California Senator Calls For Earthquake Warning System
By
Bob Moffitt
Monday, January 28, 2013
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A California state senator says a 60-second warning that an earthquake is about to strike is would be worth an expenditure of $80 million.
Senator Alex Padilla is introducing a bill that -if it becomes law- would establish the framework for a system giving Californians 30-to-60 seconds of warning before a sizeable quake hits, "$80 million sounds like a lot of money but relative to the billions of dollars in damage and loss that accompanies every big earthquake, I think it's a small investment to be made."
Scientists at the United States Geological Survey, University of California, Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology have already developed a test system. Many Asian countries already have installed one.
Padilla hopes local, state and federal funding can be found to
pay for such a system in California.