Is Utah ready for a major earthquake?


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SALT LAKE CITY — The devastation in Nepal is a reminder to Utahns how serious the aftermath of an earthquake can be.

According to experts from the Utah Emergency Management team and Envision Utah, a group of 400 experts studying 11 issues in the state, including the impact of a major earthquake, there are several areas of concern when it comes to being ready for a serious seismic event.

Scientists say Utah's Wasatch Front faces a 1-in-7 chance of being hit by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake.

“We don’t have enough resources to immediately start fighting this,” Bob Carey, operations chief for Utah Emergency Management said.

Without the aid of FEMA and out-of-state resources, simple things like water would be hard to come by.

“Water is the backbone of everything in the valley; a lot of things can't run without it, and it's going to be in short commodity for an extended period of time,” Carey said, “It’s not just a few weeks, this is months, maybe years, before we resolve some of the issues.”

Shelter is another challenge Utahns would face in the event of a major earthquake.


We don't have enough resources to immediately start fighting this,

–Bob Carey, Utah Emergency Management


“For instance, we know that we're going to need to shelter at least 53,000-54,000 people, and there are 8,000 cots in the state of Utah, so there are going to be a whole bunch of people sleeping on the floor,” Carey said.

Robert Grow, CEO of Envision Utah, is part of a team that studies major events, like earthquakes, and their long-term impact. He said the older infrastructure will be to blame for thousands of injuries and deaths if an earthquake strikes in the state.

“A 7.0 earthquake, if we do nothing different than today, it will kill or maim about 14,000 people,” Grow said. “We have about 165,000 older buildings that are not reinforced masonry, brick or block with no stabilizing studs or anything else in them."

His company is currently surveying Utahns to see if a change in the building code is in order, and residents can take that survey here.

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