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Great Rocky Mountain ShakeOut is Wednesday

90,000 Montanians ready to ‘duck, cover and hold on’

The first ever Great Rocky Mountain ShakeOut starts in Montana Wednesday morning at 10:23, with people urged to “Drop, Cover and Hold On,” the recommended safety practice during an earthquake.

The drill will be done in conjunction with the fall testing of Havre’s emergency sirens.

Both the dispatchers at the Hill County Sheriff’s Office and at Havre’s 911 dispatching center will set off the sirens, with two three-minute cycles planned during the drill.

Montana, Wyoming and Colorado organized the Rocky Mountain section of the earthquake safety drill, joining other states, and other countries, in preparing for earthquake safety.

That includes preparing homes, businesses and other buildings to be as safe as possible during an earthquake, as well as preparing disaster plans and disaster kits, and practicing drop, cover and hold on.

The recommended procedure during an earthquake is to drop to the ground, get under cover such as a sturdy desk or table, and holding on to the shelter while being prepared to move with it until the shaking stops.

As of this morning, more than 95,000 people in the Great Rocky Mountain Shakeout exercise — including almost 91,000 in Montana — had registered online to participate, the ShakeOut website says.

They will join the other 24.7 million people worldwide who registered to participate this year, up more than 5 million from the 2012 totals.

The drill, which started in California in 2008, teaches earthquake awareness and how to prepare for, and act during, an earthquake.

Big Sandy Public Schools is one of the Montana groups participating.

Sherri Heppner, administrative assistant in the Big Sandy district, said the district officials decided to participate for a couple of reasons.

“As a school district, we haven’t done a whole lot with earthquake drills, and we thought we should because it could happen anywhere,” she said. “We thought it would be a great way to raise awareness.”

Montana is a highly seismically active state, one of the most active in the nation, and although most of the earthquake activity takes place in the western third of the state — including the famous 1959 earthquake near West Yellowstone that killed 28 people, caused $11 million in damage and created Quake Lake on the Madison River — earthquakes can happen anywhere.

In the Great Rocky Mountain ShakeOut, more than 62,000 of the Montana participants are in K-12 school districts, with the Harlem and Chester/Joplin-Inverness schools joining Big Sandy from this region.

Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson said safety and safety drills, including playing an active role in the Hill County Local Emergency Planning Committee, is a regular part of the district’s activity, but scheduling the earthquake drill was complicated this week.

Montana as a whole is conducting the drill a week later than most areas, including Wyoming and Colorado, due to conflicts with the state education conference in Billings last week.

“It’s certainly something that’s on our radar,” Carlson said about the earthquake drill.

Havre’s Diesel Doctor is one of the few businesses listed on the ShakeOut website as participating in this year’s Rocky Mountain drill.

Lue Waite, office manager at the business, said they found out about the drill at a local Job Service Employer Committee meeting, and thought they should participate. Especially because heavy equipment is often up on lifts at Diesel Doctor, it seemed appropriate, she added.

“We thought we should learn where in our business it’s safe (during an earthquake),” she said.

The Havre Job Service also is listed as participating.

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Online: The Great Rocky Mountain ShakeOut: http://shakeout.org/rockymountain

 

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