By: Jacob Roskelley
According to Utah State's emergency operations plan, there is "a high probability for serious damage as a result of future strong earthquakes" in Cache Valley.
The plan identifies at least two faults that extend north and south along the west side of Cache Valley and two more faults that run north and south to the east.
In 2000, Ed Brinck, the architectural and engineering coordinator for Campus Planning, identified the Ray B. West Building as one of the least-prepared buildings on campus for an earthquake.
Contemplating these facts leaves many students wondering if Utah State is prepared for such an event.
Judy Crockett, the dispatch coordinator for the USU police department, said students and faculty members need to be thinking about what they would do in an earthquake.
"We've got so many different angles that we need to cover," Crockett said.
Crockett has been with the department since 1986 and has been chosen as the university's new emergency management coordinator. Crockett said she is replacing Lynn Wright, who retired at the end of last year, but due to budget cuts, she will not formally hold her new title until July of this year.
Crockett said she has taken numerous classes through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Utah Department of Public Safety. She even attended a terrorism class at the Emergency Management Institute in Maryland, she said. In this class, she said she was trained with scenarios specific to USU. In one scenario, she said they had a big screen running news broadcasts and there was a picture of the Veterinary Science Building with a big explosion coming out of its side.
Crockett said she hopes to put all of this experience to good use here at USU.
"My main goal is that I want people to think," she said. "There are so many different scenarios, but a lot of it boils down to good old common sense."
According to the University of Utah seismograph station's Web site, www.seis.utah.edu, there are about 700 earthquakes, including aftershocks, in the Utah region each year. Only 2 percent of these are actually felt. The site also warns people not to worry only about large earthquakes causing damage since even a moderate earthquake can cause major damage.
The last major earthquake to hit Cache Valley was Aug. 30, 1962. It was located north of Richmond on the Utah-Idaho border and it had a magnitude of 5.7. According to an article that ran in the Herald Journal the next day, there was extensive damage in the Skyroom of the Student Union Building, now the Taggart Student Center, and there was a crack in the main tower on the north wall of Old Main.
Now, more than 43 years later, Crockett said USU is prepared for similar situations and there is a plan in place.
The university's emergency operations plan was last revised in early 2003. The plan says it "identifies both natural and man-made hazards which may impact the campus community. It details the response and recovery procedures that campus officials should follow if a disaster strikes."
The plan assesses the possible dangers of an earthquake, but the only specific reference in the body of the text to an earthquake is advising officials to make sure the terrace parking lot is evacuated following an earthquake. Crockett said that updating the plan is one of her goals.
"The plan needs to be more specific, but I don't want to make it so cumbersome that nobody will read it," Crockett said. "I'm working on making it thorough but simple."
She also said students need to work on the "little things" like 72-hour kits.
Alesia Semborski, a senior in marketing, admitted to not having a 72-hour kit.
"I worry about earthquakes, but I don't consciously think about them on a daily basis like I would a car accident," Semborski said.
Crockett said she realizes that students don't have a lot of money. It just needs to be something small that someone could grab in case of an emergency, she said.
"There are a lot of things that you could get a t a dollar store and put in a garbage bag," Crockett said.
Overall, Crockett said she realizes there is a lot to do, but she said no matter what, "we need to be doing something."
-jacobr@cc.usu.edu
View the article as it appeared in the Utah Statesman.
