What if a magnitude 7.0 earthquake happens on the Hayward fault starting under Oakland, California, on 4/18/18 at 4:18 pm?
That is the question guiding the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) HayWired project, which is taking an in-depth look at the scenario posed above. Stakeholders from across the Bay Area, including Bay Planning Coalition (BPC), met on Monday, April 24 to learn about the project and seek innovative ways to prioritize objectives and bring more use and realism to the scenario. How can we add details to this picture? How can we improve overall planning and preparedness? Once completed, the HayWired scenario will be able to serve as a common framework for addressing questions such as these.
The over-arching themes and objectives of the HayWired scenario include:
- Improve the communication of earthquake hazard science and engineering for use in decision-making
- Help understand and inform actions to reduce earthquake risks
- Help build community capacity to respond to and recover from earthquakes
Other interest groups that attended the meeting included a number of Bay Area water purveyors, cities, universities, and public agencies working in emergency services, transportation infrastructure, and energy. The final HayWired scenario is scheduled to be released in April 2018.
The last magnitude 7 earthquake to hit the Hayward fault was in 1868. Earthquakes are one threat to the Bay Area’s well-being with potential impacts to the built environment, community, and the economy. Given the unpredictable nature of earthquakes, how worried should we be about them? This will be a part of Conversation 2 at BPC’s Spring Summit on May 11. We invite you to join us for this annual signature event as we hear from experts on some of the long and short term risks facing the Bay Area including sea level rise and workforce shortages in addition to earthquakes. Learn more and register by clicking here.
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“The Bay Planning Coalition is a non-profit organization well known for its advocacy and credibility in the San Francisco Bay Area corporate and environmental community. When we speak about an issue, legislators and regulators listen.” – John A. Coleman CEO
Tags: blog, earthquakes, haywired