life. Simi Valley was just miles from the epicenter of that earthquake. Also hard to believe are the changes we have made in the way we live. Almost no cell phones, no significant use of the Internet, no “internet of Things” controlling our homes, no cable and satellite TV. Also, few ATM’s, no electronic health records (we are going to do away totally with paper health records), all of our credit done through the Internet or electronic databases.
Now, imagine due to an earthquake, we have no Internet, no electronic databases, no health records for several hours or several days. Worse, due to the interruption, no idea how much information would be lost—permanently. Yes, there is back up servers and now we have “the cloud” where most information is now kept. As we remember those terrible days of 1994, let us be prepared for them again. Again all, we do live in California.
Northridge Earthquake Anniversary: Digital dependence makes us vulnerable in quake
Sanden Totten, KPCC, 1/15/14
When the Northridge earthquake struck 20 years ago, L.A. was a very different place.
The Internet was brand new. Cell phones looked like bricks, and if you said “Facebook” most people would think you were talking about an actual book.
These days though, digital technology is everywhere.
It helps us in many ways, but our reliance on connectivity may also end up hurting us after a major quake.
“Everything and anything that we use is dependent on some type of electronic or digital tool,” said Julie Davenport, a disaster preparedness expert who spent decades creating emergency plans for Wells Fargo.
Davenport says it’s possible for a major quake to take out much of L.A.’s communication infrastructure.
In such a scenario many point-of-sale systems that process debit and credit card payments wouldn’t work. Gas pumps may be inoperable, and a quarter of all ATMs in the city could be offline.
Davenport suggests people keep a stash of cash at home and maintain a semi-full gas tank at all times.
U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones adds, many important public and private entities rely heavily on the web.
She says Caltrans uses the Internet to monitor roads and traffic conditions, electric and water companies use it to keep track of operations, and grocery stores need it to order food.
“We assume it is in just about every aspect of economic activity,” she explained.
Digital blackout
Jones says two-thirds of L.A.’s connectivity comes to the area through fiber optic cable that cross the San Andreas — a fault that she says is overdue for a big quake.
“And when that happens, we know exactly where the fault is going to move, and it’s going to move 20 or 30 feet, and everything crossing the fault will be offset,” she said. “That will rip the fiber optic cables apart.”
On top of that, many cell towers will likely suffer damage, and the cell network will clog with calls and data requests. This could be a problem since she says because some emergency responders have abandoned radio technology for cell phones.
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July 8, 2014 at 3:33 am