Get ready to drop, cover & hold on for Washington’s annual ‘ShakeOut’ earthquake drill

It’s almost time to drop, cover, and hold on.

This year’s annual Great Washington ShakeOut is Thursday, October 17.

At 10:17 a.m., 1.5 million people in Washington are expected to participate, but the drills also happen across the country and around the world at work, school, or even home.

The goal is to ensure everyone knows what to do if an earthquake hits.

Our region is at risk for earthquakes, and we now have the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system which can send a warning to your phone seconds before a quake happens. It’s also available in Oregon.

Just how many seconds of warning — or if you’ll even get a warning at all — depends on factors like how close you are to the source and the earthquake’s magnitude.

This week, KIRO 7 spoke with University of Washington Professor and Pacific Northwest Seismic Network Director Harold Tobin. He said that in the last 10 years, Washington has made a lot of headway in measuring and detecting earthquakes.

“We’ve literally doubled the number of seismic stations we operate in Washington and Oregon together. The PNSN is responsible for all of this seismic detection — all the earthquake detection in the whole Pacific Northwest region. We’ve done that so we can do a better job of earthquake early warning through ShakeAlert,” said Tobin.

For more information about how ShakeAlert works and how to get the alerts, visit this link.

If you’re participating in a drill Thursday, you’ll be asked to do three things:

· Drop onto your hands and knees

· Cover your head and neck with one arm and hand

· Hold on until the shake stops

Part of the “cover” step includes finding a sturdy table or desk to crawl underneath. If you can’t find shelter, hold onto your head and neck with both arms and hands.

As we learned from the 6.8 Nisqually earthquake in 2001, roofs can cave in, buildings can crumble and the ground can split open within 45 seconds.

If you live or work in a coastal area, The Great Washington ShakeOut day is also a great time to practice your tsunami evacuation routes.

If you hear the wailing siren sound on any day other than October 17, officials say you should immediately follow the closest tsunami evacuation route inland or to high ground.

For more information on the Great Washington ShakeOut, go to shakeout.org/washington.

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