All faculty and staff members at USC are being asked to join millions of other Southern Californians participating in the Great Southern California ShakeOut on Nov. 13. The regional drill is based on a potential magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the southern San Andreas fault—approximately 5,000 times larger than the magnitude 5.4 earthquake that shook Southern California on July 29.

Everyone is being encouraged to practice the "drop, cover and hold on" technique at 10 a.m. for 60 seconds, followed by a discussion of emergency procedures and department emergency plans.

On the University Park Campus, a number of departments will be participating in a large-scale mass casualty exercise from 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. in the area of Cromwell Field.

William Regensburger, director of fire safety and emergency planning at USC Career and Protective Services, said, "We plan to do a similar mass casualty exercise next year for the Health Sciences Campus, and many of our HSC responders are participating in this UPC exercise."

Approximately 80 staff and faculty members were given a crash course in earthquake preparedness at a seminar held in the Mayer Auditorium on Oct. 28. Steven Goldfarb, USC fire safety and emergency planning specialist, led the discussion, which featured video of earthquakes from Japan and Northern California.

"Preparedness isn't just a job of emergency responders," said Goldfarb. "Preparedness is everyone's responsibility."

Goldfarb stated that Southern California is overdue for a major earthquake. "We average a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault every 150 years," he noted. "The last one we had was in 1857, or 151 years ago."

One key point in Goldfarb's presentation was the importance of securing loose objects and furniture to prevent injury and damage. "It's the stuff that hurts people," he said. "There were 40,000 injuries in the Northridge earthquake, and most of those were due to falling and flying objects."

According to Goldfarb, anything over 4 feet tall or that is taller than it is wide should be secured with appropriate earthquake restraint materials. This may include straps, Velcro, earthquake putty or earthquake picture hooks.

He also added that everyone should sign up for TrojansAlert for emergency communication from the university at www.trojansalert.usc.edu. For more information, visit the USC emergency web page at http://emergency.usc.edu.