In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, disaster preparedness issues jumped to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness. Although Nevada is relatively safe from the devastating effects of a hurricane, the Silver State ranks high on the list of another type of natural disaster: earthquakes.
“Look around our valley — our big mountains got here somehow, and that had to happen via earthquakes,” said geoscience professor Catherine Snelson. “The geography of the region shows us that this area has certainly had its share of seismic activity.”
Nevada ranks third in large earthquake activity behind only Alaska and California, and fifth in potential financial loss due to damage sustained during seismic events.
With that in mind, Snelson, along with Wanda Taylor from the geosciences department and Barbara Luke and Ronald Sack from civil and environmental engineering, received a grant from the UNLV Research Foundation last August to study seismic activity and its effects in Southern Nevada.
The grant includes funds for workshops and safety expos, public service announcements, utility bill inserts, and a website.
“We started with middle school and high school science classes, using scientific models and a shake table to demonstrate the devastating effect an earthquake would have on our valley,” said Gaye Cote, outreach director for the project. “We had tremendous success early, and now receive more calls than we solicit to speak to groups in the community.”
To Snelson and the other researchers, having an educated public is important to Nevada’s future development. “We’ve been building the infrastructure for providing information for the community at UNLV,” said Snelson. “The likelihood that we’re going to have a massive earthquake in Nevada is not very high. But we certainly have the potential, and that’s what we need to be prepared for.”
One of the challenges encountered during the outreach thus far has been that so few people realize the potential for earthquakes in Nevada. “People move here from California and other areas accustomed to the threat of natural disasters and think there’s nothing to worry about in Nevada,” said Cote. “If we can get the schoolchildren to talk to their parents, maybe the parents will talk to their friends and coworkers and we’ll have a solid foundation of awareness on which to build.”
“With Hurricane Katrina, we learned a lot about disaster preparedness, especially what can happen when we’re not prepared,” said Snelson. “One way we can learn from this horrible disaster is by riding the wave of awareness and getting people to react positively. Even if they just make a disaster kit once, it’s a start.”
