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California Conducts 17th Great ShakeOut as 10.3 Million Rehearse Quake Safety

The exercise doubled as a statewide push for California's earthquake early‑warning tools.

Overview

  • The one‑minute drill began at 10:16 a.m., with test alerts issued through the MyShake app, smartphone settings and Wireless Emergency Alerts, and BART briefly slowed trains as part of the exercise.
  • Registrations topped 10.3 million statewide, including roughly 3.4 million in Los Angeles County, about 850,000 in Orange County and 980,458 in San Diego County, according to ShakeOut.org.
  • Cal OES capped a weeklong quake‑simulator tour at San Diego’s Waterfront Park after stops at UC Davis, Cal State Fullerton and the San Francisco Zoo to demonstrate “Drop, Cover and Hold On.”
  • Organizers centered the drill on a modeled 7.8 southern San Andreas event that USGS scenarios say could cause more than 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries and over $200 billion in damage, reinforcing 72‑hour household readiness guidance.
  • About an hour before the drill, a preliminary magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck near Berkeley at 9:23 a.m., producing weak to light shaking with no major damage reported.